Solid 2014 Kobayashi

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Sketching PeripheralInnovationsShigeru Kobayashi

@kotobuki


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1993 - 2004Sound designer / Software engineer / Researcher @ Roland

Let me start with my brief history. I worked for a digital musical instrument company, Roland, as a sound designsoftware engineer and researcher. At the company, I didnt touch hardware engineering.


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2004 - NowTeacher @ IAMAS

About 10 years ago, I moved to a very small graduate school, IAMAS. I have been teaching there.


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Lessons learned in the rst year as a teacher

1. Art and design students eagerly desire to learnelectronics and programming

2. They tend to be misled into thinking that everyone at a

manufacturer knows everything from software to

hardware3. I have to learn hardware to teach

I learned three things in the first year at IAMAS. First, art and design students eagerly desire to learn electronics programming. Second, they tend to be misled into thinking that everyone at a manufacturer knows everything frsoftware to hardware. Actually, I never touched hardware engineering at the manufacturer. Anyway, I have to leahardware to teach

I 2005 i h i l i f d i i


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In 2005, prototyping physical interfaces and interactions was not so

easy

So I designed Gainer, a toolkit for physical computing, with my colleagues in 2005. I was happy, because there weasy to use micro-controllers and PCB CAD tools. They enabled me to design Gainer in a very short term fromscratch. It was just before the era of Arduino. Since prototyping physical interfaces and interactions was not so eat the time, we developed Gainer for designers and artists as the initial audience.


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ICC

I learned of the great need for developing skills for creating

ideas from scratch and giving them physical interactions

After releasing Gainer, I got many requests from manufacturers in addition to initial targeted audiences. Througholding workshops for designers, engineers and marketers, I learned of the great need for developing skills forcreating ideas from scratch and giving them physical interactions.


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Thats why I have written several books. This is Prototyping Lab, a book to introduce various ways of prototypiutilizing Arduino. The book is now being published in three languages.


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Photo by SparkFun Electronics (CC: BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Arduino Fio: a small Arduino with a battery charger and a socket for a XBee wireless modem

And in 2010 I designed the Arduino Fio with Sparkfun Electronics. Its a small Arduino with a battery charger andsocket for an XBee wireless modem. Of course, its an open source hardware product.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/


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An open source Geiger counter with GPS and logger

functiondeveloped by Safecast

Recently, the Arduino Fio has been utilized as a part of a very interesting project, the bGeigie Nano. the bGeigie is an open source Geiger counter with GPS and logger function developed by Safecast. It consists of various opesource hardware products by SparkFun and Adafruit. Thats a really interesting citizen science project utilizing osource hardware.


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Research topics from 2004 to 2014 Designing interfaces

Designing interactions

Creating innovations

Through those activities, my research topic has been changed from designing interfaces to creating innovation iresponse to requests from the people who want to collaborate with us.


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Sketching Peripheral InnovationsRebuilding the world, from the periphery

So lets talk about the theme, sketching peripheral innovations.


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Mainstream

Restrictions

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Im living in Japan, and I have been hearing so many requests about being innovative and creating innovations. Iits a little di!cult. "Japan is a so called developed country with many highly skilled manufacturers and creativepeople, "however there are many restrictions, especially for mainstream industries.


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software hardware

big companies small companies

craft manufacturing

Difficulties of collaboration

Moreover, there are di!culties of collaboration, such as conflicts between software guy versus hardware guy, bicompanies versus small companies, craft versus manufacturing and so on.


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Mainstream

Periphery

To tackle this challenge, Id like to propose rebuilding the world from the periphery, instead of the mainstreamSince doing so should be much easier.


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Case 1An open make-a-thon event held with Engadget Japanese

Ill introduce my ideas using some case studies. I have held over 10 make-a-thon events in this past year. This iof them.


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>30 participants including software developers, hardware

engineers,

UI/UX designers, artists and local factory engineers

We gathered around 30 participants, including software developers, hardware engineers, UI/UX designers, artistlocal factory engineers.


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The design challenge of make-a-thon events

How might we make our daily lives pleasant

with smartphone gadgets?

The design challenge was, "How might we make our daily lives pleasant with smartphone gadgets?.

How might we encourage participants to think of the whole?


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Electronics

CircuitExterior Smart-phoneApp Web Servicekonashi

How might we encourage participants to think of the whole?

The participants were encouraged to think of the whole (big picture) instead of their own comfort zones such asfurther facilitate communication between zones, we utilized konashi by Yukai Engineering.


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http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/

Konashi is a physical computing toolkit to create wireless devices for smartphones & tablets. Technically it consa Bluetooth Low Energy wireless module and software libraries for Objective-C and JavaScript.
http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/http://konashi.ux-xu.com/documents/


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http://www.ickr.com/photos/opencu/sets/72157633896214841/

draw sketc

to external

and share i

At the beginning of each event, we held idea sketching sessions, beginning with defining who and when, thendrawing sketches to externalize and share ideas in a common format by following the same sketching rules.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opencu/sets/72157633896214841/http://www.flickr.com/photos/opencu/sets/72157633896214841/


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>230 original id

30 participants

in 2 hours

This method proved to be hugely productive, for instance producing over 230 original ideas from 30 participanthours.


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In addition to the idea sketching sessions, we introduced the konashi software library for Objective-C and JavaS


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as well as practical ways of utilizing basic sensors and actuators. To simplify the steps, we utilized the Grove tooby Seeed Studio. We found that the Grove toolkit was really helpful! After these introductory workshops, participworked together toward the demonstration session on the second day.

Day 1 1 3 week(s) Day 2


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Day 1 1-3 week(s) Day 2

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Lunch (team building)

Make (integration)

Make (distributed activities)

Getting started

Presentation

Usually, hack-a-thon or make-a-thon events are held on continuous two days in weekends. But we divided the into two separate days since making physical things is a time consuming task. For example, purchasing compononline will take a day to be delivered. Printing something with a 3D printer will take anywhere from a few hours entire day. To allow participants to make things at a higher quality, we designed the schedule like this.


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Engadget:

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Here is an example. The members of this team were a software developer, a hardware engineer, a planner,


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an engineer working at a small factory and so on. The team worked together,


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Engadget:

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and generated many ideas through an idea sketching session. Except for designers, people tend to hesitate drawby hand, since they believe that they are bad at drawing. But once we introduced a simple rule for sketching, in minutes, they started drawing immediately.


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Engadget:

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The participants generated many ideas


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Engadget:

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many, many ideas.

A companion device with sensors for a smartphone


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Engadget:

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phone

that inform users of the status of their laundry

And the members of the team made a choice at the end of the first day. The idea was a companion device withsensors for a smart phone that will inform users of the status of their laundry.


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Within a few days, they worked in parallel to create parts by applying their skills.


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Engadget:

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On the second day, all members got together to integrate components such as graphic elements


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Engadget:

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electronics circuit


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Engadget:

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sensors


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Engadget:

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Engadget:

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Engadget:

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and an exterior built with laser-cut aluminum components.


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Engadget:

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Engadget:

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Engadget:

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All members of the team worked together to integrate everything into a working prototype.


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Engadget:

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Engadget:

201381725This is towards

Good enough to introduce and evaluate the idea


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Engadget:

201381725the end of the second day. It was a little bit bigger in comparison to the original idea. However, it was good enoto introduce and evaluate.


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At the end, they demonstrated in front of all participants.


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Engadget:

201381725This is a video, created by a member of the team. She created in a few hours with a quickly made cardboard basmockup and images on a smartphone to simulate a smartphone application. The video was really important. Sinthe members have to work in parallel through a secret group on Facebook, sharing a goal was di!cult. But bypublishing the video, she introduced a goal to the other members. After all members understood the goal, theyquickly recognized their own role in the team.


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Case 2A project started with a closed make-a-thon

The second case is a product development project. We embedded a make-a-thon as a kick-starter of the projec


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In the beginning, we held a workshop to let participants get familiar with digital fabrication tools such as a lastecutter and 3D printers.


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Then, we conducted a make-a-thon with about 30 participants consisting of 5 teams. The participants were sofdevelopers, designers and manufacturers.


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They created so many ideas as idea sketches.


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And we introduced tools that accelerate creating companion devices for smart phone.


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The idea was a shining bushel


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Then, each team tried to realize ideas. Regarding this team, the idea was a shining bushel.

Masu (bushel) is an >1,300 years old wooden measuring instrument


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In Japanese, bushel is Masu. Masu is an over 1,300 years old wooden measuring instrument.


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A member of the team sketched the idea in hardware with tiny electric components,


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and the team really liked the idea, since they believed that a shining bushel will enrich drinking experiences.


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We supported creating prototypes, and they decided to release the idea as a product.


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This is Hikarimasu, a shining bushel that enriches drinking experiences.

G th i di


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Gathering diverse

people,

creating ideas together,

and sketching in

hardware

is a really practical wayto create innovation

Through those activities, I learned that gathering diverse people, creating ideas together, and sketching in hardwis a really practical way to create innovation.


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software hardware


craft manufacturing

I also found that the participants established a relationship of mutual trust between team members.


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software hardware


craft manufacturing

The relationship transformed A versus B into A plus B, or A multiply B.

Differences


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Smartphone

Tablet

PC

Glasses

Wrist watch

Accessories

Diversity is the key

Recently, I found that new opportunities. From my observation, we dont hesitate to use same product regardingsmartphone, tablet and PC. If you have an iPhone and I also have an iPhone, thats OK. However, we need diversregarding glasses, wrist watch, accessories and so on. If several members in this room wear same glasses, theyshould feel out of place. I think the need of diversity if the key to peripheral innovations.

E l ti


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Observation

Team building

Idea sketching

Productise

Development

Dispose and recycle

Hardware sketching

Products

Evaluation

Let me talk about whats next. This is a framework of peripheral innovations. Thats not so special, basically sito lean startup models. Start with building teams, observe people, creating ideas, sketching in hardware, and itethe process until get a strong idea. Once get a strong idea, change to the outer iteration.

Traditional Mass Manufacturing


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1

10

100

1,00010,000

100,000

Typically, mass production is a big barrier for this cycle. Thinking about exterior, Its OK to 1 to 100 models with 3D printing, but thats not scalable for over 1,000 prod

with plastic injection molding. Since molds for plastic injection molding are expensive, thats a big barrier for peripheral innovations.

Elastic Manufacturing


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1

10

100

1,00010,000

100,000

Instead of traditional mass manufacturing, we need something like this. A way to manufacture from one to manydont know how we should call this, but lets say elastic manufacturing.


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Source: http://www.braveridge.com/bluetooth.html

Braveridge BVMCN5102-BK

A Nordic Semiconductors

nRF51822 based blank module

Regarding electronics circuit, we already have a solution. For instance, Nordic Semiconductor in Japan has beenfacilitating to create blank modules for several manufacturers in Japan. Since blank modules are standardizedready to use as a part of a product, we can use from one to many. For example, Braveridge provides various mofrom prototyping to manufacturing.
http://www.braveridge.com/bluetooth.htmlhttp://www.braveridge.com/bluetooth.html


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Regarding exterior of products, the second case gave me an idea, woodworking is as elastic as 3D printing. But are various ways of elastic manufacturing. In addition to digital fabrication such as 3D printing, I found thatwoodworking is really elastic, since that doesnt need expensive molds and scalable one to many.


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This is a wireless charger by Bsize. The exterior of the charger is made with compressed wood.


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The company collaborated with a woodworking company.


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Cross-trained workevarious jigs and CNC

are the keys of

elastic manufacturi

Id like to say, cross-trained workers, various jigs and CNCs are the keys of elastic manufacturing.


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I believe that there are more technologies that help elastic manufacturing. For instance, bending metal.


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Mainstream

Periphery

I hope that Ill be able to report results of the forthcoming projects at the next Solid conference.


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Thank you very much!Shigeru Kobayashi

@kotobuki

Documents

Solid 2014 Kobayashi