Archive for Innovation
Calling all Innovators: Don’t miss this event
This June I’ll be in Phoenix to moderate this year’s Conference on Social Product Development & Co-Creation. I’m partnering once again with PDMA, and this year co-creation pioneer, Local Motors, is helping us raise the bar for this exciting, ground-breaking event. Social Product Development is making a major impact on the way companies are innovating now and into the future.
I think you’ll find this conference features the best-of-best elements and people, and we’ve designed it so you’ll be able to exchange ideas, forge new connections and fuel sustainable innovation within your organization that drives growth. Among the highlights is a how-to guide to build a co-creative enterprise from the co-author of leading business book “The Power of Co-creation.”
Social product development is key, and you’ll discover how communities can be used to solve some of your toughest innovation problems, as well as how to build your business around an existing crowd of passionate people. In other words–crowdsourcing for real results.
It all happens on June 27 & 28, and I hope you can join us as we bring together an unprecedented group of thinkers, makers and doers to help you understand and apply co-creative approaches to your work. This event is for anyone who wants to drive breakthrough results in product development and innovation.
We’re featuring more than 20 keynote speakers across a variety of industries representing companies like LEGO Group, InnoCentive, Harvard Business School, Wired Magazine, American Express, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Hallmark Cards, Intuit Labs and Microsoft Design Studio, plus many more.
Be sure to register by May 20th for a huge savings. See you in June!
Helping Clients Generate IP: Preparation is the Key
At Innovationedge, one of our favorite activities is working with a team in what we call an “Edge Session” to create new intellectual assets. It’s not not brainstorming, where a flood of bad ideas are welcome, but an iterative process in which the goal is enabled, good concepts that are fleshed out enough to support drafting of a meaningful invention disclosures. A key part of the Edge Session is refining problem statements, moving from broad, vague questions to more specific problem statements that guide inventors on what is needed. We introduce stimulus elements that are coupled with the problem statements to stimulate thinking. The stimulus elements can be used in addressing a problem directly or as associative thinking tools to change the way people look at the problem–all part of the steps along the way to creating records of an enabled invention that, in turn, can readily support IP generation such as drafting a patent application, documenting a trade secret, or preparing a defensive publication.
Preparation has been the key for success. A big part of the preparation is ours as we dig into the literature, patents, and competitive intelligence. Sometimes we conduct pre-workshop interviews to get a landscape of what the client already knows so that we can better begin with that starting point as we help them create and document more.
The preparation by the client is also critical. One key part of their preparation is the selection of team members. Groups of about 5 to 25 people work well, with maybe 7 to 15 being the preferred range. The group works well if there is sufficient diversity in experience and background. For example, even in dealing with highly technical problems, I like to have at least one marketer in the team, someone with great hands-on experience dealing with consumer insights or other sources of marketing information. The perspective a good marketing person can bring is often vital for the success of an IP-generation project.
Teams also can be more effective when the prepare by reading the materials we provide on the prior art, competitive efforts, etc. We recognize, though, that many times team members won’t have had adequate time or motivation to prepare other than showing up. We can still squeeze good information from the unprepared, for much of what they have to contribute creatively is already in their heads. It just may take a little more effort to get it out and documented,
New trends in eyewear create a spectacle in NY
Courtesy: Vision Expo 2011
The International Vision Expo kicked off today in New York City, focusing on the most innovative eyewear technology of this year.
I’m among the nearly 150 million adults who wear glasses, and 50 million Americans carry multiple pairs – perhaps for reading, working, driving, or just watching TV. But soon you’ll need just one pair.Today attendees at the exhibit got an up-close look at a new all-in-one technology known as the “Superfocus” glasses, that can change the strength of their liquid lenses, enabling you to see different distances by moving a tiny, adjustable lever. The Superfocus allows you to customize your prescription for whatever you’re looking at. You can change the prescription at the push of a slider.
Another new development is in the weight of the glasses. PURE glasses by Legacie promise to be strong yet very light so that you hardly know they’re there. The innovation comes from a new alloy, Xandium, treaded through the glasses as a frame. The flexible frame has memory so it pops back into place if you bend them. The cost will be about $275.
Another trend we’re seeing is that people are hoping to be eco-friendly with their eyewear. You can donate used glasses to those in need when you update your style, or, you can purchase vintage specs. MODO Eco Glasses debuts an Eco line of glasses that are made out of recycled materials. MODO ships its glasses in sturdy, corrugated cardboard, and you can still mail your old pair in to get recycled into a new pair of glasses. For every pair of glasses they sell, they’re going to plant a tree. Prices range from $150 to $250 dollars.
There are more interesting glasses to see! Check out the big spectacle here.
Super Computer could save billions on fuel-saving truck
Imagine if every one of the nation’s 1.3 million semi trucks in the U.S. could each save $5 billion in diesel fuel at the pump and cut CO2 emissions by 16 million tons. It’s an idea that’s catching on, thanks to a computer that is 100,000 times more powerful that your laptop.
The Department of Energy is using a unique open innovation model to potentially save billions of gallons of fuel on the highway. The DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with BMI Corporation to use the department’s Jaguar supercomputer–known as the fastest supercomputer in the United States–to develop a technology that will revolutionize the fuel usage for semi trucks.
This supercomputer is more than 100,000 times more powerful than your laptop. The new design features a SmartTruck UnderTray System to improve the aerodynamics of 18-wheeler trucks.
FastCompany explains how the DOE was able to go from concept to manufacture-ready design in 18 months, a process that would normally take at least three years. Check out the article here.
Innovative mobility through thought control and bionics
The most innovative wheelchairs being developed today are soon going to help the disabled get where they need to go in a new and exciting way: Thought control.
Imagine a wheelchair that can be directed by brain signals detected from a unique cap worn by the user. THis is the work of scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland (EPFL).
The developers are using this technology to help people control machines via brain signals, which they say will revolutionize the way the paralysed and disabled maneuver.
I find this video demonstration fascinating:
The main focus of bionics to date has been on providing prosthetics for amputees. Prosthetic arms can now be controlled by nerve signals in the remaining arm, which can be picked up by electric sensors on the skin.
Developers say the next innovation may be bionic limbs which are able to “feel.”
Valentine’s Day rendezvous for NASA
Want a unique and innovative way to spend Valentine’s day with your sweetheart? Gather your favorite people around the computer or the NASA channel to see something historical.
Monday the NASA’s Stardust spacecraft will fire up its camera as it comes face-to-face with a crater that was created six years ago by a NASA space probe. In 2005 the Deep Impact probe crashed into the comet, “Tempel 1,” at 23,000 mph, sending a huge plume of debris. This will be the first time we’ve seen pictures of the damage to the comet made by the impact.
Check out this NASA video of the impact itself:
Comets are irregular bodies of ice and dust that orbit the sun, and these photos are expected to yield some new learnings about them.
The Stardust spacecraft launched in 1999 and has traveled 3 1/2 billion miles. For the past four years NASA has targeted Valentine’s Day 2011 for a rendezvous date with the comet. The Stardust will fly within 124 miles of the comet, and will snap 72 pictures as it passes by. The photos will be beamed back to Earth and then uploaded on NASA TV and on the NASA website.
Lessons from CoDev 2011: The Power of Crowdsourcing for Local Motors
During the CoDev 2011 conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, I was impressed with a speech given by a local CEO, John (“Jay”) Rogers of Local Motors in Chandler, Arizona. This small company designs exciting new vehicles using design contests that are open to the public. “Crowdsourcing” is one of the trendy new approaches to innovation, but it’s more than just a buzzword. When managed with smart tools, good incentives, strong respect for the participants and a strong brand, it can add a vast amount of energy and brilliance to an innovation pipeline.
Local Motor’s rapidly growing community (12,000 participants so far) contributes designs and feedback to help in the selection of potentially successful aesthetic concepts for automobiles that Local Motors will then build locally in a microfactory, with final customization of the appearance being achieved with an environmentally friendly and durable vinyl wrap that eliminates the need for paint and gives the owner freedom to have a unique look. The final assembly is done with hands-on help from the new owner, who becomes intimately familiar with the vehicle and with its maintenance. (more…)
Facial recognition technology gives Facebook a one-click edge
The Facebook Blog shows you how to tag using facial recognition technology.
As facial recognition technology becomes more user friendly for social media and other personal applications, we’re starting to see and hear reaction from those who have concerns and from people who think its great.
Facebook just launched a photo tagging application using the technology to help users tag photos faster. If you want to see how it works, pull up one of your Facebook albums that contain some group shots of friends you haven’t tagged yet and you will now see suggested tags.
I read an article about this last night on The Facebook Blog which says that Facebook has been working on the facial recognition platform since October. First Facebook added group tagging, so users could type one name and apply it to multiple photos of the same person. This week Facebook announced new Tag Suggestions, making the chore of tagging multiple photos a single-click process.
Every day, people add more than 100 million tags to photos on Facebook. They do it because it’s an easy way to share photos and memories…Tags make photos one of the most popular features on Facebook.
While tags are an essential tool for sharing important moments, many of you have said tagging photos can be a chore. (Like that time you had to tag your cousin and her fiancé over and over and over again in 64 different pictures of their engagement party, and then go back and tag the guests.)
(Click the photo to read the full article)
That means that when your friends upload photos of this year’s holiday party, your face will automatically be recognized. According to The Facebook Blog, you can opt out of this by visiting your Privacy Settings, choose Custom, then change the setting for “Suggest photos of me to friends.”
Trend: Will your retirees take their learnings with them?
I read an interesting article over at InventionMachineBlog about a trend we’re seeing as our workforce ages. Did you know that half of our workforce today is eligible for retirement in the next 18 months?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says as our US labor force grows older, our percent of 55+ workers will be four times that of the overall labor force.
I see this happening in the corporations of many of our Innovationedge clients and certainly in many of our Fortune 500 companies. It’s projected to be the largest generational turnover we’ve ever seen in our job force.But hopefully those companies are heeding the statistics and making sure their retiring Baby boomers aren’t taking their years of knowledge and subject matter expertise with them.
What does this mean for companies continuing their focus on growth and innovation? How is your company retaining knowledge and capturing best practices for future generations?
Photo courtesy NasaImages.org
Shopping in the future
In two more days Cisco is unveiling its vision for Borderless Networks, along with a cool new video that shows end-users what the future of shopping might look like very soon. Here’s a sneak peek Cisco is showing the world today: