3 Prototypes
My journey in trying to construct my final product has not been without flaws and hurdles. Initially, I had laid out 3 options each with varying complexity and scale. During class, Neil mentioned an inflating approach to the design of our projects. Instead of stalling to the last moment to try and start my product, I am going to attempt to work concurrently on the design of a thermal camera. This would be one of the main factors which have influenced my choice of design and also complexity. If an idea is too ambitious and cannot be scaled, it must be simplified or abandoned. If an idea does not challenge us as designers enough, that does not mean it is worth abandoning, but maybe, postponing it.
Thermal controlled Hornbill Birdhouse
My initial 3 projects were of varying scale and complexity. Coming from a design background, I found that the design of a birdhouse for the threatened yellow-billed hornbill was important but could be done without the input of the class or the input of a designer. This might also not be what I want to extract from this class. The problem which the hornbills face is that of an increasing general temperature which impacts their breeding patterns in their natural habitat which causes a decrease in population. The idea would be to 3D print an earth substance which could become their new homes, possibly with the addition of a temperature-regulating device and monitor. Design challenges include how to fit these nests to the trees which they breed on and how the animal would respond to a foreign nesting environment.
Social Digging Robot
Inspired by the Damaraland Mole rats of the Kalahari, my second most ambitious design was to design cooperating robots which could excavate tunnels to reflect living spaces or possibly could be used as a new habitat creating mechanism for humans in hostile conditions. This poses several challenges such as what to do with the waste sand, which is excavated, and how the remaining sand is supported in such a way as to facilitate permanent space forming. The extent of my current knowledge about tunnel making machines involves giant subway drillers and the involvement of many individuals. If this digging robot as I imagined it is too ambitious, restricted by scale and time, perhaps a second option could be a robot which pushes sand around, like a bulldozer. Still, if that needs to be simplified, I could attempt to build a walking robot as a prototype for further development.
CO2 Detecting Glasses spiraled to Thermal Cameras
I am not sure if I saw this in a dream or long ago on television, perhaps that is how the best ideas are generated, but the idea was to be able to visualize our emissions to be able to hold each other accountable as a society which generates greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. The idea was to make sunglasses which you could put on and see emissions from cars, people, buildings, planes, and agriculture.
Keeping this dream in mind, I researched if this was then televised all those years ago but could only find an article about cameras which were able to visualize CO2 through the usage of unique components and methods. To simplify these steps for the everyman the device firstly incorporates specialized coding, secondly a highly sensitive detector made of indium antimonide (InSb), and thirdly involves a cooling device which cools the detector to -198 degrees Celsius. Even after all that, the machine is still brick-sized, costs $1000, and takes 5 minutes to start up.
If I had the time to experiment with all of these steps I would certainly do so as I am convinced this could be a revolutionary device. But for the purposes of this class, I decided to simplify these glasses to a camera and then to a thermal imaging camera, which could still perhaps showcase a hidden layer of our environment, unseen to the human eye, and if there is a chance to experiment, could be equipped to a pair of glasses to be more directly visualized.
