Week 9 Blog

   For this week's blog i decided to talk about the design of a razor blade.  In particular i will talk about the Gillette Mach3 razor.  The design of the razor is very similar to other razors.  It has a simple straight handle that the user can hold onto while using the razor.  The handle has some rubbery grips on the side which makes it easier to hold when wet which is very useful for razors since they're always used in wet conditions.  The next key part of the handle's design is at the top where different blades can snap onto.  This allows different types of razors to be used on top of the handle which can allow different types of users to use the same handle.  Razor heads can be easier popped off by pressing the button on the handle which makes replacing blades very easy.
   The actual razor head is very important for the process and has a nice design to it as well.  The razor head first has a blue strip of rubber that hits your face before the blade does.  This helps raise hairs and remove excess dirt before the blades get there.  Then there are 3 blades that actually cut the hair.  These blades are sharp at the time that you purchase them.  Overtime these blades dull down fairly quickly which gets to be annoying.  this is where the third strip on the razor head comes into play.  There is a green aloe strip(depending on razor head model) above the blades which releases aloes ans skin soothers onto your skin after the razors have passed.  This strip also deteriorates in color as the blade gets used and serves as a nice indicator of when razor heads should be replaced.  This was a nice way of combating the problem of short lasting razors.

Week 8 Bog

   For this week's blog i decided to blog about the design of my laptop's keyboard.  I have a Lenovo T400 laptop.  The general design of the keyboard is good but there are many buttons on the keyboard that are unlabeled which i am still unsure of what they do after owning the computer for over a year.  There is one button on my key board that is labeled "ThinkVantage" but when i press it the button does nothing.  The button is very confusing to me because it is a different color from the other buttons so it stands out which makes me think it is important.  There are also a bunch of lights that light up on the keyboard which i have no idea what they stand for.  I don't think i will ever figure out what they really mean other than a low grade feedback device of me turning on the computer.  Another problem with the design of my keyboard is the keys were not well made.  My "L" key has recently fallen off of the keyboard and i am still unable to put the "L" button back on.  If it was made with better design the key may have not have fallen off in the first place or it would e easier to put back on after falling off.

Week 7 Blog

   For this week's blog I decided to evaluate the design of my Env3 phone.  Overall i have been very happy with my Env3 phone.  I feel the design of this phone was very well done.  What i especially like about this phone is that there are two main ways of using the phone.  The phone can either be closed and act as a normal phone because of the keypad and screen on the outside of the phone.  This makes receiving and dialing phone calls very effective and easy.  I can even retrieve my contact list without opening the phone.  The phone can also fold open which displays a keyboard very similar to that of a computer's keyboard.  There is also a much larger screen on the second half of the phone.   This makes texting very easy for me.  The keyboard being very similar to the keyboard of a computer made transitioning to this phone very easy for me since i know the computer keyboard very well.  Since the only things i do with the phone is text and call people the phone works very well for me and the design has served me well.

Week 6 Blog

   For this week's blog i am talking about the design of my micro fridge.  The main problem i have with the micro fridge is the storage space and design.  The storage on the door is the worst part.  This is because the storage on the door is made up  of two main parts.  The bottom storage shelf is a simple shelf with a flimsy bar to hold items back from falling off the edge.  The problem with this bar is that it is too far away from the back of the shelf so items on the shelf always move around too easily.  This causes some items to fall off the shelf when the door is opened too fast.items can do this by falling over and then rolling under the bar or by falling over the bar if the item is tall enough.  The bar is so flimsy that it causes almost no resistance unless the shelf is overstocked with items which is very rare.  The top storage unit on the door has the opposite problem.  the storage place is so small and has a huge thick bar that cannot be moved.  Almost no items can fit in this storage space because the bar is so big that only really thin items can be slipped into the storage space.
   I have some solutions for these problems though.  For the bottom storage unit, the bar is the main problem that has to be altered.  The bar should be replaced with either a thicker more sturdy bar or the whole shelf should be made into a "tub" shape which would hold items more effectively because they wouldn't be able to slid under the bar anymore.  For the top storage unit, the bar should be simply removed.  This is because the storage space is already "tub" shaped and can hold items effectively already.  The bar just prohibits items from being able to slid into the space even though they would be able to fit there without the bar.

Week 5 Blog

For this week's blog i decided to talk about the design of a super soaker water gun. 


Positives:
   The size of the water gun allows the water gun to hold a large amount of water.  More water is always a plus when it comes to water battles.  The blue pump on the bottom of the gun also allows the user to pump in as much force as they want into the next shot before shooting.  It can be very effective to have a powerful first shot.  While the water gun is shooting the user can continuously pump the gun to make water come out of the gun for a longer period of time which is also helpful. 

Negatives:
   The size of the gun is also one of the major drawbacks to the gun.  Since the gun is so large it can get very heavy for a user to be holding especially when the tank is fully filled with water.  Another problem is there is no limit to how much the gun can be pumped.  This can lead to unnecessary pumping.  Also, once the gun has started shooting the gun cannot be pumped fast enough for water to be released at a continuous pressure.  the water power rapidly decreases until the gun is barely pumping out water.

Week 4 Blog

For this week's blog i decided to review the design of my nalgene bottle.  The design of this bottle has both positive and negatives aspects to it.

Positives:
   The bottle holds the perfect amount of water that i would want.  My last nalgene bottle was too small so i would always run out of water and would want more.  Another good aspect of the design is that the plastic is see through which allows me to be able to see how much liquid is in the bottle without opening it.  I know of some water containers that users cannot see through which reduces the desirability to me because i would like to be able to see how much liquid is in the bottle at all times.  The wide opening at the top of the bottle where the cap screws on is also a great design choice because it allows me to put large ice cubes into the bottle very easily.  One of my old water bottles had a tiny opening and it was impossible to get some ice cubes inside of it.  The large opening also makes it much easier to clean the bottle.  My last water bottle had a straw-like tube in it that connected to the top so it was almost impossible to clean the top and the mouth piece.  After a while mold started to grow inside of the mouth piece and i was unable to clean it so i had to throw away the whole bottle.

Negatives:
   The biggest problem i have with the design of this water bottle is there is no comfortable way to carry the bottle.  The bottle is fairly wide so simply wrapping my hand around the side can be difficult especially when the bottle is full because it can be heavy.  The only other option to carry the bottle is by holding onto the plastic strap that keeps the cap on.  The problem with this is the strap is made out of plastic and has sharp edges that dig into my skin while I'm carrying the bottle.  A quick fix to this problem would be to make the strap out of some sort of rubber or a softer material.

Week 3 Blog

   For this week's blog i decided to read an article on robotic toys.  This article included a study on a robotic toy called Pleo.  The amount of input and output between the user and the toy are actually pretty remarkable.  In order to be able to take input from the user, Pleo has a large number of sensors.  These sensors include eight capacitive touch sensors, two infrared sensors, a small CMOS camera, and four optically interruptible push buttons.  This allows there to be different modes of input for Pleo.  Pleo can respond to vocal input as well as physical interaction because of all the sensors it has. 
   Once the Pleo has received input it can decide what it wants to output using the software ran on two ARM7 32-bit processors.  Internally, Pleo has 14 motors with customized gears which allow for basic movement such as tail wagging, slow walking, head/mouth movement, and other actions.  Pleo also has two speakers that allow for sound output.  The output is designed to mimic an actual pet as close as possible.  Obviously the toy cannot come close to a real pet but it does provide some intelligent output when given input.  The output is also very complex so the user wont get bored of the toy.

Link to my article:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1810543.1810549&coll=porll&dl=ACM&type=series&idx=SERIES11165&part=series&WantType=Proceedings&title=IDC&CFID=103343842&CFTOKEN=80578998