The Alpine “Feel Your Music” headphones utilize a transducer placed at the top of the headband to create full bass experience. By placing the transducer on top of the head-band, this allows vibration (sensation of deep base) to be felt on top of the head and through the two ear-cups.
The DXO X1 is the first of its kind utilizing a full 1” sensor and f1.8 aperture to capture stunning photos while utilizing the smarts of your iPhone for DXO proprietary software image processing. Main challenges of the engineering develop included respecting a 24mm thickness to maintain “pocket-ability,” stow-able & swivel lightning connector, while abiding by Apple’s strict MFI (made for iPod) requirements (to ensure Apple store acceptability). The X1 internals were designed in Taiwan and the camera is currently being produced in the Shenzhen area, so nearly monthly trips to Taiwan/China were necessary to ensure a stream-line development process.
The iovera device provides a minimally invasive treatment that temporarily inhibits nerve conduction. The system includes a handpiece, dock, single-use Smart Tips and nitrous oxide cartridges. The physician will locate the target nerve and insert the micro-needles. Then, with the push of a button, the system cools the needles to draw heat from the surrounding tissue forming a precise zone of cold. This temporarily disables the nerve, but preserves the nerve structure where the nerve reliably re-grows over time in its original path. It works equally well on sensory and motor nerves and has the potential to address a wide range of clinical applications, including reduction in the appearance of wrinkles, muscular disorders and pain therapy. Other potential applications include treatment for pain from arthritis or other peripheral nerve conditions and treatment for dynamic facial lines.
Illumina MiSeq was a cutting edge device that captures the embrace between technology and the very building blocks of life, our DNA. A sophisticated scanner, which can analyze and report millions of genotypes per day, the MiSeq will revolutionize the process of genetic discovery for future use in pharmacogenics and personal genotyping and at an affordable price for the non-power users. Fully engineered structural foam enclosures were designed to support the embrace industrial design. While providing an intuitive and efficient experience for the user.
A developer of several adult CPAP masks came to us with their children’s division to assist in re-designing the interface for their neonate CPAP device. The existing product, show below did not meet their standard of patient centric design. We went through a deep-dive of research to understand the needs of the users in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) at several hospitals around the area. The solution was a system that decreased time to therapy, accommodated a wide range of patients and made for a solution that left minimal lasting damage to the patient. Soft-good’s, silicone molding and injection molded were utilized in the production solution
The Enterprise secure USB flash drive is engineered for the greatest possible security and designed specifically for use by mobile professionals in government, defense, and other industries dealing with highly sensitive information. The assembly includes a 2-part die-cast zinc assembly with an articulating Delrin slider that moves in an elegant motion, maintaining parallelism as the user intuitively pushes it through its functional path to extend the USB connector. The resulting solution approaches the goal of impenetrability from both a visual and tactile perspective, creating an object that is pure and iconic.
PROVENT Therapy is a simple to use, disposable, prescription treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). PROVENT Therapy uses the body’s own breathing to create positive airway pressure, eliminating the need for often-ineffective surgery or the discomfort due to the cumbersome tubing, mask and machine of CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) therapy. The PROVENT Nasal Device is placed just inside the nostrils and is held in place by a discreet hypoallergenic adhesive.
Green Toys goal is to recreate classic plastic toys from recycled milk jugs (HDPE) with no fasteners or paint, just plastic. The industrial designers looked for innovations in play value while keeping with Green Toys’ desire to stay close to the nostalgic vernacular of these familiar objects. The tug boat incorporates a handle and spout. The stacking rings require no base or stem. The fire truck includes articulating ladders. Challenges in the design for manufacturing were due to the non-traditional recycled HDPE material. This resulted in un-predictable molded parts and the need for close interaction with the contract manufacturer in developing end products that would keep with the industrial design. These designs earned an IDEA Silver award in 2012, Core77 design award in 2011 and a Green Dot award in 2011.
Responsible for taking rough industrial design drawings and converting them to 3D production models; design liberties and decisions were necessary to get to a product thatsatisfied Green Toys quality look and feel. Final 3D CAD data-base shown to the right.
Illumina came to us to help retrofit their existing HiSeq units to allow for on-board sample loading & prep. This retrofit would require for an onsite tech to easily and quickly swap out the front panel to allow for this upgrade. Various mock-ups and testing results were presented to the client to evaluate the best concept based on user experience, development risk and ease of installation.
Client was looking to incorporate their vacuum technology from an existing tethered/ powered device into a purely mechanical/ one-time use device to compete with competitive low-cost devices. Our challenge was to quickly mock-up and test core-sampling and compare with existing products. After only 6 weeks of development testing/ we were able to achieve core-samples equal to that of competitive products utilizing a purely mechanical solution that utilized vacuum technology.
Redesignedthe slider/ hinge mechanism from something that did not live up to expectation into a quality feel and presentation one would expect from the clients brand. The process involved disassembling existing products on the market to see what we could learn and quickly built upon these learning. We quickly mocked up various concepts utilizing FDM prototypes, local/trusted vendors and hinge experts.
What yielded from the 5 week effort was a very smooth mechanism that drastically improved the experience and provided the high-fidelity feel the client was looking for.
The Gerber SippySnacker project helps illustrate my knowledge and understanding of design process. Multidisciplinary teams utilized Research, Insights & Strategy, Industrial Design, Engineering, Marketing, and the Prototype Development to achieve the best solution and best satisfy users needs. Serving as the main engineer contact and production database developer, I was responsible for creating the preliminary Pro/Engineer database, evaluating physical models, running finite element analysis on geometry structure, ensuring that final design direction meets both tooling cost target and industrial design intent, providing support through manufacturing, and also involved myself on the front end Research and Strategy efforts. Illustrated here is a sample of the process path taken to achieve the Gerber cup end product, earning an IDSA IDEA GOLD award.
