Showing papers on "Open design published in 2014"

Ethnocomputing with electronic textiles: culturally responsive open design to broaden participation in computing in American indian youth and communities

Abstract: There have been many efforts to increase access and participation of indigenous communities in computer science education using ethnocomputing. In this paper, we extend culturally responsive computing by using electronic textiles that leverage traditional crafting and sewing practices to help students learn about engineering and computing as they also engage with local indigenous knowledges. Electronic textiles include sewable microcontrollers that can be connected to sensors and actuators by stitching circuits with conductive thread. We present findings from a junior high Native Arts class and an academically-oriented summer camp in which Native American youth ages 12-15 years created individual and collective e-textile designs using the LilyPad Arduino. In our discussion we address how a culturally responsive open design approach to ethnocomputing with e-textile activities can provide a productive but also challenging context for design agency and cultural connections for American Indian youth, and how these findings can inform the design of a broader range of introductory computational activities for all.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Assistive Technology: A Communication Board Case Study

Abstract: Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and open design approaches allow for the development of customized, affordable assistive technologies. Freely shared designs and software components open doors for new ways to create and to share technology, representing an approach that has the potential to be more efficient, affordable, and effective than commercial approaches to Assistive Technology development and deployment. In this paper, we present a case study of how these methods have been used to develop a DIY, open-source Speech-Generating Device.

Open Design and Innovation: Facilitating Creativity in Everyone

Abstract: Contents: Part 1 Open Design in Context: Introduction to open design Innovation and design in context Mass creativity: design beyond the design profession Design responses to mass creativity Open design futures. Part 2 Open Design Case Studies: Introduction to case studies The .NET Gadgeteer: open design platform La Region 27 and the open design of public services Silver=Gold: professional designers working in open creative processes Educating open designers PROUD: beyond the castle: open designers in action. Part 3 The Future: The future for open designers. Bibliography Index.

Open Design: Contributions, Solutions, Processes and Projects

Abstract: Open design is a catchall term for various on- and offline design and making activities It can be used to describe a type of design process that allows for (is open to) the participation of anybody (novice or professional) in the collaborative development of something As well as this, it can mean the distribution and unrestricted use of design blueprints and documentation for the use by othersIn this paper, the authors highlight various aspects of open and collaborative design and argue for the use of new terms that address what is open and when A range of design projects and online platforms that have open attributes are then explored, whereby these terms are applied In terms of design, the focus is specifically on the design of physical things rather than graphical, software or system design

Closing in on Open Design

Abstract: Open design has become an umbrella term for a wide range of approaches to design and creativity where professional design is challenged. These range from seeing designers as simply irrelevant (in democratized innovation) to an active and creative collaboration between designers and non-designers (co-design) to the dissolution of the distinction between designer and non-designer altogether.While supporting open design in general, we argue that there are important instances where open design approaches may not be appropriate and that there will be a polarization between casual design activity (for cups, T-shirts and so on) and critical designs (medical equipment, very complex systems like mobile phones).

Testing a grassroots citizen science venture using open design, "the bee lab project"

Abstract: The Bee Lab project applies Citizen Science and Open Design to beekeeping, enabling participants to construct monitoring devices gathering reciprocal data, motivating participants and third parties. The presented approach uses design workshops to provide insight into the design of kits, user motivations, promoting reciprocal interests and address community problems. This paper signposts issues and opportunities in the process of designing Citizen Science tools for communities using Open Design to solve individual problems, including: downloadable design for social/local change, laypeople creating technology and repairable kits.

Proprietary Benefits from Open Communities: How MakerBot Leveraged Thingiverse in 3D Printing

Abstract: Our understanding of open source models of innovation is primarily based on research on open source software. This research focuses on the underlying challenges in developing a user-based community as a complementary asset, and at the same time strengthening appropriability regimes without losing control over the technologies that are fundamental to their business success. Yet less is known about new start-ups driven by open hardware. Here we study 3D printing, and how MakerBot Industries leveraged open hardware and content to become a multimillion dollar firm based on selling closed source hardware, while nurturing its open online content community. Using a longitudinal case study design, we identify three distinct phases in how MakerBot created and nurtured the Thingiverse community as a free resource of user-created digital designs that could be printed as physical goods through its physical printers, both creating value for the community and demand for its products. We analyze MakerBot’s ability to win community acceptance for its increasingly proprietary strategy, and offer broader implications for managing user communities, open hardware design and partly open platform strategies.

A Classification of Consumer Involvement in New Product Development

Abstract: Processes such as co-design, crowdsourcing and open design are challenging previously held notions about the role of the consumer within New Product Development. The degree and validity of consumer involvement in product creation varies according to the process concerned, however to date little research exists to classify this involvement. In this paper the New Product Development process is divided into four phases: conception, specification, design and manufacture. The ability of the consumer to influence each phase when engaged in design activity is assessed. A graphical classification of New Product Development strategies is presented, mapped against the commitment of the designer to consumer involvement, and a number of new categories of design are proposed. The changing role of the designer from interpreter to facilitator of consumer wishes is also discussed.

Citizen Science and Open Design: Workshop Findings

Abstract: An inherent link exists between making things and designing things, often relying on skills, knowledge, and tools, and working together to achieve outcomes. Conventional design and manufac- ture to date has been a closed system requiring professional skills. Traditional manufacture has required a significant initial financial investment for “tooling” to produce large volumes of product (i.e., for “mass production”). In contrast, Digital Manufacture (DM) or Rapid Manufacture (RM) is “the ability to manufacture parts of vir- tually any complexity [and] geometry entirely without the need for tooling.” The latter offers lower financial entry-points and the ability to create bespoke products.1 The following article weaves Open design, Digital Manufacture and Citizen Science together present- ing findings from territory exploring workshops with lay users signposting opportunities and perceived detrimental factors.

Exploring Open Design for the application of Citizen Science; a toolkit methodology

Abstract: The manufacture of mass produced quality assured products has previously remained within professional practice. Digital manufacture presents opportunities for producing products in low volumes, catering to bespoke requirements. This phenomenon can benefit parties where the manufacture of goods has previously been financially unobtainable, i.e. non-government and charitable organisations. Open hardware (accessible electronic components) can complement digital manufacture, enabling bespoke products to become intelligent, with the ability to sense, monitor, record and produce data. This paper tests an Open Design / Citizen Science toolkit drawing from practice based research and supporting ethnographic activities. The study documents design workshops with The Sussex Wildlife Trust and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, conservation and wildlife experts. The papers research contribution is a design toolkit, identifying insightful opportunities for Open Design through Citizen Science. The study showcases new prospects for organisations to engage with the public. The prospects form ‘reciprocal relationships’ via members of the public fabricating monitoring devices and gathering data. Users’ individual accrued data can meet wider community needs and address local or national conservation challenges. The emphasis of this study has focused on accessible wildlife monitoring, beyond the valuable but limited versatility of the smartphone, extending Citizen Sciences reach.

Products as platforms: a framework for designing open source interactive artifacts

Abstract: Practices related to open source hardware and software, open design and digital fabrication demonstrate new ways for designing and producing things. In the domain of open source technology, novel paradigms emerge in which customization is combined with personal fabrication, product development is expanded by users' co-design, open licenses replace the traditional patents system. We assume that the impact of those paradigms activate opportunities for developing new design approaches that consider products as platforms: similarly to open source prototyping platforms such as Arduino, "products-platforms" feature several interactive layers that enable people to access, reconfigure and build upon the physical parts, behaviors and interfaces of the product. The workshop aims to engage participants in an experimental process addressed to the conception of interactive "products-platforms" that are open source artifacts that users can modify or build upon thanks to an ecosystem of shared documentation, services and licenses. In particular, the participants will focus on the definition of solutions for facilitating the configuration, customization and re-production of the interactive product, by discussing the limits and the opportunities of the current open source ecosystem (technology, interfaces, communities, etc.). The workshop reflects on the integration of the human centered design approach into the open source culture and it proposes a framework for designing innovative open source products.

Open community manufacturing

Abstract: In the current competitive economic environment, start-up companies struggle to accomplish production tasks alone. Digitisation helps to solve most product or service customisation challenges with open co-creation platforms and toolkits. The concept of Open Community Manufacturing (OCM) systems is introduced. OCM uses open design platforms to create value at the base of the pyramid, by empowering incubators through distributed manufacturing systems. OCM systems embrace new ways of technology transfer, ideas and risks, so as to create the most collaborative environment possible. This research study evaluated several open design platforms, projects and toolkits that can be used as social innovation support system to develop distributed manufacturing entrepreneurs. It was found that economic value can be created using open design, simply due to mass collaboration where people are living, experiencing and expressing gradually more within digitally enabled social- and peer networks in distributed communities. OCM finds synergy amongst various stakeholders in order to mobilise developing communities. This allows products to be manufactured economically in smaller, more flexible quantities for the customised demand.

An Open and Automated Android Behavior Monitor in Cloud

Abstract: For security and privacy considerations, it is important for Android users to understand the behavior and the risk of an application. Although Google claims that new applications available on the official market have passed their security checks, the open design of the Android system still allows a user to install applications for third party vendors. Therefore, there is still a demand for users to know more about an unknown application. In this paper, we discussed our experiences on setting up a scalable automated Android behavior monitor using virtualization techniques. Our contribution is two-fold: (1) We design and implement a scalable behavior monitor using both dynamic analysis and static analysis techniques; and (2) Based on parts of the analyzed results, we develop a preliminary filter to distinguish benign and malicious applications. The system is open to the public and we expect that the analyzed results can be fed back to the research community and further stimulate more studies on analyzing malicious Android applications.

Lightweight Interaction Modeling in Evolutionary Prototyping

Abstract: The paper discusses a systematic integration of evolutionary and exploratory prototyping of interactive systems by a lightweight use of formal methods. Formal models guide the development of the underdesigned evolutionary prototype. In combination with techniques from Design Rationale, they implement the exploration and assessment of possible solutions to open design questions. Models and corresponding tool support are used to express design options and to make them more accessible to a broader audience by the creation of parallel model-guided throwaway extensions of the current evolutionary prototype. They are also used to describe design constraints (for example, in terms of tasks or in terms of actions on artifacts) and to assess design options against these criteria. The suggested approach is demonstrated through an example design scenario that shows an intertwining of different design activities and discusses the role of formal models. In particular, the scenario describes a coupling of HOPS models, QOC diagrams, and Java prototypes.

A modeling and code generation framework for critical embedded systems design: From Simulink down to VHDL and Ada/C code

Abstract: The P project gathers industrial and academic partners to address the issue of a modeling approach and automatic code generation for critical embedded systems. Works target the definition of an open design flow which integrates qualified tools to produce both hardware and software implementations. This paper introduces the project through two code generators that allow generating Ada, C and VHDL from Simulink. Application of the design flow to two industrial case studies is finally presented.

Open Design: A journey through Doha, Havana and New York

Abstract: Open Design is part of the new design wave that sets project sharing as key to speed up innovation and widen access to design products; Open Design is a direct descendent of the Open Source movement and focuses on product design. The research investigates which social, economical and cultural contexts represent the ideal ground for the growth and development of Open Design seeds. Three cities have been recognized as the perfect locations to set the research ground: Doha, a place where money and resources are not a problem, research receives great attention and capital, and the desire for notoriety is at the top of the agenda; Cuba, still suffering from embargo restrictions, lacks resources and money, but possesses great creativity and social awareness; and New York City, with its state-of-the-art that serves as a litmus test for new trends and ideas. The analysis of each reality contributed to figure out the correct responses to the topic. This paper has been presented as part of the Tasmeem Exploration P...

Open design and medical products

Abstract: This research details the use of Open Design to enable participation in the conceptualisation, design and development of medical products for those who are excluded by their chronic health condition. The research was directed according to the Action Research methodology outlined by Checkland & Holwell (1998); Action Research being highlighted by Archer (1995) as a method compatible for practice-led design research. Open design directed the design practice, which consisted of a long case study spanning 18 months from February 2012, through to July 2013. This case study, dubbed AIR involved the creation of a bespoke online social network, recruitment of people living with cystic fibrosis, and the facilitation of collaborative design work resulting in prototype medical devices based on the lived experience of the participants. The work involves research into design within health as the context for this research. In order to place design in this wider context, it has been tempting to adopt the mantle Evidence Based Design Evans, 2010) – however in this research the position of design as phronesis, in a similar manner to health practice (Montgomery, 2005) is adopted. This allows for an alignment of the work done in both fields, without the problematic associations with an evidence hierarchy (Gaver & Bowers, 2012; Holmes, Murray, Perron, & Rail, 2006). The contribution to knowledge is an Open Medical Products Methodology, consisting of the artefacts supporting the evidence of the methodology’s ability to foster genuine participation amongst those who are excluded from traditional participatory design. The artefacts constituting this submission are this thesis, the reflective log kept during the research (Appendix A on page 135), the prototypes from the collaborative research (Appendix B on page 212), and the online social network that contained the work (AIR1 ). The Open Medical Products Methodology is expected to be of interest primarily to designers of medical products, design management and policymakers- although Open Design as a product methodology has appeal to other sectors and the future work into standardisation, regulation, distributed manufacture and recruitment detailed at the conclusion of this thesis has application broader than the medical field.

How open design solutions are going to affect particle accelerators controls and diagnostics: The Elettra case

Abstract: The effective management of several distributed devices, even in real time, is one of the mandatory conditions for the design, operation and upgrade of modern particle accelerators control systems. In order to cope with the performance demanded by such plants, the existing equipment has to be continuously improved or new strategies have to be considered to overcome its limitations. The impressive capability growth of mobile and handheld devices allows moving from a traditional distributed architecture, based on complex and expensive operating nodes, to a pervasive approach based on simple and cheap embedded systems, tailored for each specific application. Such pervasive trend is further favored by the open design approach, which is becoming more and more popular as it enables designers to easily adapt an already existing board to their specific needs. In this communication a brief description of Elettra and FERMI light sources in the context of controls, diagnostics and power supplies is given. The main applications developed and successfully deployed on the accelerators and based on a commercial open design embedded board are also presented.

The Smarter Power Strip - Design and implementation of a smart power strip

Abstract: It is estimated that up to 20% of U.S. households' power consumption is used by standby equipment (Ross and Meier 2000). In this report, we describe the design and implementation of a smart power strip, with the purpose of lowering such useless energy waste. The device puts its users in control of their consumption by providing monitoring of the power drawn by appliances connected to it, and the ability to remotely turn these appliances on and o . Power consumption history and control can be accessed by users through a web application, and the power strip communicates with this web application over the Internet via an embedded wireless interface. Furthermore, through the open design of the device it is easy for third parties to create services that utilize it. A set of desired features are speci ed, and a prototype is developed accordingly. To evaluate the prototype empirical tests are performed and results indicate that, with some further development of the software, its goals would be achieved. This opens up for the device to be used as a tool in the important task of lowering power consumption in today's society.

Design for the Large Sport Stadium Information Management System

Abstract: In this paper, the framework and subsystem detailed design of LSSIMS (Large Sport Stadium Information Management System) is proposed on the basis of main function-demand analysis. After the main function demand is analyzed under 6 iterative stages, the overall framework design of the system is proposed on the basis of the principles of frame design. Then the LSSIMS is divided into the subsystems including the gateway websites, ticketing business subsystem, fitness management subsystem, online interactive subsystems, commercial operation subsystem and advertisement management subsystem. Finally the subsystems are designed individually by adopting the middleware technology and the thought of multi-level, loosely coupled and open design. Through the later stages of detailed design and full system development, it is showed that based on the framework design the LSSIMS provides managers with detailed statistical analysis, decision support and standardization interfaces, which can make good social benefits.

Initiating an Open Learning Ecology with Free and Open-source Animation Software in Hong Kong

Abstract: In 1963, UNESCO established the International Institute for Educational Planning, a research center for national educational policy strategies. For the past 50 years breakthroughs in information and communication technology, as well as mobile computing, have facilitated ubiquitous access to digital information, causing a fundamental change in education. In 2002, the term Open Educational Resources was coined to highlight the merits of open access online courseware, and to reinforce the accomplishments of open teaching, open learning, and open educational researches. Numerous researchers have noted a profound change in learning styles and the emergence of transitional learning models in this digital era. Three fundamental aspects of learning have been identified and adapted to a pilot project: collaboration, networking, and self-learning. It is further argued that contemporary universities are unable to offer adequate online courseware due to the impact of cross-institutional, inter-disciplinary, and participatory learning; this is expedited by knowledge-intensive collaboration, which triggers complex flows of resources. Additionally, a transition to ubiquitous learning environments is foreseen. Support in this future learning modality is derived from various forms of mobilizing networks, peer-to-peer knowledge platforms, and heterogeneous content repositories that cannot be offered by a stringent education authority.