What Engineers Do If You Give Them a Dial Tone

Someday, MindTribe’s headquarters will be made of interactive masonry. Each brick will be molded from recycled consumer electronics and in-mold decorated with a high-resolution OLED display. Thousands of bricks will cooperate with distributed intelligence to celebrate your importance as you pass by. Depending upon your mood—as determined by your expression, posture, gait, and temperature—our building might inform you of your portfolio performance, challenge you to improve your mixed martial arts, or lift your spirits with kittens that frolic after your shoelaces. Someday. To tide ourselves over until that day, we’ve installed a 65″ plasma television in our front window and have written an interactive game you can play with your cell phone.

MindTribe’s New Interactive Exhibition on University Avenue

A spare time project, this game reminds passers-by that Palo Alto is still home to quirky technologists who delight in the anachronism of an 1980s-style tetromino arcade game made marginally playable with DTMF over cellular networks. In fact, we’re so quirky that we giggle and snort at the thought of this method of interaction catching on, forcing carriers to prioritize handling and generation of DTMF above video telephony (*snort*). To help further the DTMF interactivity cause, let’s briefly discuss how our system is set up and perhaps inspire you to build one of your own.

First, a diagram:

How the Interactive Game Works

As illustrated, when our monolith is approached by a blue sphere on a leaf spring with a cell phone, the monolith prompts him/her to dial a phone number that provides access to the game. The user dials the number, which establishes a connection with a nearby cell tower. The tower communicates with its carrier’s office, which converts the call to an analog signal fed into a telephony modem on a small computer attached to our plasma TV. The computer instructs the modem to answer the call and displays a welcome screen with game instructions on the TV. Having ignored the instructions, the user wildly presses buttons on his/her cell phone, which causes the carrier to send DTMF tones to our computer. The computer’s modem converts these tones to the characters “0-9, #, *”. The modem’s driver sends these characters to our application, which interprets them as actions and advances the gameplay accordingly. When the game ends, the computer allows the user to snap a photo with an attached camera. The computer then uploads the photo, along with the score and the user’s caller-ID, to our website. The user can then visit our website and claim scores by entering his/her cell phone number. (our site never displays the phone number—it’s only used for searching.) The user can add a name and a comment to be displayed on the games section of our web site along with the photo and score.

We’ve written a C# application that hosts our Adobe Flash game, allowing the game to interact with a modem to receive call-progress events (ring, disconnect, etc.) and DTMF characters. Check out this article for more information on how the C# application uses Flash’s ExternalInterface to communicate hardware events to the Flash game.

The cell-phone-DTMF interface confronted us with one unexpected challenge: many cell phones store all key presses while a call is in progress, but they have limited storage. The result is that, after a few minutes of gameplay, many cell phones stop sending DTMF tones because their buffers fill up. Savvy players can clear the buffers by holding the “delete” or “clear” keys on their cell phones to quickly empty their key buffers. If fast enough, they can continue playing without issue; however, it does add an unexpected element to the game. We’ve brainstormed this a bit and decided that the best workaround is to simply inform the player that this might happen and hope that more people purchase iPhones, which don’t exhibit this problem. It has, however, motivated us to engineer new input methods for future games.

As engineers, we’re naturally artistically declined. (Note at least four conflicting perspectives in the above diagram, along with unaesthetic mixing of 2D/3D, inconsistent labeling, repellent colors, and general clutter. I made that diagram.) To visually communicate more effectively with the world, we partner with artists and industrial designers when appropriate. The lovely clouds and gummy bear theme throughout our game was designed by the even lovelier Joanna Chao. Be sure to check out her portfolio at www.joannachao.com.

If you have not yet stopped by and played our game, please come check it out at 119 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA. It’s surprisingly addictive, and you’ll get to add content to our web site if you achieve a score of 300 or higher. If you’ve already visited our window, don’t forget to claim your score and be sure to come back! We plan to add new games and new interaction methods as we work our way up to those OLED bricks.

A Question of In Mold Decoration and Recyclability

Skeptics beware. Last week, MindTribe encountered direct evidence that the Designers Accord is actually having an impact. An engineer and I were meeting with a vendor. I won’t lie. Our primary focus was in exploring some issues that might help achieve the design intent of our client’s ID team, not any altruism for the environment. Late in the discussion I asked, “So how recyclable is this stuff?”

The fascinating part of the vendor’s answer was not that he didn’t know - he didn’t. The part that was stunning is what this veteran sales rep said. He shot me a glance and said, “That is only the second time that I have been asked that. The first time was yesterday.”

The rep was an in-mold decoration (IMD) supplier who is well known and well liked within our ID/PD community. The people with whom he had met the previous day were industrial designers in San Francisco that MindTribe knows (and loves).

IMD used by HP to achieve a pattern on a notebook

My colleague and I mentioned that MindTribe had joined the Designers Accord, a group committed to making products that have a positive environmental impact. We mentioned that as the engineering resource for many industrial designers, we feel it is our job to figure out how to help achieve the vision of the Accord. Then, we told him that the ID guys he’d met with were also members. (The Designers Accord)

He wrote notes on his pad. He said he’d get back to us.

Once he does his homework, he’ll find that the truth is not so scary.

The answer about IMD and recycling depends, something I learned in 2005 while doing research for an IDSA-SF InCa article (The Golden Age of Silver, see p. 8). Things like the hard coatings typically used with IMD films can inhibit recyclability. But some of the inks, when used with certain films, are not necessarily show stoppers the way that paint is. I am not saying that most of today’s IMD-enhanced consumer electronics are recyclable, but there is hope for the future. And if you are going to do a surface finish, at least IMD doesn’t emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during application. Also IMD surfaces are much less prone to scratching than painted surfaces, so plastic treated with IMD instead of paint makes products more durable and last longer. It’s not the ultimate solution, but it is a step if your client is considering paint! (My source was from a subscription to Knovel or see Study on Recyclibility [sic] of In-Mold Decorated Plastics Parts)

I mean no disrespect to our IMD friend. He is an invaluable resource to us, and this was indeed a small part of the discussion. What I am highlighting here is merely the earliest signs that the Designers Accord can make a difference. If the only one who asked the question was one “smart” designer in SF, the conversation could have died. By being the second inquirer in as many days, MindTribe helped send a message. The guy is a professional and was definitely motivated to follow up.

On the surface, the Designers Accord seems to lack teeth. The coordinators say that the barrier to entry is intentionally low to encourage adoption. To skeptics, it could sound like it is all talk or worse. (Would you take the pledge?) In fact, one reason MindTribe joined was because as product engineers we know that designers need us (and we need people like the IMD folks) to really make a difference.

In the future, there will undoubtedly emerge bigger stories of amazing William-McDonough-inspired creations (McDonough) that sprout sunflowers from biodegrading server farms (Remember the sunflower cell phone?), but for today, isn’t it good to know that together by just asking a question we are creating the demand for an answer?

Direct Metal Laser Sintering Meets Formula-1 - Next Up Product Prototypes?

At my house, it’s not enough to love great products and every detail of how they were made. That fact is obvious to anyone who’s seen my less-than-interested daughter hold her ears and run out of the room screaming at the first peep of conversations involving “machining” or “part line.” Product design infatuation was clearly part of our marriage vows, along with brewing strong coffee, making soufflé, and having and holding until the end. But those who know my situation best know that a keen love of motorsport was also part of the pre-nup. So when Formula 1 starts using a new method of rapid prototyping in metal, well, the pairing of the two topics—racing + product—seems almost cause for a celebration where I live, or at least a multi-hour discussion of the method’s potential over dinner with our equally obsessive friends.

Real Metal Parts from an Astonishing Prototyping Process
(photo courtesy of 3T RPD)

Race Tech, a publication widely read among what must be tens of fans across the English speaking world, had an article in its January issue about Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) getting some traction with Formula-1 teams. This excerpt might pique your interest:

Advances in the latest sintering technology are likely to turn the whole design rulebook completely on its head and enable designs in metal that would have been completely impossible in earlier times. Design practices associated with traditional manufacturing—turning, milling, drilling and other techniques—could in the future no longer apply and components will be designed solely on their functionality.  

To take simple example, holes could be positioned more accurately and in places where previously drill access was totally impossible. The possibilities are endless! Gone also is the concept of tolerance dimensioning because in theory, at least, every part made using DLSM [sic] is exactly the same as the previous one. The future, at least in design and manufacturing, starts here.

Metal parts without machining, casting or tooling! Parts that are functionally near-manufacturing durability and can be used for testing, assembly trials and final design validation!? I imagine this technology having a similar impact to when stereolithography (SLA) took off. Only in this case, the parts are durable, with finishing could emulate a final manufactured part, and can have details that were never possible with conventional fabrication methods. Just to be 100% clear, they are putting these prototype parts in actual cars and using them to test.

For comparison, consider nylon sintering, called “Selective Laser Sintering” (SLS), if you are familiar with that approach. SLS for prototyping plastic parts has been around a bit longer and is a lot more accessible than metal sintering in terms of availability and cost. Nylon sintering makes durable parts, but the parts are hard to finish relative to an SLA, for example, which can be easily sanded. Metal laser sintering, on the other hand, is made with much finer layers than its nylon cousin, which means it has a nicer surface to begin with, has greater strength in the z-axis, and—with finishing— is as cosmetically beautiful as a “real” part.

Nylon Chain Mail Part Shows How Sintering Allows Detail Not Possible with Traditional Fab Methods - This Mesh Is Constructed As All One Part, Not Put Together from Separate Rings
(photo: MindTribe)

DMLS works by melting a powdered material layer-by-very-fine-layer with a laser. The powdered substance contains a mixture of hard and soft materials. (The composition of the powders appears to be undisclosed and proprietary.) The build platform is currently 250mm x 250mm x 215mm high (10″ x 10″ x 8.5″). At each layer, the laser melts the softer substances so that the harder, higher melting point metal is held in suspension. The fusing process has evolved to the point that it almost completely melts the entire powdered mixture. And perhaps more exciting, the alloys have evolved to include not only bronze and nickel but also different steels and even titanium.

DMLS can produce parts with comparable or better properties than casting, including tensile strength, yield strength and elongation, but it cannot yet meet tightest tolerances and surface finish requirements without secondary machining, bench work and polishing.

Metal Sintered Engine Exhaust Parts Can Be Put in a Car and Tested
(photo courtesy of 3T RPD)

The DMLS machine, which is made by EOS, starts at a pricey $600K to buy, but supposedly some model shops are starting to have them. Given that the technology has only recently moved from the aerospace industry to Formula-1, that bastion of low-cost engineering prototyping (cough), most of these model makers are near the motorsport centers in Europe.

Sue Burnip from 3T RPD in the UK helped me out with all of the photos of the metal parts for this blog. 3T RPD specializes in SLS and DMLS, and is one of the largest LS providers in the UK - home of several F-1 teams. (Race enthusiasts may be interested in 3T RPD case studies, including work for the Jordan-Honda team.)

Aerospace Part Made with DMLS and Secondary Finishing
(photo courtesy of 3T RPD)

In the SF Bay Area, I found Prototypes Plus to be the only local option for sintering, but only nylon sintering, which is interesting but not METAL. Dylan Ternes showed MindTribe the EOS SLS machine and some samples of nylon sintered parts, including parts made with a small percentage of carbon, glass, and aluminum. He explained that the nylon-based parts seem best suited for prototyping plastic components that are functional pieces on the inside of a product and for not the cosmetic outer enclosure.

While Prototypes Plus does offer secondary processes for making the SLS parts cosmetic, the approach doesn’t lend itself to finishing the way SLAs do. Prototypes Plus plans to get a DMLS machine in the future. Dylan has personally checked them out, and he says the metal sintered parts are truly awesome. He adds that metal sintering is “really expensive” at this time.

Dylan at Prototypes Plus Discusses Laser Sintering

Complex Part that Prototypes Plus Made with Laser Sintering
(photos: MindTribe)

My colleague Lionel provided a sample part made with nylon sintering that might help bring home the truly marvelous flexibility of this approach. The spring hook, including the captured functional spring, rotatable strap feed, and other moveable features, was made as a “single part” using nylon laser sintering. This part is not brittle like an SLA would be, so it does not break in use.

Spring Hook with Functional Captured Features Made AS A SINGLE PART with Sintering 

Nylon Laser Sintered Parts Are Not Brittle Like SLAs
(photos: MindTribe)

Just to wrap, as I consider some of the metal details of products my husband has worked on, it occurs to me that metal prototyping may have taken months of quality time away from my marriage. I am sure I watched a lot of F-1 on my own in the 2006 season, in particular. Indeed, my product-consumed partner seems to salivate over the Race Tech article, and I vow to find out more about these machines and how far they are to becoming accessible - if not for the rest of us, at least for those like Apple who can afford to take the pole position for new design methods.

Dyed Nylon Sintered Hands
(photo: MindTribe)

While digging through one of our many boxes of miscellany, we recently stumbled across a perplexing cable that seems to connect 1975 to 2000. Perhaps the ferrite bolus actually houses a small flux capacitor that reduces conducted tachyon emissions.

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Design, Materials, Process, and Greater Values in the “Thick” of the New Year

It must be January. Everyone in America is doing one of three things: writing IDEA entries, attending CES/MacWorld, or getting in shape. Since our product development community is busied with the first two, maybe we should take a break and consider the issue on the minds of most other people this month.

Outside of our industry, massive numbers of Americans make a resolution to lose weight every January. Apparently these are non-binding resolutions since about 1/3 of this population remains not just overweight, but obese. (Centers for Disease Control)

About 33% of Americans are obese according to CDC

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Engineer New, Cool Things While Other People Attend Corporate Meetings

New product development is not for everyone. In fact, it is hard to find that rare individual who is extremely smart (clients don’t pay for help they could find anywhere), more motivated than a home seller on a fault line in the Central Valley, and simultaneously insane enough to sign up for an exceedingly high level of responsibility on projects of such variety that the only unifying elements are (1) they involve technology and (2) no one has ever tried to make them before.

It makes MindTribe a very different kind of place. While it is not the job for every engineer, the people who are here love their jobs. I asked our team, “What is it about this place?” Here are 15 slightly censored reasons why we love to work here:

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Vietnamese Manufacturing Emerges as an Antidote for What’s Ailing China

Quick, name a consumer electronic product not made in China. Unless you named a pre-production prototype or an individual part, you are probably mistaken. Over the past dozen years, China has become the destination for low-cost contract manufacturing. These days we assume that even modest volume consumer electronic projects will wind up in China. MindTribe now provides Mandarin lessons to our engineers so our team can communicate better with our Chinese counterparts.

But just when we were getting comfortable with what to eat, where to stay, and how to move around places like Shanghai and Shenzhen – that is, to the extent one can get comfortable with things like thousand-year egg or breakfast squid, hotel porters who dress like matadors or gondola drivers, and van drivers who think the sidewalk is a car pool lane – China seems to be outgrowing its place in the global economic order.

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U.S. Manufacturers’ Responsibility for Safety in the Global Supply Chain

Terrorists might want to attack our families, but naïve U.S. manufacturers seem to be beating them to it. People armed with a grudge and explosives are pretty scary, so we take every precaution allowed under the Constitution (cough) to keep them out of the United States. Yet, as supply chains have become more complex, we treat each of the growing number of potentially lethal product failures as if it is an isolated freak of production.

Now some product developers who have earned their stripes getting things made overseas are imploring other U.S. companies to become more responsible for their offshore operations. I know because these guys have implored me to blog on this topic. They spend a good piece of their lives “babysitting” products at Asian manufacturers, and they are raising a flag for the companies who still pretend it is ok to throw things over the wall and wait for a container of shrink-wrapped packages to show up.

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At Stanford in the early 1980’s, I had a seminar course that largely anticipated the ways we would adopt, adapt, and even abuse technology over the coming 20 years. Today, many of the ideas dreamt about in that class have emerged as the backbones or sore throats of the tech economy. But what is more fascinating are the musings we had that are still out there waiting for the next batch of Jerry Yangs, Jim Clarks, and Jeff Hawkinses to make them come to life.

If I learned anything in the class – and I eked out an A+ – what we have to look forward to is even more enriching than what has already been solved.

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Microsoft wants to sell you Xbox games. Microsoft does not want you to turn your Xbox into a very cheap, general-purpose computer, because that is not conducive to Xbox game sales. Similarly, Verizon wants to sell you phone service. Verizon does not want to sell you a cheap, cutting-edge cell phone if you’re going to use it with another carrier. When manufacturers sell commoditized hardware products at a loss to enable higher-value services, they do wish to ensure that consumers use the devices for their intended purposes. We are beginning to see industry standard security practices that attempt to keep control of embedded devices in the hands of their manufacturers. One such practice is establishing a “chain of trust” amongst all software that runs on a device. To understand the chain of trust and the motivation for implementing it, let’s first look at what types of hacks threaten services by allowing consumers to use loss-leader devices for unintended purposes.

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