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Analysis of Literary Language · Advanced Professional Papers · The History of the English Language · First Internship: Tutoring in a Writing Workshop · Second Internship: Advanced Instruction: Tutoring Writing
Visual Literacy Seminar (A First Course in Methodology) · Language in Society (A Third Course in Methodology) · The Writer's Guild
UMBC'S Conservative Newspaper: "The Retriever's Right Eye" · UMBC'S University Newspaper: "The Retriever Weekly" · Introduction to Journalism · Feature Writing · Science Writing Papers
Communicative Objective #2 (CO2): Recontextualizing Authorless Text · Presentation/Gaming Activity: "Shopping Happens"
The History of "this" Space: UMBC Food · Blackboard Weekly Posts (A Bulletin Board Community)
Explanation of How to Read "This" Objective · Explanation of the URCAD Edition of the Re-patent · Parameters for Re-patenting an Artifact from the U.S. Patent Office
Photos of the Re-patent "Cyberpeople" Artifacts · An Artificial Intelligent's Theory on God: The URCAD Edition · The Serio-Ludic/Narrative-Sketch Genre of the U.S. Re-patent Office
The Test Subject Simulation of the "Cyberpeople Jack Implant" Artifact: The URCAD Edition · Promotional News Article for the Re-patent of the "Cyberpeople" Artifact
Disaster News Article for the Re-patent of the "Cyberpeople" Artifact · "Cyberpeople" Re-patent Goals and Choices · "Cyberpeople" Re-patent Process Narrative-Sketch
The Re-patent Rolling Credits: Who Contributed to "This" Objective · A List of Artifacts Considered for Re-patent that were Researched, Tested, and Abandoned
The Re-patent Blackboard Community Post #1 ·
The Re-patent Blackboard Community Post #2 ·
The Re-patent Blackboard Community Post #3 ·
The Re-patent Blackboard Community Post #4 ·
The Re-patent Blackboard Community Post #6
Last Update July 19, 2006
Workshopping Round One · Workshopping Round Two
Workshopping Round One
This proved to be a difficult assignment like having a gun put to your head and being told, "You will be brilliant and creative in this very moment and write something that is wonderfully witty or I'm going to blow your brains out." It is difficult to think about re-inventing something and improving it without interacting with the artifact. The student desk was an idea that I thought was a good one because I have trouble with the desks also: getting into them and out of them and I'm not tall, short or fat. I just have trouble getting into them and out of them. I knew a woman once who was 6'2" and would constantly vent as to how the world was not ergonomically designed for "tall people." Many objects are created with particular users in mind, but as time goes on, more inventors are becoming "designers" as Henry Petroski said and are being forced to think of the human element hence this is how and why the science of Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) came into being. People like myself look at how people choose or choose not to interact with a computer in order to perform or not perform various tasks on the computer.
I looked up on the U.S. Federal Government Patent website student desks as two words in the title which proved more fruitful than searching for student desk as a phrase in the title. I knew what I was looking for. I had a full size draftman's table once, which I regret ever having let go. The draftsman table had foldable adjustable legs so it could be collapsed and stored away. Draftsman tables are notoriously large tables for one person, usually heavy and not movable. The table was constructed of metal tubing like the student desk but of various sizes that slid into each other. Around the smaller tubes were collars with screws that would permit the raising and lowering of the smaller tubes connected to the table surface. The larger tubes acted as the base of the table. This permitted the user to adjust the table to the height and angle the user chose. With four larger tube legs bent at 90 degrees at each end forming a "[" with the broad surface on the floor, the smaller tubes slid up and down inside the larger tube. When the thumbscrews were tightened, the collars held steadfast against the larger tube. This permitted the user to adjust the table to different heights and different angles other than horizontal as necessary.
I knew I wasn't the only one who had problems with these student desks and from the list of complaints in the class it was an oddity why do we still have these kinds of desks. That answer was simple. Schools need to spend money on better things other than ergonomic tables and if people are in them for limited amounts of time then why replace an artifact that isn't broken. One should note that every semester yet another class room gets a more traditional or modern approach to learning by receiving long banquet tables and separate chairs, but this is also based on new methods of learning in the classroom. (Old school stressing the knowledge of the individual and new school stressing the collective knowledge and encouraging sharing of knowledge). One of the really small rooms in ACIV B wing on the first floor just received some banquet tables arranged in a solid square with nothing at the center, i.e. something approximating a round table, which facilitates face to face discussions, but now I'm discussing pedagogy and deviating from the topic at hand.
With all the complaints mentioned, I decided to research student chairs. There is a patent for an adjustable student chair and the patent text addresses many of our complaints, but it is clearly not made for adults but for grade school children. The invention is US Patent # 6,921,135 dated 7/26/2005 and named "Child's Adjustable Chair." I can't see the images and with only a text description of the object I feel handicapped. This could be an engineer's mentality but I need to be able to visually see in a diagram what the artifact is in order to understand what is being discussed. "A picture is worth a thousand words, or at least a couple of hundred" and text only fails to help me visualize. It is fascinating that something that has been painful for so long, so much so that schools are moving away from purchasing similar furniture that this invention would not come along until 7/2005. This seems to me like a long time in coming.
Bowen and I were comparing notes and he was having a similar problem. We couldn't seem to come up with ideas on specific objects and also kicked around in the database for a while. We both had the same experience on this level and we both had a similar experience on another level. For Bowen it was the CD and for me it was the telephone. Bowen must have purchased a music CD during the weekend and mentioned how this object caused him distress because of the way it is packaged. Yes, we both know and everyone else probably does this is done to prevent thieves from getting the little desired treasure out of the case, sticking it in their pocket and walking out of the store.
Almost a year ago a company came out with a tiny microchip that would have a code in it like a UPC code but could be embedded into the object. The military wanted these to reduce work in logistics when shipping and receiving goods. A warehouse person could simply scan the pallet with a wand and instantly get a count of what was contained on the pallet. This way it could be checked against the receiving list for accuracy. Now, I also know having said this there are also perverse reasons this technology could be and probably will be used for, but I wish to forgo that because I discussed this in another essay. The point is Wal-Mart was the test store for this chip and they were going to use the chip to protect the highest theft item in the store, men's razor blades. If someone put a pack of razor blades in their pocket and tried to walk out while passing the scanners, the alarm would go off and they would be asked to step back. I said to Bowen this would be the way to eliminate the shrink-wrap problem with CD's because the security code would be embedded in the object. On the other hand I did say this code could be used for perverse means, as a way of accounting for all the objects one has and filling up a database. I did data mining at one point and having a database like this produces some very fascinating information about us that I believe is private. As an example, Giant because of its consumer discount card determined to market beer and diapers next to each other. Reason? If the man of the house was to be left with the baby he wanted something to do with his time, essentially watch TV and drink beer, so he would buy diapers and a six pack of beer.
As far as my interaction during the weekend, I had to call my job Saturday to find out my hours for Sunday. While dialing (Can you still call it dialing? Isn't that from a rotary phone?) I pressed one number wrong. This meant that I had to hang up the receiver and begin to dial again. The answer is obvious. The question simple: "Why doesn't a telephone have a 'backspace key' or a 'delete key' or an 'erase key' or a 'floating cursor'?" This is not an original idea because I heard this question posed once before on WCBM Talk Radio 680 AM, but this was the only object I interacted with that made me stop and think. Sunday night, after work, I started a new search in the Patent database to find some interesting changes to the telephone but no "telephone backspace key."
In the search I found a real recent patent dated 1/10/2006, US Patent # 6,985,311 called a "Cellular Telephone Flip Screen Magnifier." I can't see the object, which does not help me in deeming how useful it really is. The reason I mention this is because there were inventors like I. M. Nuts, who made inventions that in ways seemed like Rube Goldberg Machines but were never as complex. They were objects that did solve a problem but with common sense were totally unnecessary like a mechanical doughnut dunker.
The "Cellular Telephone Flip Screen Magnifier" does address a real problem in that as we demand smaller and smaller cellular phones, we also get into the inherent problem of smaller and smaller screens which is something we didn't really think about when we were introduced to the wrist watch TV in 1964 by Dick Tracy in the Sunday funnies. With the screen getting smaller and smaller, those of us with vision correction find it harder and harder to operate the phone without being able to read the screen. Here I think the object sounds great but one wants to see how evasive it might be before committing to one.
The patents themselves discuss what the problem is with a particular invention and then throw a sales pitch of how the inventor proposes to solve the problem. Many times they cite other patents in the past by number and demonstrate their weaknesses and how the inventor's new solution remedies the shortcomings of the previous invention. The U.S. patent is an intellectual one-upmanship.
The word descriptions of the artifact without the images are just painful to read and I know full well are painful to write. The inventor is expected to create a blueprint of the artifact in words and language such that if the images were destroyed the artifact could be created from the text alone. I had to do this as an exercise in my first Technical Writing course at Nassau Community College and a person who was smart chose a simple artifact because the description could become quite cumbersome quickly. I chose a screwdriver and such a simple artifact proved to be difficult to exactly describe in language.
The language is also speaking to a bureaucracy, the U.S. Federal Government Patent Office, and as with all government language becomes more cumbersome than technical writing. The language has to be precise as to what it means and clearly state what it does not mean. It is impersonal with emphasis placed on the object as with technical writing and science writing. This creates language that reads as "Agent acts upon something causing something" language. This is not normal for people outside of science, engineering, mathematics, etc so it sounds cold, impersonal, and rather dry. The purpose is to emphasize the objects and the actions, people are not the focus: the objects are the focus.
I also considered hammers from Henry Petroski's reading because his having said there were 300 hammers I had to stop and think. My father had three if I remember correctly. My mother had two. I was an auto mechanic and taught myself to do body repair. I no longer have my tools but could think of the various hammers I had and came up with a count of fourteen. Each one had a very specific purpose and even something as simple as a ball peen hammer came in various weights in order to place more impact behind a blow.
The focus of the hammer handle I also had to reconsider. My father's hammers had wooden handles. Some of mine had wooden handles, others had ergonomic handles and they were purchased in the late seventy's. My body hammers had fiberglass shafts with rubber handles in order to reduce hand strain while swinging them over extended periods of time. A while ago I saw a program on technology about why Stanley Works changed the handles to its hammers to fiberglass with a steel shaft. The purpose was to reduce the impact shock to the user that was transmitted through the hammer handle. In other words, once a blow has been struck, as with all energy it is neither created nor destroyed so it has to change form and go somewhere. Part is sound and part travels through the hammer handle into the user's hand and up through their forearm and wrist. The handle absorbs some of the energy reducing user fatigue.
Petroski talked about in the thirties how designers came in are began to re-design machines which really also becomes the birth of ergonomics. A great place to look is at automobiles, say the interior of a car made in the fifties and a car made today. Dashboards in the fifties were all metal with stuff protruding out of them, sometimes ornamental. On the passenger side, the dashboard was practically as close as it was to the driver. Why? There's no good answer. Now look at the passenger side and the dash is way away from the passenger. There really is no good reason for having the dashboard anywhere near a passenger. It just isn't necessary. Being wrapped around the driver, yes this makes sense. One wants their hands off the steering wheel for as little time as possible so placing everything as close as possible to the driver meets this need.
Henry Ford's son, Edsel Ford was a visionary in the Fifties and saw this. He designed the Edsel. Yes, the infamous Edsel. All the controls that the driver needed to operate were built into the steering wheel. Edsel called this feature the Teletouch Drive. This is exactly where the idea of Speed Racer's steering wheel in the Mach 5 came from. (Just like Generals, some ideas never die, they just fade away). The Edsel received a bum rap. The very thing that was so unique about the Edsel was also its death nail engineering flaw. In order to establish the electrical connection between two objects that needed to rotate, there was a copper contact plate on the steering wheel and one on the steering column. This allowed current to flow from the switches to the copper plate in the steering wheel, across the copper plate in the steering column and through a wiring harness attached to the copper ring. Every possible electrical nightmare existed just waiting to happen with time and fatigue. Corrosion between the plates, eventual separation due to flexing of materials with time going down the highway, too many electrical wires located in one area dissipating heat due to resistance and causing wires to fuse together, etc. Bottom line, the main ingenuity of the Edsel was also its death nail. This is why Edels were considered such awful cars.
Search Phrase in Google: Rube Goldberg Machine
This post is in reference to my question as to whether we could build a Rube Goldberg Machine for the purpose of the patent assignment. One has probably seen these machines in Looney Tunes cartoons without realizing that they were named after their inventor, Rube Goldberg more than 100 years ago. The game Mousetrap you may have had as a kid or knew a friend who had the game was also one these machines.
Definition: Rube Goldberg Machine
"Devices consisting of at least ten components that are exceedingly complex and perform very simple tasks in a very indirect and convoluted way."
As one refers to some of the links some of them are sites that run contests in building "Rube Goldberg Machines."
The Official Rube Goldberg Web Site
http://www.rube-goldberg.com/
Rube Goldberg Machine Contests
http://www.rubegoldberg.com/?page=contest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjJzF_Oaow
This web site shows one of Rube Goldberg's machines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hj_R-0pVys
Wrenches
I'm sure other people have had the problem. We are now being expected to concentrate on artifacts that we encounter and look for problems. I think this is a different breed of person. At times I had to re-engineer tools on the spot as a mechanic because a problem would become common yet there wasn't a tool made. I could do something like this except there are very few 70's full size GM cars running around. The specific problem was with age, fatigue, and deterioration the bolts on the top of the rear shock absorbers would become inaccessible with box wrenches made at the time. Most wrenches have a slight angle on them when held with the box end contacting a flat surface, say 15 degrees from horizontal. Because of "this" angle one could not get on the bolt with the wrench because the top of the trunk would interfere. The solution was simple. Find a wrench forged in Hong Kong, India, or China because they were softer than American forged wrenches. I would place the wrench in a vice and clamp it down till it was completely straight. Then to get a little more space, I would grind the flat portion of the box end to gain a little more space. The wrench was now a specific tool made for a specific purpose.
This was peculiar because in my Grandfather's time most internal combustion engines had solid valve lifters (now they are all hydraulic). Solid lifters had to be constantly adjusted (hydraulic lifters adjust themselves). The space was tight so the wrenches were made thin and straight in order to gain access to the adjustment nut. Because of the engine configuration, these wrenches were open-end design and not box wrenches. To have a straight box wrench was unusual.
Candy Phones and Beepers
As far as coming up with at least two ideas. For some reason with all this "stuff" around me, nothing I am interacting with is giving me problems at the moment. Things I have thought of are giving me marketing/advertising problems, i.e. how do I target the audience/consumer? I have two more ideas; one of which is wholly unuseful and unhygienic but easy to target its primary audience. The other idea is for now and probably for at least a generation impossible to implement plus I have no idea what to use for a search term. First the hardware would have to be developed, next the firmware, and last the software. I seriously doubt there are any patents to date moving in this direction. Marketing would be a breeze because there are many people who would like to do this. Once the hardware and firmware is developed, a world of possibilities opens for software applications. The main problem, I think, is there may not be other patents out there to follow. This is "bleeding edge" stuff.
The unuseful and unhygienic idea is a cellular phone made out of hard candy like a Lifesaver. The thought comes from a series of old jokes in a chat room. At the time beepers were still popular and were being sold in the iMAC color traditions of clear colored cases. These things were not marketed by color but by flavor. The person who started this post said she wanted a "grape" (purple) beeper instead of a "cherry" (red) beeper so if she wanted a snack she could lick the beeper. If that was true was black "licorice?" "Flavored" cellular phones may be the way to go.
Human/Computer Interface or the Cyberpeople Jack
The other new thought is a Cyberpeople jack. This becomes a whole system. Being able to jack in/and out the thought processes in one's brain to a computer. The thought begins with those who think visually/spatially but cannot draw or explain their ideas in words. The problem is one gets these terrific and ridiculous ideas, but there is no way to get them out of your own "inner space" into an "outer space," outer space =something which physically represents or conveys meaning of what is inside your head to others. The problem is either this doesn't fit into the given parameter of "re-inventing/re-engineering" or if it does, it becomes a gray area in the assignment. I don't think I'll find a patent for any type of interface from the human brain to computer code.
Digital Memory Enhancement for the Human Brain
Along the same lines using the same input/output from computer to human would be a RAM chip for the purpose of storing mass amounts of information for temporary use.
Workshopping Round Two
The way we all seem to be interpreting the focus question for this week's post and the work that the first objective of the assignment is supposed to do seem to be varying wildly. I have already brainstormed a few ideas and the target has become Cyberpeople. I am now fleshing out this re-invention and positioning it against the patents that have come before. This is my text so far but I am not clear if this is meant to be in the same form as the patent web site. Having this written so far should leave me in a good position to do so.
The way we all seem to be interpreting the focus question for this week's post and the work that the first objective of the assignment is supposed to do seem to be varying wildly. I have already brainstormed a few ideas and the target has become Cyberpeople. I am now fleshing out this re-invention and positioning it against the patents that have come before. This is my text so far but I am not clear if this is meant to be in the same form as the patent web site. Having this written so far should leave me in a good position to do so.
My real concern is how weakly or strongly I have positioned myself against the other patents because none of them are doing what I am doing. The other patents are edging towards what I propose but are doing this work in incremental steps. The other problem is being overextended, doing too many things in too many places and does the actual device/system make sense in explaining the work my invention does.
The re-invention is a Cyberpeople jack. Biogenetically engineered nerve bundles are created in the laboratory from biopsies of the subject’s own nerves in order to prevent rejection by the subject’s body. When the bundles reach full maturation, the subject undergoes surgery to implant the new nerve bundles to the base of the spinal cord. One bundle is grafted to the visual centers of the brain through the spinal cord and the other would is grated to the motor skills of the brain. One nerve bundle is for the purpose of outputting electro-chemical visual/spatial information and a second bundle is for the purpose of manipulating the computer the same way the brain manipulates a limb.
The biogenetically engineered nerve bundles nerves attach to a small jack. The jack is partially made of biogenetic material for esthetic purposes and an electrical conductive material that interfaces with the biogenetically engineered nerve bundle. Within the jack is a slave flash BIOS chip converting the electro-chemical synapses of the human brain into a digital signal. The electrical conductive material permits the person to insert a cable similar to a IEEE 1394 standard firewire transmission cable for transmitting the visual signal of the brain into a computer. This modified version of the IEEE 1394 standard cable allows the user to input images in the user’s mind directly into the computer not only in 2D but also 3D. The user would be able to rotate the image so all positions could be viewed spatially.
A second cable would attach to the Cyberjack adhering the USB 2.0 standard currently in use. The purpose of this cable is to allow the user to manipulate the computer software and operating system the same way one uses a computer mouse. This will permit the user to manipulate the visual data by mind control.
The bio-jack is surgically implanted in the nape of the neck of the subject just below the hairline for esthetic purposes. The bio-jack allows the user to “jack in” to a computer as though the user is a “peripheral” to the computer. The user is manipulating the computer with their mind by being able to “jack in and out” their thought processes. The re-invention consists of biogenetic nerve bundles as communication channels to and from the human brain to a slave processor, computer hardware, computer bio-firmware (a type of software that would convert the electro-chemical signal of the human brain to the digital signals), and computer software. The user is able to rotate the image so all positions may be viewed spatially. This re-invention allows the user to “jack in” to a computer as though the user is a “peripheral” to the computer.
The problem begins with those who think visually/spatially but cannot draw or explain their ideas in words. Users may have physical disabilities or may have no physical disabilities. The problem is users develop visual/spatial images of ideas and concepts, but are unable to express these ideas in ways that others use art, sculpture, language, or mathematical symbolism. The present invention permits those without these various forms of communication to express the thoughts within one’s own inner space into an outer space, outer space equaling something which physically represents or conveys meaning of what is inside one’s head to others. The present system would allow the user to output their visual/spatial ideas on to a computer screen allowing the user to say, “This is what I mean.” Mathematicians already do this through mathematical symbolism.
See the following links:
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/fractals.htm and
As an example a mathematician who thinks spatially, intuitively knows that f(zn) = sin(zn) + ez + c produces this image F:\theintegralworm\theoriesoftechnologycommunication.html . Currently, the mathematician writes source code typically in C language to produce the image on a computer screen. The present invention move beyond the mathematical applications and positions the average computer user with the ability to create visuals that cannot be created by current methods.
The conventional technique described in patent 5,265,201, allows for the changing of the program in the slave computer for programming the said computer for new work without loading a new master program reducing program storage requirements, program overhead, changeover time, and system complexity.
The present invention improves on the design of patent 5,265,201, where the slave computer is controlling an electronic device and the slave computer is controlled by a master computer. The master computer is the human mind inputting to a mini-computer implant for the purpose of converting electro-chemical synapses of the user’s brain to digital input in the implant mini-computer. The mini-computer implant is then attached to the bio-jack for the purpose of streaming data into an external computer which now becomes the slave computer for the purpose of displaying visual/spatial images. The present invention improves on patent 5, 265,201 by inputting visual/spatial images and not audio into the external slave computer. The present invention makes the human brain the master computer and communicates to a computer in a master-1st slave- 2nd slave arrangement. The present invention permits for greater flexibility in loading new software programs to the 2nd slave computer, reduces human storage requirements, and system complexity.
The conventional technique described in patent 6,686,844, a human interface system using a plurality of sensors (audio and video) that are external to the human body for protecting property and spaces. This patent is for the purpose of detecting the entrance of a human being into a secured space versus the subject being the said space.
The present invention improves on the design of patent 6,686,844 as it is an integral part of the user permitting visual/spatial information to be displayed on a CRT display. This system displays sequence of events recorded by the user’s eyes allowing others to see what was viewed during a moment in time. This system uses the human subject’s vision as vision sensors eliminating the need for external sensors. This system improves surgically attached biogenetic material grafted into the spinal cord of the human body versus using sensors external to the human body affording portability and flexibility.
The conventional technique described in patent 6,931,359, a human interface method and apparatus provides a method and apparatus for measuring one or more physical conditions of a person with a sensor automatically inputting sensor signals corresponding to the physical conditions into a computer for control and monitoring purposes and for permitting computer users to interact with other remote computer users via a communications network. This patent uses clothing equipped with sensors or physically attaches sensors to the person’s body in order for input to be received by the computer.
The present invention solves the problem of portability and flexibility by placing the sensors within a person’s body.
The present invention solves the problem of inputting visual information into the computer via a keyboard, computer mouse, digitizing tablet, scanners or other manually operated input devices.
The present invention solves the problem the high level learning curve associated with drawing and video editing programs associated with digital image manipulation by allowing the user to visually/spatially capture images and video on the computer and manipulate said visuals.
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