Designer Profile #1: Giulio Iacchetti

In late October of this year, I was invited from my school (SIAT) to a lecture at an Italian Cultural Centre right here in Vancouver. Giulio Iacchetti was a featured guest who came to talk about his new book and mainly about many Italian symbols that really define ‘the Italianness‘.

Of course, as you might already be able to tell, Iacchetti is Italian. He is also a very well regarded industrial designer from Milan. When he first graduated in 1992 he was an architect, and by the year 2000, he has got one of his work widely recognized.

It was a spoon-fork type thing called ‘Moscardino, pasta multiso‘

Now the name was probably derived from a type of octopus, but there are two interesting things in this design:

1.) From a cultural aspect, he designed this ‘thing’, because, he said, the pasta store/restaurant there in Milan do not have a seat for the customers, for the most obvious reason it is because that Italian people never leave the restaurant and when the restaurant has a live ‘football’ game on, just imagine. Hmm, and to make it more complicated, Italian pasta doesn’t equal meatball spaghetti like in America. Basically, people had to stand and eat with one hand holding a plate and look! one hand left. So there go the reason for the shape.

2.) They look like plastic, YES. So they’re bad for environment? NO! Despite it’s gloss, they’re made from a special type of plastic PLA. This substance is made from corn and, I don’t like to say good but let’s say, not bad for the environment.

Enough about the first piece, let’s talk about his design in general because I can go on for pages describing about his work piece by piece.

What he did focus on at the talk I went to was ‘sense generating object,’ now I think that is a very cool perspective. At least for me it makes sense and I have not heard that from anywhere. He said that since everything around us have the will on its own and it always does things we don’t wish it to. For instance, glass always break, hmm.. but what if we use its properties to do its job.
I want to give a quick example of this faucet called BATLÓ, as seen on the right.

Here he uses the shape of the bottle give some solidity to water which takes no shape. And most his works go on like that, the function and the visual always have something in common, something that links them and unify them as a product, creating a piece of product that is, for me, full of story and worth ‘having’. I want to stress that word because after all it’s Industrial design.

that’s it for this designer, following is a list of some interesting pieces of work if you would like to take a look.

2006 GEKO
2007 BEK
2008 4OCCHI (VERY famous glasses)
2008 DROP
2008 TROPICO (Famous!!)
2008 CUBALIBRE
2009 FABRICA DEL VAPORE (Vapor Factory)
2009 SURFER’S CHAIR
2009 VASSILY
2009 BISS

The future of the pen

The new technology

By the year 2025, a type of pens called Epen (Electronic pen) will allow everyone to write in a different way and will allow a new type of interaction between humans and machines. With the introduction of electronic tips and the addition of electronic components, Epens will allow users to write on any surface without the use of ink. The written path can be recognized and transformed into the appropriate input for further process in computers. Because of the addition of the electronic components, Epens would cost much higher than today’s disposable pens. By the year 2025 Epens will not yet replace regular disposable inked pens, but the usage Epens will gradually increase in time.

Development

pen tip

An Epen tip is an electronic part of the pen that tracks the writing made by the user. The Epen tip can also measure other properties of writing like pressure and writing surface texture. Other than tracking the writing, an Epen tip can also co-operate with other electronic components in the Epen which could be a microchip, a microphone, a camera, a wi-fi receptor etc. This co-operation will allow written data to be integrated with other information such as time, audio or images. This integration will generate a new interaction between the users and the Epens. Users may say words to give Epens the commands. Conversely Epens may recognize a code mark on an application form, and automatically transmit the written data directly to the employer’s computer (Feague, 2008).

pen body

Since the late nineteenth century, the pen body, from the grip to the rear end of the pen, is used for keeping the ink supply. By 2025, the need of ink in the pen will have already been greatly decreased as the result from earlier years’ increasing encouragement of non-carbon technologies. However, the pen body has an important feature that allows a user to have a better control of their writing. Therefore, the size of the future pen will not be much smaller, hence the extra space in the rear of the pen is a perfect place to add any small piece of electronic components. This insertion of electronic components will give Epens various abilities. For example, if a fingerprint scanner is put in place; the fingerprint, writing pressure as well as the signature can all be obtained from a single Epen to verify an important transaction (Perton,2005). In the future, this type of new abilities of Epens will change the way data is obtained and used in daily basis.

Rationale

Epen tip

The tip of the pen has always been the part that mark the difference in each type of pens. The tip of the pen were initially the downy barb of the goose quills. As medium and tools available at each time differ, the tip also changes through time. In the mid-nineteenth century, new technologies in the industrial revolution allowed steel nibs to be made and replace the quills. Later in the twentieth century, newer technologies allowed ball-points to be made. The most recent type of pen tip which is the fiber-tip was invented in 1962 by a Japanese inventor owing to the fact that there was a need to write on other surface such as plastic or metal(pen,2009).

The future Epen tips are similar to the pen tips in the graphics tablets, the difference is that Epen tips recognize all the written path without the need of the tablet’s surface. The tips may use the electronic induction, laser technology or mouse-like tracking method to identify the written path. The same technology as the Epen tips can already be found in today’s electronic pens. Jim Marggraff (2008), CEO and Founder of Livescribe, Inc. gave a demonstration of his product, Pulse Smartpen, at DEMO Conference. He claimed that this Smartpen can record and link audio to the writing which users may write on any paper. The audio can be played replayed by tapping the pen on any word written. Finally all the data can be stored for backup in the computer. Satori Labs, Inc. also uses a similar technology in their FusionForm™ which help reducing error in medical process, by digitizing physician handwriting immediately after the prescription form is written (Feague, 2008).

Epen body

The pen body is one of the most important features of the pen. The main purpose of it is to help the user have a better control of the pen. However, since the late nineteenth century this available space is also used to keep a reservoir. Another change happened with the introduction of oil-based ink which needed to be stored in a tube.

Because Epen does not require ink, the rear space would be used to place any micro-electronic components that would enhance the Epen in a way or another. Recently, a Japanese company, Digital Cowboy, produced a Camcorder Pen which can record a 352×288 video with audio using a camera same size as Apple’s iSight camera (Levenstein,2008). Many pen manufacturers today show the higher need of electronic equipment than ink, by replacing half of the pen body with the USB flash drive.

Conclusion

The pen has developed in a great distance, from a single goose quill to a complex electronic device. The development of pen has affected, and been affected by humans. Looking at its development from the past to the future allows us to see the pattern of how a technology changes within time. This knowledge may be used to prepare humans to cope with effects or problems that might emerge from the blobby modern technologies as we hope to move toward a utopian future.

Reference

Feague, Roy (2008). Satori Labs, Inc. Retrieved 4 April 2009 from DEMO.com: http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2005/54250.html

Levenstein, Steve (2008). DVR-BP Camcorder Pen Records Audio & Video, Even Writes!. Retrieved 4 April 2009 from InventorSpot.com: http://inventorspot.com/articles/dvrbp_camcorder_pen_records_audio_video_even_writes_13749

Marggraff, Jim (2008). Pulse Smartpen & Livescribe Paper-Based Computing Platform. Retrieved 4 April 2009 from DEMO.com: http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124705.html

pen. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica.  Retrieved February 9, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/eb/article-9059036

Perton, Marc (2005). Secure Signature Biometric Pen uses strokes for security. Retrieved 4 April 2009 from engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/07/secure-signature-biometric-pen-uses-strokes-for-security/

Lawrence Lessig – StudioLab4

I have chosen Lawrence Lessig by random. It was surprising when I found that he was the person who founded many of the copyrights. He was also known for his knowledge in politic, not to mention that he is a friend of President Barack Obama. In Universities, he is a well regarded professor at both Stanford and Harvard (he will return to teach there this year).

Adjustment I’ve made on the Facebook profile.

Friends:
I believe that quite a large amount of friends is appropriate for Lawrence Lessig’s profile, because he is from the present time. All of the friends appear in the left panel are people that he could meet through universities. Many of them are university professors; some have already changed.

Compare People & My Personality:
These parts are made up according to what I think his friends could have rated him. One fact I found interesting is that Lawrence Lessig always look nice in most pictures.

Wall:
The wall was made according to the events happened around the past months including:
his lecture at University of California
Xavier Becerra’s caucus with the President Obama
Lawrence Lessig’s return to Harvard Las School
his appearance at the NewYork Public library
his book released

Source:

Havard Law School. Retrieved 19 March 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Law_School

Lessig, L. Lawrence III. (2008). In Marquis Who’s Who in America. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who’s Who LLC. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://www.credoreference.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/entry/7513388

Lawrence Lessig. Retrieved 19 March 2009 from Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig

http://www.amazon.com/Remix-Making-Commerce-Thrive-Economy/dp/1594201722
http://becerra.house.gov/
http://www.lessig.org/news/

The Technical Development of The Pen Through History

The pen, as a writing instrument, is  common to everyone in today’s society. Most of the modern pens are cheap and easy to use, but their forerunners were the opposite. The pen had been greatly developed and changed throughout history. To understand its process of development, we need to look into each period of time and see how the pen had changed.

In the Pre-Industrial Revolution era, the goose quill was the most common type of pen used because it was cheap and affordable (pen, 2009). Although the goose quill was popular, the steel nib pen was another type of pen that was available (pen, 2009). At the time, the steel nib pen was handmade and was very expensive. Both goose quill and steel nib pens did not contain ink, therefore, they required the writers to carry the ink separately causing them to be inconvenient to use. The predominant usage of the pen was for Christian biblical record and between the scholars who needed to record their studies (Houston, R. A., 2001). This centralization of pen usage was likely due to the low literacy in common society; as in agricultural society, people of that time did not write on a daily basis. One large impact that  the pen had was the quill production industry. Special types of geese were bred for their feathers throughout Europe and became one of Europe’s important industries(SIC 3951 pens, mechanical pencils and parts, 2005).

In the Industrial Revolution era, the steel nib pen had gained greater popularity, because the prices began to decrease (pen, 2009). The decline of the prices was due to the introduction of the factory system which divided the production process into steps (Industrial Revolution, 2009). This division of labour allowed the pen to be made faster and resulted in more products. Toward the 1850s, screw press machines were introduced to the pen industry (pen, 2009). The screw press machine reduced labour involved in manufacture of pen by accurately stamping out pen nibs from thin pieces of steel . As a result, the cost of pen production dropped significantly allowing the use of steel nib pen to completely replaced the use of goose quill (pen, 2009). Many changes in the Industrial Revolution era reshaped the way pens are made and marketed. The emergence of mass production and factories influenced the pen to be made in batches and have lower prices. Furthermore, the emergence of railways allowed pens to be transported to farther areas (Vries, P., 2008), hence the distribution of pens was decentralized and the pen became available to the majority. Generally, the development of the pen in this era did not have much impact on society other than being the main writing instrument. The reason was that the pen at this stage still required external source of ink and was inconvenient to use.

In the Post-Industrial Revolution era, the pen had been developed substantially. Many of the inventions and the developments of the pen occurred during this period. In 1884, Lewis Edson Waterman had invented the fountain pen which stored ink in its reservoir (pen, 2009). This addition of a reservoir in the pen eliminated the need to carry ink separately. The manufacture of pen in the Post-Industrial Revolution era employed high applications of science which was the trend of this time (Vries, P., 2008). One of the most important science application in the pen was the use of oil-based ink in ballpoint pens (pen, 2009). The use of oil-based ink allows the ballpoint pen to create smooth and continuous lines. This development of the pen in the early 20th century had a great impact on the way the pen was used. The pen was able to produce better lines and became dramatically cheaper. Because the pen became cheaper and more useful, the distribution of pens had been extended to the largest point where everyone in the society could possessed the pen. The impact made on the society was the change in the way people wrote from dipping the pen into ink to writing without need of having a bottle of ink on the side.

Throughout many decades before and after the Industrial Revolution, the pen evolved from a hard-to-use tool to the mostly used writing instrument. In the twenty-first century, the pen has become one of the most basic and common tools that is available to everyone. Looking at its development allows us to see how humans were affected by different technologies in each time period. The understanding of its development is valuable and will help us predict and prepare for the effects that the pen might has on us in the future.

Reference

Houston, R. A. (2001). Literacy. In P. N. Stearns (Ed.)Encyclopedia of European Social History, 5(pp. 391-406) Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons Retrieved March 14, 2009, from Gale Virtual Reference Library via Gale: http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=sfu_z39

Industrial Revolution. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/eb/article-9042370

pen. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica.  Retrieved February 9, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/eb/article-9059036

SIC 3951 pens, mechanical pencils and parts(2005). (4th ed.). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3434500476&v=2.1&u=sfu_z39&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

Vries, P. (2008). Industrial revolution. In P. N. Stearns (Ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Modern World. Oxford University Press.

Internet Addict.

** Pointless+Random WARNING **

Approximately four days ago:

7:30pm
I planned to finish writing my 2nd Techpost,
so I tried to log onto the lab website to read the instruction again.

7:31pm
OMG, “Cannot Find Server Make Sure You’re Connected…”

7:32pm
Checked my Internet connection and it was fine, wireless network works fine.

7:35pm
Still,”Cannot Find Server Make Sure You’re Connected…”

7:40pm
Whatever!! I’ll watch some movie.

10:00pm
The movie sucked but I’ll go finish my paper.

10:02pm
OMG, “Cannot Find Server Make Sure You’re Connected…” AGAIN!!?

10:05pm
Gave up and listened to music, maybe it’ll come back.

1:00am
Didn’t want to wait but I did, it finally works!!!

I somehow find myself having nothing to do when the Internet connection doesn’t work.
I cannot recall the day before the Internet became such a big part in my life.

I also found myself being uncomfortable if I cannot check my e-mails for more than two or three hours.
Though, I remember the day before I registered my e-mail address.

Those days were ones that I was still young. I did not have much to worry about.
If people wanted to contact me, they would have to go find me, not sending me IM, not txting me, and certainly not sending me an e-mail.

My memory of the life before these technology is very vague, I can’t remember or think what would I do if I don’t have a computer or at least some small gadgets to play with.

Lately, I’ve been picturing a scene, where I am alone, in some place unknown, maybe is the summer (not too hot though).
I only have to lie down on the grass, look up the sky, and feel the wind.

Only if that was possible.

But if I have to choose the life I have today and a that life I’ve described. I’d probably still choose this today life.

Maybe I’ve been in Vancouver for a little too long that I miss those fresh feeling,
or I’ve been in front of the computer screen a little too much that I don’t see anything around interesting.

Studio Lab 3 – part 2

Benefits and limitations

Using wiki is a convenient, quick and effective way to collaborate a piece of work. About everyone who has access to the Internet are able to edit a wiki page. Editing a wiki page also requires very little Internet skill and is effective/appropriate for communication among a larger group of people.

Though wiki is a convenient way for users of the Internet to create collaboration entries, I found that creating one good wiki requires much effort as well as good collaboration. In creating a wiki entry, accuracy is the key to its effectiveness as about all the users would be taking the information from each others. Yet, the accuracy on the wiki entry is hard to maintain, because any information in the entry can be changed by anyone at anytime. Another limitation of the wiki is that it requires a good collaboration. Due to the fact that one can edit other’s entries at anytime, bad collaboration can easily lead to frequent change of the information inside the wiki unnecessarily.
Did this experiment work?

No, I believe it does not work very well. The wiki page our class made appears to be hard to follow and hard for browsing looking for certain information. Also, the collaboration of the classmates did not carry out completely. The wiki page appears to be quite unfinished and very little changes are made after the end of the lab.
It seems that wiki requires more that hours of editing. It can be better developed if all the editors get the chance to browse through the entire wiki page.

Pen in Contemporary Society

Pen is one of the most commonly used writing instruments in the 20th century. Its existence dated back to the 6th century when Romans invented goose quills, which became the mostly used writing instrument for a millennium later (pen, 2009).

Pen is a personal writing instrument that allows people to draw and write. Pen is distinguished from other writing instrument by the use of ink. There are mainly five types of pens including: ballpoint pens, fountain pens, soft-tip pens, roller ball pen, and specialty pens (pen, 2009). Although Pen’s usage is very simple, the invention of pen left humanity with large consequences in humans’ ability, economy, and law. Robert Culmer of Montreal’s Peel Pen shop (Mazereeuw, 2003) stated in Canadian Business interview that the right type of pen can blend in and become one with writer. According to Marshall McLuhan’s Law of Media, pen can be the enhancement of human’s hands or memory. Because of high usage of pens, industries generated $1.7 billion per year in late 1990s in the sales of pens alone (SIC 3951 pens, mechanical pencils and parts, 2005). Research also shows that one’s progress of developing handwriting is affected by the instrument as well as the gripping gesture(Goonetilleke, 2009). And therefore each person has unique handwriting; the manipulation of the handwriting can result in an indictment (Walsh,2005).

Pen affects in humans handwriting. Different pen results in different pressure, and speed, thus different type of pens used in history forces people to have certain handwriting. Research is done and shows that size and shape of pen also affect greatly in pressure, speed, and precision (Goonetilleke, 2009). However, the main factor that affects in different handwriting is the finger position when holding a pen. Children at the age 3 who produce random scribbles often change the way they hold the pen. Upon reaching the age 5 the variation in pen position decreases and they start to hold pen like adult (Greeg,1998). This activity allow human to become familiar to the instrument they are exposed to and result in distinctive handwriting. As the result of the effect, people have different handwriting and is treated as unique. Handwriting and signature are important in the authorization; forgery of them can result in serious crime. Forensic scientists use computer-generated hologram (3d image) to analyze the pressure (Handwriting Forgery, 2005). In 1999 as reported by The New York Times, Lawrence X. Cusack sold over 200 fraudulent documents said to be in John F. Kennedy’s handwriting. He was found guilty for total of 13 counts of a serious crime (Weiser, 1999).

The effect of pen in handwriting aspect is positive, because pens are used everyday and scientists’ ability to check the fraudulence allow many protection to the documentation process of activities in the society, thus writing in ink is secured. People are able to record their documents conveniently because pens are cheap, durable, and available to everyone. Nevertheless, the reverse effect in which handwriting gain less significant identity value can occur. Today, no-carbon technologies uses very little or none ink in authorization process; many times, credit card and password. Because new technologies always emerge, it is possible that new technology that is more reliable tool can come out to replace pen.

Despite of the fact that modern tools might come to replace pens, today, top-notch pens are being treated as a piece of accessory. And despite the fact that roller ball pens give less pressure and better writing speed than fountain pens, fountain pens are still considered the highest quality pen because they produce the finest line than any other type of pen.

Staple Free Stapler

In case you don’t know about this,
it’s sold at SFU bookstore for 13-14$ I’m not really sure.

I have this for about 6 months and it still works really well.

This is how the stapled document looks like !!

And plus you’ll never need to refill it.

Good stuff

OBI-

have Good Design – earn Good Money

It’s been about a month since I first joined 99designs.com

So far I’ve earned only about 200 CAD$ but my portfolio is building up pretty fast!!!

What is 99designs?
Well, its a website where you can easily find design works.
How does it work?
People post what they want, you submit your design. If they choose you, you get the money!!!

I’m going to show you how this website works!!!