Desktop wire bender

Photo: Pensa Labs

In my last few posts I've been writing about the top shortlisted innovations of the Engadget Insert Coin Competition. The final innovation of the top five is DIWire, winner of the Judges' Choice Award.

DIWire Bender is a desktop CNC wire bender, which combines "hands on" wire bending with rapid prototyping. According to Pensa, its creator, it "transforms drawn curves into bent wire that can be assembled to make just about anything."

The article on the engadget website:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/08/diwire-attempts-to-fill-the-gaps-left-by-3d-printers-hands-on/

This page also has a video (3:04) with a process description of the device narrated by Marco Perry, the founder of Pensa, which created DIWire.

This link to the Pensa website includes a process description with simple, well labeled visuals. This is useful for having students write a description according to the pictures:
http://www.pensalabs.com/

This website also includes a gallery of photos of different objects that have been made with the DIWire Bender.

There is a more detailed description of the innovation in this article on Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1638882643/diwire-the-first-desktop-wire-bender
The innovation was successfully funded on Kickstarter in December 2013.

A further article (http://www.robots-dreams.com/2013/10/world-maker-faire-2013-a-totally-different-type-of-wire-bending.html ) says, "Practical uses for the printer include artistic design, small assemblies, organizers, and anything else you might want to put together with bended wire. It's hard to tell exactly what uses it will be put to until it's available to users and they get some time with it. It's one of those interesting products that you know once people start to use that they will come up with things that are really surprising."

It would be interesting for students to see a demonstration of the innovation (on one of the videos) or read about it, and then brainstorm various uses. It gives students the chance to be creative, and at the same time focuses relevantly on any specific area of engineering that they are studying.

http://www.themethodcase.com/the-diwire-bender-pensa/
This link has further information and a lot of photos. There is also a video (2:03) that just shows aspects of the innovation, labeled, without any narration. Students could watch it and develop their own version of the narration that could be added, as if developing a presentation.

Growing food indoors efficiently

Photo from Engadget website

In my last post I wrote about BlinkScan. Another shortlisted Innovation in the Engadget Insert Coin Competition is GrowCubes -- the Readers' Choice Award.

The GrowCubes System, designed by Chris Beauvois, is an innovation that grows plants indoors with "aeroponics," which uses mist instead of water to keep the plants nourished. In this way, plants and vegetables can be grown faster, all year round. The cubes are each 2 meters square in size, and are stackable. The environment of the plants can be controlled by an iOS app.

The system is described in more detail in this article:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/08/insert-coin-growcubes-hands-on/

This article also includes a concise process description of the GrowCubes System.

The following link has a video (3:20) which shows how the system works:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/17/growcubes/

The narrator speaks very clearly, at a slow tempo, and the background music is quiet enough not to interfere with listening comprehension. So it is appropriate for less advanced students.

My students found the device very interesting, but disagreed about who would use it, and where. They felt that although the device is described as not needing much room, it looks like it would be too large for private use (for example, an average apartment). In addition, the space between rotating shelves doesn't look as if it is high enough for some of the vegetables pictured in the video as examples of what you can grow. It is expected to sell for $2,000 per unit, so might not be affordable for a private consumer.

However, students brainstormed other uses, focusing on where and in which situations the need for this device would be greatest. This discussion was very creative, and useful for developing students' speaking skills and functions of agreeing/disagreeing and persuasion.

Scanning multiple objects at once

Photo: Blink Technologies

In my last few posts I've been writing about the finalists in the Engadget Insert Coin Competition. In this post I'll look at BlinkScan.

This innovation is a scanner that copies multiple objects or images at one time, and produces separate images for each, automatically cropping out the background.

Blink Technologies website:  http://blinkscan.com/

On the website of Blink Technologies, which created BlinkScan, there is information about the innovation. Although there's not much text, the accompanying video can be very useful in the classroom because it is short (1:22) and the narrator speaks slowly and clearly. The video shows a scanning demonstration in which 47 coins are placed on the scanner, and each one is made into a separate file image with the background cropped out.

At the time of this post, the product is not yet commercially available, but is expected to cost about $1000 for the commercial market it is aimed at. An article about the innovation on the Engadget website says that the businesses interested in BlinkScan include "archivists and curators of museums, as the scanner's ability to scan multiple documents and objects at once while producing separate, high-quality files for each is a huge timesaver. Graphic artists, coin merchants and stamp collectors are also interested in the device for similar reasons."

Engadget website:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/12/engadget-show-47/

This link also has a video (11:27) of highlights of the event.

Both the Engadget article and the video on the Blink technologies website provide useful material for a short, focused process description, either spoken or written, for students to use as a model.

Device for home automation

In my last post I wrote about MyBell, one of five finalists in the Engadget Insert Coin Competition. Another finalist is Smart Power Strip.

This article describes the Smart Power Strip:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/08/smart-power-strip

This device is described as "a power strip with a little extra." It has a built-in WiFi module, and the controls let you turn the individual outlets on and off using a smartphone and the company's proprietary app. And this can be done remotely, so you can check which of your appliances are on, or turn them on or off before you get home. It also has a power-consumption tracker so you can see how much energy your appliances are using.

Most of my students agreed that this would be very useful, and since they already have smartphones, they were able to discuss which appliances they would like to manipulate remotely.

In addition to information about the product, the article noted above has a simple explanation of how the device works, which would be a good example text for students learning how to write process descriptions.

I'll check up on this innovation in the next few months to find out when it will be available commercially. The article says the device will be "cheap," so it might really be something my students would buy.

This link has a video (11:27) of highlights of the Insert Coin event:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/12/engadget-show-47/

There is information about the Smart Power Strip on the website Kickstarter - a website for inventors and innovators to describe their ideas and seek funding for their products:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/337922278/smart-power-strip-control-your-appliances-from-any