Product Innovation in Hand Hygiene

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Hygienic Product Innovation Handsandal

After nearly two years in product development with Design 1st in Ottawa, HandSandal Instruments Ltd, a Vancouver based start-up is pleased to announce their flagship product. The HandSandal is an innovative portable hand hygiene device that you bring with you wherever you go in public spaces.  The ergonomically developed hand grip provides an antimicrobial barrier to contaminated surfaces in transportation, offices, hospitals, washrooms and is used on door handles, light switches, elevators and surfaces that must be touched to operate.  The Handsandal’s design was perfected over several product concept iterations, prototypes and went through extensive field testing. The end result was a simple solution designed to effortlessly grip a variety of doorknobs, turn handles, buttons, levers, rotating surfaces and push doors. The Handsandals convenient design also attaches to most ID badges, swipe cards and key chains making it easy for workers in public environments to reduce the transfer of bacteria and germs. The video below highlights the HandSandal design, features and functionality: TweetGoogle+

    FIRST Robotics 2013: Astechz Team 2994

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    FRC 2013 Logo

    Let the games begin! That was the phrase heard by 1000’s of high school robotics teams across the globe January 5 as the 2013 FIRST robotics competition (FRC) was launched. From that point on, high school teams had 6 weeks to design, fabricate, program and test their robot based on competition criteria. As a sponsor for the past 4 years to the Astechz Team 2994, Design 1st has seen its fair share of robots go from whiteboard sketch into the ring against competition. This year the competition game called “Ultimate Accent” was particularly challenging as the robot had to fire Frisbee’s into thin slots and climb a 3 tier steel structure. A Demo of the game can be seen below: During the Jam packed build season, Design 1st mentored the team on the design and build of the robot, while Mitel kindly donated their facilities to setup a replica field to practice. This past weekend the Astechz headed down to Toronto to compete in the regional competition against dozens of other teams from across Ontario. Making it to the Semi-Finals the Astechz impressed judges and other teams with both their enthusiasm and robot design. In particular the robots climbing design drew applause from both judges and other teams as they made the way up to the highest level on the steel structure, racking up 30 points in the process. A video of this amazing feat is below: Of the 35 teams at the competition only the AsTechz and Team 114 the Simbotics were able to design mechanisms to climb the tower to the third level. With help from Design 1st mechanical engineering gurus John Kim and Matt Bailey, the Astechz devised a very creative way to make the climb. The climbing technique even impressed large robotic companies in the audience to drop by the Continue reading →

      Startup to Watch: Northvu – HDTV Antenna

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      Northvu Product

      Lately it seems like every week a Design 1st client is making news headlines. This week the honor goes to NorthVu Systems, an Ottawa based startup that created the NV20 pro HDTV antenna. NorthVu was named a 2013 “Startup to Watch” by the Ottawa Business Journal. Launched last March 2012, the NV20 Pro has travelled down the bumpy road of commercial success. Along the way they have continually racked up more and more distributors for their indoor HDTV antenna including Amazon, Home Hardware and The Source. Next stop, NorthVu hopes, is Wal-mart to further expand their bricks-and-motor in store presence south of border. TweetGoogle+

        Looking Back at CES 2013: Clients, Products & Design

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        A little over a month ago, the Design 1st team joined various clients down in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show – the largest industry trade-show for techie gizmos, gadgets and products. In previous years, the CES tradeshow has served as a Launchpad for disruptive technology that is common in many households today including, DVD players, satellite radio and flat screen HDTV’.  This year ground breaking innovation were a far cry from year  but the larger than life OLED TV, Vuzix Smart Glasses and InTouch Health’s RP-7i robot doctor didn’t fail to impress our design team. As we made the rounds across CES 1.85 million sq. ft  showroom we checked in on 4 clients who were showcasing their latest technology.  From QNX’ in-car dashboard technology, to GoldenEar’s loudspeakers, We-Vibe’s adult pleasure toys and Vinci’s children’s tablet the Design 1st client base was well represented. Here’s a quick breakdown of what our clients exhibited: QNX: QNX was back again at this year’s CES 2013 unveiling their new Bentley Continental GT concept Car.  As with last year’s QNX Porsche 911 concept, Design 1st helped integrate the new dashboard technology into the Bentley creating a seamless appearance. Check-out how it was done: GoldenEar Technology: GoldenEar was back at the CES tradeshow for the 3rd year in a row and unveiled their new Triton Seven loudspeakers and was a finalist for the CES Engineering & Design Award. Below is a video interview with Founder Sandy Gross at CES 2013: We-Vibe: Local Ottawa based We-Vibe was a first time exhibitor at CES 2013 and they made quite the impact. CEO, Danny Osadca was a featured panelist discussing how “Sex Never Gets Old” and VP of product development, Grant Bechthold gave a keynote on “Science Meets Sexuality”. But has was to be expected We-Vibe’ booth got the most attention where CES attendee’ Continue reading →

          Ultra Ever Dry | New Material Innovation

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          We’re always on the lookout for new innovative materials for products and we just came across another one. “Ultra Ever Dry” is a liquid repellent coating that creates a thin barrier of air on any surface that it is applied to! The nanotechnology based coating can be applied to just about any material you can think of including: gloves, cement cinder blocks, nails, shoes, glass etc. This morning one of our mechanical engineers, who is known for scouting out new innovative material technology, came across the Ultra Ever Dry video and was pretty impressed. We gathered around his computer to watch the material in action and immediately new ideas for applications of this material began coming out. For insistence what if you coated a fiberglass canoe with this stuff, could you glide through the water quicker with less drag or would stability be impacted?  Could we coat the our client’s Heatstone radiant heated patio stones with this to more effectively repel the water and ice that melts from its surface? What about the illustrious We-Vibe how would the coating benefit it? I’m sure over the coming week’s will come up with more questions and ideas for applications of the Ultra Ever Dry liquid repellent coating but in the mean time check-out their amazing product video: TweetGoogle+

            Industrial Design Visionary: Braun or Apple?

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            With CES 2013 just around the corner next week, the “twitterverse”  is filled with commentary and speculation surrounding the release of new innovative products. Among the contenders are new televisions, speakers and personal gadget innovations. One surprise though, (or not such a surprise if you follow CES each year) is that Apple will not be attending. To the average consumer this may seem strange, Apple, with their extravagant product launches, ubiquitous logo and design focus, appears to embody innovation in consumer products. While Apple’ has proved to be innovative in many areas, the physical design, usability and shape of their products appears have been done before. No, we’re not talking about the recent lawsuit with Samsung, we’re referring to the revolutionary designs of Braun spearheaded by iconic industrial designer Dieter Rams during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Take a look at the Braun vs. Apple product comparison below and see if you can spot any design similarities! TweetGoogle+

              Modernizing Product Concept Design with CAD

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              The Product Design Show from Engineering.com continues to release excellent videos on product development. Whether you’re a design professional, inventor or simply interested in how products are developed, the show has wealth of information that is sure to peak your interest. The recent episode “Modernizing Product Design Concept” provides an excellent take on how CAD (computer-aided design) programs like Solidworks, which we use at Design 1st, have revolutionized how design concepts, are created, tested and shared. Check-out the video below: TweetGoogle+

                Four Components for Determining Product Usability

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                It happens all the time. Someone thinks he has a bright idea, and a new consumer product is born. Unfortunately, not every new concept is worth putting on a retail shelf, as illustrated by this 2012 post on the “20 Useless Products No One Should Buy.” So what factors do you need to consider when looking at product usability? Here are four components we recommend.  TweetGoogle+

                  Evolution of Product Design Tools

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                  While pencil sketches of product concepts are still a necessity, the evolution of product design software has made a big difference in how we draft, model and present designs to clients. Design 1st uses a variety of leading edge computer-aided design (CAD) tools for engineering simulations, concept development and detailed design. Last week, the folks at “Engineering.com” put together an excellent video demonstrating the evolution of product design tools that we would like to share. Check-it out below: TweetGoogle+