Ideation part 2 ( FINAL PRODUCT ! )

This is the last blog, I dont know if I supposed to be happy or not, HAHA. Well anyway, introducing the final product, a finally comes true hoverboard, The Dasher. An eco friendly ride substituting petroleum fueled vehicles. Using a lightweight material, making it easy to bring everywhere. As well as the sleek and compact design, enabling the rider to glide in comfortably. The hoverboard comes in additional features such as safety handled, expandable part, and foldable wheel, complementing the whole looks and functions. The hoverboard is a part of a bigger system with special lanes and parking spaces. Here is only the rough sketches i already post on previous blog.

 

Here is some of the colored sketch of the hoverboard.

So the idea is to make a new system which consist the hoverboard as the main ride, then having its own lane because obviously hoverboard will not work above the normal ground. Then the special lane is located above MRT lane, like a flyover. Then because of the small size, it doesnt require a big space as well. Special drawers or cupboards will be provided for free at some area to store approximately 10-15 hoverboards per cupboard with thumb print censor making it more convenient and unlikely to be stolen. Or you can just sling it on your back since it is pretty lightweight. One of the additional feature also let the hoverboard have a foldable wheel that able to function like skateboard once it cruising on normal ground.

 

The concept of the hoverboard is basically using magnetic levitation, which created from two surfaces with the same magnetic polarity and ride one across the other. That way, they will generate a self-propelling motion, making the board hovering above the ground.

It also has advantages such as space saving, eco-friendly, no pollution, active transportation with very little effort, affordable price, minimize crashing accidents, suitable for youngsters and active office workers.

The target markets of the hoverboard are the youngsters and active office workers who doesn't want to be trapped in countless hours traffic jams and public transportation crowds during peak hours. It may indirectly lessen the amount of cars on the road, but with more people using the new, special lane, less people will be using public transportations. People that previously thought it was inconvenient using public transportation because it was too crowded will find it convenient again and shift their transportation choices from private vehicles into public transportation. Besides, using public transportations are so much cheaper and easier rather than purchasing private vehicles.

At last, this is one of the alternatives to diminish the problem of too many vehicles and creating a new and better system for the future. So, what are you waiting for? GRAB YOURS NOW! ;)

Ideation part 1

After what it feels like one week, we gather our ideas consisting the heelys, the hoverboard, and the changing lanes. Below are our sketches referring to the particular object.

The first one is the heelys. Advanced shoes inspired from the attachable wheels for kid's shoes and roller skates. Having its own special lane, suggesting a healthy and active transportation rather than using motorized vehicles.

The second one is the changing lane. The idea is to imitate how the moving stairs in Harry Potter movie works. However the idea is too complicated and hardly practical so the sketches changed from the moving lane into a closed area in which if a vehicle goes in, they will immediately sent to their destination like a teleportation machine.

   

The last idea is the hoverboard. Inspired by the movie "Back to the Future" where there is this ride called hoverboard that can hover above the ground instead of rolling like skateboard. 

Apart from its similarity with skateboard, it is also inspired from one and two motorized scooter that are really exist nowadays.

 

 

In the real life, this technology still under development of Hendo company, but it is the more likely to be true rather than the changing lane so we chose hoverboard as our main design solution, combining it with the heelys and other related features like the special lane, special parking section, additional safety handled and more that will be further explained in the next blog! SEE YA!

 

How to brainstorm the idea

Hi guys, this is the 8th blog already! I wont say it's a short time, but right now we really have to think about the practical solutions of our problem of too many vehicles. First we have to do brainstorming in order to achieve several ideas before we could sort it out and narrow down to some really useful ideas. 

Actually my group and I already did some brainstorming and mindmapping about the solutions before, and here is the result. Because we did this on the first class, we insert the 5W 1H (what, when, where, who, why and how ) as well to analyze the problem.

As you can see for the "How" (how to fix the problem), there are some ways that already existed and applied in the real life such as carpooling, limiting the number of license plates etc, some mainstream ways such as walking, biking etc, some extreme ways such as moving closer to work or school, and also some outside-of-the-box idea but hardly practical such as use iron man robotic suit, make wings and many more. Well it does sound nonsense, but who knows that someday they could really work right? ;)

We also did 1 more mindmap for the solutions that are really applied in some countries such as malaysia, singapore, indonesia, etc, as research purposes and inspirations for the solution that later me and my group will work on. So below are the details!

As the time to make our own design solution is closer, we decided to list up again all the possible ideas to 101 ideas. However it only takes us until 39 before our teacher stop us because we seemed like wasting time, listing the same thing over and over again. Then we decided to choose the top three idea and work on it. The lucky three we chose are the heelys (advanced shoes), the hoverboard, and the changing lane.

After that we decided to divide parts and do our own developments & sketches of the chosen idea before we try to compile all the idea into 1 big project. I got the hoverboard, while my groupmates, Haeseul, got the heelys, and Afiqah, got the changing lane.

So, are you curious about how the development and the idea goes? Off to my next blog! ;)

Site Study (too many vehicles on road)

When and where is the worst time and place of Singapore's road congestion? The when is simple and occurs everywhere, during peak hours in morning and evening. Morning peak hours ranging from 8 to 9 am when everyone is going to work, while the evening peak hours ranging from 5 to 7 pm when everyone is off from work. In contrast, during 1 to 5 am is free traffic hours.



While the where question answered after doing a six months survey in 2010 by TomTom GPS, showing Clementi and Bukit Timah as the leading traffic in the morning with 2 and a half times longer (147 percent increase) during busy hours compared to non-traffic-hours. In the other hand, Tampines is the worst traffic during evening commute, followed by Bukit Timah, with 96 and 95 percent increase respectively. Below is the diagram of the morning and evening commute showing different level of congestion on Singapore roads provided by TomTom company.

According to the diagrams, the most time difference up to more than 20 minutes which may sounds not too bad but still upsetting the daily commuters. Through this survey, TomTom's aim is to highlight the worst congested area as well as encouraging people to consider alternative routes and departure times. 

However, even after knowing this daily traffic, some people still push their luck, going through the same route at the same time everyday. Cheryl Tay from Singapore Yahoo News interviewing Charles Ma who lives in Tampines and work at Lorong Chuan. He admitted that he always leave work at 7 pm and never drive home during non peak hours so he always caught in traffic jams. He said it takes him 30 minutes just to get out of the jam at Tampines.

It concludes the general idea of our problem, which basically is the exceeding amount of cars on several main roads during peak hours. It is definitely a troublesome and annoying experience, however a practical action must be taken in order to diminish the problem. Cheers! :)

References :

http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/publish/onemotoring/en/motoring_buzz/Motoring_News/Best_and_worst_travel_times_in_Singapore.html

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/fit-to-post-autos/where-busiest-roads-singapore-005656369.html