Projects – OM in the News

5G Helmet’s Product Design Increases Accessibility

In 1894, deaf and hard of hearing players at Gallaudet University introduced the football huddle. They were playing another school with deaf students who knew sign language, and they couldn’t risk giving away their plays.

Now, Gallaudet Bison’s football team has debuted groundbreaking technology developed in conjunction with AT&T. A new helmet allows a coach to call a play on a tablet from the sideline, and the information is transferred to a small display inside the quarterback’s special helmet.

At the moment, […]

By Lisa M. Spencer|2023-10-29T03:00:39+00:00October 29, 2023|Tags: idea generation, product design, product lifecycle, technology|

Lego Redirects Efforts for Oil-Free Brick Design

Lego’s commitment to eliminate petroleum-based materials from its product has experienced a setback.

After years of research into alternative materials, Lego failed to find an adequate replacement that meets the current durability, safety, and quality standards. Despite the setback, Lego is not wavering from its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint.

It continues to test and develop Lego bricks made from alterative sustainable materials and to take other actions (e.g., replacing plastic packaging with paper) to be more sustainable.

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By Anita Lee-Post, Ph.D.|2023-10-20T22:10:35+00:00October 20, 2023|Tags: packaging, product design, quality of conformance, quality of design, strategy, supply chain sustainability, sustainability|

AI Inspired Beverages

Recently, Coca-Cola has introduced limited-edition beverages, hoping to appeal to a younger audience. These beverages have come in both a sugar and sugar-free version.

Past versions have included Ultimate aimed at gamers, Starlight inspired by space, Dreamworld, which tastes like dreams, and Byte, which is a “pixel” flavor. They have also partnered with artists Rosalia and Marshmallow on limited edition flavors.

The new limited-edition flavor, Y3000, was introduced in September 2023. Unlike Coca-Cola’s past limited-edition flavors developed using traditional methods, Y3000 used AI […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2023-10-06T02:55:01+00:00October 6, 2023|Tags: artificial intelligence, limited time offering, product design, product development|

The Broken Promises of the Patent System

The patent system is outdated.

In the US, a patent protects an inventor by preventing others to manufacture, sell, or use the invention for 20 years. In principle, this is a fair reward which spurs innovation and thus benefits us all. In reality, the system is flawed. It protects the first person that files for a patent, whether the invention works or not. Does the system really foster progress? Could AI exploit its flaws even further?

This post requires students to evaluate […]

By Corinne M. Karuppan, Ph.D.|2023-09-17T02:16:12+00:00September 17, 2023|Tags: competitiveness, new product design, product life cycle|