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Uncover ProblemsAll inventions described in this website and in any other source of patent information are mostly solutions to problems, which reflect the necessities of our life and the life of future generations. Often, when one decides to become an inventor and the excitement passes, he or she is faced with a problem: where to find a problem to solve? The unprepared start dashing into different direction looking to pick up a problem somewhere on the way. This concept is similar to blind target shooting: the probability of hitting the center of the target is very small, because chance favors only the prepared mind.
We can recommend the optimal, in our opinion, way of finding problems. Take any object and ask yourself a question - what is the ideal version of this object? When you postulate this ideal version, or ideal solution in other words, you will find yourself facing a problem: how to reach this final solution. We understand that there will always be a difference between the ideal solution and the real one; this continuity is ensured by the principal definition of the word “ideal”. The graph below illustrates this concept.
Moreover, as time passes and mankind’s knowledge increases, the vision of the ideal solutions takes new shapes. The search for the ideal solution is an endless journey filled with questions why and how. Mark Twain in his novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” gave an exciting example of this simple concept. Tom Sawyer faced a strong punishment: painting a large fence with a brush in one day. Tom Sawyer was of the inventive type and, surprisingly for us, he used the ideal solution concept to postulate his problem. To him, the ideal solution was completely obvious: the fence had to be painted without his participation. So Tom’s problem shifted from painting the fence to how to make other young people paint it. For this purpose, he had to make other people interested in painting. Tom began the long process of painting, but not in his usual manner. Being a talented actor, he pretended to enjoy the process and instill the professionalism required for this hard task. Due to his performance, other children became interested: why is the laziest boy, Tom Sawyer, so interested in something as mechanical as painting a fence. The children answered their question: painting a fence is an exciting and an enjoyable process. How can we get even a piece of this pleasure? Again, Tom Sawyer decided to take the clever approach. Instead of simply giving up his burden, with a little more acting, he sold the permission to paint the fence, piece by piece, for any kind of fee, including bitten apples, dead rats, etc. Although the example above is a joke, it demonstrates the logical approach and all of the steps used to find a problem. To develop your problem-finding skills, consider the following steps:
For those who, for any reason, do not like the “comprehensive” approach above to finding problems, don’t give up. Below is information for you. In general, there can be two opposite situations: the problem is either well known or presented to the inventor. Let us discuss for the second time the example of the invention of the spring (lock) washer by sidestep railway worker Grover. At the middle of 19 century a problem with the rails joints was of a big importance. Due to increasing the speed of railroad cars the joints under vibrations began spontaneously disconnected. A problem was publicly announced and specialists began to solve it. Sidestep railway workers were not able to look over all the joints, and crashes began to scare passengers from using the railway transport. It was announced problem. Now, let’s apply the “comprehensive” method to solve “Grover’s” problem. Imagine the ideal result to the system of bolt, washer, nut and rail. The system prevents unscrewing by itself. Let’s analyze the system. The system must apply inside strength to keep itself from unscrewing under powerful vibration. What are different forms of strength inside the system? The simplest way to apply strength is a spring. Inspecting the parts of this system, we have only one option: the washer has to become (no, not an inventor) a spring. What is the simplest way to transform a washer into a spring? Cut the washer in one place and move the ends apart, one up and one down. By using above-mentioned method, we arrived at the same solution as railroad worker Grover. The second type is an implicit problem, about which only general requirements are known. An example of an implicit problem is the wireless telegraph. Using the existing ground of scientific discoveries in properties of electromagnetic wave propagation through space, Marconi invented practical versions of an emitter and a receiver of electromagnetic waves, starting the era of radio. In this case, the problem and its theoretical solution were known. The second invention, which made the radio era possible, was the invention of the triode by Lee De Forest. Triode is the simplest amplifier of radio signals. Overall, we can conclude that existing scientific knowledge is the greatest bank of possible solutions, and therefore, bank of problems. Many physical or chemical effects have implementations in practice that are waiting to be found, or have been found already. Many implementations of physical, geometrical and chemical effects can be found throughout the present website. An example of the implementation of electromagnetic induction, for example, can be found in our Invention Bridge section. In general every person can create their own bank of problem and bank of helpful ideas (solutions). We can recommend you a form for such written banks… Let’s make conclusion together:
If you decide that you are ready to become a professional "problem finder", we highly recommend you to receive training from certified specialists at Ideation International, Inc. Below is a list of recommended literature in problem-finding and problem-solving. Good luck in your endeavors.
You can find other books on this and related topics at www.amazon.com. It is extremely helpful to receive training in all aspects of effective problem-solving methods. Such training is provided by certified specialists Ideation International, Inc. . |
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