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Dillon Compton 16-03-2006 22:08

Re: American Inventor
 
Wow, fast responding thread...

I think this show was terrible.

That said, I'll keep watching it.

I do still think that the averager firster, given the amount of money the average individual on this program seems to have invested, could easily out-invent any of the people I've seen so far. Oh, and they totally needed to get Dean Kamen to guest judge!

KenWittlief 16-03-2006 22:08

Re: American Inventor
 
Ever see a video of a train wreck, where the engine goes off the track, and you think the rest of the cars will stop

but they dont, and one by one they all keep going off the track

thats what this was - a two hour slow motion train wreck!

The only thing I saw on the show that had any technical merit was the solar powered ice box - but the inventor had no concept of energy or power or heat transfer. You would need a very large and expensive solar panel to power a portable ice chest

and you would want the solar panel in the sun, and the ice chest in the shade. Nobody is going to pay $600 for a marginal ice chest they will use 3 times a year, esp when a bag of ice and a Coleman Cooler cost about $20.

This show is a good indication that the average person has no idea what engineering is really like, or what its all about.

One high point, that kid with the window fan for dogs - I want him on my FIRST team when he's in HS :^) Im glad he didnt win, being the winner of this show would have screwed up his life - Id rather see him keep plugging away at his ideas, and goto MIT & become a real engineer.

JamesBrown 16-03-2006 22:11

Re: American Inventor
 
Well the show was OK at best. I could not stand the judges.

The solar cooler was cool but would probably be very expensive and would not do well because of that.

Doug Hall is the "inventor" judge what did he invent, they keep talking about it but I am yet to find any thing in my google search that he has done recently.

Andy A. 16-03-2006 22:12

Re: American Inventor
 
I'm surprised that people have such an issue with the strong lean towered the marketing aspect of invention.

Marketing is a huge part of making a successful invention. And successful means getting sold.

I was surprised that the young kid with the doggie A/C didn't make it. Not only did he have a surprising amount of charisma and savvy ("you have to have a kid, it's just good TV!") I thought that the judges didn't 'get' the invention. One judge commented that it couldn't be any good because you can't put a dog in a hot car when the very purpose of the invention was to allow you to.

Obviously, there was a great deal cut out of that segment. All the segments I'm sure. Guess which part?

Yup, the part where he explains how it works. I would have liked to see how he put it all together (looked like a copper pipe was hung out the window and coiled in front of a fan that blew into the car. Seems like it wouldn't work as is, but we may never know now) or how about the solar powered cooler? To much technical stuff for the average folk I guess. Disappointing overall.

-Andy A.

BoyWithCape195 16-03-2006 22:12

Re: American Inventor
 
http://www.doughall.com/

Theres stuff about him on his website...

i like dirt 16-03-2006 22:50

Re: American Inventor
 
I dont understand why the show is called "American Inventor" when clearly every contestant in the show had an innovation. They just added on to a invented device or idea. Last I checked, that's called an innovation. The show should be called "American Innovator". The principle is just wrong.

Justin Montois 17-03-2006 00:02

Re: American Inventor
 
Why dosent just Dean go on the show and it will be overwith

windup zeppelin 17-03-2006 00:11

Re: American Inventor
 
i liked the old guy with the smoke gun. its a nice show, have a good invention and maybe get monwy to really expand. hmmm

blue_crew 17-03-2006 01:17

Re: American Inventor
 
Way too many commercials!! they would have one "invention" then commercial...then again...and again.
It might be cool toward the end though.
I wonder how many people watched it (other then FIRSTers)???

ArmoredFairy698 17-03-2006 01:31

Re: American Inventor
 
But you know...the wierdest/worst invention of the night that's still got me in a tizzy is:

THE SPACE BEETLES.

::ugh:: :eek:

I mean, come on, what WAS that guy thinking?!

Rick TYler 17-03-2006 01:55

Re: American Inventor
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart
unfortunately I dint see any thing coming out of this show being good . . . but thats pronely my philosophy of engineering making the products first then marketing selling them . . not marketing telling engineers what they should build.

I hate to tell you this, but in the real world, marketing tells engineering what to design and then manufacturing builds it. Smart engineers rely on direction from smart marketing people who understand the market AND the capabilities of their engineering group. Smart marketing people listen carefully to customers, competitors, and engineers before defining product requirements. No single part of the product development process owns the One Truth. If you learn anything from FIRST, let it be that successful enterprises rely on teamwork -- including what you might consider useless scum like marketing, sales, and finance.

Morgan Gillespie 17-03-2006 06:58

Re: American Inventor
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy A.
I'm surprised that people have such an issue with the strong lean towered the marketing aspect of invention.

Marketing is a huge part of making a successful invention. And successful means getting sold.

I was surprised that the young kid with the doggie A/C didn't make it. Not only did he have a surprising amount of charisma and savvy ("you have to have a kid, it's just good TV!") I thought that the judges didn't 'get' the invention. One judge commented that it couldn't be any good because you can't put a dog in a hot car when the very purpose of the invention was to allow you to.

Obviously, there was a great deal cut out of that segment. All the segments I'm sure. Guess which part?

Yup, the part where he explains how it works. I would have liked to see how he put it all together (looked like a copper pipe was hung out the window and coiled in front of a fan that blew into the car. Seems like it wouldn't work as is, but we may never know now) or how about the solar powered cooler? To much technical stuff for the average folk I guess. Disappointing overall.

-Andy A.

I have put some thought into it and realized why this wouldn't work and/or sell. Not only would a tiny fan do absolutely nothing to the 140 degrees that a car can heat up to but even if it could the items in the car will still be hot. First off you would need a fan the size of the window and second off something that big could be smashed in and used to break into cars. Also with this product there is the chance of a failure, which in this case if there is the user will die. Having a product like that must be perfect, and will be too expensive to be plausible. Not only that people will be convinced if it is good enough for a dog it is good enough for a baby, now a dog dying because of a failure is one thing but a baby is a terrible terrible lawsuit.

KenWittlief 17-03-2006 07:33

Re: American Inventor
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mercury Rising
Not only that people will be convinced if it is good enough for a dog it is good enough for a baby, now a dog dying because of a failure is one thing but a baby is a terrible terrible lawsuit.

your post is correct, on all counts. If ventilating a car was all you needed to do then car manufacturers could easily move the wire for the heater blower to the always-on part of the fuse box, and you could leave the blower thats already built into your car run while its parked

which is a big blower BTW, and its already there. They dont do this for the same reasons: failure results in death. There is no reason to ever leave an animal or a child in a car alone.

Greg Perkins 17-03-2006 08:12

Re: American Inventor
 
So I was fairly dissappointed with this show, but strangely amused. I mean some of these inventions were so awful that you know someone had scripted it. I mean come on, clothes for your car???!?!? the "bladder buddy"???!??!??! the personal "protection wand"???!?!?! The judges were very rude, garanteed that they have to see these horrible inventions (which weren't even inventions) they should not belittle the contestants. I'll continue to watch it, because like any other reality show it will get better as the episodes continue.

KenWittlief 17-03-2006 09:23

Re: American Inventor
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick TYler
I hate to tell you this, but in the real world, marketing tells engineering what to design and then manufacturing builds it. ....

Rick is right, for some products. This is called customer driven development.

The stuff on this show was developed all backwards. For some products market research people do poll customers to find out the big W's (what people want and why they need it). That is the first step in the engineering design cycle.

And thats what was missing on this show. People just went out and created stuff they thought was neat or clever, and now they are trying to sell their ideas to the panel of judges. It dont work that way in real life.

The other type of engineering deveolopment is technology-driven. This happens when a new technology becomes available or is invented by the parent company, which allows new products to be developed, or to improve present products.

A good example: LCDs. They first appeared in digital watches and kitchen timers - then as they grew in size, and color became available they were designed into laptop computers, camera viewfinders, video projectors, PDA's became possible... These were all technology-driven projects.

On American Inventor I did not see any technology driven designs.


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