Computer Engineering Commons^™

The Revised 40 Principles For Software Inventions, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Applying 40 Principles is one of the earliest and most popular techniques of TRIZ. There are no controversies on application of 40 principles by any of the TRIZ schools. Although they are fundamentally sound, there is some difficulty in applying those in software related problems. As they were originally developed for mechanical or technical problems, the meaning of many terms like 'thermal', 'aerodynamic', 'hydrodynamic', 'ultrasonic', 'infrared', 'temperature', 'liquid', 'gas' etc. are embarrassing in a software context.

This article reviews the 40 principles in the context of software industry and rephrases the principles and their applications to make them suitable for …

Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired- Part 2, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, a person with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. People having hearing problem, visual challenge etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to specially design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces, which can be used by the physically challenged people.

This article analyses the types of visual disabilities, different assistive technologies for different visual disabilities, guidelines for developing user interfaces for the visually impaired, software products available for …

Patentability Of Software Inventions, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Software is very expensive to develop but very inexpensive to copy. Just by copying a software you create an exact duplicate of the original software and all with the same functionality. There is no difference between the original (which is bought) and the copy (pirated). The worse is when the source code is copied. The copier can even claim to have developed the software where the credit of the developer might go. The software developers use various methods to protect their source code such as copyright, trade secrets etc. but each having limitations. The developers are keen on finding legal …

Can A Triz Software Help You Inventing?, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A software on TRIZ and/or Innovation can certainly supplement human brain and memory in order to speed up an innovation job. There are various TRIZ and Innovation software available in market. Some are too complex to use, some deal with only limited number of TRIZ techniques and some are having good features of innovation without much emphasis on TRIZ. An obvious task remains to evaluate them and find which software can help you best in inventing.

This article does not recommend or reject any TRIZ software per se. It only describes the expected features of a good TRIZ software and …

Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired- Part- 1, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, a person with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. People having hearing problem, visual challenge etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to specially design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces, which can be used by the physically challenged people.

There are many special devices like mouse, keyboard, pointers, and touch screens etc. to assist the visually challenged users. It is a challenge for the inventors and manufacturers …

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-3, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

This article analyses 15 patents on Menu System from a TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs and Contradictions. The previous two parts of this article analysed ten patents on the menu interfaces. This part analyses five more patents from TRIZ perspective and draws out the conclusion that the TRIZ process and methodology is perfectly applicable to software inventions.

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-2, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The first part of the article analyzed five patents on menu interfaces. This part analyses five more patents from TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs, Contradictions and which Inventive Principles have been applied to achieve those solutions.

Using Triz To Design The Future Keyboard, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A keyboard is the most common and widely used input device for a computer. Using the keyboard is often vital to interact with a computer. There are several aspects of a keyboard such as size, key layout, convenience and ergonomic features etc., which are continuously under improvement by keyboard designers and manufacturers. TRIZ is an efficient methodology in product designing. Using IFR and Trends we can well predict the directions of the future keyboards and using Contradictions and Principles we can overcome the current limitations. This article analyses the critical features of a keyboard, does a functional analysis, derives the …

An Ideal Computer Keyboard- A Case Study Of Applying Ideality On Keyboard Evolution, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Any product or system moves towards its ideality. If we know the Ideal Final Result (IFR) it becomes easy to predict the future generation of the product or system. The author made a study of over 100 patents on computer keyboards. Each of these inventions tries to achieve some new feature or functionality. But what is the ultimate keyboard? This article makes an attempt to find the features of an Ideal Keyboard.

Inventions On Menu Interfacing For Gui Applications, A Triz Based Analysis, Part-1, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

During last two decades, the computer menu system has been improved from a text based multiple choice to highly adaptive, self organized menu system. This has been possible by hundreds of inventions. This article analyses 15 patents on Menu System from a TRIZ perspective to find out their IFRs and Contradictions. Besides we will also see what Inventive Principles have been applied to achieve those solutions.

Inventions On Computer Keyboard- A Triz Based Analysis, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Every stage of evolution takes a product towards its ideality. This also happens in case of the Computer Keyboard. Today’s keyboards are outcome of hundreds of inventions in past. This article analyzes some interesting inventions on computer keyboard from TRIZ perspective. The inventions improve various aspects of computer keyboards like increasing operating (typing) efficiency, reducing size, improving ergonomic features and so on. This article was first published in TRIZ Journal (http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2003/11/) in November 2003.