 how are you? Hi, hi, hi. Great. So today I'll start showing some some of the some of my past work primarily on proof of concept prototyping. Okay. And I'll show you some video on our lab and some projects. Okay. So let's start with the video. It's a three minute video. We'll have a look at it. Then I'll show you what is prototyping. Then we will go on to some of the projects that I show in the video. It's a very short video on our lab, the lab that we have here, proof of concept lab. So this is a part of both IDC and the accessibility school of entrepreneurship. So we get to deal with students both from design background and also from engineering background, detail students. So it's quite a great experience to work with both designers and non designers. We get a wide range of students. So it's quite fun. So our main idea of this proof of concept lab is to encourage students to work on physical prototypes. When we talk about prototypes, prototypes are not final designs. That's something we need to very clearly understand. Prototypes and there are many kinds of prototypes also. What we work on is that fast level proof of concept. As in, when we had a concept, how do you make sure that this concept works? And how do we communicate that this concept, there is a new concept and this concept will work. These are the two purposes of proof of concept prototype. After proof of concept level of prototype, then we have multiple levels of prototypes. To a level, the final level of prototype is where we actually use the exact materials that we are going to be using in the final product and we test it and then only we go for the final product. So this is quite a long process. It's not like today I designed some product and tomorrow I'll launch my product in the market. It's not as simple as that. As for us being designers, this first phase of prototypes, these are very interesting, very interesting and it's more enjoyable part of it. And of course, we typically use very low cost in making the first initial prototypes. And this is basically what I would say is that it's a kind of a physical sketch of the whole idea. So I'll talk about what are prototypes, what are the different types of prototypes and why do we use prototypes to some of my case studies? I'll just give you a overall idea of prototypes. Then we can go on further and I'll explain one of the projects. Product design could be non mass producible item. It can include the first ever Apple computer prototype on the left that you see, that is the first things Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, they took it to the homebrew computers meeting and they went and showed this piece to them. If you look at it, will anybody buy this or does it say it's a product that you can use every day? It doesn't say that. It's a raw rig, you know, you put together things and you make it. This is a perfect example of proof of concept prototype. The proof of concept prototypes are not expected to be looking finished. The raw beauty, it's like a newborn baby. It doesn't have to be, I mean, it shouldn't be so conventionally beautiful. That is the purpose of it also. And we have to be really clear when we are showing a proof of concept to others. Most often what people think is those who do not understand or like not familiar with the process, they will start thinking, okay, this is the final product. We have to be really clear in showing it to people. And if you're showing it to people, we have to be very clear in communicating to them that this is not the final prototype. That's very essential. And the piece which was like this, which started like this, in future, it becomes like this. Okay, and it keeps on evolving. Okay, 98 to, this is taken in 2010, this particular model, the last model. But today, if you look at it, it keeps on evolving. Okay, so this way, we have to understand the design never gets. It keeps on evolving. It's like humans or any animals, which keep on evolving. The same way products also keep evolving over time. I would say these are all like pit stops. Okay, these are also technically, they're also prototypes. Okay, if you achieve perfection in a product. Okay, that means there's no further growth. But a model keeps on evolving. So whatever we have is a pit stop. Okay, you put it, then new technologies will come, we have to include that technologies, new requirements will come, the market will grow, the technology, the aspect of the product, everything will grow. So it keeps on going. Otherwise, we will be having only one Android or iPhone, iPhone first, you know, the evolution that is the most important part. And this is where designers also come in, designers and inventors, this what feeds them also technically, okay. So you should be happy that the product doesn't stop, it keeps on evolving. Okay, the spirit of prototyping, why do we have to make a prototype? There are two things, it's about taking it to the mass. Again, it's not a very simple product, a very simple process. It varies from product to product. Say for example, if you're talking about a small paperweight, that's also your product. Okay, and if you're looking at a race car, that's also your product. A furniture is also your product. Okay, and any other physical products that you have, everything is a product, you can say, okay. But the complexity of different products change, the function also changes. Okay, so in this case, if you look at a race car, or a marine, a ship, the complexities are completely different, and they are not like produced like in millions. Okay, so each of it has a different purpose, the complexity. Okay, so we shouldn't guess like, you know, every product is a mass produced product. There is a number also attached to the mass produced product. Okay, so this is where two persons come. One is a designer and there is a other producer, the manufacturer. Okay, so the prototypes, it helps us communicate between these two parties, the designer and the producer. Okay, the designers, when they come up with an idea, again, design is a very vast term. Okay, what we are talking about, are we talking about product development and product design, or we are talking about the stylizing aspect of it alone. Okay, there are many levels. This is where, whatever whether it's product development, complete new product development, which is also known as NPD, or if you are stylizing a product, whichever case it is, we need to, as designers, we need to confirm it as well. Okay, whether it is working, whether it is meeting your own expectations, then you go to the your company, your team, and you'll have to convince them, this is how it's working, we need to work on it further. And how do we do that? That is the key here. This is where prototype connects the designer and the rest of the market, team and the market. So there are various levels of communication, where primarily you have to understand that this is actually a prototype is a communication tool. Okay, it's like sketching, this is a physical sketch. So there are many types of prototypes actually, one is simple sketches that you doodle, and that is actually one level of thinking prototypes. Every thought is a prototype. Every thought is an experiment that we have to understand. Your mind is the biggest simulation software environment. Then we have a next level of prototypes actually 2D sketches and illustrations. What we do illustrations, there are sketches and there are illustrations. This we need to understand doodle, sketch, illustration. And we have 3D models also CAD models and we render etc. So prototype is not only physical prototype, you know, three dimensional prototype, even 2D sketches and 3D models, anything that you simulate of the product is a prototype. We have to be really careful here to know that 2D sketches are different from illustrations. Okay, this is where a lot of people, students especially, they get into that block. I can't sketch. I don't know what to do. My sketches don't look beautiful. This is something that you shouldn't get into. Okay, there are sketches. Sketches don't have to be visually appealing and all the stuff. You sketch with whatever you have. It's like handwriting. It's a visual language. And after that, you have the level of refining the sketch and illustrating it. That is the next level. Okay, so being students do not get blocked by this idea of sketches have to be beautiful. We have a lot of methods to make beautiful sketches or illustrations. So keep that separate. And physical prototyping, the purpose not only how it works, we have many, many more things to it. Basically every single sense of yours it should work with. Okay, touch, taste, auditory, visual, everything it has to come, tactile, everything has to come. And physical size is also important. Okay, what is the weight? What is the size? What is the overall aesthetics of it? What is the volume it occupies? All of this we will be getting to know about the product. This is something, again, we don't really look deeper into it. Just imagine you are making a prototype of a cell phone or a product. And it has a very dirty smell. Okay, will we go ahead and use it? No. Okay, so we need to know all the senses it has to work with. And also the business aspect of it it has to work with. So prototype, again, the word that we have to take is it is like testing the ground. Again, the same prototype works on other various levels also, especially on design process and also functional aspects of it. Design iterations, that is, like, you know, you've got one idea, how do we come up with multiple variations of it and test it and how do we, which appeals the most, which works the most that we have to take. So this becomes a good, again, a communication point. I'll show one case study a little later in the following slides. Here, only one word that you have to take out of all this, a lot of words, improvisation, how do we improvise stuff, your ideas or a product? How do we improvise? Improvisation is, again, a very deeper concept. Again, we don't really understand it much. This act of improvisation is used in every field. Then it goes on to the functional levels, where we finalize the technology and optimize the technology and manufacturing processes. And primarily the pilot and trial, it works on this, where the end user actually interacts with the product and they give a lot of feedback to you. We as designers, we have to generalize things, a lot of things and a lot of ideas we have to generalize and a lot of requirements we have to guess. Guess what is involved? The logical aspect of it, we will be working on the objective reasoning side of it. There are three types of reasoning that we have to understand. Oneness, deductive, inductive and abductive. Our physical prototyping works on all the three levels. In that case, all the prototypes are design process. Here, we make a lot of guesses. We don't get full information at any time about any project or anything for that matter. We will be filling up a lot of gaps with our own estimations. This pilot trial is a point where actually we test it. There is a direct communication between the user end user and the creator. And this is where we clear out the guess part of it, guesses and estimations and we become more and more closer to perfection. And obviously, why do we have to go for prototyping? It's a very simple straightforward thing. Number one, time, money and effort, basically energy. This is something straightforward. There is a nice saying. If you think good design is expensive, you should try bad design. Designing is the process of saving things, saving time, money or effort. You look closer, design is the purpose of design is that. Prototypes really work with saving all these three aspects. And another important thing is building confidence. So if you come up with a completely new idea, say for example, iPods that came, it was a radical concept and people will not immediately accept it. So you need to build confidence within your team and outside team. That's where prototypes come. Then again, evaluation and communication. We discussed this a little earlier. So remember, any product is to save time, money and effort. So there's a good evaluation stuff, evaluation metric, different types of prototypes, basically. So crude prototypes, quick and dirty, POC prototypes, these are the terms that you can. And idea prototypes, again, we talk about quick and dirty prototypes, POC prototypes, etc. These are basically to prove the essence of the product. It doesn't have to look completely finished or anything, but it's an idea stuff. Then we have scale prototypes. In product design, we typically go for one is to one scale. If you're making a chip, you make one is to one full size scale. But before that, we do smaller products also. If we are working with only the looks, then we go for probably good rendering. Or if you want to understand the overall visual massing of it, we go for a smaller one, which is a scale prototype. Then we go for the full prototype, full size. And buildings in architecture, this is where the scale prototypes come really into the action. Then we have walkup prototypes. It's like primarily for overall physical understanding of it, you don't have to use the exact materials or anything. It has to look like the real product. Then we have working prototypes, all of you know what is. It's more of a functional thing, working prototypes, which is the final one. We typically think 3D printing is the best prototyping method now. No, no, no, no, no. There are many types also of prototyping. Me personally, I had a huge hope on 3D printing. But as we started working on it, 3D printing is still a very nascent level of technology. We made a couple of machines also. That's the time I really understood. The potential is far too much. But we are not anywhere closer to that. Still we are working on it. I prefer, I personally prefer fabricating things. Fabricating things like if it's a mouse or whatever you are working on it, you fabricate it with simple methods, but multiple methods instead of relying only on 3D printing. Especially us being students, we need to know how to work on fabricating things. Fabrication is a learning process, especially us being in the beginning phase of the profession. It's very important. When it comes to fabrication, there are simple things and there is nothing. You add something to it or there is a full thing that you remove certain things. Additive method, what you talk is like, say for example, you are making a sculpture. You add things to it, stick them and you start working on that particular sculpture. Typically we make clay sculpture and all like that. Same thing applies to products also. The other one is sculpting, subtract stuff. There is a huge block of wood or rock or something. Then you go and remove things and make it. There is a nice saying also. I think they asked Da Vinci, I guess. It's a saying by him. I don't sculpt or anything. I just remove the unnecessary parts from the stone. The sculpture is already inside and just remove the unnecessary parts. It's a nice way of putting it. Again, subtractive method. Basically you are removing things. Additive method, you are adding things. Then the third one is forming. Say for example, a paper is there. You don't cut it or you don't stick anything onto it. You just bend it and make something out of it. That is the forming method. We have a lot of methods like vacuum forming, blow molding. There are a lot of methods. That is something really, really interesting. All the three are very interesting methods. These are the fundamental things that you have to understand. These are the principles. For example, 3D printing is actually an additive method. You keep on adding things to that. I'm going to show you some of the work also. This is a video. Again, vacuum forming is a very simple process, but the most effective one of the best processes. What we generally do is we take a sheet, plastic sheet. There are many types of sheets. Let's go with the word plastic now. Plastic sheet, you heat it up evenly. It becomes very wobbly and like, you know, basically the structure becomes very flexible. Then you have the mold and you keep it on the top and you suck it. Then it basically goes on like, fits onto the mold like a glove. Then we cut open it and start fabricating it. Once upon a time, this was the top most technology. That time also, people were wondering, no, no, no, no, we have to make things with hand. This is taking the beauty of making things etc. See, that is the myth. We should be able to work from one extreme to the other extreme. You should be able to make it with hand also if the resources are not available. You should be able to make it with the cutting-edge technology also. So technology is not a barrier. It's only a tool. If you know how to work with hands, you will know better on how to work with machines. This is where software also is very important, working on 3D software or simulation software. This particular exercise is not focused on that, but you have to remember it. This is another product I did for a company called GeoAmita. It's again IAT Karagpur alumni and it became quite a great product. What you're seeing on the screen is the mobile ATM. This is in 2010, around 2010. Most of you must have heard about Simputer, simple computer. That was again a product which came much ahead of its time in a different country. Typically, it's USA, new innovations come. It came from India. We didn't have proper infrastructure. Also, it was much ahead of its time. So it didn't work out quite well. This company bought it and they were working on taking it forward. One part of it became this mobile ATM. One day, I got a call from this company. They gave this left side device and he asked me to just randomly look at it and give me a report. She just gave me, what do you think of it? Then I opened up the piece. I studied everything on that. When I say studied, don't feel like I went and did something extra. Just visually operated, open it up and see, look at every, understand each component. And what it did, I gave a report, seven page report and on the right side, one physical model, a thermal model I made, all the components that are there inside. I'm not changing any component. The way we are arranging the components I changed and it became a flat, diary kind of a piece. And you look, you get a full keyboard also. He couldn't believe. You're talking about the same product, all the components. I said yes. So what I'm trying to say is the same components are volumetrically arranged in a different way and you get a new form factor. Obviously they liked it and they started giving me a lot of other projects. So this is another product we made and this is how we make. This is again virtual prototype. You make a 3D inside the software. You make all of this, all the components and look at the fades, how it fades, etc. Then you go ahead and make it. This is the piece that we made. Again, that time we had about only one week to go for the final presentation. Again, we worked on it. We couldn't get the 3D printing done quickly. And we actually, this was made in China. Then again, this one handle project that I did. Again, if you look at it on the top, this is something we worked on the pipes, working with pipes. This is again a very interesting product. Working with simple pipe, but we have to come up with different forms. Again, when we are sitting and working with the client, immediately we decided, okay, we will go for one model and immediately I had to show them, okay, how it volumetrically works. Then local packaging thermocore immediately cut it and then and then you made it and showed. People got an idea, we quickly finalized and this product was launched in the market. So you should be able to make things, even if you don't have anything in your hand. There is made IDC time on handheld razor we made. Again, this is an IDC made school project, college project. If you look at this, again, the kind of effort that you put in, that is the key here. You look at it, this all dimples that you may see, everything is made from a sheet. The dimples actually you cut, I cut a small thin strip of styrofoam made into a cylinder, then cut it into small pieces, then stuck it on the top. The steel that you see, that is actually stainless steel. I bought a stainless steel cup and cut it and made it. That's the time I understood about stainless steel. We thought, okay, we will make a lot of drills and no holes and make it. No, it's a thin, I think 0.5 mm thick stainless steel, but that's the time I realized, okay, it's so difficult to work with stainless steel visors working with mild steel and all. So this is something that we have to learn. You will get the idea only when we are working with the product. This is my last product which I am showing. This is the product that Professor Chakravarti was telling sometime back. This is again a product which came into the market, which was conceptualized too early in 2005, Media Lab Asia product. It was being developed at School of Information and Technology at IIT. The idea is to make computing device for the Kirana shops. I hope all of you know what is a Kirana shop. It's a local store, grocery store. So again, they operate only with a phone and a paper. That's the maximum technology they had, but at the same time, there were big supermarkets were coming in a big way. All the supermarkets come and replace Kirana wallas. What will they do? Let's wait this product came. Can we give them a device which is far better than a phone or a calculator? Can we give something else? First when we went and asked people, can we put a computer? Then these guys were like, they didn't even let us inside. And another guy had a computer and we had covered it and kept it. Then I made one rough, again, thermocol model. Then we went and showed it to them. It's a small handheld one. And people, then they let us inside their shop. Then we developed it again. This is when I made this netbooks, small size computers. That time it was not there. This is the first netbook that I made, a concept. I'll show you. Even tablets, one of the first tablets we made here. Remember, I'm not a trained computer scientist or I was not an electronics guy or anything. I'm an architect and a product designer. I developed one of the first netbooks, conceptualized a netbook and developed it and laid the tablet also. So what I'm trying to say is it's not as difficult as you think. You have to understand the basics and work with that. In this project, I programmed, I worked with the design, I worked with the hardware development, insight, the guts, the computers, and I worked on the software also. In none of this field, other than design, I didn't have any formal training. I had to learn, understand the concept and start working on it. These were open source things and so much of online research helps. Okay. So this is the idea I developed. Then I had to convert it to a small size computer. This is on the right that you see, that is again, complete Jougard. Got all the components. That's the time, interestingly, new small form factor computers were coming. So I got another computer and filtered into a box and filtered a regular keyboard, all of that when I kept it. This is a complete rudimentary crude form. But this piece, the thing that you see on the right, who gave a lot of confidence in the team. Then I said, there's something that we can make. On the left side, what you see is what we are going to be making in the future. Then we got some more money and we started working on it. And meanwhile, I was working on the ideal form factor also. This is again a schematic product. A small size monitor and a keyboard and a calculator interface. These guys work with calculator exceptionally well. So this is the main interface we wanted to keep. And the keyboard is something that we don't want. We want to use very less amount of keyboard. See, this Kirana shop, it's a crazy, crazy complicated area. It's so hot. There is no space. Language is a problem. Electricity is a problem. Storing is a problem. Wiring is a problem. Everything is a problem. We worked on it. And this is one piece that I made. I was continuously working on it. At the same time, Intel Atom also came with a new motherboard, small size motherboard. And just playing with it, the same idea of reconfiguring things. Then while working with that, I came up with this idea of a simple computer, which can work as a regular, low footprint model, or it can be kept below the table, or it can be used for on-screen typing or like a desktop mode. This is a simple structural design, actually. If you look at it, this is the initial form factor, how it actually evolves to accommodate various scenarios. Then we made a series of ideas, iterations. Then we finalized on one concept, evaluated and finalized. This is the place where I was going and getting all the pieces done. Again, I made it in seamless steel for various reasons. One is to avoid the finishing and it gives a good appeal. There are many reasons, so I made it. And these are all, if you look at the top-side images, they are all in Gorigaon, small, small places. When we made it, it was such a great opportunity for me to go and work with them. Technically, it's very simple, but execution is very important. You realize that and I can talk about this one slide for the whole day. But once you have a lot of vendors, your confidence level increases and you start looking at things in a much, much more clearly. And you can improvise your designs far more. I'll tell you a one-minute story about it. None of these are CNC bent or anything for bending and all. The guy you see on the left side, he never spoke during the whole time. We couldn't bend it and this guy, the guy in the middle, he's the boss, the boss's son. He came with me and we went to this guy. This guy said, I know one guy who will bend it perfectly. The guy on the left, he's the guy. He bent it so well. The other parts fitted like a magic. This guy never talks to anybody, but by the time I finished everything, I, he smiled at me and he asked me, this guy started, this is the first time he's actually are talking to anybody. So it's a nice feeling that you get. So finally, we put it together and I made this working prototype. And then we started working on various variations of it. We started with a simple aluminum. Then we went to another design. Then we, then once I understood it, it was a cakewalk. This piece, again, there's a solar operated one. Then again, I had to, I launched it as a small startup. Then we don't have infrastructure. Zero budget may be allowed to work. By this time, network had come. I had to develop software, hardware, the business model, everything is a single one man army, which is the worst thing that I did to the whole project. Primarily, I didn't have any of the teammates and I knew how to make all of this. So I went, okay, we will launch it. I had the perfect product, but I didn't have the team and people who come are coming to the team. Again, I had to spend time educating about the project to them. This is where actually the prototyping phase is very important for you to develop the team also. Even if you know everything, how to do it, you shouldn't be doing everything on your own in the starting of the startup. Okay, the prototyping phase is a good time to develop a team also, like vendors, like your business partners, everything. So remember that prototyping is not only making that final product. It's about your company or like, it's about educating your whole team also. That's a very good point. That is like, I think from what you have made from your experience, you know, though we can do everything, if you do everything yourself, you'll never be able to build a team and take a company part of that. That's a wonderful money for us from your experience. Yeah. Then I go on to some fun parts. Again, I had to develop the software. I cannot write a single code. Okay, this is where hacking, ideas of hacking come handy, come in handy. Open source, you take open source, start working on it, understand the whole structure. And it's so easy once you understand it. Everybody can actually make things. Finally, we went and launched and this is the next level of prototype. So with this, I'll finalize it. I kept on working on it. This is the whole setup. I wanted to reduce it. In fact, with this model, we could give the computer for free and pay the Kiranavallas every month, certain money or using the computer. Further, I started working on it. Why do we have to give everything? Okay, I wanted to bring the whole thing down to one keyboard. I started again, if you look at it, it's all hacking. Okay, I took a regular keyboard. I took the CPU of it. Then I mapped, trace the whole circuit. And I mapped it like I've done it on the right side. Then I put it into the form factor. And then this is the overall layout. And this left side that you're seeing, that is the information architecture of the inventory. Say, for example, pre-level may you will be able to reach your final item. Okay, it's like music, artist or band or genre. Say, let's take artist, artist, album and the song, pre-levels. So that is the kind of understanding you bring it down. And what actually I did was I took a music player, open source music player and converted into a POS machine. Okay, so the understanding, the core understanding of any concept, if you understand it, you can join many things. Say, I saved a lot of money and work when I understood, actually, the whole inventory system is like a song management. Okay, so then I could easily convert the open source song player into a ERP device, ERP software. Okay, so it's something important for you to understand it whole. It takes time to understand, but the starting point is very simple and it's hard work. Okay, so the whole computer, the whole thing I brought it down to one small palm-sized thing. Okay, that's the whole deal. And this is all my final year projects and some other projects. These are all prototypes. This was my final project and Professor Chakruh further improvised it and he made it. So these are the simple things that I want to tell you guys. I hope all of you had a good time checking all the stuff. Yeah, Kooms, thank you so much. That was a wonderful journey of the proof of concept and how when you have something, you need to build and then test, build and test so that very clearly showed in the Galla project. You didn't use the word Galla, I remember your project was called Galla. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that is it.