Extracted Content: Julia Kipp: Alright, yeah. crack on Okay. so we'll start off with a quick overview of the minutes. I think to sum up the last meeting, would be to say um the requirements that we've um set out. Those are we were going to go for what seemed to be a fairly minimal design based on uh a small joystick, L_C_D_ and a couple of other buttons for navigation um with power being I suppose one of the main single purpose buttons. Um we were also going to use novelty of being able to locate the remote control again via a small transmitter with any luck, the idea to try and separate us and also because of the minimal design um looks like we'll be able to be fairly adventurous in the actual physical shape of our remote control with any luck. Um that pretty much sums up the last one. So we'll just crack on, um like to maybe start with Brigette Renz if it's possible.
  Brigette Renz: Uh
  Julia Kipp: Um
  Brigette Renz: uh okay.
  Julia Kipp: uh
  Brigette Renz: I'll just
  Julia Kipp: the con today is the concep today. This uh meeting is the conceptual design phase and is um Sorry about this. And is to cover things like um what the parts might be made of, um, can we uh outsource these from elsewhere, um will we have to construct any items ourselves?
  Brigette Renz: Uh I have a presentation I just saved it in the uh
  Julia Kipp: Yeah, okay
  Brigette Renz: the
  Julia Kipp: well I'll just uh
  Brigette Renz: folder.
  Julia Kipp: I'll load it up then. Um. Which one
  Brigette Renz: Uh.
  Julia Kipp: do y Oh, interface concept?
  Melanie Wood: Yeah, that's Kimberly Benack.
  Julia Kipp: That's you. We've got trend watching, that's
  Brigette Renz: It's
  Julia Kipp: you.
  Brigette Renz: uh Components design.
  Julia Kipp: Components design.
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Brigette Renz: Alright. So Uh. The case uh le that's what I wrote first of all, could be plastic our plastic. Uh but later on we found out that um it can be rubber as well, or titanium or even wood. So uh we decide what it's gonna be. Probably plastic. Uh we need infra-red transmitter. Get that off the shelf. Uh joystick we'll probably if we're gonna use it, um could be plastic w or rubber even as well. Um if you go on to the next slide. Uh If you go on to f uh findings, it's like two or three slides down. Right.
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Brigette Renz: So, this is what I found we can use. Uh three different types of batteries. Um can either use a hand dynamo, or the kinetic type ones, you know that they use in watches, or
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Brigette Renz: else uh a solar powered one. Um.
  Julia Kipp: Now, the kinetic one,
  Kimberly Benack: Cost
  Julia Kipp: we've
  Kimberly Benack: is
  Julia Kipp: 'cause that's the ones where like you the movement causes
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Brigette Renz: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: it. Um the bat uh the battery for a a watch wouldn't require a lot of power, would be my one query. Is
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: a kinetic one going to be able to supply enough power?
  Melanie Wood: There's
  Julia Kipp: Do
  Melanie Wood: also
  Julia Kipp: you
  Brigette Renz: Uh.
  Julia Kipp: think?
  Melanie Wood: a watch moves around a great deal more.
  Julia Kipp: W
  Brigette Renz: Yeah,
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Brigette Renz: I don't think it would. Um. And solar cells, I dunno about that.
  Kimberly Benack: yeah.
  Brigette Renz: Uh. We should probably just use conventional batteries. Um, just like in usual remote controls.
  Julia Kipp: Which I suppose
  Brigette Renz: Um.
  Julia Kipp: as well would allow us to go off the shelf again, you'd say?
  Brigette Renz: Yeah. Um. And these are three different types of or two different types three different types of shapes you can have. Uh one is a flat one, and then more original ones are single curved one or one with a double curved. Um the materials are tha there as you can see, but uh you can't have a titanium one for a double curved, uh which would
  Kimberly Benack: Titanium,
  Brigette Renz: be
  Kimberly Benack: the really strong metal, titanium?
  Brigette Renz: Yeah,
  Kimberly Benack: Is it not
  Brigette Renz: and
  Kimberly Benack: also
  Brigette Renz: light.
  Kimberly Benack: it's expensive?
  Brigette Renz: Uh, i think so as well, yeah. They make
  Julia Kipp: Um.
  Brigette Renz: mountain bikes out of that, don't they.
  Julia Kipp: Um.
  Brigette Renz: So it's really light as well.
  Julia Kipp: Curious. Um, I don't know if you'd be able to off the top of your head or not, the single curved and double curved, would you be able to give an example?
  Brigette Renz: Um.
  Julia Kipp: Um could you maybe
  Brigette Renz: T
  Julia Kipp: draw
  Brigette Renz: yeah.
  Julia Kipp: something? I you don't doesn't have to be perfect, it's just 'cause I'm not quite sure if I understand the difference between the two.
  Brigette Renz: Uh. Well for a curved, well I was thinking to f for to sit in your the palm of your hand. Uh maybe like this, with the uh joy pad here. Joystick here. And maybe um an okay button around here, so that the thumb can uh use it quite easily. Um I don't exactly Double curved. It probably means this is probably double curved. Uh whereas a single curved would be like that. I guess. Or not necessarily.
  Julia Kipp: So it might literally just be
  Kimberly Benack: Two curves.
  Julia Kipp: okay.
  Brigette Renz: Yeah like that. Whereas this is two curves. Um so I guess that's what they mean
  Julia Kipp: Alright.
  Brigette Renz: by uh double curve. Um which obviously it looks better than the single curve, but uh you can't have it in titanium, which is uh a nice material.
  Julia Kipp: Mm.
  Brigette Renz: Uh and for the buttons, um it can have the scroll wheel which they use in mouses for com P_C_s. Uh but um it requires a more expensive chip to use, and if you wanna use L_C_D_ it's even more expensive. So you have to decide, there's trade-offs there. Um if you want the buttons to be oh yeah, if you have a double curve uh control and it's rubber, then you have these rubber buttons as well. But you're gonna ha I reckon you're gonna have to have uh key a number keypad anyway for the amount of channels these days. You wouldn't want to just have to scroll through all the channels to get to the one you want. You wanna enter just the number of it, if you know it. So um I reckon we're gonna have to have a number keypad anyway. Do you think?
  Julia Kipp: Okay, that was definitely something we can talk about. Um so you've got a little bit about the the chip that we might require as well?
  Brigette Renz: Yeah. So, depends where gonna spend the money if you want the f fancy L_C_D_ display.
  Julia Kipp: Um, do you have any idea so far, like when we're saying that we'd need an advanced chip for an L_C_D_, does that in shoot the cost up by a drastic amount? Or?
  Kimberly Benack: Need an advanced chip for the L_C_D_. Is that did I
  Julia Kipp: Well I think compared
  Brigette Renz: Yep.
  Julia Kipp: to say just pressing buttons.
  Kimberly Benack: Advanced, like
  Julia Kipp: if you press
  Kimberly Benack: three eight
  Julia Kipp: a
  Kimberly Benack: six
  Julia Kipp: button
  Kimberly Benack: advance.
  Julia Kipp: that sends a certain transmission through the infra-red, whereas I think if we're controlling the L_C_D_ we definitely require a much more powerful chip.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Julia Kipp: Just compared to the chip you would use for pushing buttons I think is the
  Kimberly Benack: Okay,
  Julia Kipp: the
  Kimberly Benack: sure.
  Julia Kipp: point being made.
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: If I've not over-stepped. Yeah?
  Brigette Renz: Yeah i
  Julia Kipp: Okay, um should I go on, or go back?
  Brigette Renz: Um
  Kimberly Benack: Mm, if we only have twelve Pounds fifty, twelve Euros, not even twelve Pounds. Twelve Euros, what's that, like eight pounds or something like that, nine Pounds?
  Julia Kipp: Well we'd also be relying on the um the bulk buying in producement and such.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay, that's
  Julia Kipp: I
  Kimberly Benack: good
  Julia Kipp: assume.
  Kimberly Benack: point.
  Julia Kipp: We have to look into the costs of those. So, sorry.
  Brigette Renz: Uh the previous slides just explain what's in the internal components of the uh remote control. If you go to the one before that uh so it just says what it does, translate the key press into an infra-red signal and this is received by the T_V_. Uh the chip just needs to detect the signal or detect the key press and then uh it'll send it to the tr the amplifier.
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Brigette Renz: And uh then the next slide just shows how the uh copper wires uh interact with the buttons, the rubber buttons, uh to uh get sent to the chip. So that's just how the control works inside. Um we have to decide on what buttons we're gonna use.
  Julia Kipp: Okay. Um. So in the information that you've been supplied, how feasible would you say that the idea of using an L_C_D_ looks?
  Brigette Renz: Um I think we can do it if uh we use conventional batteries and not have solar cells or kinetic. Um and then maybe use single curved uh case. Because we might need it to be curved for the uh thumb to use the joyst joystick easily. Um and then you'll need the advanced chip obviously for the L_C_D_.
  Julia Kipp: Um I mean that sounds like quite a good requirement to Kimberly Benack. Um conventional battery would seem to make sense. Um
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: I'm not sure if there's any cost differences between single and double curved and I'm I don't know about anybody else, but plastic or rubber as a traditional form of casing would seem to be
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: a good way forward?
  Melanie Wood: Um I'm actually gonna be bold and go oo go straight for rubber um for reasons I'll go into
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: uh
  Kimberly Benack: I also
  Melanie Wood: in more
  Kimberly Benack: have
  Melanie Wood: detail.
  Kimberly Benack: a preference for rubber.
  Julia Kipp: Okay, well um
  Kimberly Benack: Based on my research.
  Julia Kipp: Yeah, well will we move on to user interface, and yeah? Um
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: sorry, as long as were you?
  Brigette Renz: Yep I'm finished.
  Julia Kipp: Yeah. Okay. Um and d d d interface concept.
  Melanie Wood: Yep. Now I'm gonna have to work between the uh the slides and the uh
  Julia Kipp: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: and the white board 'cause I actually I have some fairly concrete things this time. Uh um I was given a H_T_M_L_ file giving um various ideas from uh from other previous remote control designs, and pretty much decided to just dump them all. I wasn't very impressed by them and they didn't seem to re uh nothing I saw seemed to meet the sorts of design specifications that we're going for today. Um so what I ra rather than looking at other remotes, uh ra oomp be better to simply look at the human hand. Um and try and f um and try and figure out a way of laying out the elements we've already decided on, um so that if r a if so that the finger is e each finger or thumb is wherever it needs to be already. Um so uh next slide, if you please. Um and what we've basically decided on was the the um the joy uh the joystick, two function buttons and the L_C_D_, just keep it paired down to the absolute minimum. I don't actually think we need the um the numeric keypad because if you m because one of the menus that we could have available um v via via the L_C_D_ is one where you scroll through channels, so if there's something f and be bear in mind since this isn't meant to work for um
  Kimberly Benack: digital.
  Brigette Renz: Ah, okay.
  Melanie Wood: f f f for di for digital or um or for or for cable, whatever, you're basically looking at four or five terrestrial channels, and then um your V_C_ uh and then the channel through your V_C_R_ and or D_V_D_ player. And or um box. So it's not I'm not really excessively concerned about that. You must have two two modes, basic mode, where um the joystick's uh left right left right for channels, up down for volume, um and the uh uh and the menu mode for uh further functions. Um now the reason I was particularly interested in using rubber for this is that if we're going to have a highly ergonomic design, um it needs to be ergonomic for left or right handed people. Um,
  Julia Kipp: Can I
  Melanie Wood: so you
  Julia Kipp: just jump in slightly there?
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: That would suggest the double curved design's probably going to be most appropriate, then.
  Melanie Wood: Yes, absolutely.
  Julia Kipp: okay.
  Melanie Wood: Um, basi basically what I basically what the what be having um, I would say, the the whole thing articulated at two points, so that if you if you're handing it from a lef uh left or right handed user you can adjust it so that the um the L_C_ the L_C_D_ and the uh The joystick would be in the right place. And
  Julia Kipp: Mm.
  Melanie Wood: also this is a rather nicer de uh design gimmick that the the um you know the whole thing you know it should have sort of organic feel to it that it should be, you know, soft to touch and can be moved around all nice. Um
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: okay
  Julia Kipp: Um,
  Melanie Wood: on to
  Julia Kipp: yeah.
  Melanie Wood: on to the next uh to the next slide.
  Julia Kipp: Just to let you know we'll probably be quite tight for time as well,
  Melanie Wood: Okay.
  Julia Kipp: because I think you've probably got a lot you'd like to say, I guess.
  Melanie Wood: Yeah, 'kay basically um I can add pretty pictures to this. The um Assuming the hand the hand to be in about sort of this position, um hol uh holding the remote, the um the joystick unit should rest over the uh the joint of the f of the uh four finger so that it's directly accessible for the thumb. Um and it would need t there would need to be a it would need to be articulated just below that so that it could be switched around for uh left or right handed users. So. You then have a grip section that can be more or less the same irrespective of handedness. You just have big two big buttons that cover most of the area so it can in the upper part, one for the four finger, one for the middle finger. Um,
  Kimberly Benack: Is this the
  Melanie Wood: and
  Kimberly Benack: joystick?
  Melanie Wood: that Th this part here is the joystick. This would be the actual grip. Probably where you'd want to have the battery as well.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: That would be probably the bulkiest part. And you then have, at the uh at the bottom, the L_C_D_, and this would need to be articulated as well. And basically I'd want this to rest here, right at the base of the wrist. So it would fit just nicely in the hand. And again, this part could be rotated, so it can So so so that it can be adjusted to either left or right handed user. Um So the t uh the top function button in basic mode would be the on off switch and menu mode would be the enter button. And then the bottom function buttons switches between between modes. Um now programming it actually thi this is one thing I've found with um the replacement remote control. Programming them can be a right pain. So I thought th the simplest way around that would be to have um a cable to connect it to the computer some fair iv fairly fairly simple software on the computer just so that you on your computer just so that you could um pr program it at a rather in a rather more comfortable interface. And you could download programs for it from uh for uh T_V_s from all sort of main manufacturers. Um though you i it would be necessary to have uh have a m uh have a ha have a mode for programming it without the computer, uh just in case there are there are still people left out there who don't have them yet.
  Kimberly Benack: Mm.
  Melanie Wood: Um. But uh. Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: That's that's my idea.
  Julia Kipp: Excellent, right.
  Kimberly Benack: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: Um uh.
  Kimberly Benack: 'Kay.
  Julia Kipp: File open.
  Kimberly Benack: We go.
  Julia Kipp: Trend watching.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay. So uh to gather my research, two basic methods. We compared uh whether people want the remote control to do a lot of stuff or they want it to look cool. And then we we research uh fashion trends in Europe, what's what's the new black, you know, as it goes. Next slide please.
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Kimberly Benack: Uh we found, in order of importance, people want the remote control to look cool more than they want it to to be cool. As in they want it to do a lot of good s they want it to look like it does a lot, and if it does do a lot that's a bonus, but they don't care so much, you know. They want it to be that's sounds a bit like a contradiction. Technology technical technologically innovative. People want it to be that, but s still they care more about the way it looks than what it does. So like the interface is really important. And easy to use, it it just so happens that uh from the second point to the third point is twice as important I mean the second point is twice as important as the third point. People want it I is it has to be cooler than easy to use, you know, if it has the newest features, even if it's difficult to use, prefer it to have the newest features. And if it's easy to use that's a bonus. The fashion, now this is seems a bit odd to Kimberly Benack, but fruit and veg is the new is the new black for furniture, for clothes, for shoes. How that relates to a remote control I don't know. But I I see I come on to that in the next in the next slide. Spongy. I've als I've been saying everything's the new black. Well spongy's the new black as well. So we have the choice between rubber and plastic. If it's the type of rubber that you can squeeze, you know, it's spongy, then
  Brigette Renz: Oh
  Kimberly Benack: can
  Brigette Renz: yeah,
  Kimberly Benack: I
  Brigette Renz: I
  Kimberly Benack: skip
  Brigette Renz: forgot to
  Kimberly Benack: the
  Brigette Renz: mention
  Kimberly Benack: rest?
  Brigette Renz: that. The uh rubber material is the type of stress ball material,
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Brigette Renz: not just normal rubber.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay,
  Brigette Renz: Forgot
  Kimberly Benack: so
  Brigette Renz: to say that.
  Kimberly Benack: kinda spongy material. So
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Kimberly Benack: um so my personal opinion? Um we want something fancy and techni technologically innovative, obviously. But what we what we need is something that looks like it's from the future that looks cool, that's that's different, you know, that's everyone has a white remote control, black remote control, you need something cool. Like, titanium is cool but it's expensive. And maybe it's a bit of overkill for a remote control. Um now the fruit and veg options, either we we go in that direction or we stay totally away from it. Um I mean the research did come up with fruit and veg, so maybe it is important for it's the up to the interface guy. So if we stay away from it, s you know stay away from it, but if we're gonna go along with it then it doesn't necessarily have to be like an apple or something like that, or a kiwi fruit. It could be something like, I say potato peeler but I'm sure you guys have a have a much cooler idea than I do. So I think cool is the key. Few questions about a spongy remote control. I've never seen one before. I've seen plastic remote controls. I think maybe they were I don't know, back in the day when they first came up with remote controls, they had a reason for it being
  Julia Kipp: Mm-hmm.
  Kimberly Benack: sturdy, you know. For being strong and sturdy. So um if we want something strong and sturdy, I say stay with plastic or titanium, but if we go with spongy, we can stress that you can drop this as many times as you want, it doesn't matter, it's spongy material, it's not gonna break, you know. I just don't know how the L_E_D_ and the lights are gonna fit into a spongy material because it's not gonna be completely squeezable. So how do things fit it? And if we are gonna use spongy, we can say it's long lasting, you know it's damage resistant and stuff like that, so. So just to summarise, people want stuff that's cool, that's that looks like it's cool, and if it is cool then that's a bonus doesn't have to be um people like fruit and veg. We can either go down that alley or stay totally away from it. People like spongy material. we have to think of how practical it is, and how we can further promote that idea. And also, this was this year. So, things change all the time, every year you know they they always talk about this year, this is the new black. Well next year something else is gonna be the
  Julia Kipp: Mm-hmm.
  Kimberly Benack: new black and we're stuck with last year's fruit and veg type stuff. 'Kay.
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Kimberly Benack: That's Kimberly Benack.
  Julia Kipp: Well, um I would say that the most you could probably hope for is gaining a year's lead on most people anyway. You always have to bring out new designs, so if we can get next year then that's possibly a good place to start anyway.
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: Um. Seems like a a lot of the components could be off the shelf, so I don't exactly what cost would be incurred. Um I can see your point about the number keypad, but I've I would say that we can probably incorporate it into the menu system
  Brigette Renz: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: if you need to do traversal of a large number of channels. would be that even if at a later date this was to be taking control of um boxes as well um having the use of the L_C_D_ and the joystick would probably allow you to manipulate enough channel numbers for you to be
  Melanie Wood: Yeah, actually if you've got a lot of channels, the number keypad can be quite annoying as well, becau it's you know if you're trying to remember what uh, you know, what number's the discovery channel or whatever. It's just
  Kimberly Benack: That's
  Melanie Wood: irritating.
  Kimberly Benack: a good point. You can
  Julia Kipp: Mm-hmm.
  Kimberly Benack: incorporate
  Melanie Wood: But if you
  Kimberly Benack: names
  Melanie Wood: h but but
  Kimberly Benack: into
  Melanie Wood: but
  Kimberly Benack: the
  Melanie Wood: if
  Kimberly Benack: menu.
  Melanie Wood: you have a Kimberly Benack but if you have a menu structure, then you can sub-group them.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: So
  Kimberly Benack: Even
  Julia Kipp: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: you
  Kimberly Benack: news, music. Like they do on uh sky digital kinda.
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: So what it looks like to Kimberly Benack is we'll use a large number of standard components, um, say something like um lithium ion battery, the kind that you find in most um small hand held devices now. Um Looks like we going for a double curved design. Um I don't know what cost implications there are in that. Um, looks like we're pretty much decided on some kind of flexible rubber. Though I'd have to say depending on how flexible it is, we might need to have some kind of inner frame.
  Melanie Wood: Yeah, I I would say definitely, I mean I mean I mean the the idea of having it sort of articulated i th there would be basically two points of articulation. W um one below and one above the m the uh the main sort of grip.
  Julia Kipp: Do you
  Melanie Wood: So
  Julia Kipp: think there's any way we could maybe remove the articulation? I can see why it looks appealing, but it could be a weak point in um the structure, do you think? That would
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: be a worry of mine.
  Brigette Renz: If you're going with the fruit and veg thing, looks like a banana. F if you wanna design it that way.
  Melanie Wood: I d I don't thi I don't think that it would be a a structural weakness, I mean if you have a firm s sub-structure, you can then incorporate articulation into that. If you then have a sort of outer skin of mm flexible, spongy rubber then you have something that is you know very much you know organic, and I think would look rather co I mean mi rather cool. I mean my drawing there doesn't doesn't do it justice, it makes it makes it look more a little bit more like a vibrator than a than a uh than a remote control, but uh.
  Julia Kipp: Yeah, we won't add that functionality.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay. Course not.
  Julia Kipp: However, one interesting point is, I don't know how serious you were there, but we if we take some of the ideas why don't we make the damn thing yellow to incorporate
  Brigette Renz: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: the des the colour of the logo?
  Kimberly Benack: Sure,
  Brigette Renz: Okay.
  Kimberly Benack: yeah.
  Julia Kipp: I dunno. It's an
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: certainly a different colour from your average um
  Melanie Wood: Make it harder to lose, as well.
  Brigette Renz: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: That's
  Kimberly Benack: Sure.
  Julia Kipp: true. Was there anything in your research
  Kimberly Benack: The noise for when you lose the banana, um f yeah, for when you lose the remote control, it could be like a a monkey noise or something like that, rather than a standard beep beep. Y you know, you lose the monkey the banana, y
  Brigette Renz: monkey.
  Kimberly Benack: you lose the banana, you press a button, and you hear like monkey screams or something like that to direct you towards the banana.
  Melanie Wood: I th uh I mean if it I think that's something that could perhaps be programmable, though maybe have monkey as default.
  Kimberly Benack: S
  Melanie Wood: Um.
  Kimberly Benack: oh, I was gonna talk about the programmable remote control. Now I think it'd be cool if you had one remote control that could work with all T_V_s, you know you s you click a button and it finds the frequency that works with your particular television.
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Kimberly Benack: But why you'd need to program it like as as a standard feature, I I don't know.
  Melanie Wood: Well basi basically the um for f for uh I mean e each manufacturer will have a partic will have a particular command set that uh
  Julia Kipp: Mm-hmm.
  Melanie Wood: the T_V_ responds to. It's
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: not simply a matter of frequency. So um usually what's done is you have this big booklet full of different possi you'll have all of them sort of programmed in to the uh remote, and you'll have this little booklet of codes
  Kimberly Benack: Mm-hmm.
  Melanie Wood: you then find your um ma uh find your manufacturer and try the different codes that
  Kimberly Benack: Mm-hmm.
  Melanie Wood: come under that manufacturer's name 'til you find the right one.
  Kimberly Benack: That's
  Melanie Wood: It's
  Kimberly Benack: because televisions, they don't give the remote control any type of feedback when you send it.
  Melanie Wood: Yeah, that's right.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Melanie Wood: So that's that's quite annoying and we probably would still have to do that. But if we had um some sort of hook-up to your computer as an option, then if you've got a computer you can avoid that rather irritating thing.
  Julia Kipp: An interesting point is that if the person doesn't have the computer, we can still make the process easier because instead of having to look up codes, maybe we can have it that one of the options they have is that they look up the name of the company on the L_C_D_ and then
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: they maybe look up different names
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: of um different actual units that have been produced. Or we have the remote control just go through them until it's like does this do the correct function, and such.
  Kimberly Benack: Is it is it actually a book of names to digits, or is it like a few pages?
  Melanie Wood: Um booklet. Some pages.
  Kimberly Benack: I was just thinking, if we were to store this information, some type of mapping. This person probably need to use this feature like once, you know, when you first buy the remote control, or whenever they buy a new television, so once
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Kimberly Benack: every
  Julia Kipp: Doesn't have
  Kimberly Benack: s
  Julia Kipp: to be used very often that's right, yeah.
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah,
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Kimberly Benack: and it's
  Melanie Wood: But it's a but it's a nuisance. And it's a nuisance very close to the to um to actually purchasing it,
  Kimberly Benack: Mm.
  Melanie Wood: so it's something that you're likely to be thinking about. If you if there's w i if there's one in the shop that's that says it can avoid much of that nuisance, you might be
  Kimberly Benack: Mm.
  Melanie Wood: favourably inclined towards it. Um mm.
  Julia Kipp: Okay, this just to give us a
  Kimberly Benack: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: rough idea of what we're meant to be doing for the next stage. I'm pretty sure that you got that anyway. This is the conceptual one. Um. I think we've come up I think we've covered everything we need to here. Um I think we've decided on what, you know, decided on standard items for most of um rubber and such, so we're now looking at the detailed design and what we need to be doing for the next meeting. Um So for example, um I'll just start at the top, you've got yourself and Brigette Renz gonna be working quite closely at this stage 'cause it'll be hard not to, obviously. Um looking from prototyping of some des description using clay. Um I suppose you'll be told a lot more about that as uh progress. Um The user interface design, They're kind of it looks they're the idea I've pushed forward so far is maybe more of a physical one there, whereas possibly be more interested in maybe how the L_C_D_'s going to incorporate, do you think? Or
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: do you s perceive that most the design design decisions still need to be based on the physical layout?
  Melanie Wood: Um well I I think other than ge getting a sort of more aesthetically pleasing form for it, um mo most of the sort of layout design decisions are are made, I would say. Um but then again, the um the menu structure to to a considerable extent that's gonna vary according to the model of television, and also any customisations that the user might wish to incorporate. So um and one of the nice things about having an L_C_D_ and a menu structure is that there is that flexibility to it.
  Julia Kipp: Mm-hmm, that's very true. Um. Okay. Um got product evaluation as well.
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah,
  Julia Kipp: Um.
  Kimberly Benack: you see I don't some of these things kinda logically follow the others. How can t product evaluation, doesn't that come after actually seen a product
  Julia Kipp: I
  Kimberly Benack: prototype.
  Julia Kipp: I think we'd be yeah, no, it'd be more a case of how do we envisage us performing the product evaluation once we have a model to test with.
  Kimberly Benack: Oh, that's the okay, sure sure sure.
  Julia Kipp: Um so it'd be a case of do you think that just bringing users in to have them test it out, uh maybe putting a certain number of products into the field in certain places
  Kimberly Benack: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: which I suppose is quite similar. Or just kind of hitting the streets and you know saying this is a new remote control, what do you think of the look of it?
  Kimberly Benack: Okay, sure.
  Julia Kipp: Um
  Kimberly Benack: At this stage we still have no no target audience or
  Julia Kipp: I think the target audience is pretty much anybody under the age of say maybe sixty or something ludicrous.
  Kimberly Benack: 'Kay.
  Julia Kipp: Um the reason I'm saying that is we're just looking at a a replacement remote control, something that's stylish, so maybe you're even just maybe you're narrowing down your target audience simply by saying
  Kimberly Benack: And it's stylish.
  Julia Kipp: if they're buying it that often or they're maybe looking to replace something then, they've got a bit of free cash, so that puts them potentially in the younger age bracket.
  Kimberly Benack: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: Maybe even single, just for the reasons of um uh excess cash flow.
  Kimberly Benack: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: Although of course I mean at twenty five Euros, I don't think we're looking at charging the earth for the uh device.
  Kimberly Benack: Yep.
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: Think that's
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Julia Kipp: well within the normal bracket. Um your idea of the U_S_B_ would I think would largely depend on the cost. U_S_B_'s definitely one of the cheapest interfaces out there, but it might push the cost of the overall unit up 'cause it would require not just the connection but the chip for communicating with the rest of the system. That one
  Kimberly Benack: Programmable
  Julia Kipp: might have to be based
  Kimberly Benack: memory
  Julia Kipp: on
  Kimberly Benack: as well.
  Brigette Renz: The U_S_B_ for which?
  Kimberly Benack: For the remote control.
  Julia Kipp: The the idea was that maybe it could connect up for um allowing a software interface on the P_C_
  Brigette Renz: Oh
  Julia Kipp: for
  Brigette Renz: right,
  Julia Kipp: a
  Brigette Renz: okay.
  Julia Kipp: larger programming due to the fact that we've gone for such a nice, easy minimal design, normally.
  Kimberly Benack: We've w
  Julia Kipp: Um.
  Kimberly Benack: definitely talking some type of
  Brigette Renz: But didn't they just say it's just for T_V_, or are we gonna
  Julia Kipp: It's just for T_V_, but for
  Kimberly Benack: Different.
  Julia Kipp: programming it to use your T_V_, you
  Brigette Renz: Okay,
  Julia Kipp: might hook
  Brigette Renz: yeah.
  Julia Kipp: it up to the P_C_. I I'm not sure, but I'm thinking maybe that the additional cost of the U_S_B_ might be prohibitive.
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: We don't know unless it would make sense to.
  Kimberly Benack: But
  Melanie Wood: Yeah,
  Kimberly Benack: you're
  Melanie Wood: I mean
  Kimberly Benack: gonna
  Melanie Wood: it's
  Kimberly Benack: need some type of flash memory or something. Well something that doesn't you
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Kimberly Benack: wouldn't have to redo the whole thing once the batteries are changed, you know, once
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Kimberly Benack: you turn off the power.
  Melanie Wood: The other thing I mean it I mean it would need to ha it would need to have um some sort of on board memory
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: anyway. Um f for one for one thing because I do think that the menu system should be um uh I mean although you know, it's not going to be terribly complicated if it's just controlling one device, the menu system ought to be um o ought to be customisable and
  Kimberly Benack: Different
  Melanie Wood: uh
  Kimberly Benack: languages, uh different skins
  Julia Kipp: Mm-hmm.
  Kimberly Benack: and stuff like
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Kimberly Benack: that.
  Julia Kipp: W
  Melanie Wood: How uh how uh how you want say the um the the menu structure for flicking through channels if you've got lots of channels.
  Kimberly Benack: Sure. I
  Melanie Wood: That sort
  Kimberly Benack: if
  Melanie Wood: of
  Kimberly Benack: it
  Melanie Wood: thing.
  Kimberly Benack: was customisable as in different languages and stuff, that does open it is supposed to be international, right? So.
  Julia Kipp: It would make sense to.
  Kimberly Benack: It would make sense
  Julia Kipp: I would
  Kimberly Benack: if
  Julia Kipp: say
  Kimberly Benack: you could
  Julia Kipp: to. Um and we'd better be careful about the time as well.
  Kimberly Benack: Okay.
  Julia Kipp: We've already had the five minute warning, so. Um. I would say yeah. International would make sense. Um you're gonna look at product evaluation. I'm I'd better start writing up a hell of a lot of crap. Um you're gonna look a bit more at the kind of the physical make up you say. Um looks
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: like we're gonna need a maybe a kind of prototype in clay. Uh we'll see how that goes. Um.
  Melanie Wood: Are we going to be supplied with the clay is what I want to know. Where is the clay?
  Julia Kipp: So um do I think we've got an idea of where we need to go for the next meeting, would you say?
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Brigette Renz: they're going with the fashion thing, like
  Kimberly Benack: The fruit and
  Brigette Renz: the
  Kimberly Benack: veg.
  Brigette Renz: design, spongy
  Kimberly Benack: This one.
  Brigette Renz: rubber. Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: Yeah, I would s that would be my
  Melanie Wood: I
  Julia Kipp: my
  Melanie Wood: th
  Julia Kipp: feeling.
  Melanie Wood: I think I would largely want to actually steer clear of the whole sort of fruit and veg thing. Bu but um but the spongy idea I like. I like it a lot.
  Julia Kipp: We
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: seem to have quite a general consensus that the idea of the the r rubber could be quite
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: I having it i having it sort of br bright yellow I think that's quite a good idea, though maybe we could have options for colours as well.
  Kimberly Benack: Yeah.
  Melanie Wood: and again this has the advantage of being harder to lose.
  Kimberly Benack: Sure. I mean we are trying to promote a remote control, but we wanna keep the company brand as well, so.
  Melanie Wood: Mm-hmm.
  Julia Kipp: Yeah. So we always need to remember that somewhere we're meant to be getting the slogan on. Possibly I'm think I'm not sure but I'm seeing a little bit of space around maybe the joystick area which could
  Melanie Wood: Mm.
  Julia Kipp: be used.
  Melanie Wood: Yeah.
  Julia Kipp: Um.
  Melanie Wood: I was like like I said before I I think we should have the R_R_ on the uh on the top function button.
  Julia Kipp: Okay. And I think that says it all really.
  Kimberly Benack: I think so too.
  Julia Kipp: Right. See
  Kimberly Benack: Sa
  Julia Kipp: everybody in a half hour.
Updated Content: Julia Kipp recapped the decisions made in the previous meeting. Brigette Renz presented options for batteries, materials and shapes to use for the case, buttons, and chips. Melanie Wood discussed how to create an interface for an ergonomic remote which conforms to the shape and movements of the human hand, as well as an option in which users could connect their remotes to computers in order to download program settings. Kimberly Benack discussed findings from trendwatching reports, which indicated a need for products which look fancy, are technologically innovative, are easy to use, have a fruit and vegetable theme, and are spongy. The team then discussed what materials and components to use, the color of the remote, and programming options for the remote.