Innovation is about finding a better way of doing something. Like many of the new development buzzwords (which many of them are over-used on many business documents), the concept of innovation originates from the world of business. It refers to the generation of new products through the process of creative entrepreneurship, putting it into production, and diffusing it more widely through increased sales. Innovation can be viewed as t he application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in-articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.
Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation article points out that there is a form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation. The way this is exhibited is in the misuse of the term and the inability to discern the difference between novelty, creation, invention and innovation. The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth. The definition of innovation is easy to find but it seems to be hard to understand. Here is a simple taxonomy of related activities that put innovation in context:
- Novelty: Something new
- Creation: Something new and valuable
- Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
- Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful
The taxonomy is illustrated with the following diagram.
The differences are also evident in the mechanisms that exist to protect the works: Novelties are usually not protectable, Creations are protected by copyright or trademark, Inventions can be protected for a limited time through patents (or kept secret) and Innovations can be protected through market competition but are not defensible through legal means.
Innovation is a lot of talked about nowdays as essential to businesses to do. Is innovation essential for development work? article tells that innovation has become central to the way development organisations go about their work. In November 2011, Bill Gates told the G20 that innovation was the key to development. Donors increasingly stress innovation as a key condition for funding, and many civil society organisations emphasise that innovation is central to the work they do.
Some innovation ideas are pretty simple, and some are much more complicated and even sound crazy when heard first. The is place for crazy sounding ideas: venture capitalists are gravely concerned that the tech startups they’re investing in just aren’t crazy enough:
Not all development problems require new solutions, sometimes you just need to use old things in a slightly new way. Development innovations may involve devising technology (such as a nanotech water treatment kit), creating a new approach (such as microfinance), finding a better way of delivering public services (such as one-stop egovernment service centres), identifying ways of working with communities (such as participation), or generating a management technique (such as organisation learning).
Theorists of innovation identify innovation itself as a brief moment of creativity, to be followed by the main routine work of producing and selling the innovation. When it comes to development, things are more complicated. Innovation needs to be viewed as tool, not master. Innovation is a process, not a one time event. Genuine innovation is valuable but rare.
There are many views on the innovation and innvation process. I try to collect together there some views I have found on-line. Hopefully they help you more than confuze. Managing complexity and reducing risk article has this drawing which I think pretty well describes innovation as done in product development:
8 essential practices of successful innovation from The Innovator’s Way shows essential practices in innovation process. Those practices are all integrated into a non-sequential, coherent whole and style in the person of the innovator.
In the IT work there is lots of work where a little thinking can be a source of innovation. Automating IT processes can be a huge time saver or it can fail depending on situation. XKCD comic strip Automation as illustrates this:
System integration is a critical element in project design article has an interesting project cost influence graphic. The recommendation is to involve a system integrator early in project design to help ensure high-quality projects that satisfy project requirements. Of course this article tries to market system integration services, but has also valid points to consider.
Core Contributor Loop (CTTDC) from Art Journal blog posting Blog Is The New Black tries to link inventing an idea to theory of entrepreneurship. It is essential to tune the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, code, design and operations.
5,159 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/18/honey-did-you-feed-the-lamp-company-wants-to-create-living-light-bulbs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How an accidental discovery made this year could change the world
A lucky discovery involving lithium-sulfur batteries has a legitimate chance to revolutionize how we power our world.
https://www.freethink.com/environment/lithium-sulfur-battery#Echobox=1650317738
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Is The World’s First Image of Light as Both a Particle And a Wave
https://ilovetheuniverse.com/this-is-the-worlds-first-image-of-light-as-both-a-particle-and-a-wave
Tomi Engdahl says:
Korona-ajan tilinpäätös
https://areena.yle.fi/1-61647682
THL:n Mika Salmisen tilinpäätös korona-ajasta. Mitä tehtiin väärin ja mitä opittiin? Miksi länsimainen terveysjärjestelmä petti koronan edessä ja miten valuviat olisi syytä korjata? Suomen koronakasvoksi kriisin aikana noussut Salminen uskaltaa arvostella koronatoimia; koulujen sulkemista, vanhusten kohtelua, tehopaikkojen määrää ja koronarajoitusten hintaa. Sote-uudistukselta hän toivoo panostusta perusterveydenhuoltoon, jota hänen mukaansa on pahasti laiminlyöty.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yhteiskunta hyötyy patenteista – pienetkin keksinnöt ovat tärkeitä
https://www.kolster.fi/blog/yhteiskunta-hyotyy-patenteista
Tuuli- ja aurinkovoimateknologioiden kehitys osoittaa, ettei yksittäisten keksintöjen välttämättä tarvitse olla suuria saadakseen yhdessä aikaan valtavia muutoksia. Innovaatioiden suojaaminen edistää tekniikan kehitystä ja yleistä hyvinvointia, kirjoittaa Kolsterin eurooppapatenttiasiamies Antti Maaranen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIT Engineers Created a Portable Device that Zaps Seawater to Make Drinking Water
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mit-engineers-created-a-portable-device-that-zaps-seawater-to-make-drinking-water
Tomi Engdahl says:
Invisibility cloaks are not just possible, but are becoming reality
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/invisibility-cloak-183582/#Echobox=1651184459
Two types of nanotechnology, metalenses and metamaterials, could soon make Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak a reality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://newatlas.com/electronics/2-inch-diamond-wafers-quantum-memory-billion-blu-rays/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Create Holograms You Can See, Hear, and Feel
Watch a video of the amazing hologram in action.
https://futurism.com/scientists-create-holograms-see-hear-feel
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beam me up to 5G, Schottky
A novel device architecture makes organic electronics applicable to 5G telecommunications.
https://discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/1222/beam-me-up-to-5g,-schottky?fbclid=IwAR1x0_2Tx-6ly0kWoltRdFblRG8Ra-Cfsx_4I97gcD_1bqBRJaFRpqLksMQ
Organic semiconductors have many of the same physical properties as their inorganic counterparts, such as silicon-based semiconductors. However, organic semiconductors are made using solvent-based processing techniques, making them cheaper and more flexible. A significant drawback is that electrical charges move much slower in organic materials. This drawback is a barrier to applying organic semiconductors for use in fast applications such as radio-frequency electronics.
“Unlike their inorganic counterparts, organic semiconductors are cheap and easy to process via solution-based routes like printing or blade and die coating,” explains Ph.D. student Kalaivanan Loganathan, working with Thomas Anthopoulos. “To make this technology useful for the 5G frequency band, there is a need to fabricate organic Schottky diodes.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://prkele.prk.tky.fi/wiki/Aseman_ylij%C3%A4nnitesuojaus_ja_kaapelointi
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/graphene-batteries-gamechanger
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-self-assembled-logic-circuits-proteins.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/battery-heat-salt-gas-russia-b2067404.html#Echobox=1651178008
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-fault-tolerant-quantum-memory-diamond.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Chain Reaction That Propels Civilization What do living cells, Britain’s canals, and deep learning have in common?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/why-autocatalysis-matters
Tomi Engdahl says:
These Companies are Winning the Race to Reinvent Energy
The Publicis Sapient Global EnergyTech Awards spotlighted the world’s real power players
https://www.wired.co.uk/bc/article/these-companies-are-winning-the-race-to-reinvent-energy
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/05/11/uusia-menetelmia-sahkokeraamikomponenttien-valmistukseen/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-finding-alters-how-universe-works
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-unusual-quantum-state.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Black hole: First picture of Milky Way monster
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61412463
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/magnetic-field-record-lab-explosion/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.inceptivemind.com/wooden-floorings-generate-enough-energy-power-lightbulbs-footfalls/20908/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/spin-based-magneto-electric-transistor-could-shave-five-percent-off-the-world-s-energy-needs-3d54b329810d
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/asad-m-madni
Tomi Engdahl says:
A new method to synchronize devices on Earth makes use of cosmic rays
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-method-synchronize-devices-earth-cosmic.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-standard-particle-physics-broken-expert.html#!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tätä kukaan ei osannut 4000 vuoteen, mutta suomalainen Erkka sen keksi – Terästä 20x vahvempi särkymätön lasi, jota voi venyttää ja takoa huoneenlämmössä
Tuomas Kangasniemi11.5.2022 07:12|päivitetty11.5.2022 08:47Tiede
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/tata-kukaan-ei-osannut-4000-vuoteen-mutta-suomalainen-erkka-sen-keksi-terasta-20x-vahvempi-sarkymaton-lasi-jota-voi-venyttaa-ja-takoa-huoneenlammossa/7f42d95c-c0e3-4239-90b8-c004cee04d7f
Tampereen yliopiston tutkijoiden johdolla keksittiin 20 kertaa terästä lujempi lähes särkymätön lasi, jota voi venyttää ja takoa kuten metallia. Edessä on pitkä kehitystyö laboratoriosta käytäntöön.
Ihmiskunta on osannut valmistaa lasia ainakin 4 000 vuotta, mutta kuten kaikki tietävät, se on haurasta ja herkästi särkyvää ainetta. Ohuina kuituina lasi tosin taipuu elastisesti eli väliaikaisesti mutkalle, mutta normaalilämpötilassa sen muotoa ei voi pysyvästi muuttaa venyttämällä tai takomalla, kuten metalleja.
Viimeisen muutaman vuoden aikana fyysikot ovat onnistuneet kehittämään tähän sääntöön poikkeuksen ensimmäistä kertaa historiassa. Puhtaasta amorfisesta alumiinioksidista koostuvaa lasia voidaan murjoa vaikka pajavasaralla, ja venyttää tai puristaa koetyypistä riippuen 10–100 prosenttia alkuperäisestä mitastaan.
Materiaalin on kehittänyt suomalais-ranskalais-italialainen ryhmä Tampereen yliopiston (ent. TTY) tutkijatohtori Erkka J. Frankbergin johdolla.
Runsaasti venyvän aineen voisi epäillä olevan pehmeää, mutta se ei ole. Päinvastoin alumiinioksidilasi on jäykkää ja äärimmäisen vahvaa. Sen staattinen vetolujuus, Frankbergin mukaan huoneenlämmössä noin 5 gigapascalia, voittaa kaksinkertaisesti parhaatkin superteräkset ja noin 20-kertaisesti tavalliset rakenneteräkset. Taakse jää jopa kevlarkuitu.
Äärimmäisen vahvuuden ja melko hyvän taottavuuden yhdistelmä tekeekin aineesta lähes särkymättömän supermateriaalin. Kaupan päälle se on noin puolet rautaa kevyempää.
Riittävän paksujen kerrosten valmistaminen puhtaasta alumiinioksidilasista on nimittäin hyvin vaikeaa.
Leveys ei ole suurikaan ongelma. Frankbergin mukaan jo tällä hetkellä 20 senttimetrin läpimitta onnistuu heittämällä.
”En näkisi mahdottomana, että 20–30 vuoden päästä tämä on kännyköiden näytöissä”, Frankberg sanoo arvioidessaan tulevaisuutta.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building Petahertz Logic With Lasers And Graphene
https://hackaday.com/2022/05/17/building-petahertz-logic-with-lasers-and-graphene/
There was a time when we thought a 50 MHz 486 was something to get excited about. In comparison, the computer this post was written on clocks in at about 3.8 GHz, which these days, isn’t an especially fast machine. But researchers at the University of Rochester and the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg want to blow the doors off even the fastest modern CPUs. By using precise lasers and graphene, they are developing logic that can operate at nearly 1 petahertz (that’s 1,000,000 GHz).
These logic gates use a pair of very short-burst lasers to excite electrical current in graphene and gold junctions. Illuminating the junctions very briefly creates charge carriers formed by electrons excited by the laser. These carriers continue to move after the laser pulse is gone. However, there are also virtual charge carriers that appear during the pulse and then disappear after. Together, these carriers induce a current in the graphene. More importantly, altering the laser allows you to control the direction and relative composition of the carriers. That is, they can create a current of one type or the other or a combination of both.
https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/laser-driven-logic-gates-petahertz-ultrafast-computers-522142/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/05/18/the-little-big-dogs-of-invention/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Organic Transistor Enables Higher Density Circuit Integration for High-Performance Mobile Devices
https://scitechdaily.com/new-organic-transistor-enables-higher-density-circuit-integration-for-high-performance-mobile-devices/
A new organic anti-ambipolar transistor has been developed that is capable of performing any one of the five logic gate operations by adjusting the input voltages to its dual gates. It could be used to develop electrically reconfigurable logic circuits, which may be key to the development of high-performance mobile devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yrittäjän mökkiviikonlopun aikana keksimä idea pelasti yrityksen konkurssilta
https://www.op-media.fi/yrittajyys/yrittajan-mokkiviikonlopun-aikana-keksima-idea-pelasti-yrityksen-konkurssilta/
Kun korona tyhjensi SMK Designin tilaukset, rohkea yrittäjä ei tästä lannistunut, vaan ryhtyi kehittelemään uutta ja valmistamaan ensimmäisten joukossa pisarasuojia myymälöihin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Miten styroksilaatikosta ja neljästä pienestä lämpömittarista päädyttiin kolmannen sukupolven digitaaliseen omavalvontapalveluun? – Lue NSnappyn tarina tekijöiden kertomana
https://nokeval.com/ajankohtaista/miten-styroksilaatikosta-ja-neljasta-pienesta-lampomittarista-paadyttiin-kolmannen-sukupolven-digitaaliseen-omavalvontapalveluun-lue-nsnappyn-tarina-tekijoiden-kertomana/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simple, Cheap, and Portable: A Filter-Free Desalination System for a Thirsty World Suitcase-size device makes seawater potable
https://spectrum.ieee.org/portable-desalination-filter-free
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/electric-truck-hydropower-for-energy-storage-brilliant-crazy-or-both/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://scitechdaily.com/laser-pulses-for-ultrafast-signal-processing-could-make-computers-a-million-times-faster/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.techexplorist.com/fundamental-property-magnetism/47358/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA SPONSORED RESEARCHER SUGGESTS IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO CHANGE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS
https://futurism.com/the-byte/researcher-possible-change-laws-physics
In an extremely cosmic-brain take, University of Rochester astrophysics professor Adam Frank suggests that a civilization could advance so much that it could eventually tinker with the fundamental laws of physics.
It’s a mind-bending proposition that ventures far beyond the conventional framework of scientific understanding, a reminder that perhaps we should dare to think outside the box — especially as we continue our search for extraterrestrial civilizations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum key distribution network accurately measures ground vibration
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-quantum-key-network-accurately-ground.html
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has found that quantum key distribution (QKD) networks can be used to accurately measure ground vibration. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their implementation of a twin-field, fiber-based QKD network over a distance of 658 km. They also determined that the network could be used as a means for sensing ground vibrations associated with earthquakes or landslides.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An intelligent quantum sensor that simultaneously detects the intensity, polarization and wavelength of ligh
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-intelligent-quantum-sensor-simultaneously-intensity.html
A team of researchers has built an intelligent sensor—the size of about 1/1000 of the cross-section of a human hair—that can simultaneously detect the intensity, polarization and wavelength of light, tapping into the quantum properties of electrons. It’s a breakthrough that could help advance the fields of astronomy, health care, and remote sensing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://second.wiki/wiki/din_476
Tomi Engdahl says:
Einstein was right. Flying clocks around the world in opposite directions proved it.
Time isn’t the same for everyone, even on Earth. Flying around the world gave Einstein the ultimate test. No one is immune from relativity.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/flying-proved-einstein-right/
According to Einstein’s relativity, if you move relative to another observer and come back to their starting point, you’ll age less than whatever remains stationary. Einstein also tells us that the curvature of space itself, depending on the strength of gravitation at your location, also affects how fast or slow your clock runs. By flying planes both with and against Earth’s rotation, and returning them all to the same starting point, we tested Einstein as never before. Here’s what we learned.
Whenever one observer moves through the Universe relative to another, the observer-in-motion will experience time dilation: where their clocks run slower relative to the observer-at-rest. Based on this, Einstein suggested that we could make use of two clocks to put this to the test: one at the equator, which speeds around the Earth at approximately 1670 km/hr (1038 mph), and one at the Earth’s poles, which is at rest as the Earth rotates about its axis.
In this regard, however, Einstein was wrong: both clocks run at exactly the same rate relative to one another. It wasn’t until 1971 that a proper test could be conducted, and it required a lot more than special relativity to make it so.
As it turns out, the amount of time dilation due to a point on the equator zipping around the Earth is exactly cancelled by the additional amount of gravitational time dilation that results from the difference in gravity at the Earth’s poles versus the equator. Being deeper in a gravitational field, which the poles are, causes your clock to tick by more slowly, just as moving faster relative to a stationary observer does.
Other experiments further demonstrated that time dilation was a very real phenomenon for subatomic particles.
But Einstein’s original goal of using run-of-the-mill clocks at or near the surface of Earth to test the validity of special relativity still remained unfulfilled. Two developments occurred in the 1950s, however, that finally brought the idea within the realm of testability.
The brilliance of this idea is that it wasn’t just, “Hey, let’s fly this plane around the world and see if time dilates the way that special and general relativity predict that they ought to.” In and of itself, that would’ve been completely sufficient to test Einstein’s theories for time dilation directly.
But instead, Hafele and Keating both metaphorically and literally went the extra mile. First, one clock remained on the ground at the original location, ticking away and keeping time as accurately as possible: to within a few tens of nanoseconds over the timescale of weeks.
Second, two clocks were brought aboard a round-the-world flight, where they flew around the world in the eastward direction: the same direction as Earth’s rotation. Because the plane’s motion and Earth’s rotation were in the same direction, velocities added, and so its additional, more rapid motion through space should mean that less time passed, with time dilation predicting a loss of time.
And finally, those clocks were then brought aboard a round-the-world flight moving westward: against the Earth’s rotation. These planes flew slower than Earth’s rotation, so the clock on the ground actually moved faster than the westward-moving plane. The less-rapid motion through space should mean that more time passed for this clock, relative to the eastward-moving clock and also to the stationary one on the ground.
At the conclusion of the experiment, the results were revealed and compared with expectations. The clock that was on the ground the entire time would be treated as “at rest,” and everything else that occurred would be both predicted and measured relative to that standard of reference.
Although both clocks were meant to fly along similar courses at similar altitudes, such plans are rarely realistic. That’s why the flight crew helped take measurements of the plane’s location all throughout its dual journeys, allowing for both the predicted gravitational time dilation and the predicted due-to-motion time dilation to be quantified.
Today, we can confirm the motion component of time dilations for speeds as low as that of a cyclist, and for elevation differences in the gravitational field at Earth’s surface that are as small as 0.33 meters (about 13 inches).
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-quantum-magnets-motion.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-law-unchains-fusion-energy.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/ultra-thin-hybrid-electronic-skin-is-a-thousand-times-more-sensitive-than-the-tip-of-your-finger-a954d65cea65
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-measured-a-mechanical-quantum-system-without-destroying-it
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://supercarblondie.com/sr-71-blackbird-fastest-plane-lockheed-martin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/fresnel-lens-milestone
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/microorganisms-perhaps-still-alive-discovered-in-830millionyearold-rock-salt/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.cracked.com/image-pictofact-7507-14-things-we-didnt-know-we-were-calling-by-the-brand-name?utm_source=facebookCKD&utm_medium=link_classic_image&utm_campaign=social-account