Researchers at Osaka University recently unveiled a new control interface meant to improve the way you use Google Maps by making the map flexible like a piece of cloth. The idea is that when you scroll the map, it doesn't just move the entire map but only a local part of it until you let go. Think of it as pinching a map made of cloth, which flattens itself after you let go. This lends itself very well to solving a small problem I have with Google Maps.
Source: DigInfo.tv |
When I'm using Google Maps, I'd search for a landmark on the map, and then 'look' around the map to see nearby streets or buildings. Problem with this is that when I'm scrolling (especially on a mobile device with a small screen), the landmark disappear off the screen and I have a hard time scrolling around to relocate it in relation to the street that I'm looking at. I could maybe just zoom in and out, but the solution presented by Osaka University researchers would directly solve this problem in a very elegant way. So let's see how TRIZ could've helped me to invent something like this!
First I identify the contradiction: I want to see more information when I scroll the map, but I can't do that without increasing the size of my display (buying a new LCD screen or new phone is out of the question!).
From the TRIZ contradiction matrix, I select "Quantity of substance/matter" from the list as my improving feature, and "Area of stationary object" as my worsening feature.
The matrix suggests 4 inventive principles:
Principle 2: Extraction, separation, removal, segregation
Principle 18: Mechanical vibration/oscillation
Principle 40: Composite materials
Principle 4: Asymmetry
Looking at the 4 suggested inventive principles, it seems that the Osaka University researchers solution is closer to principle 4's "Asymmetry". By making the map "asymmetrical", we're able to fit in more information in the same amount of display area. It is entirely feasible that if I were trying to solve this contradiction my line of thinking would go along something like "what if I separate my map, what if I vibrate my map, what if I make my map of composite material and what if I make my map asymmetrical"!
If I were to focus on using TRIZ inventive principle 4, then I'd do a search to see if this problem has been solved before. Turns out that I already did! Before Google Maps there were Paper Maps. I'd use to fold paper maps in different ways so that I could see two far away locations to get a feel on their orientation in respect to each other.
And it doesn't have to stop here, by now I would be thinking of how to improve upon the Osaka researcher's invention by looking at other established solutions such as Origami to see if I can make the best folds (image warping/image cropping for the digital map) to suit specific map-reading tasks. And patent it!
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