Narrative Ecology – Blog of Ron Donaldson – fACILITATOR, TRAINER AND COACH

Since becoming a fully trained part-time TRIZ consultant with Oxford Creativity earlier this year I cannot help but think about product improvements wherever I look.

In TRIZ there are 8 different trends of evolution, by trends we mean the paths that some inventions/products have taken as they have improved (as extracted from a pattern analysis of all patent applications) . One of these is ‘Increasing segmentation and the use of fields’ and this trend typically goes

monolith – segmented – liquid/gel/powder – gas/plasma – field

Watching Comic Relief last night with its emphasis on mosquito nets to keep out malaria carrying mosquitoes I kept wondering what the TRIZ ultimate field-based solution might look like.

Then first thing this morning in the Sunday Times I found this latest ‘field’ version of the old net/fly swatter:

the audio frequency created by the beating of mosquito wings triggers the laser beam, the mosquito’s wings are burnt off and its smoking carcass falls to the ground

A bit gruesome but all we need now is a cheap and cheerful way to deploy it without toasting all the less harmful insects.