Slides for the talk at Sketching in Hardware 2012 (http://www.sketching-in-hardware.com/). Mentioned activities at f.Labo (http://f-labo.tumblr.com/) and discussed about possibilities and challenges for a citizen craft center with design thinking education curriculums.

1. Sketching in Hardware 2012
Sketching Disruptive Innovations
July 20, 21 and 22, White Stag Building, University of Oregon, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Shigeru Kobayashi (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences [IAMAS] / f.Labo)

2. [Self introduction in 60 seconds]
Hello. My name is Shigeru, an associate professor of IAMAS, Institute of Advanced Media Arts
and Sciences, [CLICK] and I’m running f.Labo, a startup citizen craft center in a local town in
Japan.

3. A few months ago, our student work ‘Ubi-Camera’ has been reported by engadget,
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/28/ubi-camera-frames-photos-with-fingers-fails-to-
call-you-fabulou

4. DigiInfo.tv
http://www.diginfo.tv/v/12-0047-r-en.php

5. and core 77.
http://www.core77.com/blog/photography/ubi-
camera_in_the_future_will_we_take_photos_with_our_fingers_22108.asp

6. Ubi-Camera has been developed through sketching in hardware.

7. After joining IAMAS, I have been teaching physical computing and writing articles for MAKE
magazine in Japanese,

8. supervised translation of Tom’s ‘Making Things Talk’ and Rob’s ‘Building Wireless Sensor
Networks’ in Japanese,

9. 写真撮影：萩原健一
wrote a book about Arduino (as Björn mentioned yesterday)

10. Photo by SparkFun Electronics (CC: BY-NC-SA 3.0)
and designed Arduino Fio with SparkFun Electronics.

11. I also developed Funnel toolkit. Regarding Funnel, Jeff Hoefs contributed a lot to improve the
AS3 library, and I’m really happy to see that a much better toolkit, [CLICK] Breakout is now
available.

12. OK. Let me introduce f.Labo, a startup citizen craft center in a local town in Japan.

13. 青森
秋田
岩手
山形 宮城
新潟
福島
石川
富山 栃木
群馬
長野 城
埼玉
福井
岐阜 山梨 東京 Tokyo
鳥取 神奈川 千葉
兵庫 京都 滋賀
島根 愛知 静岡
岡山
広島 大阪 三重 http://www.freemap.jp/
奈良
山口 香川
徳島 和歌山
f.Labo is in Gifu愛媛 高知
prefecture. Gifu is located almost in the center of Japan. Gifu Prefecture has
福岡
large clusters of automobile, aircraft and machine tool manufacturing factories and
賀 大分
businesses, as well as a prospering traditional industry base for cutlery, ceramics and
woodwork. But these industries were seriously affected by globalization.
熊本
宮崎

14. So, components manufacturers, that have been fabricating high quality components, started
finding new areas to survive. For instance, [CLICK] a metal components manufacturer that
excel at at manufacturing of a wide variety of products in small quantities, [CLICK] are
developing a carbon-composite product to expand their abilities. But, hardware startups are
risky. Typically, manufacturers already know ‘how’ to make, but don’t know about ‘what’ to
make and tend to don’t think about ‘why’ to make.

15. Digital fabrication tools
as ‘glues’
Parts manufacturers ×
Software developers Disruptive innovations
Design thinking method
Local designers • Ideation
• Build to think
• Collaboration
We designed f.Labo to tackle this issue. [CLICK] f.Labo have digital fabrication tools like
FabLab, to let participants experience the power as ‘glues’. Additionally, f.Labo has
educational programs of design thinking. By multiplying these two key factors, [CLICK] we
believe that participants such as local part manufactures, software developers and designers
[CLICK] can generate ‘disruptive innovations’.

16. Performance
Sustaining innovations
s
at customer
Per for mance th
or absorb
can utilize
Time
‘Disruptive Innovation’ (C. M. Christensen, 1997)
‘Disruptive Innovation’ was coined by Clayton Christensen coined in 1990s. He distinguished
sustaining ‘innovations’ and ‘disrupting’ innovations. Sustaining innovations may be either
‘discontinuous’ or ‘continuous’, and only evolves existing ones with better value.

17. Performance
Sustaining innovations
s
at customer
Per for mance th
or absorb
can utilize
Disruptive innovations
Time
‘Disruptive Innovation’ (C. M. Christensen, 1997)
Disruptive innovations are innovations that helps create a new market and value network, and
eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network, displacing an earlier
technology. For instance, when SONY released the first transistor radio, the quality was not
comparable to vacuum tube radios. But it was accepted to new customers, since cheap, small
and portable. Same as desk copier by Canon in comparison to copier by Xerox. It seems that
Japanese companies totally forgot the history, but I believe that it’s time to seriously think
about this issue.

18. Replicator ($1,749, MakerBot, 2012)
Cube ($1,299, 3D Systems, 2012)
Solidoodle 2 ($499, Solidoodle, 2012)
We feel that rising digital fabrication tools such as low cost 3D printers can be the key of
disruptive innovations. Currently, speed, quality nor durability is not comparable to standard
manufacturing technology such as injection molding. But it’s cheap and the quality is ‘good
enough’ for various purposes. Needless to say, ‘Maker Movement’ has been playing very
important roles in popular acceptance of 3D printers.

19. http://www.koboaichi.net/%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E6%BA%90%E9%87%8D
%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB/
For instance, this is an one-off self-helping tool by an artisan. It’s designed to help the
person who lost 5 fingers of his right hand in an accident. He designed by himself and asked
several manufactures to make, but refused. After that, he decided to make by himself.
Through the experience, he became an artisan.

20. Drawing: Hisashi Imai
The tool consists of standard components and custom components like this.

21. Drawing: Hisashi Imai
Now we can fabricate ‘good enough’ quality custom components with digital fabrication
tools, and wider audiences might be able to have at low cost.

22. Photo by Marc Cryan
http://www.instructables.com/id/T-hook-prosthetic-design-for-3D-printing/
We can also find various prosthesis projects at instructables. Marc Cryan built a printable
version of the Trautman Hook, an out-of production prosthetic device. His project is derived
from work by the Open Prosthetic Project. He made modifications to create a version that can
be built using low cost 3D printing technology.

23. OK, that’s why we started f.Labo. We opened f.Labo as a part of an incubation center for
information technology startups in February, 2012.

24. This is the entrance of f.Labo.

25. There are digital fabrication tools such as a laser cutter,

26. a 3D modeling machine

27. a 3D printer and so on.

28. There are also tables for workshops

29. and a library space to show results and related books.

30. fabulous
fabrication fun
factory future
foolish
foundation
failure
federation
facilitation
‘f’ of f.Labo stands for various meanings like this. To realize these aspects, we thought that
digital fabrication tools, educational programs, and creating communities are the keys.
Currently, 4 staff, 4 graduate school students and 2 teachers are actively working for f.Labo,
and we are expanding the community to other students and teachers, local designers and
architects, manufacturers, software startups, high schools and so on.

31. To let people know about possibilities of digital fabrication, we have been running
introductory workshops on digital fabrication tools,

32. workshops by invited guests

33. workshops by invited guests

34. and workshops by f.Labo staff.

35. and workshops by f.Labo staff.

38. We also regularly organize events to introduce possibilities and issues of digital fabrication.

39. So far, we invited founders of FabLab in Japan to discuss on possibilities,

40. an open source hardware distributor and developer to discuss on possibilities and issues of
open source hardware,

41. an artisan of hand made self-helping tools to discuss on possibilities of archiving design
processes and utilizing digital fabrication for low volume, cheap cost and good enough
quality products,

42. a catalyst of Creative Commons License to discuss on possibilities and issues of licenses and
systems for artifacts in addition to digital contents,

43. and key players of FabCafe, a new startup business featuring a cafe with a laser cutter and
guests can enjoy digital fabrication in addition to drinking coffees, to discuss possibilities of
new FAB related businesses.

44. The other important role of f.Labo is education. We have been developing a simplified toolkit
based on IDEO’s HCD toolkit, and will hold workshops for local designers and developers.

45. I’d like to introduce a case study at f.Labo. It was transforming industrial waste into products.
I have been focusing on beginnings of products, but thinking about ends of products and
start from there might be a hint to think about new ways of making products.

46. Nakadai (http://www.nakadai.co.jp/) is an inter-level industrial waste disposer in Gunma,
Japan. They have been running ‘Mono: Factory’ (http://monofactory.nakadai.co.jp/). Their
concept is transforming industrial waste into ‘social material’, then create new products with
inspirations evoked by things.

47. They held ‘The 2nd Industrial Waste Summit’ from 14th to 16th. Theme provided by Nakadai:
‘Design that doesn’t use “made with waste” as an excuse’ was a good challenge for us.

48. Photo: Yutaka Kitamura
We had to overcome how to transform ‘aggregations of components’ to ‘products’, while
keeping the individual stories of each material.

49. To tackle this, we utilized digital fabrication tools (such as a laser cutter) to fabricate custom
components that glue materials together. This being our first step to developing innovative
methods and putting a new face on ‘manufacturing’. We developed 5 products within one
month.

50. Photo: Yuki Kinpara
I’ll introduce two of them. This is an iPad stylus made with recycled brass tubes from a
stationery manufacturer and copper wire.

51. 導電性布 アクリル
丸めた銅線 真鍮部材
書き味が悪くなったら
ピンセットなどの先のとがったモノを使い 中のボールを取り出し揉みほぐします。 ボールを布に 2 重で包みキャップを戻します。
キャップの部分を取り外します。
Drawing: Yuki Kinpara
The pen tip is made using conductive fabric encasing a ball of copper wire. This is held in
place with interlocking components and a handy clip made from laser-cut acrylic.

52. 青森
Zuiganji
秋田
岩手
Nakadai 山形 宮城
f.Labo 新潟
福島
石川
富山 栃木
群馬
長野 城
埼玉
福井
岐阜 山梨 東京
鳥取 神奈川 千葉
兵庫 京都 滋賀
島根 愛知 静岡
岡山
広島 大阪 三重
奈良
山口 香川
徳島 和歌山
This is another 愛媛 高知 Zuiganji is a famous temple associated with the legendary warrior
example.
福岡
and leader Masamune Date.
賀 大分
熊本
宮崎

53. Photo by yamakidoms
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yamakidoms/2384231265/
It is situated in Matsushima Bay, known as one of the ‘Three Views of Japan’. Recently due to
rapidly changing groundwater levels caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, the famous
cypress trees of the Zuiganji are unfortunately dying.

54. Photo: Yutaka Kitamura
The trees are being processes as a part of ‘rubble of the earthquake’. The rubble
contaminated with radioactive materials is a big issue in Japan, so people is really nervous
about ‘rubbles’ from the disaster-stricken area. This being our staring point and wishing to
continue the trees ‘story’, not making ‘recycled’ products easily such as park benches.

55. After discussions, we’ve got an idea transforming them into iPhone cases that include a
Pocket Geiger Counter, a radiation sensor for smart phone. Pocket Geiger Counter KIT is
developed by radiation-watch.org, an open and non-profit project to develop cheap and
smart survey meter for everyone. The project is supported by volunteer engineers and
designers inside/outside Japan, and the survey meters have been fabricated in a factory
survived in the disaster. At first, they published the project at Kickstarter in July 2011 then
released as a kit one month later at low price.

56. After that, they released the 2nd generation model as an assembled product in February
2012. The model is very small and doesn’t require batteries since they implemented energy
harvesting circuit from the audio output. They collaborated with High Energy Accelerator
Research Organization in Japan and Dutch Metrology Institute.

57. This is the first prototype of the iPhone case. The top side is like this,

58. and the bottom side is like this.

59. In the airplane In Portland
I measured the radiation doze rate at various places including this building. We’d like to
explore possibilities of productizing this in collaboration with Radiation-Watch.org and
woodwork factories in the disaster-stricken area.

60. Sketching Disruptive Innovations
Reverse Innovations in ‘Developed’ Countries
• Low-cost scintillation based radiation dosimeter have been
developed after the earthquake
• Now implemented in smart phones
$2,000 (Polimaster PM1703M) $250 (S.T. Corporation Air Counter EX)
Sketching in Hardware 2012 | Sketching Disruptive Innovations | Shigeru Kobayashi (IAMAS / f.Labo)
Now, ‘Reverse Innovations’ have drawn attention, and reverse innovations can be happen in
what is called ‘developed’ countries. For instance, scintillation counter was expensive before
the nuclear power plant accident. One year later, we can purchase almost same quality model
at 10% plus a little bit. I seriously don’t like the accident, but big changes of the society
invoked this kind of innovations.

61. Sketching Disruptive Innovations
Conclusions & Challenges For The Future
• Sketch to innovate is the key
• How to make communities?
• How to design curriculums to teach design thinking?
• How to develop system to share derivatives? Making front end apps
for social repositories such as GitHub?
• Industrial waste can be atoms?
Sketching in Hardware 2012 | Sketching Disruptive Innovations | Shigeru Kobayashi (IAMAS / f.Labo)