Discussion – Prototyping

Prototyping

Part 1:

Prototyping can be a good approach for a design project, but it is sometimes overused. Please respond to the following in not more than 250 words:

• Identify one weakness or hazard associated specifically with prototyping. Do not repeat an example from the textbook or one that has been posted by another student.
• Explain what you can do to mitigate that risk.
• **Teacher’s Note: ” I happen to be a big fan of prototyping. It offers lots of benefits, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right approach for every problem. Please think about ways that prototyping can lead to trouble, and how you might avoid those problems in a real project. “

Part 2:

Then, in a separate post, follow up on one of your fellow students in substantive posts of up to 200 words that further the discussion. For example, you may support or politely challenge a post with your own insights or experience, make a suggestion, or ask probing follow-up questions.

Support your positions with explanations and/or sources, as appropriate, but do not quote. (choose one)

a. Prototype or prototyping is a function that is forever changes. A prototype is meant to for users to operation and get hands on practical application to learn of the device. The main weakness or downfall is the security parameters. Take a radio that operates on frequency modules (FM) from 30-87mhz oce you add security measures like crypto it will rrestrict the FM range significantly. Reason being it limits the range to allow secure networks to be private and not easily intercepted. Prototypes are the means of identifying a new product with all good qualityfeatures to entice a buyer. look forward to the next lesson as this one was a great one.

R/S

AUGUST

b. Tesla Inc’s electric self-drivable big-rig truck is a good example of excessive development time of a prototype. A sleek modern image of the prototype was released in Nov 2017 boasting that the truck would be heavily backlit, and a tall silhouette with futuristic angular headlights. However, Tesla recently announced that it was delaying the unveiling of the self-driving truck in order to focus attention on smoothing out Model 3 production issues and helping devastated Puerto Rico switch over to solar power. The truck was supposed to be release in September 2017, but release date now has been delayed to 2020. Tesla also has other high-profile projects such as SpaceX and SolarCity. The delay can be mitigated by focusing on the project at hand and by stopping to divert resources to other projects. Focus and dedicating resources to the project will be key to mitigating the delay.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/10/06/elon-musk-delays-self-driving-truck-focus-model-3-puerto-rico-power/741050001/

c. The prototyping that I identified with is the Amazon Go store and App that is prototyped in Seattle- you have to go to an amazon go convenience store download the  Amazon Go App to your phone and connect it to your Amazon account and choose a payment method and this will generated a QR code on your phone that you have to scan at a station at the front of the store. Ceiling-mounted cameras and sensors throughout the store tracked any items you take off the shelf and charged you for them automatically when you leave. It’s a first-of-its-kind concept from Amazon and designed to do away with the most inconvenient part of the convenience store experience: waiting in the checkout line. One of the weakness to this prototype is returns-should you opt to return the item that you purchased you can not just put it back on the shelf, you have to find an associate if one happens to be around and helpful. To mitigate this problem I would have a return station that you can place the item on a scaled box that you close up and when you close up the box it will read the return item and check the weight and product number and if everything matches up with the product code for at item, then your money will be refunded to your account.

source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/01/we-test-the-worlds-first-amazon-go-watch-you-shop-grocery-store/

d. One weakness or hazard with prototyping can be the prototype is just that a prototype. When given a prototype of a system everything in the prototype might not end up being in the final result after testing the prototype. A customer might like overall processes in the initial prototype and let the project go further into development. When it gets near completion some aspects had to be removed or replaced to work properly. Additionally prototyping can be expensive depending on what system is used making all people involved upset if the original design is not followed as they thought.