Design Decisions (II) - N64 vs PSX

I was talking to some friends the other day, and an interesting debate about video games sprung up. The question was whether the Nintendo 64 was more profitable than the PlayStation or not. Although they were both machines that allowed people to play games with them, there were several key design decisions that differentiated the two, which resulted in different levels of success.

A Nintendo 64, followed by a PlayStation

Sony opted for an optical disc format for it's games, while Nintendo stuck with it's ROM cartridges. Nintendo's console was also more technologically advanced than the PlayStation in several respects. Though due to the limited memory in ROM cartridges and texture cache, it was more difficult to produce games in this format. As a result, Sony was able to pump out a lot more games at a cheaper price. However, it was much easier to pirate PlayStation games, and this would have cut into profits significantly.

From what I've seen on forums (after trying to look up statistics on this), the general consensus is that these numbers are not available, or just very difficult to find (though most lean towards Sony due to the number of units sold). Either way, Sony's decision to go for a console that uses optical disks greatly helped it with sales of it's next generation console, the PlayStation 2.

Engineering in the Media (I)- Codename: Kids Next Door

All this stuff with the Zen prototyping, and this talk about engineering in the media reminded me of this kids show called "Codename: Kids Next Door". Basically, the cartoon is about 5 children who are part of this huge secret organization run completely by children, and they complete various missions James Bond style. Of course, every spy needs their arsenal of gadgets, and these kids are no exception. Below are examples of the weaponry used in the series:



Hmm...kinda looks like what was going on in studio recently - grabbing whatever is at hand and making something to solve a problem of some sort, in this case, "high-tech" gadgets. Of course, these objects actually work in the series as it's fiction, but who says that these items couldn't be (albeit strange) prototype for a children toy?

Of course, only a select few of these items are created on the fly in the middle of a fight or in a workshop at headquarters, so the design process is neglected onscreen. There's no doubt that there is an element of engineering in these items, but it appears that the media has once again neglected the engineer (remember, these kids are part of a much larger organization, so any designs could be transferred to other divisions in the association).

Maybe engineers aren't deemed cool enough for television? Perhaps the perception of an engineer is that of a glorified technician, or just builds bridges (*Cough*Civil*cough*)? Maybe I'll find more answers after looking more closely at other examples of how engineers are portrayed - I have a few ideas right now, but I'll save judgment until I get a better idea of what things are like (not to mention I need to start preparing for that biology test later this week).

My best guess right now is that they don't want to encourage the children to take things apart and cause more chaos around the house.

Design Requirements for a Digital Wristwatch

Lately, Colin and I have been tinkering with microcontrollers and other fancy electronic doodads. We wanted to post an outline of a project and our progress using things we learned in Praxis and since Colin hasn’t done anything since last week when I told him to post it, I’ll do the first one.

So basically, we wanted to create something useable, and what’s more useable than a wristwatch? We will be presenting some requirements for our design and we hope to be able to show some prototypes and working products. In this post, I’ll walk you through some background info on digital wristwatches and why they are important before showing our first draft of requirements.

History

Truly digital watches were made possibly in 1960 by Bolva through the Accutron wristwatch. This watch used a revolutionary time-keeping method, an electronic tuning fork. The watch also boasted transistors instead of mechanical contacts, which improved life expectancy [1]. This watch paved the way for the first truly digital wristwatches.

This is what they used before the first digital wristwatch was made.

The first digital wristwatch prototype was created by the Hamilton Watch Company and Electro-Data in a joint project in 1972. They were inspired from the then-futuristic watches from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in which they helped to design. It used red LED’s to display time, and it was encased in gold which raised its price to $2,100. After a lot of research, Texas Instruments found out that plastic was a whole lot cheaper than gold, so they brought plastic cased watches costing $20 into the market in 1975. As a result of competition, Pulsar lost $6 million and was soon bought out [2]. Prices soon fell even more, and now you can buy a digital wristwatch at the dollar-store (Ironically, the original pulsar watch has now risen to $18,000 [3]).

“I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

Now LED’s happened to not be the best choice of display. They used up battery life, and therefore most LED watches incorporated some sort of switch that was pressed to display time. Naturally, the men wearing the watches felt they were too macho for this (It's what Colin said) and decided the idea needed to be phased out. Luckily, LCD’s offered the promise of an energy efficient solution, and the first LCD watch was soon unveiled by Seiko in 1973.

After that, technology progressed in leaps and bounds. Companies began shoving as many features into their digital wristwatches as possible such as tiny TV screens, thermometers, dictionaries, phone dialling capabilities, and voice recognition from between 1982 and 1987 [2].

Every engineer should have a tiny TV on their wristwatch for those slow calculus lectures.

And here lies a problem; digital wristwatches are clearly divided in their ability to do everything, and in their competition for simplicity and elegancy from analogue watches. Both poles of the design of a digital wristwatch are valid, but which design to pursue is a difficult design decision. Colin and I have approached this problem in our thought process. Colin felt that he wanted his digital wristwatch design to be simple and elegant, while I wanted mine to be chocked full of functions. We hope that our metrics will be able to include both design decisions as well as any in between.

Simplicity and complexity are both aesthetically pleasing.

Requirements

The watch should have a visible display and should be both aesthetically pleasing and practical.

Display

Visibility: 

The watch should convey information in a clear and concise manor. The time should be visible from at least 30cm away, but the time should not be constantly visible to people 2 classroom seats away to avoid distractions.

The display should also be easy to understand; faster the user can view the time from the watch, the better. 

The watch also needs to be visible at night. 

Information: 

The minimum amount of information allowed is the hours and the minutes. The watch may display more information or compress the minimum information. 

Users should be able to change the time.

Aesthetics

Features: 

Digital watches are in lower demand than analog watches due to their perceived lack of craftsmanship or complexity. Therefore, the more features or functions the watch, the better.

Simplicity: 

Analog watches are aesthetically appealing due to their simplicity. The simpler the watch appear to be, the better. This is defined as the number of visible features and visible user interfaces (displays, buttons). The smaller the number of visible features, the better.

Practicality

Size: 

The size of the wristwatch must not be too small or too large. The dimensions of any side of the watch should not exceed the diameter of the wearer’s wrist, and the watch should not be too tall. The watch should be as small as possible.

Durability: 

The watch needs to be able to withstand a drop from a meter height without damage. This will simulate falling from a pocket. 

The watch should be resistant to rain. 

The battery life of the watch should be as long as possible.

Cost: 

The lower the cost of the watch, the better.

 

[1] http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/time_measurement/1963-306.aspx

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1006534

[3] http://www.oldpulsars.com/