Saturday, December 15, 2012

Process of Invention & Innovation



The following discussion is refer to the link below :


In pace with the lecture, we've learned how to think creatively. Moving up to the next stage, we will enter the process of invention and innovation. First of all, I will need to define both invention and innovation first, after all, they are both different thing.


A picture is more than a thousand words, here's the relationship between invention and innovation.





As we can see, invention is very much different from innovation. It all started with an idea. When you got a new idea that no one thought of before, then you determined to comply it. Make the impossible possible. In that case, it is your invention. On the other hand, innovation is the process of improving or improvising invention corresponding to the needs of society or individual. That's why, a fresh new idea can never be an innovation. It’s like the relationship between computer program and patch, patch is a software that is designed to fix problem that is reported error by user, or update the computer program, but without the computer program, the patch is useless. So, innovation is impossible without invention too.

Enough defining invention and innovation, let’s talk about the process. In iP Frontline (www.ipfrontline.com), Mr. Greg Mills had written an article about the process of invention in year 2000. According to his article, there are 10 steps of invention process, but I’ll simplify the whole article to be more understandable. There goes the 10 steps:



-Realize the weakness of current technology
Observing the weak spot of technology nowadays and invent something to overcome the weakness.


-Tolerance of new things in the society
The society should tolerate new things that are invented but not stigmatizing the invention.


-Invention must be technologically possible
            Inventions that are not possibly complied are just a dream.


-there must be reward for the inventors
            The credit of inventors should not be ignored especially by plagiarism. That's why 
            copyright is advocated


-The inventor conceives the basic solution
Inventors must invent contrarily to solve the specific weakness of current technology.


-The solution is refined and tested
The value of invention must be certain because once the invention is spread, there is no turning back. Inventions that are useless will kill an inventor’s reputation.

         
-The solution must be wildly known to materially benefit society
A great invention ought to solve problem that most people would face in their life, automatically, the society will recognize the invention.


-The solution is obviously an improvement
The invention must 100% overcome the weakness of technology and definitely strengthen current technology.


-The invention is fully integrated only when it replaces the prior art
Along with the growth of technology, inventions are also generated because the advanced technology had turned something impossible into possible.


-The invention ages abruptly when it is improved upon or replaced by a newer invention
Human will always improve, whenever an invention is invented, innovation will soon follow, or else, a better invention is invented later on. This is the cycle of invention.





As I said before, invention and innovation are very much two different thing, as for the process of both invention and innovation too. Here’s a mind map I’ve found on www.innovationexchange.net, it is written by Mr. Simon Berry with the title ‘The Innovation Process’ in year 2007.







In my personal opinion, the process of innovation is like maintenance of an invention, to determine whether the invention had faced any problems, whether the invention needed an upgrade, whether the invention is satisfying the user. To do that, understanding what users think about the invention is a must. From the user’s opinion, we can know the effectiveness of the invention, from user’s complaints. We can improve the invention by solving those problems, increase the satisfaction of users towards the invention. This, is called innovation.




Lastly, I've drawn a few cartoons to give you a concept about the difference of invention and innovation. Enjoy!
















Here's the link to my researched website:


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