Project Manager: Alright ? Alright . Thank you for coming to this third meeting of the uh uh design group . Um I think we uh made some definite progress at the last one um and come up with some interesting uh uh w suggestions for our our new remote control . Um I'll again very quickly uh just present some notes of that meeting . Um the the the problem with existing remote controls , we felt , was that they're ugly um and that people are prepared to pay a premium for something better . Um they've got lots of buttons on them that uh people don't use and find difficult to learn . Um and people lose them . And We we thought that f for our our new uh uh remote control that everybody will want to rush out and buy , um that we're  we should look at speech recognition rather than r rather than buttons , and that if we have any buttons they should be very few of them and only for those functions that are actually identified that that people use . That um we want to go for uh a long lasting battery that we gua we guarantee for the life of the uh uh the product and a shape that will be instantly recognisable , A_ um as uh a trendy remote control , and and B_ as uh a Real Reaction product . So that w uh when people are uh happy with that , they will they will want to buy uh everything else from us . Uh  Okay . So again um , I'll we'll have the three three presentations from the the the three of you and then uh we'll we'll make a a final a final uh decision . Um and the the decisions that we need to to make today , finally , are um what energy source we want to use , whether i it is practical to use uh um a a a long lasting one . And uh I I think our discussion was around the fact that uh if we're gonna go for uh a long lasting power supply , then basically it's uh sealed for life and uh if anybody does manage to run one down , we'll we'll give them another one . And uh it it'll be uh , you know , prominently displayed as part of the th the advertising literature that it's um um , you know , for life , guaranteed for life . Um now the the the internal chip um and uh this is where I need uh uh Kate's expert advice
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: and given that th this has to to go to market as quickly as possible um d d do we go for a custom designed chip ? Or or do we buy one off the shelf and and programme it ourselves ? Uh I mean I'm I'm I'm n not an expert on these things , but presumably , there must be loads of 'em already on the market that we can modify .
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: But uh that that's uh that's your area of expertise . And then the uh , you know , the the overall design of the case uh is is is Kendra's field and uh
User Interface: Industrial Designer: Project Manager: we we had some discussions last time as as to uh how we might go forward and we'll we'll finalise those uh da today . Um and thi this is all linked in with the the the user interface , whether we p um go for voice , buttons , or or a bit of both . Uh and then uh , you know , f for the next meeting Kate will be looking at the the the s the look , feel and design , Kendra the uh ho how the the user actually uses it and and Andrew of course the the product evaluation . And uh Kate and Kendra will be producing a a model for us to uh to look at .
Industrial Designer: User Interface: Project Manager: Uh so , if if we can have the the three presentations again please , and uh um p perhaps you'd like to start uh k .
Industrial Designer: Okay . Um Project Manager: Kate . Oh I'm sorry , oh sorry .
Industrial Designer: Um p there we go .
Project Manager: Industrial Designer: 'Kay , I'll just be talking about the components design . And  Okay , basically I just uh looked at what exactly do remotes do . Uh basically they wait for you to press a key or give a voice command and then this is translated uh into uh light signals which are then seen by the T_V_ . Uh the materials we're gonna need to look at uh the two big ones are the integrated circuit chip and the battery and the in integrated circuit chip uh works in conjunction with a a diode transistor or resonator , uh two more resistors and a capacitor and the battery works in conjunction with a resistor and a capacitor . Um . Uh basically what happens is you'll press a number or give a voice command and this creates a a connection within the the remote that allows the chip the chip then senses this connection and produces a signal in a Morse code format . This signal's sent to the transistor which amplifies it and then sends it on to the light emitting diode and uh which is then trai changed into a infrared light which is sent to the T_V_ and sort of seen by the T_V_ and which uh changes the channels . Um . Oh . Uh cool . Uh so as for how we should end up uh using this in our remote uh t couple of main questions are the buttons . Uh y the fewer buttons you have , I guess the fewer internal connections and internal codes you're gonna need . Um however uh to n not have buttons or to use a voice commands instead of buttons might make these connections more difficult and uh raise the production cost . That's something we should think about . Also we have to work within the company constraints , and the company has informed me via email that uh they're experts at pushbuttons and that seems to be the most uh cost-effective way of producing it . Um also with battery connections the company has some limits on the batteries we can use , so I was thinking perhaps a combination of solar cells with a back-up basic battery and somehow between the combination of that two we might be able to come up with something that uh will last the the lifetime or the five to ten years and we could still keep that original idea . Um we also need to look at the chips , uh v custom-designed versus off the shelf , and the custom-designed will give us much more flexibility and enable us to incorporate the voice function that we all uh seem to have agreed upon . Um , however that's gonna cost more , but uh the off the shelf is gonna be uh cheaper and it's gonna be allow us to produce it quicker and get out there faster , but it's going to be less flexible with the features , especially things like uh voice activation , which haven't really been used much on remotes , so there's not really chips out there that would be easy to uh to convert ,
Project Manager: Okay ,
Industrial Designer: so if we were uh definitely gonna go with the the voice option we'd probably have to design um our own chip . And that pretty much sums it up .
Project Manager: so how um sorry , can you uh just put that one back up again , please ? Um .
Industrial Designer: Mm . Oh yep , sorry . Yep .
Project Manager: Uh d d d okay , I mean uh inevitably a b a custom design chip is gonna be more expensive . Do we do we know uh by how much ?
Industrial Designer: Mm . Um I don't actually have any price information , no . Project Manager: And and do we know how long it'll take to uh develop a a custom chip .
Industrial Designer: Um it a lot longer than an off the shelf chip . Oh w yeah , we did the the problem is the the the voice technology is not really highly developed ,
Project Manager: Right ,
Industrial Designer: it's sort of still still in an ex experimental form ,
Project Manager: okay .
Industrial Designer: uh so it would uh it's hard to predict the time . Project Manager: Right , I think we need to make a a decision here . Uh given that the company wants this on the market quickly and cheaply ,
Industrial Designer: Mm .
Project Manager: that would appear to uh effectively constrain us to an existing chip and thus therefore conventional button technology . Um uh now before we go round everybody else , does anybody um h have any have anyti ha anything to say about that ?
User Interface: I I just have a question about that . Um does it make a difference if there are just a few commands , for example if you um can pre-programme in like numbers one through ten and pre-programme say , you know , nine channels and then just use the voice recognition to say channel one and then you've programmed in say B_B_C_ four as your channel one , as your favourite , it's like to have a certain number of favourites um
Industrial Designer: W just to to incorporate the voice activation in it is is sorta the trick .
User Interface: and that w
Industrial Designer: Once you've got the whole voice chip in there , then it's pretty much the the world the the sky is your limit ,
User Interface: Okay . Then it doesn't matter . Okay .
Industrial Designer: but to actually the the big step is to actually get the voice activation chips in there and working .
User Interface: Okay .
Project Manager: Cause uh I must say I find it slightly surprising given that , you know , mobile phones incorporate voice activated dialling . So uh um I mean
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: I d d for slightly different well no , I mean , it's if you you speak somebody's name and it'll dial the number for you , so uh bu I mean the this this information is from is this is the internal company information , is it ?
Industrial Designer: Uh bits of it , yeah .
Project Manager: So uh User Interface: Of course mobile phones do tend to be more expensive ,
Industrial Designer: Yes , as well .
Project Manager: User Interface: you know , hundred and fifty pounds or something . As opposed to the twenty Euros , twenty five Euros .
Project Manager: Yeah , mm true , again but if it's without any without any uh p price informations that's uh difficult to uh
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: uh decide .
User Interface: Yeah .
Marketing: Also lots of mobile phones have got a lot of technology in them , not just that , so .
Industrial Designer: Mm .
Project Manager: Yeah , that's that's right . It's like it's it's you can't 'cause mobile phones are expensive , you can't say it's the voice recognition bit that is .
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: But we don't know . Um . I mean uh I su i I mean if given that the um the technology is not well developed and and given that it's it's never been done before , um th th the double risk , uh perhaps we ought to uh stick to uh to buttons , since the last thing we want to do is present a product that doesn't work . Um . Thoughts ?
User Interface: Well , another thought I Marketing: Would User Interface: oh , sorry , go ahead .
Marketing: Oh I was just gonna say mayb maybe it sh like um maybe we can like cut corners somewhere else to bring in over cost .
Project Manager: I mean do w do we think that the voice technology is fundamental to the project ?
Industrial Designer: Uh it's fundament well I mean I guess it it's something we've discussed uh since the the sort of the beginning , so I th I think in in our in our minds it's it's fundamental , but I don't know that the uh the upper echelons of the company would necessarily agree with that , so I think you have to Project Manager: I mean I think we  User Interface: Oh yeah .
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: Hm .
User Interface: Okay .
Industrial Designer: User Interface: Well , I kinda think if we're gonna have the voice recognition for part of it , then maybe we should have it for the whole thing .
Project Manager: Yeah , I I I I I think that's uh Industrial Designer: Mm .
User Interface: And we've been talking about it the whole time .
Project Manager: Yeah , yeah .
Industrial Designer: Mm , mm .
User Interface: Anyway , I'm I'm incli kinda inclined to say that we should just go for it .
Project Manager: Mm , right , okay .
Industrial Designer: Mm .
Marketing: Uh yeah , it's the second most important aspect to users that the device should be technologically innovative .
Project Manager: User Interface: Yeah .
Marketing: From uh my presentation show , so .
Project Manager: Yeah , it should be Marketing: Uh technologically innovative .
Project Manager: Right , okay , so .
Industrial Designer: No ,
Project Manager: Fine . Okay .
Industrial Designer: that sounds good . Mm .
Project Manager: I it will have voice recognition um uh
Industrial Designer: Mm . Cool .
User Interface: Okay .
Project Manager: if if that means uh if that means we can't afford buttons but I mean b b  Industrial Designer: Um Project Manager: second question , do we need the five buttons for channel change , up down , volume up down and on off , just as a a backup or just so that people can uh j j just sit there pressing buttons ?
User Interface: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: Yeah , I I would say we do , yeah .
User Interface: I think so .
Project Manager: Right . Okay . Sorry , d did you want to say anything ? No ?
Industrial Designer: Uh nope ,
Project Manager: Okay .
Industrial Designer: that was it , that was it .

Summary: Industrial Designer proposed to select a combination of solar cells with a back-up basic battery, but Project Manager rejected and preferred a conventional one. In terms of the choice of chips, Industrial Designer pointed out that custom-designed ones were more flexible but would cost more and take a long time, so Project Manager favoured chips off the shelf. However, in view of the significance of technological innovation, the team eventually chose custom-designed ones.