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Designing without limits in a world without limits

December 12, 2013 by Krish Shah
Computer aided design is the backbone of designing products and machinery. It used to design 3-D mechanical products. It was developed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., a subsidiary of Dassault Systems. SolidWorks is currently used by over 2 million engineers and designers at more than 165,000 companies worldwide.The average revenue for SolidWorks is about 483 million dollars. it was released in 1993 by Jon Hhirtchisk at M.I.T.and has sold over 1.5 million licenses world wide since. It is dubbed the most popular C.A.D. (computer aided designing) software in the world. It is so popular that it has been installed onto every computer at Penn State and a requirement for all aspiring engineers to know.

At first, i thought it was frankly a pain to operate this software but by the end of the semester i realized that it isn’t all that bad. It’s relatively easy to operate and the variety of features it has is great. My dad uses Auto-cad in his industry and he said that Solidworks was actually great and much better and began installing it everywhere in his engineering department! It’s got really cool features like the :
- SolidWorks Simulation is a design validation tool that shows engineers how their designs will behave as physical objects.
- SolidWorks Motion is a virtual prototyping tool that provides motion simulation capabilities to ensure designs function properly.
- SolidWorks Flow Simulation is a tool that tests internal and external fluid-flow simulation and thermal analysis so designers can conduct tests on virtual prototypes.
- SolidWorks Simulation Premium is a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) design validation tool that can handle some multiphysics simulations as well as nonlinear materials.
- SolidWorks Sustainability is a product that measures the environmental impact of designs while they are modeled in SolidWorks
I actually had the chance to use the motion feature for the class project in my Engineering Design class. Our project was to design a go-kart through the course of the semester with the help of 6 lessons, which we learned through the pre-installed tutorials. Pre Installed tutorials, they are literally lifesavers. Solidworks 2014 comes with 100’s of tutorials from the basics to the most advanced procedures on Solidworks so that everyone can learn them.

The motion feature allows users to test their designs in motion. You can test the strength by ramming your go-kart into the wall; personally I think that’s pretty cool cause AutoCad does not have any of these animation features. We also got the opportunity to use Solidworks for the final Solidworks project. I redesigned my grandfather’s table back home, you can read up more about it on my portfolio site: sites.google.com/krish241195 . Another really great feature Solidworks has to offer is the vast variety of material selections. you can use anything for your products from Glass to Gold to Plastic to Wood! As far as my knowledge goes not many other major designing softwares allow users the opportunity of material selections

Although the only issue I have with this software is that is Windows based. I would advise them to expand into the MacBook market sooner than rather than later as it is a great opportunity in this era of engineering design.

Solidworks has recently just launched the newest updated version , simply called Solidworks 14

Solidworks 2014 has the following specs;
Faster system response and automated processes keep you focused on design
Accurate visualizations
Improved user interface and simplified process steps help you get work done faster
Powerful new features and time-saving shortcuts increase design output

The estimated cost for Solidworks 2014 is about $90.

Below are a few more designs created using Solidworks (not by me though)

Bibliography:
- http://www.solidworks.com
- http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.static/sw2013info.html
- Pictures: google.come
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One for all, and all for one!

December 10, 2013 by Krish Shah
As people get richer, they invest more in technology, leading to new inventions and innovative products. But the money they invest, where is that stored? Credit Cards? Debit Cards? Yes, and most owners of a debit/card usually have more than one in their wallets. I for one, have 2, one Indian and one American. Often people use the wrong card at times, and many other problems, like people might loose one of their cards and begin to worry. Usually the various cards in one’s wallet are from different accounts in different banks. So when I spoke to a few people in my EDSGN 100 class, especially the international students, they said that they’d prefer a ‘one card for all system.’ Well a company, namely Coin, has come up with an invention called the coin card.

The Design:

This is a payment card that stores different cards information on it. The thing that makes it different from other cards is the fact that it has a screen and a button on it as displayed below. Also, it stores details and information from various cards and various accounts. For example you can have a Bank of America account synced on it and at the same time have a Dena Bank (an Indian bank) account on it. Say you walk into a store, with the click of a button you can switch which account you want to use and then go ahead and swipe it. Voila! The card has a long lasting battery in it, which lasts for about 2 years per se. The battery bring up the issue of it being harmed by water, but good thing is that its water-resistant !

The Coin Card is linked with Apple, so to add a card you have to use unique specific apple supplemental software. The card has pre installed Bluetooth 4.0 system in it, the ones smartphones have. And apart from that, the Coin application (only on apple) is said to be really helpful. Say you pay from your Coin and leave it at the cashier’s desk at Macy’s. When you reach a certain distance (about 40m) the Bluetooth feature communicates from the card to your phone alerting you about it. Oh and speaking about Macy’s, you can also store ALL reward cards on the Coin giving the consumers and added advantage and you might question about theft of the coin, if you loose one card you loose all? Valid question. But you can simply deactivate the coin card through your smartphone since the 2 are linked and incase you’re wondering ,yes it is ATM compatible!

So here we can see that all the existing problems with the current payment cards, all vanish with the invention of the Coin Card. One of the best and most helpful inventions of the 2013 calendar year. It is set to go on sale early 2014 and would be for about $100.

Bibliography:
- https://onlycoin.com/
- http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/20/technology/innovation/coin-card-startup/
- http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/20/coin-credit-card/
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Run out of land? Make an Artificial Island!

December 9, 2013 by Krish Shah
DIALOGUE BLOG

The one city that is known for designing architectural marvels is definitely the city of Dubai. From the highest tower in the world to an artificial island, this city is definitely changing the world and the way we see it. Artificial islands you ask? YES. The palm jumeirah is an artificial archipelago created using the technique of land reclamation.

It was designed by a company called Nakheel and developed by HHCP architects after its development in 2005, the shoreline of Dubai increased by a total of approximately 320 miles and doubled the length of the Dubai coastline

The design:

It is a fine example of bio mimicry. Inspired from the shape of the Palm tree (hence the name). The island has 17 fronds that extend out into the sea and has an area of about 5x5km. Which is massive.

An interesting fact is that is was made out of only sand and rocks and no concrete. Rumor has it that the Sheikh wanted to make the artificial island as natural as possible. Did you know? The Sheikh himself designed the design of these islands. “If god wanted an island in the shape of the palm, he would have put one, but he did not, so we will” are the words the designers of the palm jumeirah have said.

It was made using 5.5 million m³ of rock and 94 million m³ of sand. One might wonder how it resists erosion in the middle of the gulf coast? Well the answer to that is that the sand, covered by an erosion-preventing water-permeable geo-textile, makes up the breakwater’s lowest layer. One-ton rocks cover the sand, and two layers of large rocks weighing up to six tons each cap the structure. A “toe” placed by a floating crane sits inside the Crescent. The breakwater also has two 328-foot openings on each side to eliminate stagnation in the 16 narrow, deep channels. These gaps allow water to completely circulate every 13 days.

Sand being used in the construction as displayed below

To get the complex shape just right, designers and contractors use Differential Global Positioning Systems to plot the palm and ensure the sand placement within 0.39 of an inch. More about this in mentioned in the video below. Since it is located mid-water, waves were posing to be a threat. To eliminate this issue, wave blockers were constructed all around the perimeter of the island. They are about 3m high. (Average wave= 2m). The base of these stoppers and the island as such were constantly monitored during construction process with the help of deep-sea divers. They check for the proper alignment and placement of the rocks beneath the surface to ensure its stability. However even though this is the most audacious engineering project to ever be built it has been coming a criticism lately. People have been talking about what would happen when sea levels rise due to global warming and there has been a projected storm in Dubai once every 100 years. Also earthquakes are projected to be on a Richter scale of 6, relatively high for a ‘sand and rock’ structure to withstand. Nevertheless, building an artificial island in the middle of no where with only sand and rock to attract tourist’s and set up a new place for hotels, residence and leisure, only a city like Dubai could have done that.

Bibliography:
- http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/dubai-palm1.htm
- http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/dubai-palm.htm
- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/gps.htm
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGlzeCbM-Ek
- pictures from www.google.com
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Kevlar: Design for Safety

November 21, 2013 by Krish Shah
Designing in the world of war is a very important area in today’s world. The ‘War Market’ has presented several opportunities for engineers and inventors to aid them in better combat or give them any tactical advantage over their enemies. So while people were busy trying to make make weapons stronger and more deadly, in 1970 DuPont created something called ‘Kevlar Ballistic Fibre. ’ Ever since Kevlar has been used in the widespread manufacture of bulletproof vests. And that’s what brings me to choose it for my blog on “Design for safety.” Cause protecting yourself is more important that killing the enemy.

The Design:

It’s basically an item of personal armor that absorbs the impact from the firearm shot at the person. Earlier, in WWI, soldiers wore these body armor suits, which were made of metal, these were relatively heavy and moving around on the warfront was really difficult for the fighters. The mean weight for these body shields was about 18kg’s and could withstand impact from bullets at about 820 m/s (mean figures). The cost of production of these vests in the mid 1900’s was also relatively high because they were made out of metal. A solution to all these problems came in the late 1960’s when DuPont developed a fiber called Kevlar. Kevlar is a manmade organic fiber. Its Structural formula is (-CO-C₆H₄-CO-NH-C₆H₄-NH-]_n

Body Shields:

It has a combination of properties allowing for high strength with low weight, high chemical resistance, and high cut resistance. It is also flame resistant; does not melt, soften, or flow; and the fiber is unaffected by immersion in water. Seems like a perfect fit to solve the crisis of bulletproof vests being heavy and expensive. It is an organic fiber, which means it’s cheap to. Kevlar has been developing over the years

Kevlar 29, introduced in the early 1970s. It was the primary generation of bullet resilient fibers developed and helped to make the production of flexible, concealable body armor practical for the first time. In 1988, He presented the succeeding generation of Kevlar fiber, called Kevlar 129. According to DuPont, this fabric offered increased protection capabilities against high power shots such as the 9mm FMJ. In 1995, Kevlar Correctional was announced, which offers puncture resistant technology against puncture type threats.

The latest addition to the Kevlar line is Kevlar Protera, which DuPont presented in 1996. He contends that the Kevlar Protera is a high-performance fabric that allows lighter weight, more flexibility, and greater ballistic protection in a vest design due to the molecular structure of the fiber. Its tensile strength and energy-absorbing capabilities have been increased by the development of a new spinning development process.

However now, there are more and more fibers being developed to replace Kevlar. To list a few:

Dyneema: Dyneema has an extremely high strength-to-weight ratio is light enough that it can float on water, and has high energy absorption characteristics ( even higher than Kevlar)

Twaron: this fiber uses 1,000 or more finely spun single filaments that act as an energy sponge, absorbing a bullet’s impact and quickly scattering its energy through engaged and adjacent fibers. Because more filaments are used, the impact is scattered more quickly this allows maximum energy absorption at minimum weights while enhancing comfort and flexibility.

But however the reason I chose to write about Kevlar is because is was the first of it’s kind. Twaron and Dyneema might have grown to become stronger and replace Kevlar, but however they are innovations whereas Kevlar was an invention.

Bibliography:
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Out of ideas? Turn towards nature

November 18, 2013 by Krish Shah
We know how competitive the sport of swimming is and how the races are won by the tiniest of tiniest margins after swimming for even a mile. So swimmers accept any tactical advantage they would be offered. It’s award winning design was created by Speedo in the year 2000 and all the swimmers taking part in the 2000 Olympic games were using the swimsuit. It was called the “fast skin” swimsuit. It was an incredible success. The speedo swimmers using these suits broke 13 of the 15 records in the Sydney Olympics and won 83% of all swim medals. The Fast skin suit reduced drag by 4% but the ultimate swimsuit was designed for the 2008 Olympic games where Michael Phelps wore the newly designed “LZR Suit” which aided him in breaking 8 World Olympic Records single handedly. This Suit is a great example of Biomimicric design and another fact about it is 92% of the athletes that wore the LZR suit won a medal in the Beijing 2008 Olympic games. That spells success for you right there!

The Design:

It (the suit) is inspired from sharkskin. Seen under an electron microscope, sharkskin is made up of countless overlapping scales called dermal denticles(or “little skin teeth”). The denticles have grooves running down their length in alignment with water flow. These grooves disrupt the formation of eddies, or turbulent swirls of slower water, making the water pass by faster. The rough shape also discourages parasitic growth such as algae and barnacles.So the designers tried to replicate this design onto a swimsuit to provide the users with the ultimate tactical advantage for these close margin races. The denticles I spoke about above, scientists managed to replicate them on to the swimsuits.

Unlike the fast skin suits, the drag is reduced by a staggering 10% and so is the pressure drag. This is made possible because the swimmers body is compressed in a more streamlined shape, which reduces the pressure drag.

Due to the design of the denticles the viscosity drag is also cut down. Viscosity drag is a very important factor and probably the one whose cut down leads to enhanced performance (can see with difference in the fast skin suit and LZR suit). The last factor that enhances performance of the swimmer is that the buoyancy is assisted by entrapping air within the swimsuit which allows a swimmer to be higher in the water and consequently focus their effort on horizontal propulsion.

However these suits were banned in 2012 London Olympics games as they were given a label of being ‘Technology Doping” but however I don’t think that should’ve happened for the simple fact that it was a fantastic design which was not breaking any rules. People referred to these suits as a performance-enhancing drug which according to me is absolute rubbish. But Sport being sport and design being design I’ll bet the intersection of technology and competition isn’t over.

Bibliography:
1. http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/7-amazing-examples-of-biomimicry/copying-mother-nature
2. http://www.symscape.com/blog/swimsuit-banned-as-technology-doping
3. http://www.speedo.co.uk/speedo_brand/insidespeedo/history/index.html
4. google.com for images
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Allianz Arena: The Mecca of Munich

November 2, 2013 by Krish Shah
Soccer is a religion for most people in Europe and the stadium where games are held are nothing short of Mecca.The Allianz Arena is Munich, is considered one of Germany’s finest architectural structure and one of the best stadiums in the world today. The stadium was an alternative to the existing Olympiastadion in light of the 2006 Football World Cup. A picture of the Olympiastadion is shown below

The problems with the design of the Olympiastadion were that it did not provide customer satisfaction during the course of the games. And no customer satisfaction would lead to a bad name for the country during the world cup. The fans were too far away from the pitch. People would often say “id rather watch the game at home than at the Olympiastadion.” The players themselves did not enjoy playing there and nor did the commentators enjoy commentating. Martin Tyler (Commentator) said that he refused to commentate a match where the best teams play in the worst stadium over and over again. The newly built Allianz Arena is the home stadium for FC Bayern Munich and 1860 Munchen.

The Design
- Stadium has a capacity of 66000 seats spread over 3 rings of tiers.
- It was designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron
- The most unique feature of this design is the way the stadium beautifully changes its exterior color depending on the teams playing. When Bayern Munich play the stadium turns into a mix of Red and White and while 1860 Munchen hosts games at the Allianz Arena turns to Blue and White and when the National team plays it turns white.
- The stadium also features a hydraulic entrance system which lifts a part of the pitch to allow the players to enter the pitch when its time for action!
- The Stadium can take up 3 colors or a mixture in any combination of Blue, White, and Red.
- With a power consumption of 506kWh and 25344 long life fluorocent tubes it is the first and only stadium of it’s kind.
- It also holds the record for the largest L.E.D. display in Europe.
How does the stadium change its color?

The exterior of the arena is made of transparent materials, which form a blanket around the whole structure.

The arena consists of lights of the 3 colors which are inserted in it’s façade. It has about 2750 illuminated panels It has a Consumption of 506 kWh supplied by 5 transformers. The stadium is made out of a composition of steel, tin and aluminum to make it sustainable and full proof. This is what earns it the fan’s choice choice award for 2^nd best stadium in Europe.

Bibliography:

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_menu/architecture/stadium_design/munchen_allianz.shtml

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/135586-the-best-football-stadiums-in-europe/page/5

http://www.allianz-arena.de/en/fakten/detaillierte-zahlen/
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Tall & Strong: Burj Khalifa

October 27, 2013 by Krish Shah
The worlds tallest tower , the Burj Khalifa, stands at 828 meters. It holds several records like ‘the tallest free standing structure in the world.’ To have broken several world records, it is obvious that the Khalifas design had to be extravagant. Inside this tower are various things. There is a fine dining restaurant on the 122^nd floor, there are residential apartments, corporate offices, and also an observation deck on the 124^th floor. Apart from this, The Armani hotel is also part of the tower. Can you imagine? A hotel is part of a building and not the building itself!

Getting to the design, in my view, the Burj Khalifa is a fine example of biomimicry. The architects say that the organic inspiration for building the structure the way they did was the hymenocallis flower. Like petals from a stem, the towers wings extend from the central core. One of the architectural engineers, Adrian Smith said that ‘his most inspiring muse was the flower, whose harmonious structure is one of the organizing principles of the towers design.’ The structure of the building has a triple lobed footprint which has been adopted from the structure of the flower. Below is a picture that relates the flower to the structure.

The 3 wings that stick out provide a Y-Shaped structure which In turn gives the tower a stable base configuration which is primarily the most important factor for a 0.8 km building. There are 26 sprial levels which are a part of the building. The function of these is to reduce the cross sectional are of the tower as it heads to the sky. The reason this is done is to maximize the height and wind tunnel testing proved that having a smaller cross sectional area will prove to be safer for climatic changes in Dubai.

Another interesting thing about the Towers design is the unique Lightning protection system. The tip of the tower is covered with these sensitive sensor panels that identify activity in the atmosphere. When the condition of lightning is detected, it identifies the polarity
(+/-) of the charge. Depending on the identified polarity the panels create a potential charge at the top of the tower which is very, very strong. Therefore when there is a strike of lightning coming down on the tower, the panels throw up a lightning strike, which is stronger. This prevents the tower from having to go through any damage. This makes the Burj Khalifa not only the tallest,but definitely also the strongest towers.

Bibliography:
- http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/
- http://gulfnews.com/business/general/unique-sensor-system-deflects-lightning-from-burj-khalifa-1.580777
- http://www.eface.in/lightning-hitting-burj-khalifa-find-how-burj-khalifa-escaped-from-lightning/
- Pictures from Google.com
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Gotta love Wimbledon’s revloutionary retractable roof

September 30, 2013 by Krish Shah
Everyone knows Wimbledon as the worlds most premier championship and the venue of the London 2012 Olympic games. But today it is also a site of a one of a kind motion controlled application, the retractable roof. It is an innovative piece of engineering design and that’s why it intrests me. This design had to be designed so precisely and carefully as there was 0 scope for error at a venue like this for a cause like that.

The design
It is one of a kind because it does not use the conventional hydraulic systems which use hydraulic oil because sometimes that fails to work due to various reasons such as oil leaks or the wrong oil being used. Rather than that, it employs all electronic actuation to control the roof going in and out.

Due to having no hydraulic systems in it and being solely based on electronic functioning. There are 3 key advantages this bridge has to offer.
1. No Noise while operating. Noise could disturb the players and annoy the crowd, therefore this becomes a key advantage
2. No Leakage, this point need not be explained. Visualize Rafa Nadal on game point vs. Djokovic and oil starts leaking from the bridge. Eww. Buzzkill.
3. Total Precision, lower costs in the long run. However the initial set up costs would’ve been more expensive than using a conventional hydraulic jack system. But here, at Wimbledon, I guess they’d rather spend more than having a breakdown during a match.
The design for the roof has no president as such. It is incredibly complex design due to its 17000 square feet of fabric covering and massive steel trusses and other structural factors (which I couldn’t understand cause im not an engineer, YET.) The roof is controlled via a panel, which looks something like this:

As it is custom made specifically for the roof, it can be configured to match any new specification or requirement, for example sunshade mode or championship modes(get to them later) which have been configured to the system by Moog (The developers of the roof). An advantage of this is that the overall functionality of the roof keeps increasing, for example, it was designed keeping the rain factor in mind, later Moog figured that it could be a solution to the problem of the suns glare to provide shading to different stands and also the tennis court as a whole.

The Roof offers 4 modes due to its innovative adaptability feature. The press of just ONE button activates each of these unique modes. People like you and I could also operate this major roof at the grandest stage of them all.

1)   Move To Park Position

2)   Move to Championship Mode

3)   Deploy & Close Roof

4)   Sunshade Mode (Mentioned earlie and shown below)

Consumer Response:

This roof has really provided tennis fans like myself 3 key advantages:
No weather delays ever again,
An enhanced spectator experience
Assured t.v. Coverage.

“The customers are now very happy with this, actually they were, all along”
– John Biggin, SCX Special Projects.

“I think after spending a little more time and certainly a lot more money, we have finally got a roof that is excellent for the environment and works to best of the games needs and therefore is very successful.”
– Ian Bartlett, Moog.

This design is definitely a technological achievement and a state of the art design. Also it is another example of how technology is penetrating into the sport market for Kaizen*

*Kaizen is Japanese process of continuous improvement.

Bibliography:

http://www.moog.com/about/industrial-group/centre-court-s-new-retractable-roof-relies-upon-moog-high-performance-technology/

http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/203847.html

http://www.ideasinmotioncontrol.com/2009/08/wimbledon-moogs-design-is-moving-on-up.html#.UkopSmSKJco
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Fantasy Football (Oops, I mean Soccer)

September 28, 2013 by Krish Shah
What is fantasy football?
Fantasy football is an online game that includes the selection of a soccer team that earns points depending on how well they play in a match. This is a game that allows every soccer fan to be a manager/coach for his/her own team. Players buy/sell players every week with a deduction of points for each transfer you make. There are several types of fantasy games like fantasy football (American Football), Fantasy Cricket, and Fantasy premier league, which is personally my favorite.

The Design:
Fantasy Premier League, namely my favorite type of fantasy game is based in and around the English Premier League (soccer) , from the 20 available teams and nearly 550 footballers, you have to pick a team of 15 players. You can have up to 3 players from a team. 2 Goalkeepers, 5 Defenders, 5 Midfielders, 3 Forwards. Sound’s easy doesn’t it? But let me tell you something, I’ve been playing this game since 6 years now, and the effort and time it takes to keep updating your team is unreal! For every goal scored, saves made and assist (pass that leads to a goal) your team is rewarded points, Every week players are allowed to make one change to their team but at cost of 4 points. This means 4 points would be subtracted from your overall team total. So when we as managers usually make our team, we make it in a way that it could usually last us for more than 2 weeks. There are many ways of playing this game, you could create private competitive leagues with your friends, you could even compete with your country, fans of the same team or the world in general! There are usually prizes for winning. This year the Barclays Premier League is offering the winner an all expense paid trip to matches of their choice. How cool is that!

3 people created this concept in 1963: Wilfred Winkenbach, Bill Tunnell, Scotty Stirling. 3 of these guys had good marketing skills and good contacts in the media to publicize the concept of fantasy football. Tunnell was the former Raiders public relations manager, while Stirling, a former reporter. So they had enough of resources to publicize this innovate idea. It was first started as a game for American football , Fantasy Sports are changing what it is to watch sports. . This design concept is appealing to me because they have given another meaning to the phrases “If I was a manager I would have not sold Cristiano Ronaldo” or “If I was the manager I would have not played 4 defenders”. Well now you can, you can have an experience of being a manager and let’s see how good you actually are. As a soccer fan, I can definitely agree that after fantasy premier league the way I watch soccer has changed. Every game has something to offer you, either a player you want to score or a team you want to concede so that your own team can do well. Fantasy Sports are definitely one of kind. They involve real people acting as virtual managers managing virtual teams built from real players obtaining virtual points that depend of the real events of the game. It’s a funny world.

Yeah, gone are the days when sport was merely all about physical activity and fitness, it’s a new ballgame now. This actually helps get more and more viewers and fans for the sport, because now people who don’t play the sport are also attracted to the television to know how their team has done, therefore more viewers and therefore more fans of the sport. Studies show that fantasy spots have a positive impact in workplaces:
- Improved employee morale. Let’s face it, people love the game.
- Increased interdepartmental communication. Fantasy football gives employees a reason to talk to other staffers they may not ordinarily talk to.
- Better customer relations.
There are now 2.5 million players of fantasy premier league ever since its inauguration in 2003 making it the biggest fantasy sporting game in the world. It was pretty obvious since Soccer is the most viewed sport in the world, that it’s fantasy game would be the most played. However it is broadening it’s horizons by extending out to cricket. In 2011 a cricket version of the game was published too. I’d like to conclude saying that I have to go manage my team as game day is tomorrow and I plan to get a few free tickets to a Manchester city game by the end of this year.

Bibliography:
- http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
- http://fantasy.premierleague.com/rules/
- http://listverse.com/2010/07/24/10-most-watched-sports-and-their-greatest-moments/
- http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2013/09/the-real-workplace-benefits-of-fantasy.html?page=all
- google.com (pictures)
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Apple’s Touch ID, Winner or just another modification?

September 27, 2013 by Krish Shah
September 10th 2013 ,was the day the iPhone 5s was announced. On looking at it is seems just the same as the iPhone 5. But there’s definitely more than meets the eye. Being an Apple fanatic i was very eager to know the new modifications. Apart from the A7 chip and the M7 coprocessor for brilliant efficiency and magnificent camera, the improvement that caught my attention was Touch ID.

What is Touch ID?
“Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world, It’s always with you, and no two are exactly alike” – Dan Riccio, Hardware Engineer, Apple
Touch ID is a system which protects all the information on the users IPhone without actually having a password or passcode. All you simply do, is place either your thumb or your index on the home button, it has an inbuilt scanner that would scan your fingerprint to verify your identity. Once verified, it will unlock your phone in a matter of seconds. This will most definitely enhance the IPhone users experience. It cannot only be used as a passcode but also as a way to authorize purchases on the worldwide App Store. This personally is really convenient for users, i know as an Apple user myself: how annoying it is to always enter your password with one uppercase letter , one number and one symbol every-time you want to download a song or an application. The software allows you to add multiple fingerprints and adding them is relatively easy. It’s a 4 step process: Settings>>General>>Privacy>>Add Fingerprint. That’s about it!

Touch ID is more than just rampant technology for technology sakes, it’s a beautiful piece of design. The more you use it, the better it gets at recognizing your fingerprint. The button is made from sapphire crystals, which are really strong and protect the hardware inside of it. The outlining silver ring acts as a sensor and tells the smartphone to start reading your print. Also, the sensors can read the fingerprint in absolutely any orientation. All the information is stored inside the new enclave A7 Chip.

A little more on Touch ID:
Touch ID has bolstered the way we look at privacy on smartphones. The classic android design lock has provided good security for a while, but Apple has redefined it now. I feel that this is definitely going to reduce IPhone thefts in the world. Smartphone theft is a serious luring problem in the world. It is said that more than 80 IPhones on an average , are stolen everyday. This feature will definitely reduce the need to steal because once stolen there will be no solid way of entering the phone without the fingerprint of the registered user, unless of-course, hacking.

Consumer Response to Touch ID
Even though this sort of technology already exists in the world, Apple did brilliantly to market Touch ID. I mean a record 9 million IPhone sales in the first 3 days! Wow! That is really redefining smartphone success! Apple’s touch id was actually penetrating an existing market but with such a wide consumer base and exceptional marketing skills have actually seemed to be skimming the milk off the market! But let’s face it, Only Apple has the power to do such a thing. However, People were unnerved about the loss of their privacy due to Apple having their fingerprint information on their database. Apple did deny that this information would be stored on their servers or even backed up to ICloud, So what the hell? No problemo.

All I can say with Apple being Apple, and 9 million purchases in the first 3 days, This IPhone is definitely not going down to Samsung without a fight!

Bibliography:
- http://gizmodo.com/jony-ive-and-craig-federighi-talk-design-user-experien-1398715146
- http://www.cellular-news.com/story/58134.php
- http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/09/23First-Weekend-iPhone-Sales-Top-Nine-Million-Sets-New-Record.html
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