For this week our main focus’ will be discovering past art patents and writing our memorandum. Past art patents are patents that have already been put into place, we use these to be able to check to see if what we are designing has already been patented and if those patents are already in place. They are also helpful in getting ideas on what can be continued or what needs to be improved during our innovation process.
While searching for prior art’s we tried to focus on a wide range of breast pumps to gain a full understanding of the multiple ways in which breast pumps have been innovated and discover the benefits and disadvantages of these pumps. One of the types of pumps that we looked into were manual pumps, more specifically, the Manual Breast Pump with Stimulation which is an example of a cheap and portable pump that allows mothers to manipulate the pressure that is being used to extract the milk. These are good qualities for a pump two have but this certain type of pump also places a burden on the mother because this can not be used as a hands free pump, also this also places a burden on the mother because she can only pump one breast at a time.
Though there’s also examples of pumps that solve the solve for the problem of not being automatic and only pumping one breast, like the Programmable Electric Breast Pump, which is able to stimulate the breast by alternating the pressure to mimic a baby’s suckling, and but it also allows the mother to be able to set the pressure to her own liking to make it more comfortable and multiple user-friendly. Though this pump solves for the automatic and dual pump problems, it poses another problem of portability, noise and money.
An innovation to most of these problems that both the Manual Breast Pump with Stimulation and the Programmable Electric Breast Pump is the Hands Free Portable Breast Pump System. This is a breast pump that is build into a bra where the battery and milk holder is built into a band that goes around the waist. This makes the pump more portable and less noticeable, but offers little storage space for the milk and only pumps one breast at a time. Along with making the switching of breast that are being pumped difficult since the pump is only built into one side.
What mothers need is a hands free, cheap, portable, and quiet pump that allows them to be able to live a life outside of their children. But is also feasible for mothers of low-income so that every woman has equal opportunity to obtain this pump.
A memorandum is a business proposal that is used to be able to go about putting a plan into action, whether that be a plan of research, plan of approval or a plan of action. There are multiple sections under a memorandum that is used to be able to organize the thought process that goes into the proposal. These sections are the “Introduction” which is how we address who we are, lead into what the problem that’s going to be, and the way in which we discovered it. The “Project Goal and Overview” where you explain how the problem affects others, describe why we chose the problem, discuss interview information and talk about the current design idea. The “Background” were you describe existing examples, talk about the problems, and how we are going to solve their problems. Along with the “Market and Value” where you discuss the future market of the product, explain the potential profit and tie this into the current need for the innovation.
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