Killer massager

So, I read a post about how a machine (specifically, a neck massage machine) is turning against human beings (specifically, killing a person). And, since I work with patents in the kinesitherapy arts (massage devices), I decided to look for the patent.

The post gave the name of the product, but it did not show what the massage mechanism looked like. After some searching on Google, I found the recall announcement by the FDA. The company name is "King International."

http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/ucm269721.htm
This announcement gave more information about the device.
Location of King International: Beaverton, OR
Year the device started to sell: 2003

After searching some more on google, I found out how the device worked.

http://www.necksolutions.com/shoulder-flex.html

So, this device has a rotating part that has protrusions. It seems like the protrusions got caught on something (necklace or clothing) and strangled a user.

Then, using some quick text searching in Google Patents with terms like "deep massage," "neck" and "floor," the following results came up:
Google Patents Search Results

US Patent # 6,589,192
Name of inventor: King Yiu Chan and Si Ming Du
Address of inventors: Beaverton, OR
Year of patent: 2003
Figure 3 of the invention looks like the second row of figures on the necksolutions.com website.

Rough break for the inventors and it's sad that someone was lost because of a machine gone awry, but I guess these things happen. This was just very interesting to me, being able to connect the things I see in patents to the outside, consumer world. I even told me supervisor about this.

Also, by some rare chance, if anyone owns this device and sees this post, please act according to the FDA recall announcement.

Interesting patents

While skimming through patents, I would note the interesting and funny ones. These are from patent publications available to the public. Here are some (Click image to see larger image):

Garment for a baby with a handle to pick them up.

A vibrating rod that you put in your mouth to prevent from falling asleep

Seatbelt for the toilet?! Actually, it's a bowel massager..to help you do your business.

Apparently, there is more than one patent where you can dispense anesthesia to little children through a toy telephone.

Bubbleman's sink and bathroom..

I just think this picture is funny. It's a portable bath.

There is nothing interesting about this, except that my family has this at home. Looks exactly like it.

Anyone can innovate

Anyone can innovate.

According to an article in MIT Tech Review, a massive amount of consumers are innovators. They purchase products and customize them to fit their needs. They tinker with things they buy. A survey in the UK showed that there are many more tinkers than those employed as product developers and spend twice as much money when compared to company R&D costs. Even still, many companies often do not listen to these independent innovators.

What does this tell you?

You don't need to be employed as an "engineer" or have a formal title like "director of innovation" to be an innovator. Anyone can do it. You determine your own capabilities and pursue them. We may not have access to the resources and funds that industry R&D engineers have. Therefore, independent innovators would just need to be more adaptive and INNOVATIVE with resources and funding. We just need to be creative, which EVERYONE is capable of.

So, putting all these minor innovators and innovations together, it can create a social network for innovation. Everyone else seems to be exploiting social networking, Why not innovation?

[Career] Interview with USPTO

Today, I had a phone interview with a supervisory patent examiner in the imaging and diagnostics field of the biotechnology division. It was a very nice conversation. I asked him plenty of questions about working for the PTO and since he has been there for ~9 years, he knew all the answers. We even talked about the Vibram five fingered shoes.

Some things that stood out to me during our conversation.

• Patent examiners cannot apply for patents because they would have an unfair advantage.
• After working for 2 years at the PTO, you can be eligible for hoteling (or working at home). You would only need to go to the office in Alexandria, VA occasionally. So, patent examiners could work from home anywhere in the country. They would provide you with the laptop, monitor, printer, everything you need to work from home.
• Depending on your GS level, you would need to examine a patent in a certain amount of time. He gave me the example that someone may be expected to examine a patent in 11 hours (i.e. look up all prior art, determine if the invention is patentable, etc).
• Prior to being let loose in the PTO, you will take courses and training for 4 months, 40 hours a week. That's more hours than k-12 and college. However, you do receive a certificate at the end.
• I believe he mentioned that the USPTO plans on hiring 1000 patent examiners a year for a few years. Budgets are being examined all over in the government, but apparently, the US is trying to promote innovation as shown by this activity plus that of the FDA and energy.

A variation of some questions they ask:

• How did you handle a tight time constraint?
• When writing a technical report, what was your plan of action, who was your audience and what was the result of this report?
• How have you dealt with a difficult customer or client (can also talk about difficult professors, advisors, group members, classmates, etc)?
• Describe a time you had to make a decision and how it affected your project or others?

[Career] No experience, no problem

This is an interesting idea you can mention during an interview if you are starting your career with little/no experience or entry-level.

Arkadi Kuhlmann, founder and CEO of ING Direct USA, has invented a whole new approach to retail banking. Over the past decade, as he has recruited thousands of employees to his organization, he has made it a point not to look to his competitors as a source of talent. "If you want to renew and re-energize an industry," he told me, "don't hire people from that industry. You've got to untrain them and then retrain them. I'd rather hire a jazz musician, a dancer, or a captain in the Israeli army. They can learn about banking. It's much harder for bankers to unlearn their bad habits."

Source: HBR.org

"Hire for attitude, train for skill."
In more technical positions, having the skill will be necessary. The attitude will only strengthen the skills. My dad told me that, given you have all the skills, managers will hire depending if they like you or not (which he got from the book, 59 Seconds), so the attitude will make the difference.