2nd photograph

As you can see, there are gaps between the pieces of bluetack used to lift up the cardboard. That is where the air is supposed to enter when the cars moves. The air would go thorugh there and be deflected by the front part of the cardboard and hence clear off the water droplets.

Photograph 1

Well, this is the 1st image of my prototype. Not very much but it is environmental friendly, simple, yet still fufills its purpose. As you can see, I have not sawn off the bottom half of the prototype and have not pasted the transparency plastic, for I do not have the saws and everything. We would probably look for more help from manufacturing companies.

Semi-Finals

Semi-Finals are only 2 DAYS AWAY!!!
GUYS ! BUCK UP! Let's pass the semi-finals with FLYING COLOURS!

New prototype possibility

Hello,
We have met up again, to further discyss the making of our prototype. We have agreed that the prototype would look rather awkward as it would be very bulky. We have gone around one of our team member's block to get some feedback from the people living there, and they too, like us, thought that the mirror would look extremely bulky, especially on a car. Hence, we have decided tomodify the design to make it more simple, less complex, and equally efficient. We have thought of modifying the side of the mirror instead of the top so it would make it less unsightly, however, it was a failed idea, as when we took a closer look at the side of the mirror near to the car window, we found out that there was a serious lack of space, and if the mirror were to be modified there, the mirror would be unable to close.

Due to this problem, we have decided to forgo the idea of using a fan and small pipes to direct the air to the mirror, as that would need a lot of space and money to maintain. We instead, decided to deflect the air blown towards the mirror and redirect it to the mirror itself. Not only does it lessen the space needed to modify the mirror, it is also as efficient.

Even after that, the space beside the side mirror is still too small, and hence, we gave up on modifying the mirror there, instead modifying the top of the mirror. Since it is not as bulky now, it is not as unsightly as well.

Pictures of our prototype would be posted soon.

Happened (7th July)

Meeting among ourselves

Hello,
We have decided on a few improvements on our gadget. First, we decided on a piece of sticky plastic/rubber to be pasted on the mirror. This would prevent too much condensation from occuring. Also, we also had to decide on who we should target for our gadget, and whether it should be fixed to the mirror or an add-on feature. Each has its pros and cons.

If the gadget is an add-on feature, there is a risk that it might drop off accidentally if you were to wash your car or something. If it were a fixed feature however, it will not drop off, BUT, it will be more difficult to install and make, unlike an add-on.

Also, our target audience would change, according to what our gadget would be. If our gadget is a fixed item, our target audience would be car companies and manufacturers. If it is an add-on however, then our target audience would be car users.

Finally we have decided on making a gadget that is fixed onto the mirror. as it is much sturdier.

Inventorz
Happened (Today)

Survey

We are starting on our survey now. We are going to interview who supports our prototype. If less people support our prototype, we will think of ways to improve on it.

Posted by: Caijie

First meeting with mentor since prelims

Hi......

We have been quite slacking on the project since the preliminaries and now we are starting our project "officially". We just had our first meeting with our mentor today, 18/05/2009. We discussed with our mentor some of the materials needed for the first prototype. There were some realistic suggestions from our mentor which are:

-Cardboard

-mirror

-small fan

This is just the materials needed for the first draft so we will still give you the exact materials later on.

We also discussed on our jobs and i am the powerpoint manager as usual, while Bin Hui and Jarel do the webpage designs and the prototype making. Chen CaiJie will handle the survey and polls and record the data for us to collate.

By Zhang Aolun (Black Bullet) Happened on 18th May

Plans (2)

Hello.
Time to talk about the third prototype we have for our project. We intend to build the prototype using a REAL side mirror from a REAL car. How are we going to get it at the lowest price possible?Well, would go to the second hand car dealers and see if they have any parts that they do not really want, and hopefully, get it for the lowest price possible and with a little luck, for free.

Also, we are WAY overdue on our mentor meetings. It has been quite a while. Sigh...


InventorZ
Happened today =>

Plans

Hey...
The Preliminaries are a long way behind us yet we have not really started on our preparations for our semi-finals. Well, though we have som plans here and there, they have not really been put to action. We plan to build 3 prototype versions. The first prototype would be a rectangular prototype made of mirror and cardboard. These materials can be bought from Popular bookstore. Then we would visit the computer hardware store to purchase a mini computer fan and attatch it to the mirror.

We will talk about the next one in the next post.

Slacking?????

Helloo!
It has been quite a while (a long time actually) since the results for the preliminaries have been released. So far, we have not really got anything done. In fact, we are sort of SLACKING... We have been really relaxed ever since knowing that we got past the preliminaries. We should be working much harder to get past the semi-finals yet we are not even working... Sigh! We should be starting to plan for the prototype soon... I hope. It would not do to be slacking when the others are working. Go Inventorz!

Inventorz
Happened on 5th May

We made it past Prelims 1!

Hi,
This notice is to inform that we have completed Prelims Judging 1 and have successfully proceeded on to the semi-finals.We will continue to do our best in best hopes that our project would also make it through the semi-finals.Thank you for the support of our mentors,parents and anybody else who has helped us in anyway however small.

Binny
Happened Today

The preliminaries

Ah! Finally, the preliminaries are over! In the Drama Center, I was soooooo nervous!!! At least it was over!(*^__^*) After our presentation, the judges had no questions to ask, only Ms Kala mentioned we need to check if it is legal to install such a gadget on to cars. I guess our project is PERFECT!!! Our leader Jarel spoke quite well during the presentation and I guess the judges were impressed! But if we got past this round, we still need to prepare for the semi-finals judging, which will be tougher as we need to come out with the prototype.

Chen Caijie
Happened on April 10 2009

Oe more day to projects day!

Good day everyone...
This is the time for the final preparations of our projects day. We have already finished everything and are trying to relieve us of stress as we are simply too nervous! Our presentations are ready and we have rehearsed quite a few times to make sure that we are at least okay. So far, we had agreed to let Jarel be the only speaker for the projects day. However, changes are still possible. As we turned down to the final preparations of the prelims, we need to boost up our confidence and ensure that we are at least speaking with impact and confidence instead of a shaky voice.

Zhang Aolun
Happened Today

As the projects competition draws near......

Hi...
Only two days to the competition. My team will be pulling up our socks and trying our best to Complie everything together. This is such a hectic week. Jarel ,the leader, had already been rehearsing and had finished the script already. We are trying to shorten it as it took about five and a half minutes, which exceeded the time limit by half a minute. Chen caijie, our poll manager, is also starting to collect data from his polls and expressing the data in bar charts. Loo Bin hui is also busy arranging meetings with our mentor to discuss on pur project. I am currently trying my best to make our powerpoint slides more lively and attractive. Meanwhile, i also helped Jarel in preparing the script.

Zhang Aolun
Happened on 7 april 2009, Tuesday

Second meeting with mentor and afterwards

Hi.


The 2nd time we met our mentor,we were unable to convey our ideas to our mentor as it was too vague,thus we had to improve on the project.Having already completed our PPT slides,we started on the rehearsal of the project presentation.
We also decided to change the name of our project to "The Side Mirror Assistant".

We are currently touching up on our PPT slides and our speech.We are also trying our best to find any loopholes in the PPT slides and double-checking the citations made.

Loo Bin Hui

Happened(Today)

Meeting with mentor

Helloo...
Its time for us to meet our mentor. We ave got our project proposal form ready and our idea ready to be presented to our mentor. We have come up with the name of : The mirror clearer. Personally, I feel that it is rather clear what it is though it does sound rather uncool. Our mentor thought that too. Hence we have to do a few tasks these few days.
1. Think of a new name. A totally new and improved one, that can explain our gadget rather clearly and yet sound cool at the same time.
2. Start on the powerpoint slide. Get the whole group to sit down and sort it out.
3. See if the idea is available. Check the Internet.

Well, there is still a lot to do to complete our project. In fact, we still have a long way to go. Time to get started. We seriously look forward to the next meeting session with our mentor. Hopefully we would be one step closer to completing the project then.

Inventorz
(Happened on) 18th March

A Name

Hi,
We thought that our new idea should have a name. Yet, we can think of none suitable. we only thought of the really weird and complicated names like: mirror wiper, prototype ver. 3.44657674( That was the complicated one ) and thus we thought and thought, yet all good names elude us. It was such a pity when we thought we had a rather good idea (Compared with the previous ideas) but it did not have a good name. So, we had a new task: To think of a good name and report the next day.

Inventorz
(Happened on) 14th March

Finally... An Idea...

Hello...
After going home, I consulted my father in terms of what I could make to help him. I was told that a lot of drivers face a certain problem: Whenever it rains, water droplets would cloud the side mirror of his car. This caused an inconvenience as he was unable to see clearly through the side mirror, which he thought could lead to major accidents if one is not careful. He also told me that it was practically impossible to wind down the window to wipe the side mirrors whenever it rains since the rain would just get into the car, creating even larger problems. I thought it was a rather good idea to invent a gadget that is able to clear the water on the side mirrors without affecting the vision of the driver.

Inventorz
(Happened on) 12th March

Looking For Ideas

Hiya!
It is time for us to move around and ask around. After another unfruitful hour of discussion, it seemed that the only thing left for us to do to come up with an innovative idea is to ask around to see if any of our families' problems can be fixed by a gadget. Hopefully, it will pay to do so. At first, thinking of an idea seemed relatitively EASY... Till we tried it. They said that a writer usually suffers from a "Writers' Block" where the writer is unable to continue with writing. Guess we suffer from "Inventorz Block"...

Inventorz
(Happened on) 7th March

Ideas-------Good or Bad?

Hey all...
Well, the process of brainstorming was not really as I expected... We have lots of ideas, but they were not even possible, let alone good. A lot of ideas came from my team, but they were not very good ones. For example, one of our members, Caijie, came up with ideas that were rather, how to put it, impossible. He had ideas like: A door that can only be opened on the outside, or a door that can be opened from neither sides. Since we were rather desperate, we tried to work on those ideas but it came without success, I'm afraid. We also tried to dig up some ideas from previous projects when we were younger but our efforts came to naught. I tried suggesting a toothbrush equipped with toothpaste but it seemed rather... simple. Sounds more like a project fit for when we were young. Digging up past projects are a complete no. The clock ticks with every second spent. Soon, it will be the preliminaries and we HAVE to come up with an idea soon.

Inventorz
(Happened on) 4th March

Start of our Invention

Hi all!

Every year, our school organises Projects' Day competition every year. We have chosen the Inventions catergory. It's hard to think of any contraption to invent since most of the good inventions were already invented. It was not long before we decided to look through the past projects done by our seniors, hoping to get some inspiration to kickstart our project. We scoured through quite a few projects, trying to see if an even more useful gadget can be invented by combining a few gadgets together. It did not really work. We were desperate, since the preliminaries were coming soon. We brainstormed even harder that day. Yet, at the end of the day, we went home from school, with no idea what we wanted to do.

Inventorz
(Happened on) 1st march

P.S. The members of our group are:
Jarel Teo (me, the leader, or Inventorz)
Zhang Aolun
Loo Bin Hui
Chen Caijie