Pricing and Review

Pricing and Review

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." 

- Warren Buffett

What is product pricing?

Product pricing is a process that entails the translation of product value into quantitative terms. Pricing decision is usually made before their initial release to the market, however, businesses can change the selling price at any point for a variety of reasons.  

In determining the price of the product, various factors are considered. Some of these include the following.

• total fixed costs
• variable costs and semi-variable costs
• target audience and their willingness to pay
• market trends
• seasonal trends
• competitor's prices

 This week, the team concluded with the development of the bill of materials, and finally, also the market research was concluded. The bill of materials would serve as the basis for the total variable costs, while the reports from the market survey would serve as the basis for determining the market trends.

The bill of materials developed for the electronic circuit is shown below.

However, the physical material costing was not included at the time of this reporting. From the BOM above, the entire product cost is not likely to go above £12 to £15, giving room for a profit margin for the company. The materials were sourced from LCSC - an e-commerce site that offers a wide range of genuine high-quality electrical and electronic components.

Product Development Considerations

The group also took out time to review various considerations that affect product development. Some of these considerations are highlighted below.

Design for sustainability: What about the environment?

The increased environmental awareness in society is leading companies in various sectors of industry, such as the electrical and electronics sectors, to consider the environmental impacts resulting from their activities. In the review of our product, we put eco-design into consideration (i.e., DfE – Design for Environment). 

This is a key aspect to consider because our product requires energy to be manufactured as European Parliament and the Council has highlighted the environmental performance of energy-using products in the Directive 2005/32/EC. Also, the electronic/mechanical components should come from recycled products (at least 50%) in order to encourage environmental sustainability.

Global climate change: 

It is known that our human actions are releasing a lot of CO2 and greenhouse gases causing the depletion of the ozone layer which in turn is warming up the earth daily and the greenhouse effect. Our company is abiding by the recent Glasgow COP26 environmental summit objective which is committing to more ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. 

As part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, the product is designed with low carbon emissions. Our major source of power supply is renewable energy.

Design for manufacturing (DFM)

Product design and process planning are combined in Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA). The objective is to create a product that can be produced quickly and cheaply. The significance of developing for manufacturing is underscored by the fact that creative decisions account for around 70% of a product's manufacturing expenses (materials, processing, and assembly), whereas production decisions (such as process planning or machine tool selection) account for only 20%.

Design for assembly (DFA)

Design for assembly is the steps taken before the parts of the product are manufactured or set up so that some steps are followed for easily assembling the product parts to manufacturing the product.

Human assemblers can employ dexterity, judgment, and skill but Manual assembly, on the other hand, is rarely of constant quality. As a result, parts and assembly should be designed to reduce the likelihood of mistakes and their repercussions. Components that are symmetrical so they don't need to be orientated, assemblies built so parts can't go in the incorrect place, assemblies designed so omissions are visible, and test/inspection designed to capture all manual mistakes are some instances of reducing errors. If done well, establishing and sustaining craftsmanship standards is a tremendous task.

Design for Reliability

Reliability may be defined as the ability of a system to fulfill its design functions for a specific period of time under specific environmental conditions (Ayyub & McCuen, 2011). Design for reliability is a critical consideration during the design stage which comes before physical prototyping. This factor affects the overall strategy for design for excellence. Design for reliability is generally used by companies and requires the integration of both product design and process planning into a cohesive, interactive activity known as concurrent engineering. The process of designing for reliability is a lot more cost-effective than having to carry out tests for reliability. 

In designing for reliability on this project, the team ensured that during the concept feasibility stage, all decisions were made having reliability in mind. The product is thus, expected to have a reliability of about 99.7% since it is practically impossible to have a 100% reliability of any product (Chatterjee, 2021).

Design for Maintainability

Maintainability is defined as the probability that a failed component or system will be restored or repaired to a specified condition within a specified period of time when maintenance is performed in accordance with prescribed procedures.

The product is a low-maintenance product that should have a useful life of at least 15 years. Maintenance on the product would thus, be done once in 3 years. The part that is likely to need replacement during maintenance is the battery which has a specific number of cycles and can be depleted over time.

Design for Production

It is essential for a business looking to manufacture a product to consider the various stages of the product development process and identify the activities it can carry out independently and those for which it will require external assistance (Ulrich and Ellison, 2005). More recently, it has appeared more cost-effective for some firms to complete design and outsource production, depending on the type of industry they operate in. This allows generating suggestions and assumptions for our business as we could apply a similar approach to that of the computer industry, which has a prevalence of internalising design and production in the same firm.

 

Figure 1: Motives for activity Internalisation or Outsourcing. Source: (Ulrich and Ellison, 2005)

In the diagram presented in Figure 1, reasons for internalising and outsourcing a specific activity are also presented. Activity A could be completed using the resources in the company’s possession due to the specificity or competitive edge it provides, and the company might therefore prefer to maintain a certain level of confidentiality. Reasons to outsource can include increased competition among suppliers, external economies of scale, instantaneous access to supplier resources, and a significant reduction in the financial investments employed. In both instances, it will be vital for the design to possess feasibility to provide the company with enough possibility to make the right choice (Southwood, 2018).

Environmental Life-Cycle Assessments

Life-Cycle Assessments was ideated in the 1970s and developed and expanded during the 1990s by SETAC and SETAC-Europe (Klöpffer, 1997). The conclusions were summarised into a simple structure known as the SETAC-triangle (Figure 2).

 

Figure 2: SETAC-triangle. Source (Klöpffer, 1997)

From this, we can swiftly identify how the definition of a goal and identification of scope is directly affected by the assessment of the product impact and improvement as well as the analysis of the inventory. 

DESIGN FOR USE: How long will the design work

The life of a product is the length of time at which a product is introduced to consumers into the market until its lifespan declines. The life cycle of a product is broken into four stages introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This concept is used by management and by marketing professionals as a factor in deciding when it is appropriate to increase advertising, reduce prices, expand to new markets, or redesign packaging. Every product pass through an almost similar type of phases, which is known as the product life cycle. Though all products have a different life cycle and several products do not pass through all phases.

The concept of product life cycle indicates that sooner or later all products die and that if management wishes to sustain its revenues, it must replace the declining products with the new ones. The product life cycle concept also indicates what can be expected in the market for a new product at various stages. When a product is introduced into the market, demand increases, therefore increasing its popularity. These newer products end up pushing older ones out of the market, effectively replacing them. Companies tend to curb their marketing efforts as a new product grows. That's because the cost to produce and market the product drop. When demand for the product wanes, it may be taken off the market completely.

The pet LED reflective collar with GPS and the hidden camera has been designed with durable materials that give it a long-lasting usage. The product uses a lithium-ion battery which is better than conventional batteries in the market, it charges faster, lasts longer, and has a high-power density. The typical estimated life of a Lithium-Ion battery is about two to three years.

The body of the product is made from a polymer material that is highly resistant to chemicals, they are lightweight, which makes it perfect for the design and gives our product a long lifespan of up to 10-15years.

In summary, all these aforementioned features make our product durable and long-lasting meeting the customers' need for a lasting product.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now

Final CAD Design

 Final CAD Design

"Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose." 

- Charles Eames

As the VOSCUU Novus Group continues the development of the Pet LED Reflective Collar with GPS and Hidden Camera, on the 4th of May, 2022, the team finally completed the computer-aided design. The computer-aided design process was led by the Technical Marketing Design Specialist, Chinonye who used the sample sketch previously developed and reviewed to create a 3D CAD. 

3D CAD, or three-dimensional computer-aided design, is a technology for design and technical documentation, which replaces manual drafting with an automated process. The design is an efficient way to communicate ideas used to create functional, virtual prototypes of 3D objects. The method is adopted by engineers, product developers, and designers and is preferred for its ability to dynamically create and modify every detail of a product, part, or assembly.

3D CAD software facilitates and automates other aspects of product engineering, such as simulation testing, drawing and drafting, manufacturing, data management, computer-generated animation, and more. These three-dimensional models can be used in simulation studies to predict how the object will respond to stress and environmental factors, they can be rendered to create photo-realistic images for use in sales and marketing materials, and/or detailed drawings can be sent to manufacturing for production (or, in the case of additive manufacturing, the CAD file can be sent directly to a 3D printer).

Traditionally, there are two main approaches to creating and modifying geometry in 3D CAD: history-based (also known as ordered or feature-based) modeling or direct modeling. In history-based modeling, the structure and order of features control how models react to changes or edits. This creates predictable results from edits on underlying feature sketches using precise dimension changes. Direct modeling doesn’t maintain a history of features or record how a model is built. There are no sketches driving the features that make up the product. Editing is done by simply selecting what you want to change and changing it. In this project, the history-based modeling was adopted as the sketch that determined all features had initially been drawn and reviewed.

The CAD Design was done using Fusion 360. Fusion 360 is a cloud-based 3D modeling, CAD, CAM, CAE, and PCB software platform for product design and manufacturing. Design and engineer products to ensure aesthetics, form, fit, and function.

The final CAD design of the product is shown below.

Figure 1: Front View

Figure 2: Rear View

Figure 3: Side View

The team also proceeds to the final week of the market survey. The market survey is very critical and would be the basis for both the pricing and other customer-related factors.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now

Progress Review

Review is essential to evaluation, which is essential to progress

- Melissa Steginus

The VOSCUU Novus group, this week, did a project review to confirm that every member of the team was on track. However, the review took place in two parts: the first is the in-class discussion to ensure that the group report is well developed. The second part is a follow-up on the development of the design prototype.

In the final comprehensive report presentation of the product, one of the key aspects is the Business Report which has some of its major sections listed below:

1. Executive summary

2. Company summary

3. Market analysis

4. Market segmentation

5. Service business analysis

6. Competitive advantage

7. Main competitors

8. Strategy and implementation

9. Management summary, and

10. Financial plan

The team got hinted at some vital considerations to be made in the review of the product. This included a consideration of the present and future economic and environmental factors that affect the product. A key factor to consider is the recent global economic trends that have inflation on the increase and how it affects the ownership of pets with the steady increase in the prices of pet foods. It is seen that many pet owners are recently looking for how to discard their pets for the fear of not being able to sufficiently take care of the cost of keeping them. This point highlighted would be a key factor to be included in the team's report and would need to be considered in setting the price of the final product.

The team was also advised to seek reviews from peers in other groups by asking questions regarding the product to improve our market research. Questionnaires should also be sent to some specific target groups. In this aspect, the team's market research has successfully collected a tangible amount of data that can be used to make strategic decisions regarding general product marketing and competitiveness.

As regards design prototyping, the team reviewed the sketch for the prototype again, comparing it with the expected functionalities to ensure its effectiveness. The design team had presented the sketch the previous week which delivered a rough pictorial representation of the product. The date for the release of the final prototype was set for Wednesday, the 4th of May, 2022. The cost and the components are also expected to be ascertained on that date. 

The survey that is being carried out by the team is set to be concluded by the 13th of May, 2022. The report of the survey would then be collated and needed actions would be taken based on the outcomes of the survey.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now

 Project Review and Reporting (2)

"People don't just use a product because of a great design, a great design helps them use the product"

- Viran Anuradha Dayaratne (UX Technical Architect)

This week the VOSCUU Novus group showcases some aspects of its designing process which aided the overall design success so far. 

One key aspect of the design is the actual physical product sketch. The sketch helps the team to visualize and confirm that all features highlighted so far are included and have the best aesthetic appearance. It is also important that the design meets the physical functional requirement of the electronic circuit embedded within it.

Below is the sketch of the physical product which would be the basis for the final computer-aided design.

Figure 1: The Physical Product Sketch

The sketch above shows the collar having a Bowden cable embedded within it to give mechanical strength to the collar and prevent the possibility of the collar being cut off the neck of the pet easily. There are a pair of cameras on either side of the collar to provide dual vision and a mechanical rotary passcode lock at the rear end of the collar. The lock is directly linked to the Bowden cable to complete the secure circle of the collar around the pet's neck. The lock can only be opened with the knowledge of the correct passcode.

The LED strip would be lined across the collar, and the material selected for the product would hold all components in place.

The team's marketing activities have been ongoing for some weeks and are gradually coming to an end. Findings from the survey would be shared in the coming weeks.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now

 Project Review and Reporting

“Remember, your output is not a work of art; it’s a work product designed to help the customer – whoever the customer is.”

― Krista Van Laan, The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing

The VOSCUU Novus group, this week, embarks on a review process of the project so far. Within the past week, the group continued to receive feedback from the market survey being carried out. The responses so far have been very positive, however, the survey would still run for a few more weeks before its outcome would be recorded. The costing of the product has also been almost completed, thus, this would be combined with the market survey report to determine the product selling price. 

Having completed the circuit design to ensure accurate functionality and having developed a physical product design, the group proceeded with documenting the details of the project so far. A structure for the report has been generated and would be distributed among all members of the group. After every part has been completed, the report would be collated and reviewed by the entire group before the writing phase is finally concluded.

So far, the VOSCUU Novus team has been very homogeneous and the level of commitment of every member has made the design project a success. Henry Ford, an American industrialist, and founder of Ford Motor Company once said, "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." This has indeed been the experience of the team.

In order to ensure that every member of the team is equally motivated and maintains the same vision, each member had an interview with the team leader - Shadrach Olarewaju. During the interview, they were asked about their experience in the team so far. Here is an extract from what each person had to say:

Uzoma Gerald Nwokebuihe

So far it has been really exciting being in a group where everyone seems to understand themselves. Each person always seems ready to contribute his or her own quota. This helped the team in coming up with a highly innovative product that does not only have academic value but would have a big market commercially. Everyone loves pets so the product is going to stay valuable for a very long time. Also, the leadership of the team has been great in ensuring that each team member's thoughts are correctly channeled, and each person feels valued and remains committed to the group. It is so interesting to see how committed everyone is to the team, that when it is time for meetings, everyone literally rushes to ensure that they do not miss out on any part.

Vishnu Muraleedharan

The group has been fun to be in. Everyone receives tasks that never seem to overwhelm anyone. So we are able to carry out the tasks efficiently without feeling stressed. Everyone has been also very committed to ensuring that tasks are completed as when due. The team has ensured that we are never behind schedule with the progress of our project. 

Godsgift Ojukwu

The team has been a very committed one. I cannot have wished to be with any other team. Everyone does their best in ensuring that the team's goals are actualized. Everyone also seeks to help others so one person's expertise rubs off on the next person making it a highly effective team. During brainstorming sessions, no one looks at the other person's idea as useless but they are all collated and used to make perfect decisions that everyone is happy with.

Uchechukwu Theresa Onwuatuelo

The VOSCUU Novus group has been really nice so far. The team is always the sense of togetherness that makes us achieve maximally. No one holds back nor gives excuses when tasks are given, this helps us to achieve our targets. 

Chinonye Fortunate Ogbeje

The group has indeed been an inspiring one. Every team member has brought their A-game to the table. Every team member seems to be very professional and sound in their area of expertise. The contributions have made the team able to develop a highly effective product with some of the best desirable features.

With tireless determination, the VOSCUU Novus Group would continue to proffer solutions to various problems across the globe.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now

 

Final Product Design   

“Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details.”
– Jeff Bezos, Amazon

The VOSCUU Novus group only gets more interesting by the day! After a successful brainstorming to decide on the features of the product - A Pet LED Reflective Collar with GPS and Hidden Camera, within the past week, the company focused on the more detailed aspects of product development. The two main aspects were the electrical circuit design and the physical product design. These two aspects of the project are very vital as they determine the pricing of the final product, the possible profit margin, the procurement of raw materials, and many other key aspects. 

Physical Product (Material) Design

The physical product design process was led by Chinonye, the company's Technical Marketing Design Specialist who was successful in drawing up a sketch that suits the aesthetic and functional needs of the customers. In carrying out this design, he was also very particular about ensuring that the product was comfortable for the necks of the pets while paying attention to the need for securing the product to prevent theft. The sketch is, however, yet to be modeled using CAD software. The challenge was getting suitable CAD software. However, this stage of design would be completed within the coming week for proper documentation.

Electrical Circuit Design

Figure 1: The Schematic Diagram

The electrical circuit design is the second highly critical aspect of the product design phase. This design determines the functionality, efficiency, and durability of the product. The electrical circuit design was led by Shadrach, the Technical Design Team Lead. The schematic design was done using an online design software called EasyEDA V5.3.14. The software has the capability of designing and simulating various electronic circuits. It is a very effective software, having over 1 million real-time updated components with links to actual products for easy purchasing.

The circuit made use of the following components;

1. 555 timer
2. Resistors
3. Capacitors
4. LED Array
5. Single pole 4 throw switch
6. Single pole single throw switch
7. Photo NPN transistor
8. 5V Voltage Source
9. GPS Module
10. Camera Module

As seen in the schematic diagram above, the circuit is designed such that the GPS Module is permanently connected to the battery to ensure that it is constantly transmitting to identify the position of the pet.

The switch U4, when closed, supplies power to the camera and the rest of the circuit. After current flows through U4, it may go through the phototransistor which would only permit the flow of current between the emitter and collector if there is no light incident on it. This enables the product to work in automatic mode, turning the LEDs on when there is no light and turning them off during the day or when there is light in the environment.

If U3 is closed, it serves as a by-pass for current, thereby overriding the function of the phototransistor and causing it to power on regardless of if there is light. U2 is a single-pole 4 throw switch that makes an owner able to manually control the frequency of the blinking of the LEDs. The switch, when closed to position 5, totally turns off the LEDs.

Figure 2: Internal circuit of a 555 timer.

The basic 555 timer gets its name from the fact that there are three internally connected 5kΩ resistors that it uses to generate the two comparators' reference voltages. The 555 timer IC is a very cheap, popular, and useful precision timing device that can act as either a simple timer to generate single pulses or long time delays or as a relaxation oscillator producing a string of stabilized waveforms of varying duty cycles from 50 to 100%. The 555 timer component is used in this project to control the blinking operation of the LEDs.

The entire circuit is powered by a 5v 3000mAh Lithium-ion battery which is light, durable, and able to power the system for at least 3 days.

The datasheets of all the components can be found here for further understanding of the technical and physical specifications of each.

The design was also not without its own challenges as the simulator had issues with some user input components that were selected for the circuit. However, there was a need to do some further research on components outside the software to ensure functionality.

Market Research

The market research was started in order to understand the likely demand for the product, an acceptable price range for it, and other behaviors of pet owners. This aspect is led by Ojukwu, the company's sales, and marketing manager. The questions asked include what pets people love and how often they are with the pet all day for those who have one or more. The form was designed using Google Forms and can be found here. 

Figure 3: People's love for pets

The survey is currently being carried out and we would have an outcome in a few weeks' time.

Following the progress highlighted above, the team would be starting off with report writing. As discussed during the team meeting on the 6th of April, 2022, the report would be structured and each subheading would be shared with respective team members and later collated and vetted to have detailed and concise documentation of the project.

The following would be the focus of the team for the coming week;

1. Product material design.
2. Further review of the technical design and simulation.
3. Market survey.
4. Costing and vendor selection for components.
5. Report structuring.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now

Product Design Brainstorming

“You can feel creative tension when you sense the freedom to be creative, the harmony not via compliance only, but through brainstorming.”

― Pearl Zhu, Unpuzzling Innovation: Mastering Innovation Management in a Structural Way

Recap from last week...

This week started on an exciting note for VOSCUU Novus. Having worked tirelessly in the previous weeks to understand the main focus of the group, decide on a befitting name for the company, innovate to create a unique ground-breaking product, and identify the strengths and roles of each team member, this week, the group set-off to ensure that the design of product decided upon is well understood.

The previous week ended with the team lead, Shadrach assigning the task of doing background research on each component to be incorporated into the Pet LED Reflective Collar with GPS and Hidden Camera. The features listed and assigned in the last post are as follows:

1. GPS - Uzoma
2. Camera - Vishnu
3. LED - Uche
4. Passcode lock for the collar to secure the product - Chinonye
5. Strong material to secure to product to the pet's neck - Ojukwu
6. Hole for the leash 
7. Durable rechargeable battery - Chinonye

The deadline for the feedback on this was 4pm on the 29th of March, 2022 and the following was the summary of each of the features received:

The GPS

Global Positioning System (GPS) as a technology is a worldwide navigation system that uses radio waves. The technology which is majorly funded and controlled by the US Department of Defense (DoD) is formed composed of 24 satellites with their respective ground stations.

This feature is vital in identifying the exact real-time location of the pet at any given time.

GPS tracking device makes use of this technology to give information on the exact location of what is being monitored. For our project, the GPS tracker needed will have some specific features for product fit, marketing value, and customer experience.

Figure 1: Showing the relative size of the GPS

Based on the required application, the following would be vital to the selection of an applicable GPS;

1. Size and weight: Must be compact and light to ensure that the final product is the same.
2. Power source: Battery is needed for a GPS to work because it has an electronic receiver circuit responsible for signal reception from satellites. It would thus, need to be connected to the battery supply.
3. Technology version: The latest technology for GPS is 4G. This technology would be needed to ensure the efficiency of the system.

The brand OriginGPS having a compact dimension of 10x10x5.8mm and weighing only 2.5 grams is ideal. It is developed by Micro Hornet specifically for the wearable tech market. This is the smallest GPS tracker currently on the market.

The Camera

Figure 2: Showing the camera unit

The camera, just like the GPS must be light and compact. This feature enables the pet owner to see the environment where the pet is at the time. Some existing products include the Fredi HD Plus SQ11 Hidden Spy Camera which takes photos at a 12MP resolution with night vision capabilities.  The camera lens has a 120-degree capture angle has an inbuilt memory storage device with a long-lasting battery bank that can carry it for 100 minutes. A second case study is the Technoview Spy Mini Button Camera which is only 6 x 4 x 2cm and weighs only 12g. This camera has a 90 minute backup time and also has inbuilt storage with remote control access. The camera has a good quality vision with 30 frames per second in 720p.

Our camera would therefore be benchmarked based on these specifications.

The LED

An LED is a semiconductor device that gives off light due to Electroluminescence that is in response to the passage of an electric current. It has a pin configuration of Anode(+) and Cathode(-) and will only light up when voltage is applied in the forward direction of the diode.

Figure 3: Symbolic representation of an LED

Types of LEDs

Through-hole LEDs: These are available in different colors, shapes, and common sizes of 3mm, 5mm, and 8mm.

Figure 4: Through-hole LEDs

Surface Mount Light Emitting Diodes: These can be easily surface mounted and are available in different dimensions.

Figure 5: Surface Mount Light Emitting Diodes

Bi-Color LEDs: These can emit two colors. They usually have two anodes and a common cathode and the color emitted will depend on the configuration of the leads

Figure 6: Bi-Color LEDs

Red-Blue-Green Light Emitting Diodes (RBG LED): Contains three LEDs in a single chip and can emit a wide range of colors by Pulse Width Modulation technique

Figure 7: RBG LED

High Power Light Emitting Diodes: Unlike normal LEDs with power dissipation of a few mill watts, High power LEDs have a power rating of more than or equal to 1Watt.

Figure 8: High Power Light Emitting Diodes

For the purpose of this project, a surface-mounted LED that is configured to either glow, flash slowly, or flash rapidly will be used and will be available in different colors.

The Collar Passcode Lock

Figure 9: Collar Passcode Lock

The collar passcode lock is a security device for the collar to ensure that it does not get removed from the pet's neck. This lock is very compact and can only be unlocked with the knowledge of the password combination.

The Collar Material

The collar material is a rigid material having a reflective part for the LEDs. It has a ductile and strong wire similar to the brake cord of a bicycle to link up with the passcode lock. This would prevent theft of the collar either by cutting it or removal of the collar.

Figure 10: The material 

The material is made from nylon and polyester materials. The features below make the harness suitable for the product design.

a. Super strength

b. High abrasion resistance

c. Low snagging

d. Ease of use

e. Freedom of movement

Durable Rechargeable Battery

Figure 11: Lithium-ion battery

The battery is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that has the capacity to power the system for at least 48 hours. The choice of battery is vital to ensure that the setup retains its lightweight, yet all components have sufficient power to operate.

Product Feature Review

On the 29th of March, 2022, the VOSCUU Novus team had a meeting to review the feature specifications in other to finalize and proceed with the product design phase.

The first point highlighted was the need for a circuit that combines the functionalities of all the features. Raspberry Pi was quickly suggested. However, after further research, some flexible circuit boards were found to be ideal.

The need for an internet network connection was then highlighted. This was because for the owner to view real-time streams, it needs to transmit this via the internet. This connectivity would also be required to remotely turn on and off the LED on the collar. However, incorporating internet connectivity into the system increases the cost of producing the product. It also makes the design more complex for the timeline of the project.

To solve these concerns, the system had to be modified. In place of the mobile phone remote control for the LEDs, a photosensor would be introduced. This system would then have five modes for the operation of the LEDs as follows;

- Mode 1: Off

- Mode 2: Rapid blinking signal

- Mode 3: Slow blinking

- Mode 4: Steady ON

- Mode 5: Automatic operation using the photosensor.

All these would be operated by the push of a single button one to five times. This eliminates the need for communication and makes the circuit more compact. 

As regards the camera, rather than have it send live updates, it would be able to take snapshots and store these in a memory card that would be on the device. It would then be used as a feature that can be used to review the images of the environment that the pet had been in while it might have been missing which is similar to the operation of the BlackBox in an airplane. The GPS still remains the only unit communicating real-time updates with the mobile phone since it does not need any internet communication protocol asides from the radio signals linking up with the satellite.

The next feature that needed further review was the material for the device. The team was in a dilemma as to whether to have the design as a collar or as a body harness. Those having the opinion of the body harness argued that it would give a more stable positioning for the camera and more surface area for the circuit. It would also be a fashion piece as multiple colors and designs can be created. The cons of this idea after being analyzed were however more. These cons included the cost which would definitely be increased and the fact that there is no need for a wide surface area as the entire device is able to fit into the collar dimension. The camera can also be in two units - one at either side of the collar to ensure that the views are not hindered at any point. The team however chose to stick to the choice of the collar.

The following was thus, the summary of the decisions made during the meeting;

1. A flexible circuit board would be introduced to the system.
2. The camera would only store pictures on the memory device of the collar.
3. The single camera would be replaced by two cameras for dual vision and positioned on both ends of the collar.
4. A photosensor would be introduced for automatic operation.
5. A five-stage control of the LED would be implemented.
6. Collar design would be maintained.

Based on the decisions highlighted above, new tasks were assigned for the week. These tasks were as follows;

1. A market research questionnaire was to be created to understand pet owners' behaviors. This task was assigned to Ojukwu with a deadline of 31st March 2022.
2. Product design was to be created and ready for team review. This task was assigned to Chinonye with a deadline of 6th April 2022.
3. The cost of all components selected is to be investigated to ensure that we have a low-cost end product. This task was assigned to Uche also with a deadline of 6th April 2022.
4. Research on the marketing mix was assigned to Vishnu.
5. The technical design of the circuit was to be done by Shadrach and with a first review date of 6th April 2022. 

As a team constantly driven by innovation, VOSCUU Novus seeks to develop durable products with top-notch quality at the lowest prices. Our next publication would highlight the feedback on each of the above tasks and seek to finalize the product design. The team would also look into creating a simulation of the functionalities and finally put together documentation of the entire project.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions below. Watch out for more weekly publications from VOSCUU Novus.

...the future is now