As most of the knowledge used in industrial product design is based on data files from a previous design, it is difficult to be efficiently applied in supporting product innovation design. This paper proposes a method to construct an enterprise knowledge base (EKB) for product innovation design. A concept of the functional basis of product (FBP) is first proposed based on similar products. The function units and corresponding technical units are clustered to construct an EKB for product innovation design. A retrieval path of the knowledge is then proposed from the functional level. The prototype software is developed to retrieve the knowledge directly through function units and determine the optimal technology by searching and ranking relevant patents. The patent circumvention and Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) methods are used to solve invention problems and obtain innovative solutions. The built EKB model provides a systematic method for the innovative product design process. An underwater separator is developed in a case study to verify the proposed method.
Intuitive interactive methods for novice users to create 3D content and 3D geometry have eluded the CAGD community for several decades, and they continue to be critical yet unresolved challenges. The need for such methods is even more acute considering the fact that 3D printing is becoming a commodity. In contrast, modern geometric modeling tools are very complex and continue to be used primarily by professionals such as architects and engineers.Part of the difficulty of novice users to create 3D content might be found in the fact that input/output devices are mostly 2D. While novice users, in real life, do interact daily in 3D environments, typically, they do not create 3D content. In this work, we combine a Leap Motion device [42] / mouse+keyboard with the intuitive notion of sand art, or the creation of 3D artifacts on the seashore, using droplets of wet sand. The result is a very simple, yet highly interactive 3D modeling interface that is also demonstrated on several applications.
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