From Prelims 1 to Prelims 2 to Semifinals

From Prelims 1, we learnt our lessons and added more slides into our powerpoint slide to eliminate the unclarity of our products, Such us a comparison chart on the current market products against our product.


Finally, we passed our Prelims 2, and proceeded to Semi-Finals.

Before Semi-Finals, we went to many different place to scout for our materials, as seen below, and triedo n many different prototype. After 2 futile tries, we finally managed to create a prototype that serves the purpose of our invention.

Below, is a video on how our prototype would work.

-----        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKgjXawg9mY   -----  

Finding a material

After searching what seems like a million shopping malls and markets...
-Lot 1
-Woodlands Civic Centre
-Causeway Point
-North Point
-Chong Bang
-Admiralty Place
-YewTee Point
-Sun Plaza
-Orchard Road
-Sembawang Shopping Centre
 Finally, before we moved on to China Town, we found our AWESOME material at Teck Whye, that sure did saved us lots of trouble.

Here are the materials we used for our final prototype.

Prototype..

Material of prototype:

-clips
[any clip with the ability to bind things together tightly]

-HUGE paper clips [for its ability to bend and mold into shapes and its thickness]

-other things to reshape the metals.(e.g. hammer)

Prototype Job Scope

Finally, after our hard work put into our Prelims 2, we finally continued to Semi Finals...

Our New Job Scope is

- Yang Zhi- The Group Leader, Co Manager of the Blog, Co-maker of prototype.

- JiaQi - The Manager of the Invention Blog, Researcher

- XinCheng - Maker of Prototype~

Job Scope and Target Audience

Our Job Scope is

- Yang Zhi- The Group Leader, Co Manager of the Blog, Researcher.

- JiaQi - The Manager of the Invention Blog, Co Researcher

- XinCheng - The main artist in drawing out our thoughts and putting them into pictures.

Our target audience would be mainly:

Children who does not know how to tie shoelace

Older people with arthritic fingers 

People who have difficulties tying the shoelace to their liking of tightness 

Does not like the idea of tying and untying a bow when visiting, leaving a place.

Current Market Product

Power Laces – The Self Tying Shoe Lace:

Problems: 

 Power lace is quite expensive

Bulky 

The button/things inside gives trouble to the user when spoilt.

Velcro Straps on shoes:

Strengths: 

• Helps children that does not know how to tie shoelace
• Tightens, loosens shoes
• Easy wearing/removal
• Quicker than tying a shoelace
• Popular for medical reasons, difficulty bending down, etc.

Weaknesses:

• Velcro can stuck unwanted materials in it ( removing them is a messy task )
• Does not have the "classic look" (adults hardly wear those shoes)
• Loud sounds produced when unstrapping.
• Velcro might lose its stickiness.
• Softening of plastics.

Lace-amatic: Shoe Lace Tightener:

Strengths:
 Fast lace tightening, instant knotting & quick shoe removal


Problem:
It might drop out if its due to the mischief of friends as they still can pull the knot.
Knot might untwist if mechanism is faulty over time.

Quick Snap - Boot fasteners:

Problem: 

It is rather troublesome to fasten many tighteners, as every cross between shoelaces must have a tightener.

Nathan Velocity Laces:

Problems: 

There will still be some string that are not in used, even if you tuck it in like in the picture, it still might drop and you might still trip and fall.

Moreover, it does not look nice with two strings budging out.

The INSPIRATION

Shoelaces come off easily due to the mischief of friends, poor tying of the shoe or the shoe might not be as tight as the user wants it. Untied shoelaces will cause people to trip and fall and give difficulties to children who does not know how to tie a shoelace yet.  People with arthritic fingers will also have difficulty tying shoelaces. It is also very troublesome to the user when his shoelace is untied as when that happens, the person would have to bend down and tie their shoelace again.