An Interactive Design System of Free‐Formed Bamboo‐Copters

We present an interactive design system for designing free‐formed bamboo‐copters, where novices can easily design free‐formed, even asymmetric bamboo‐copters that successfully fly. The designed bamboo‐copters can be fabricated using digital fabrication equipment, such as a laser cutter. Our system provides two useful functions for facilitating this design activity. First, it visualizes a simulated flight trajectory of the current bamboo‐copter design, which is updated in real time during the user's editing. Second, it provides an optimization function that automatically tweaks the current bamboo‐copter design such that the spin quality—how stably it spins—and the flight quality—how high and long it flies—are enhanced. To enable these functions, we present non‐trivial extensions over existing techniques for designing free‐formed model airplanes [ UKSI14 ], including a wing discretization method tailored to free‐formed bamboo‐copters and an optimization scheme for achieving stable bamboo‐copters considering both spin and flight qualities.     

Approximating Free‐form Geometry with Height Fields for Manufacturing

We consider the problem of manufacturing free‐form geometry with classical manufacturing techniques, such as mold casting or 3‐axis milling. We determine a set of constraints that are necessary for manufacturability and then decompose and, if necessary, deform the shape to satisfy the constraints per segment. We show that many objects can be generated from a small number of (mold‐)pieces if slight deformations are acceptable. We provide examples of actual molds and the resulting manufactured objects.     

3D Video Recorder: a System for Recording and Playing Free‐Viewpoint Video†

We present the 3D Video Recorder, a system capable of recording, processing, and playing three‐dimensional video from multiple points of view. We first record 2D video streams from several synchronized digital video cameras and store pre‐processed images to disk. An off‐line processing stage converts these images into a time‐varying 3D hierarchical point‐based data structure and stores this 3D video to disk. We show how we can trade‐off 3D video quality with processing performance and devise efficient compression and coding schemes for our novel 3D video representation. A typical sequence is encoded at less than 7 Mbps at a frame rate of 8.5 frames per second. The 3D video player decodes and renders 3D videos from hard‐disk in real‐time, providing interaction features known from common video cassette recorders, like variable‐speed forward and reverse, and slow motion. 3D video playback can be enhanced with novel 3D video effects such as freeze‐and‐rotate and arbitrary scaling. The player builds upon point‐based rendering techniques and is thus capable of rendering high‐quality images in real‐time. Finally, we demonstrate the 3D Video Recorder on multiple real‐life video sequences. ACM CSS: I.3.2 Computer Graphics—Graphics Systems, I.3.5 Computer Graphics—Computational Geometry and Object Modelling, I.3.7 Computer Graphics—Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism     

A Practice‐Based Approach to Understanding Participation in Online Communities

The take up of online communities in organisations is often patchy. Previous studies, mainly within the cognitive tradition of thinking, explain such non‐participation either through features of technology or through individuals' motivational structures, and look at participation as a static, individualistic and functionalistic phenomenon. The aim of this article is to explore the insights on participation from a practice‐based approach (PBA). The paper draws upon empirical data from the use of collaborative technology in a Mexican University. The adoption of community technology is shown to be shaped by dynamic, collective, historical and contextual forces. Based on these findings, the value and the limits of the PBA, and a series of contributions and practical implications are discussed.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Interaction Quality in Virtual End‐User Communities

Research has identified virtual communities as a valuable source of innovation. This study aims to provide an understanding of what makes some end‐user communities more successful in creating innovations than others. Specifically, we explore how the attractiveness of innovations is influenced by the quality of interaction between the community members. Additionally, we consider trust in benevolent behaviour and competition for reputation, as well as their interaction effect, as being possible antecedents of interaction quality. Drawing on data collected through a web‐based survey, this study explores the innovation activities of 127 virtual end‐user communities within the fields of sports, car and motorbike tuning and model building. The findings confirm that interaction quality is positively related to the innovativeness of virtual communities. As regards the antecedents of interaction quality, the analysis indicates that trust is a key prerequisite to co‐operative behaviour among the members of virtual communities. The level of competition, however, only affects interaction quality if a high level of trust is present among members. The results highlight the need to create an environment that facilitates interaction among the members of innovation communities. Furthermore, community managers should ensure that a minimum level of trust is established within the community before stimulating competition.     

Measuring Open Innovation in the Bio‐Pharmaceutical Industry

The paper suggests a methodology for measuring the degree of openness in companies' innovation processes through the analysis of annual reports. Four openness dimensions are defined based on costs and revenues deriving from open innovation activities and new investments and divestments of innovation‐related intangibles, occurring in either separate acquisitions or business combinations. A synthetic measure of openness is defined, including all the four dimensions. The model is then applied to a sample of 126 global top R&D spending companies in the bio‐pharmaceutical industry for the period 2008–2012, for a total of 630 annual reports analysed. Results show a negative correlation of openness degree with firm age, dimension and efficiency, with biotech companies being more open than pharmaceutical ones. The paper contributes to the research on open innovation by suggesting a comprehensive framework for the measure of the pecuniary dimension of the phenomenon in both inbound and outbound processes. From a managerial point of view, the framework can be used by companies to both monitor their own degree of openness and to benchmark it with those of competitors.     

Innovation Speed in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises

In this era of fast‐paced technological change companies are frequently forced to quickly bring innovative products to a competitive marketplace. Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in innovative contribution and growth of the global economy, yet face unique challenges with regard to new product development. To date scholars disagree on the effect of firm size on the antecedents and outcomes for innovation speed. We review the relevant literature, develop a conceptual model of innovation speed for SMEs and test it with 158 projects across several technology‐related industries. Results revealed that SMEs had different speed antecedents from large firms, had their antecedents vary by radicalness and found speed to be synergistic with efficiency, quality and project success. Implications for managers and scholars are discussed.     

Reducing the Health and Digital Divides: A Model for Using Community‐Based Participatory Research Approach to E‐Health Interventions in Low‐Income Hispanic Communities

Low‐income Hispanics are the most digitally underserved population in the U.S. This article examines the potential of community‐based participatory research approach to e‐health to decrease the disparities in access to technology and health information in low‐income Hispanic communities. To demonstrate this framework, we describe the process of designing a community‐based e‐health intervention to increase knowledge and parental self‐efficacy in coping with young children's mental health problems including mental health service utilization. Our model incorporates utilizing promotoras de salud (lay community health educators) and community media principles to create the content of e‐health interventions and train community members in using the technology. This case study illustrates the processes involved in using this approach, barriers for participatory e‐health interventions in bridging the Digital Divide, and lessons learned.     

Organizing Pharmaceutical Innovation: From Science‐based Knowledge Creators to Drug‐oriented Knowledge Brokers

The pharmaceutical industry is exposed to severe conditions: while a typical R&D process lasts up to 13 years, only one out of 10,000 substances becomes a marketable product. In addition, markets for pharmaceutical products tend to become more fragmented, leading to an increased risk of market failure. At the same time, R&D productivity has been deteriorating for several years. The number of new drug approvals is constantly declining, while R&D expenditures are escalating as a result of high investments in new drug discovery technologies and more complex clinical studies. As a response, pharmaceutical firms have started to focus on balancing the right size and structure of their R&D activities. This leads to several organizational trends: (1) novel management of technologies; (2) R&D internationalization; and (3) open innovation modes.     

Exploring Relationships among Proactiveness,Risk‐Taking and Innovation Output in Family and Non‐Family Firms

In an empirical investigation of 532 Finnish firms, and using the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) literature to frame our arguments, we demonstrate that relationships among proactivity, risk‐taking and innovation output differ in family and non‐family firms. Specifically, we find evidence that risk‐taking does not affect innovation output in family firms, whereas in non‐family firms, innovation output is increased through risk‐taking. Also, proactive family firms influence their innovation output more positively than proactive non‐family firms do. This study adds important new insights to the growing knowledge of EO, which are discussed in the following for both academic and business audiences.     

Radical Innovation with Limited Resources in High‐Turbulent Markets: The Role of Lean Innovation Capability

How do firms radically innovate with limited resources in high‐turbulent environments? We examine this question via in‐depth comparative case studies of ten start‐up firms in diverse high‐turbulent markets. Evidence shows that the perceived value of resources depends on two contextual factors: market type and business model type. More interestingly, firms that see resource limitation as an enabler rather than an inhibitor seem to have a distinct capability that we call lean innovation capability. It is defined as a distinct capability that reflects a firm's ability to experiment with ideas that meet core customer needs by constantly iterating the initial offering with the purpose of validating the learning through continuous market feedback to achieve sustainable performance. The three main qualities of these companies are (1) adopting abductive reasoning, (2) embracing a validity‐driven approach, and (3) operating in the overlapping spaces of fundamental customer needs, business viability and technological feasibility. Lean firms adopt design‐thinking methodology and act like bricoleurs, such as make‐do by applying combinations of the available resources through rapid prototyping to new problems and opportunities in an experimental way. Briefly, lean innovation capability enables firms to manage limited resources by reconfiguring and reallocating existing resources, and, thereby, helps empower resource‐limited radical innovation.     

Development of 100‐in. TFT‐LCDs for HDTV and public‐information‐display applications

Abstract— LCDs have achieved a full‐high‐definition resolution of 1920 × 1080 (16:9), 600‐nit brightness, 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 92% color gamut, 178° viewing angle, and 5‐msec response time at all gray levels and are targeted for HDTV and public‐information‐display applications. Some unique technologies, such as Cu bus line, advanced wide view polarizer, and wide‐color‐gamut lamp, were applied. A new stitching‐free technology was developed to overcome the size limitation of the photomask in both the TFT and color‐filter processes. The size of the panel (100 in.), based on the wide format (16:9), is determined by the maximum efficiency of the world's first seventh‐generation line (glass size, 1950 × 2250 mm) in LG.Philips LCD's (LPL) Paju display cluster. The issues facing 100‐in. TFT‐LCDs will be discussed.     

Democratizing Journalism – How User‐Generated Content and User Communities Affect Publishers’ Business Models

Publishers, today, are struggling with their business model: Their efforts to convert traditional content into digital products seem to be insufficient as recipients expect more than simply the mere digitalization of content. Dissatisfied with solely being informed by selected journalists, modern recipients are often interested in acquiring information from various sources, in discussing with others, or even in contributing with their own content. Hence, recipients seem to evolve from being simply readers to contributors themselves. With regard to the established term ‘user‐generated content’, we refer to those co‐creating recipients as users. To underline these assumptions, the present study explores (1) users’ expectations of sources of content and (2) their willingness to provide their own content. Our findings show that both user‐generated content and professional journalists’ content is of value to users. Second, we show that users are mainly driven to contribute by their own expertise, welfare of others, and personal acceptance in the community. With this study, we consider mainly the changed user behaviour in order to derive implications of user involvement for future business models of publishers, in particular on the customer value proposition as well as key resources and key processes.     

Community‐Based Innovation Contests: Where Competition Meets Cooperation

While the principle of competition has long been found to be conducive to innovation, community‐based innovation contests additionally offer the possibilities of interaction and cooperation among participants. This duality makes innovation contests an interesting field for both academia and practice. However, a surge in practical implementations stands in contrast to a still restricted body of academic knowledge in the field. To close this gap, drawing on a boundary spanning perspective, we examine if and how cooperation in the competitive setting of innovation contests leads to innovativeness. Cooperative orientation of contest participants is explored within a community‐based innovation contest run in 2009 at one of the largest universities in Germany. We analyse a complete set of data collected during the contest, data from a follow‐up survey among individual participants (n = 943), as well as video and audio footage from four focus groups. Findings suggest that a very high as well as a very low degree of cooperative orientation result in a high degree of innovativeness, while a medium degree of cooperative orientation results in a low degree of innovativeness. Additionally, this research extends the concept of boundary spanning by identifying two subtypes: proactive and reactive boundary spanning.     

How Award‐Winning SMEs Manage the Barriers to Innovation

Much attention has been focused on increasing the so‐called ‘innovation quotient’ of national manufacturing economies. In particular, there has been widespread interest in revealing and examining those barriers that impede innovation, the suggestion being that the removal of such barriers constitutes a prerequisite for successful innovation. This study reports on the experiences of eight firms who had received a UK Design Council ‘millennium product’ award for ‘groundbreaking’ innovation. The implication of the award is that these firms should have overcome any barriers they faced and therefore act as exemplars of how to manage innovative new product development. However, the research shows that the firms were as likely to ignore barriers as they were to address them. Living with a barrier as an alternative to overcoming it is clearly an acceptable strategy for a number of these award winners. The study reports on how the firms managed the various barriers that they encountered.     

Innovation Activities by Small and Medium‐sized Manufacturing Enterprises in Tanzania

The primary aim of this research is to explore innovation activities and ascertain the relationships between these activities and growth performance of SMEs in the Tanzanian manufacturing sector. The applied model has been derived from international studies of innovation. A survey of SMEs combined with in‐depth case studies was made to study innovation practices of SMEs in the Tanzanian manufacturing sector. The results of this survey are used to compare the situation with findings of previous research. An increased level of applied change is associated with innovating SMEs, and a positive relationship between innovativeness in the SMEs with growth performance could be established. Based on the comparison of the results, recommendations are made for stimulating innovation.     

Touch‐screen panel integrated into 12.1‐in. a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD

Abstract— A touch‐screen‐panel (TSP) embedded 12.1‐in. LCD employing a standard existing a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD process has been successfully developed. Compared with conventional external touch‐screen panels, which use additional components to detect touch events, the new internal TSP exhibits a clearer image and improved touch feeling, as well as increased sensing speed using discrete sensing lines to enable higher‐speed sensing functions including handwriting. The new internal digital switching TSP can be fabricated with low cost because it does not require any additional process steps compared to a standard a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD.     

Low‐Cost versus Innovation: Contrasting Outsourcing and Integration Strategies in Manufacturing

This paper analyses how two different outsourcing manufacturing strategies relate to plant performance and innovation capability when taking into account the organizational integration of design and manufacturing as well as product complexity. The study discriminates between low‐cost‐oriented outsourcing and innovation‐oriented outsourcing. The empirical data used is based on a survey of 267 engineering firms, of which half have outsourced manufacturing. We found that the two outsourcing strategies do have different effects, which illustrates that outsourcing represents a trade‐off between improving innovation capability and lowering costs. The study furthermore shows that manufacturing and supplier integration in product design processes is mainly beneficial when applying innovation‐oriented outsourcing, and in particular when products and manufacturing processes are complex.     

A 13.5‐in. Quad‐FHD flexible CAAC‐OS AMOLED display with long‐life OLED device structure

In this study, the device structure of a white tandem organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) was changed to control the emission area and thereby achieve less luminance decay. A long‐life 13.5‐inch 4 K flexible c‐axis‐aligned crystal oxide semiconductor (CAAC‐OS) active‐matrix OLED with less color shift and high resolution was fabricated using this long‐life white OLED, transfer technology, and a CAAC‐OS field‐effect transistor.