Useful tips (part 3)

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(Inventor’s sketches)

With a copy of the utility model request for a mobile or smartphone dosimeter-radiometer device in my hands, I paused for a second. What should I do with this idea for an invention? I was still a long way from getting a Russian patent, let alone actually acquiring that beautiful embossed Patent seal, as all the old hands call it. My own life and experience in business told me “Do what you can, what will be will be”. So I set to work.

I would first of all like to mention the following, so as not to confuse readers with complicated invention jargon. A utility model is a legal document issued by the government to protect technical solutions that lack an “inventive step”, which is required for issuing a patent, to assess patentability, but satisfying two other patentability criteria, namely that the technical solution is new and that the device is industrially applicable.

I had thought about it so much that I needed to share my excitement with my friends. This time I decided that I should discuss my ideas with my partners and a number of close friends. In the interests of respectability and credibility, I asked my long-standing partners, designers Lena and Sergei Kamaev, to draw up a presentation for the device. The device itself was called “DO-RA”, a combination of the first two letters of the words dosimeter-radiometer, neatly describing its functionality.

The Kamaevs drew up a design using my pencil sketches that even Steve Jobs would be jealous of. After all, my first doodle was designed around the iPhone 4. Therefore, all subsequent designs, including 3D DO-RA device mockups and software were based on the iPhone. From the illustration, which was beautifully depicted on the iPhone 4 (Apple’s contribution to the project), I was able to imagine the first tiny mockup of the “DO-RA” device.

My train of thought led me to the following conclusion: The iPhone 4, which I’ve been happily using for the past year, has a USB port that doubles up as the phone’s charger. Therefore, it seemed only natural to combine the data transfer from the “DO-RA” device with the iPhone 4 USB port and power source, while miniaturizing the “DO-RA” device itself and taking full advantage of the iPhone’s operating system. In this instance, attaching the “DO-RA” device and powering it from the iPhone suited me fine. Many people have this type of phone. With a “DO-RA” device attached via a USB or mini-USB port, any smartphone quickly turns into a device that can not only warn you, but also by definition protect you from the harmful effects of radiation, no matter where you are.

With all my ideas encapsulated in a slick presentation, I contacted one of my partners to discuss the possibility of testing the device in real life situations. He listened attentively to my short presentation, thought a little and said: “Volodya, I think you were born in the wrong country”. So I asked him which country he thought I should have been born in. His answer was short – “in America. There you could make the most of your inventive talent and make money from your endless supply of ideas.” So I told my bearded partner an anecdote: “A young worm asks his mother: ‘Why do we live in a pile of manure instead of an apple like other worms mum?! Apples are delicious and fragrant, the complete opposite of our dunghill! His mother thought for a second and replied: Worms don’t choose where they are born”’. We laughed for the sake of politeness and went about our own business.

I had similar talks with various people for a week or so. I was able to gain both positive feedback and criticism regarding my invention. For some reason, I still hadn’t made up my own mind about the invention. Sometimes I thought that this inventive frivolity was an echo from my engineering past that I had forgotten as soon as I had defended my dissertation. But a little voice kept reminding me of the usefulness of this invention. I once went to visit a good friend of mine Sergei Zhukov, who was invited to work for Innograd “Skolkovo” and manage the space cluster. We talked about everything. So I seized the opportunity to tell him all about my new hobby and personal reservations. S. Zhukov instantly reacted to my doubts. He suggested applying for a grant from Skolkovo to check how practical and realistic my idea was. A whole group of foreign and Russian experts evaluate these types of projects at Skolkovo. S. Zhukov made it simple: “If your idea appeals to these experts, you’ll know whether or not the world needs your invention”.

The next day I filled out all the relevant forms on the Skolkovo website. It didn’t take long for me to draw up the documents as I had already created plenty of material while developing the idea.

 

Vladimir Elin

July 2011.

Индикатор ионизирующего излучения ДО-РА с функцией дозиметра-радиометра

  • Эксклюзивный дизайн и дорогие материалы отделки
  • Работает с собственной батареей
  • Подходит для iPhone
  • Может использоваться с ноутбукоми через переходник
  • Бесплатное ПО с расширенным функционалом
  • Конструкторская документация в международном формате IPC
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