Invitation to two OTSM-TRIZ websites

To people interested by TRIZ and who can read French, I recommend to go to, to read and to follow the following blog :

http://triz-experience.blogspot.com/

This blog is written and maintained by Yves Guillou, technical director of a French SME, 48 years old, who studied in 2007 at Insa de Strasbourg, France, and obtained an Advanced Master in Innovative Design (see current programme : http://www.insa-strasbourg.fr/fr/mastere-specialise-conception-innovante/). This is an academic way of learning TRIZ in France. The existence of this very interesting Master deserves to be well-known.
Yves entitled his blog "TRIZ et OTSM-TRIZ, quelques réflexions personnelles sur cette théorie". Like my blog, it is only at the beginning. You will find valuable information about TRIZ fundamentals, concepts and techniques. As explained in his introductive post, Yves proposes a step-by-step approach to TRIZ, which is made accessible to anyone.

You will also find on his blog a video and related explanations about a real industrial innovation which was realized by Yves Guillou (my congratulations !) (see : http://triz-experience.blogspot.com/2011/02/un-exemple-concret-dapplication.html), using TRIZ and OTSM-TRIZ. This is the first example of TRIZ success stories that I promised to post on this blog. OTSM-TRIZ was created by Nikolai Khomenko, who taught him in 2007. I consider OTSM-TRIZ as an extension of classical TRIZ. As far as I know (for there is no public synthesis of this theory, and only a few publications which are insufficient to get the whole picture), the essential contribution of OTSM-TRIZ to classical TRIZ is the introduction of two concepts : problems' network and contradictions' network. Yves' intent is to later explain how to use the problems' network. I am personally looking forward to reading this post.

Last thing, I also invite you to discover the following website about OTSM-TRIZ, which is written by the former Yves Guillou and his friend Séverine Baudrux (initially teacher, currently trainer), in English this time :

http://sites.google.com/site/otsmtriz/

You will find there very beautiful heuristic maps and TRIZ-related icons (see an example below ; this is the Size-Time-Cost operator) which help TRIZ users to have a good grasp of the different concepts and tools. Nice job !

John Koza's invention machine : comment

The former article illustrates the very interesting, emerging possibility of computerized invention. Does it mean that human beings will soon be replaced by computers ?
Absolutely not.
Let's recall the characteristic shared by all inventions which can be generated with the help of genetic programming : they result from structural or geometrical modifications of known elements which have known functions. It is probable that the level of such inventions is systematically among the 2 first levels of invention (reminder : TRIZ proposes 5 levels of invention).
But it happens that the majority of real inventions (2nd level and above) do not possess the same characteristic. The majority of real inventions solve problems which are not programmable. Why ? Because most real inventions solve contradictions, and therefore are not the fruit of an optimization. The "new element" which will solve the problem is, until now, not programmable. Otherwise, it would be already known by the programmer / designer, and consequently already found by him / her, a human being.

Human inventors and problem solvers have a (bright) future. Phew !

John Koza's invention machine

In former articles of this blog, it has been seen that people usually invent or solve problems :
* thanks to their intuition, their common sense (see the article named "Wine tradeshow") ;
* thanks to the deep knowledge of their environment (see for instance the black hornets' problem) ;
* thanks to the deep knowledge of their specialty field, to tests and experiments (as usually engineers and technicians do in the industry), computerized simulations included.

I stress that TRIZ practitionners invent and solve problems. Some other systematic methods can help, too.

Let us try to envision the future : will it be possible one day that machines invent like human beings ?

Actually these days have already come : since 1995 John Koza's computers have produced several inventions  (i.e. patentable designs), mainly in the field of electrical circuits, but not only.

Thus John Koza (see picture above), a world specialist in his field, developed genetic programming for automated design, whereas before his pioneering discovery, people used genetic programming for global optimization. In other words, instead of changing only physical parameters of a physical model, Koza makes the design, the structure itself of an object or a system evolving through genetic algorithms. This genetical evolution mimics somehow the process of darwinian evolution of life. Based on this work, a colleague of his from NASA, used such algorithms to design a microwave antenna (see below the picture of an evolved antenna), which fulfilled all the technical requirements of its spatial mission (http://www.genetic-programming.com/c2003jasonlohn20031124talk.pdf). The shape of the resulting antenna was unexpected (http://www.genetic-programming.com/coursemainpage.html) , and it is believed that no human being could have thought of this strange structure.

Who does need TRIZ for inventing and problem solving ?

Let us recognize it, even if it is obvious : an immense majority of inventions are the fruits of inventors who :
* did not use TRIZ for their inventions
* do not know how TRIZ works
* have eventually (or surely !) never heard about TRIZ
In other words, I assume that nowadays in the world, 99,x % (0<x<1, x still to be estimated) of the inventors invent without TRIZ.
(Why ? Because TRIZ is still not very widespread. Why ? One of the reasons is that it is difficult to learn and apply : the training which is necessary to be able to apply TRIZ efficiently requires efforts, time and motivation. But this is another debate ...)

Let us assume that some seldom inventors (y %, y close to 1) are so inventive, that they do not need TRIZ. In other words, they are so brilliant that TRIZ would be of no help for them. Usually these seldom inventors have made very high level inventions (TRIZ distinguishes between 5 invention levels, and these inventors have mainly produced inventions of 4th and 5th levels). An example of a 5th level invention is the blue diode (http://archive.sciencewatch.com/jan-feb2000/sw_jan-feb2000_page3.htm) (see the picture of its inventor below)

(to go to the source of the picture, click on it)

As a result, I am absolutely convinced that TRIZ can potentially help (99,x - y)% of inventors who already invented, and the equivalently immense majority of people who would like to invent.
The same arguments work also for problem solvers and problem solving.

(to go to the source of the cartoon, click on it)

Dolphin's sleep answer & congratulations to solvers

Congratulations to Serge Haumont (member of this blog) !

He found the solution to the dolphin's sleep problem (without looking into the knowledge fund).

Let us summarize the problematic situation.

If the dolphin sleeps, he will die by drowning (first he will lack oxygen and could eventually die from it).

If the dolphin does not sleep he will finally die from exhausting.

Of course, in the reality, the dolphin sleeps without any problem. The problem is stated only for the illustration of a physical contradiction and its resolution.

It has been already seen here that it is possible to solve a physical contradiction by separating in space or in time the two opposite requirements. Let us apply the two suggested types of separation :

* separation in time : during T1 the dolphin's brain is in its sleepy state, and during T2 the dolphin's brain is in its awaken state. Let's remark that the situation during T1 is exacly the problematic situation which is considered here, in the case where T1 is the sleep duration (or duration of a sleep cycle). Consequently, in this case, nothing is solved and we have walked along a circle. If T1 is of a much lower order of magnitude than a sleep cycle, for instance of the order of magnitude of a breathe, then the problem is theoretically solved : it is suggested that :

     * the dolphin is awake during a complete breathe, then

     * the dolphin gets asleep for a short duration, while he is in apnea, then

     * the former cycle begins again and again

This is a strange way of sleeping ! A theoretical art of the micro-nap

(congratulations to David G. - member of this blog - and my father who suggested directly to me such a solution - this is not the spirit of the blog, however - )

* separation in space : one part of the brain does not sleep, and at the same time, the other part of the brain stays awake. This is exactly what the dolphin does, naturally of course. A structural property of the brain of mammals is used : the natural spatial separation of the brain into two hemispheres (of course some other parts of the brain exist ...). Practically the dolphin "solves" the initially stated problem and sleeps in the following way :

      * first the dolphin :

            * fulfills the function "regeneration" by sleeping with the left hemisphere

            * fulfills the function "breathing" by staying awake (and then controlling this function) with the right hemisphere

      * afterwards (after a sleep cycle, I assume) the former separation in space is inverted :

            * the function "regeneration" is symmetrically fulfilled with the right hemisphere (not only the body must regenerate, the brain must also regenerate)

            * the function "breathing" is ensured by the left hemisphere which stays awake

On the above image, one observes the left fin of the dolphin which is kept horizontal thanks to its activity which is maintained by the waking activity of its right hemisphere ; conversely the right fin is vertical for it is not active, in relationship with the sleepy left hemisphere. The red and blue colors correspond to the right and left parts of the dolphin, respectively (as indicated in Italian language on the Figure). The arrows' ends should be inverted for a correct description of the phenomenon. The curves 1 to 6 are electroencephalograms' excerpts, whereas the other graphs measure the activity of the fins. 

(source of the image : http://www.scienzagiovane.unibo.it/English/sleep/3-sleep-animals.html)

As a conclusion, it can be noticed that :

* the dolphin's sleep problem is solved by both separations in space and in time

* an internal resource of the system is used for the problem solving : actually it is a structural property : the brain of mammals which is naturally separated (in space) into two hemispheres

Furthermore the concept of function has been introduced. It is of very high importance within TRIZ.