PROTOTYPES, BEHAVIORAL research, TECHNOLOGY, DISCIPLINE, and SCHOLARS

How do researchers search for knowledge? What are their behaviors and habits, and what technologies do they use? This article proposes that three design shifts - involving more human senses, enabling comparative and simultaneous viewing, and allowing immediate access to full content - will create a more fruitful research process for scholars who conduct a literature review, learn about a new topic in a related discipline, or catch up on advances in their field. The three proposed designed shifts were tested with prototyping. The systematic prototyping procedure is a method that can be employed by others to advance this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PROTOTYPES, TECHNOLOGY, ORGANIZATION, PROCESS control systems, SOFTWARE engineering, and METHODOLOGY

Prototyping has received a great deal of attention as an important design methodology. Current support technologies for prototyping environments are typically intended to increase the efficiency of the individual system builder. We propose a broader perspective for assessing the impact of support technology on prototyping processes. In developing this perspective, we present frameworks for prototyping processes, support technologies, and development performance. Prototyping is characterized from the behavioral perspectives of individual, social, and organizational processes--each of which must be considered in assessing impacts. Support technology is characterized by production, coordination, and organizational dimensions, each affecting prototyping processes and performance in unique ways. To assess the impacts of the process-technology linkages, measures are suggested for evaluating prototyping processes and products from task, social, and business perspectives. It is proposed that the primary determinant of performance impact is the fit between the prototyping processes and the support technology used. By combining a functional model of support technology with behavioral perspectives of the prototyping process, a better understanding of the impacts of technology on prototyping effectiveness is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAPID prototyping, PROTOTYPES, PRINTING, TECHNOLOGY, and SURFACE roughness

This paper reviews the various technologies available for rapid prototyping including stereolithography, selective laser sintering, laminated object manufacturing, fused deposition modelling, multi-jet modelling, three-dimensional printing. It also covers surface roughness considerations and mechanical properties including dimensional accuracy and compares costs of various systems and general trends in equipment performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PROTOTYPES, VENTURE capital companies, TECHNOLOGY, FINANCIAL planning, and ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A prototype is a plausible growth model that can be parameterized precisely in terms of time and money. Prototypes can be used to determine how much money is needed to fund a start-up, how much the venture will be worth at exit time, and in which way its ownership should be split between entrepreneur and investor. This article explains how prototypes are constructed and illustrates how they are used in the financing planning of technology ventures. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COMPUTER software, COMPUTERS, COMMERCIAL markets, ELECTRONIC industries, TECHNOLOGY, and EMBEDDED computer systems

With the integration of computer technology, consumer products, and communication facilities, the software in an embedded system now accounts for as much as 70% of total system functionalities. In this work, we propose a complete methodology called ESSP (Embedded Software Synthesis and Prototyping) for the automatic design of embedded software. Several issues are solved, including software synthesis, software verification, code generation, and system emulation. To avoid design errors, a formal approach is adopted because glitches in embedded software are intolerable and very expensive or even impossible to fix. Complex-choice Petri nets are used to model embedded software, which are then synthesized using an extended quasi static scheduling algorithm. The final generated C code is prototyped on an emulation platform, which consists of an 89C51 microcontroller for executing the software, an FPGA chip for programming the hardware for different applications, and some input/output devices. Two application examples are used to illustrate the feasibility of the ESSP methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COMPUTER software, SYSTEMS software, COMPUTER science, COMPUTER software development, TECHNOLOGY, and GRAMMAR

Languages are critical to the successful use of computers in solving problems. Languages are useful not only in specifying how to compute solutions, but in conceptually understanding and describing solutions. Recent advances in software technology lie mostly in more sophisticated tools and models of computation as reflected in languages. The usefulness of language is difficult to overstate—a computer's sophistication depends directly on the sophistication of the languages of the computer's editors, compilers, and command interpreters. Perception of this usefulness has led to much research in the classification, characterization, and recognition of languages. In spite of the major successes of language theory, translator construction still remains a black art of computer science. The regular expressions, terminals, nonterminals, and grammars in which the translator writer thinks are nowhere to be found in the translators he writes, except perhaps in comments and as abstract entities associated with particular pieces of code. Here the uses and advantages of a language tailored specifically for the description and construction of translators are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAPID prototyping, MANUFACTURING processes, MACHINING, TECHNOLOGY, and KINEMATICS

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology based on a “divide-and-conquer” strategy that enables automatic physical realization of a design without any special tooling. However, existing RP processes suffer from staircase defects since they are all based on 2.5-axis kinematics. To minimize the error due to staircase defects parts are normally built from very thin layers typically with thickness values of 0.010 to 0.300 mm. Therefore, hundreds of layers are required to produce a typical object making RP a slow and costly process. To overcome these limitations, a new RP process called Segmented Object Manufacturing (SOM) is proposed in this paper. SOM makes use of three-axis kinematics in conjunction with a novel slicing method. Slicing in SOM is based on certain visibility-based considerations and is independent of the part accuracy. Since only a few thick layers are used in the SOM technique, a part can be produced faster and cheaper with an accuracy comparable to that of CNC machining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY, STOCK exchanges, RAPID prototyping, and DECISION making

The article offers information on the importance of digitalization on the business. Topics discussed include requirement of digital mindset and new approaches in digital transformation to dealing with both decision risk and decision speed; implementation of technology in digital transformation; and response of the zombie organization to the market feedback. It also mention about the importance of business models, rapid prototyping and decision-making to attract digital talent in time.