Individual Product Concept Memos

A document that provides each engineer's individual "idea" for a proposed product. The first page includes an explicit statement of the target market and other pertinent product design requirements, and a brief written description of the concept including a description of the "intelligent" capabilities it should posses. There is at least one additional page that includes multiple sketches of the product, or elements of the product to assist in understanding its basic operation and "form."

Multitype Combination Instrument - Eric Laumann

The whole idea of the concept is to combine a brass, woodwind, and percussion instrument into something that can be automated or played manually.

Horn & String Keyboard - Phil Moss

This instrument would allow a musician to create accompaniment for his music. The product would be a set of horns and a set of strings. Each would be played through an electrical input that would trigger the mechanism that plays each piece.

Recorder Trainer - Gordon Farmer

The instrument the user will be trained on and later play with accompaniment is the recorder. Given the two distinct purposes of the concept, it has two separate settings: Trainer Mode and Player Mode. When it is in Trainer Mode the device plays the recorder (after a song is selected) to show the proper finger-placement and rhythm. When the device is placed in Player Mode it will play background music in conjunction with the user’s performance on the recorder.

Shalalephone - Bryan Marek

The Shalalephone is essentially a cross between the familiar leprechaun’s shalalee and a saxophone. Held around the long neck it can be waved and shaken as a costume accessory by Notre Dame’s mascot, while upon reversal it can be played into like a normal saxophone or wind instrument.

Water-Filled Piped Keyboard - Mike Johnson

This concept proposes an instrument consisting of water-filled pipes of various sizes to obtain different pitches. The pipes could be struck, and air could be blown across the top of the pipe to create the tone sources of percussion and woodwind, respectively.