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GINA - The BMW Group Design philosophy. Challenging established concepts, hazarding visions

Successful design arouses desire. In order to achieve this, it is more crucial than ever before that car manufacturers create the conditions that allow customers to establish a close relationship with their cars. Therefore, designers seek ways to promote and intensify people’s identification with their car that reach beyond pure aesthetics. In the premium segment in particular, customers demand cars that stir emotions and allow them to express their individuality. BMW Group Design has set another deepened objective for designing new cars that moves today’s consumers and their demand for enhanced utility and more versatility to the top of their agenda. An innovative concept introduced by BMW Group Design prepares the ground for this new approach: the GINA (Geometry and Functions In “N” Adaptions) principle grants more freedom for car design. It allows the creation of products with a design and functional range that express individuality and meet the wide variety of requirements of those who are using them.

In the 21st century, customers approach their purchasing decision with a high degree of assertiveness, clearly defined requirements and subjective concept-tions - particularly when it comes to selecting their means of transport.

In recent years, the interests and priorities that motivated them have changed and, more importantly, they have become considerably more diversified. This development will continue in the future. Today, the BMW Group is already responding to the highly diversified range of customer requirements and heightened expectations by providing services such as a substantially more varied product range, ever increasing possibilities for personalization and requirement-oriented production among others.

Future customer requirements as a benchmark
By introducing the GINA philosophy, BMW Group Design presents ways of meeting these challenges in the future. The philosophy expresses the readiness and ability of BMW Group Design to consider individual customer requirements as an integral part of car development. Christopher E. Bangle, Head of BMW Group Design, speaks with conviction when he says: “Personal customer requirements will broaden the context of our products and change the core values that define our industry along the way.” For more than ten years now, these issues have inspired Bangle’s ideas. Time and time again, these ideas have been motivating the BMW Group Design team to break new ground and to find pioneering solutions. These results have spawned new customer expectations which in turn inspires designers to develop further innovations.

GINA: Geometry and Functions In “N” Adaptions
The GINA philosophy offers designers as well as development and production specialists an opportunity to challenge existing principles and conventional processes. Solutions that will benefit the car of the future are examined without predefined rules and from as many perspectives as possible. This also involves questioning what is believed to be set in stone. Does a car roof really have to rest on pillars and be bordered by windows? Do all functions have to be visible at all times, even when they are not needed? How many personalization options does my car offer? Are there any possible alternatives to the rigid body shell made of steel or plastic?

Questions like these lead to groundbreaking, cross-segmental solutions - and visions of the future of individual mobility. An essential principle of the GINA philosophy is to deliberately integrate the potential of new materials and pioneering, innovative constructions into the creative design process, and the idea of challenging existing manufacturing methods and material concepts. BMW Group DesignworksUSA, a subsidiary of the BMW Group that operates globally and caters to companies across the industry, has greatly inspired the design team at BMW Group Design. The design agency’s extensive experience with projects for a number of industrial partners outside of automotive engineering, predominantly in the field of material development and production.

It is in the nature of such visions that they do not necessarily claim to be suitable for series production. Rather, they are intended to steer creativity and research into new directions. This approach helps to tap into formerly inconceivable, innovative potential that reaches far beyond the appearance of future cars and takes into account not only materials and structures but also functions and manufacturing processes. The potential requirements of tomorrow’s customers serve as a benchmark. In addition to aesthetics, the GINA philosophy also deals with ergonomics, the functional range and all other factors that rule customers’ emotional relationship with their car.

With the development of the GINA Light Visionary Model, the BMW Group presents examples of visionary solutions. For the first time, exemplary adaptations of various approaches described by the GINA philosophy are brought to life to illustrate the potential impact of this concept on the future of automotive engineering. The limits of current material properties and manufacturing processes are projected far into the future. All innovations that these cars present focus on the variable adaptation of form and function based on individual and situation-related driver requirements as well as the demands of the driving situation itself. Therefore, both the exterior and the interior are equipped with a variety of components that differ significantly from conventional solutions, not only by the way they look but also in terms of their basic properties.

For example, the GINA Light Visionary Model presents features such as a virtually seamless outer skin made of a textile fabric that stretches across a moveable substructure. Functions are only offered if and when they are actually required. The drastic re-interpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car. Reducing the car to its essentials and adapting it to the driver’s requirements enhances the car’s emotional impact and achieves a crucial objective of the GINA philosophy.

Visions spawn innovative concepts
The strategy of challenging what is established, exploring new possibilities and focusing on customer demands and requirements has inspired the BMW Group to implement a wide variety of innovative concepts. It has also affected the design of production cars in ways that are completely new and unprecedented by any other car manufacturer. A wide range of innovations that have been acclaimed for their virtually revolutionary character is actually based on the GINA philosophy. On the way from vision to production model, visionary ideas have been turned into new concepts.

Both the sculptural design presented by the BMW X Coupé concept car, for example, and the interplay of convex-concave surfaces that has affected the design of all production vehicles, are derived from visions with an innovative power. This power is generated by the unrestricted freedom that characterizes the quest for wider design possibilities. In the example mentioned above, the natural material properties of the outer skin have been deliberately incorporated into the design process. The design process has integrated the twisted surfaces and has used the specific sculptural aesthetics of the convex-concave elements that are created by the material’s reaction. The design of the BMW Z4, which has been modeled on the BMW X Coupé concept car, is a striking example.

These visions could only be implemented because of the development of completely new manufacturing technologies. As before, the objectives defined by the GINA philosophy have been achieved thanks to the special expertise of production engineers and their ability to move beyond traditional methods. Their effort has allowed the creation of a form language that has not only significantly enhanced aesthetic standards and the significance of design as an expression of product substance, but also the manufacturing processes themselves.

Versatility in function and form stirs emotions
Some of the pioneering visions that are based on the GINA philosophy have also been implemented in the interior design of concept cars such as the BMW CS1 concept car of 2002. This car’s interior is equipped with control and functional elements that become visible only if and when the driver wishes to avail of them. Thanks to a flexible, Neoprene-covered instrument panel, the driver’s attention can focus on the required functions. This situation-oriented variability of form and function invites the driver to engage in a dialogue with his car. Using these functions, the driver experiences an emotional reaction. This is caused by the fact that he can adapt the car’s appearance to suit his personal wishes. In this application, the intelligent deployment of flexible material dispenses with the need for complex mechanical features. At the same time, the versatile appearance has a natural aesthetic appeal.

The control concept iDrive, first demonstrated by the BMW Z9 and refined in the BMW CS1 concept car has long since become established as part of BMW production models. It is a perfect enhancement to the spirit of the GINA philosophy, as it is guided by the principle of displaying only those functions to the driver that are relevant to the individual driving situation. The cockpit adjusts to the driver’s needs. As he handles the car by interacting with it, the driver forms a strong emotional bond.

Integration of meaningful functions that are relevant to the customer
It is one of the GINA principles to challenge existing solutions in order to broaden the context, thus extending the scope of possibilities for customers. In the engine compartment of the BMW CS1 concept car, the engine cover has been replaced by flexible stretch material. A graphical display panel provides information on the particular arrangement of the service functions, integrated zip fasteners facilitate easy, hands-on access to the filler caps of the cooling water and wiper water tanks. A number of functions - cover, orientation and access to service points - are integrated into one component in a logical and attractive manner. This deliberately minimalist approach to the deployment of components is an active contribution to the protection of resources.

Rapid Manufacturing for more versatility
As a result of our interdisciplinary cooperation, we have developed a method that allows manufacturers to decorate outer skin components that have been preformed by conventional methods with individually configured high-precision contour lines prior to their reintegration into the manufacturing process. The GINA design philosophy has been applied to Rapid Manufactu-ring to create an unparalleled method of manufacturing single components fast, cost-efficiently and with a focus on individual requirements.

This combination of processes was first used during the production of hoods for the BMW Z4 M Roadster and the BMW Z4 M Coupé. These models received their distinctive contour lines at a separate production stage which differed significantly from conventional sheet metal processing. The lines were embossed into the hood with pin-point precision by a robot-guided steel pin. This approach allows for entirely new ways of individualized production.

With Rapid Manufacturing, customer preferences can be implemented when car body elements and other components are designed to the specifications of designers.

New materials and manufacturing processes create a natural aesthetic appeal
The cockpit surface of the BMW Concept Coupé Mille Miglia 2006, which has been influenced by the technology of industrial origami, is another example of vision-based, revolutionary design. It has produced solutions that reflect several guiding principles of the GINA Philosophy. The number of components is significantly reduced compared to conventional cockpits while completely new methods of combining different materials have provided valuable stimulation for the conception of innovative production technologies. The manufacturing process has deliberately relied on the expertise and technical skills of highly-qualified specialists, whose competence is a prerequisite for the practical implementation of design visions.

The exterior design of concept cars also reflects innovative concepts resulting from the practical implementation of visionary ideas. Both the sculptural design presented by the BMW X Coupé concept car, for example, and the interplay of convex-concave surfaces that has affected the design of all produc-tion vehicles (introduced for the first time in the Z4), are derived from visions with an innovative power. This power is generated by the unrestricted freedom that characterizes the quest for wider design possibilities. The design deliberately uses the interplay of splines as character lines and the natural flow of stretched convex-concave surfaces.

The designer’s metal processing ideas for the interior of the BMW Mille Miglia Concept Coupé were inspired by the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. An inherently stable, three-dimensional structure was created from two-dimensional V2A sheets of metal by means of a special laser cutting and folding processes. This technique produced joints which were strategically employed for integrating ventilation functions into the cockpit without the need for additional elements. The result was an innovative solution with a natural aesthetic appeal that was produced with a minimum amount of tools.

The GINA principle: Priority for sustainable solutions
The GINA philosophy objective also includes the quest for sustainability on different levels. The search for new materials and production technologies favors solutions that work with less raw material and energy. A minimalist approach to the use of components and production stages yields ecological and economic benefits. As part of our endeavor to create social sustainability, we are looking for production methods that rely on the expertise of highly qualified specialists instead of expensive manufacturing tools.

With its goal-oriented research into new materials, the assessment of production processes without tools such as Rapid Manufacturing and the incentive to incessantly challenge existing solutions, the BMW Group is already equipped with a variety of tools that bring the implementation of the GINA philosophy to life for the customer. Research objects such as the GINA Light Visionary Model demonstrate that the principles of the GINA philosophy grant designers maximum freedom for approaching their subject with visionary thinking. This approach is used for finding solutions that offer customers new possibilities of adapting forms and functions to suit a variety of personal requirements and the driving situation in hand.

They pave the way for innovative ideas that can be implemented in concept cars in order to stimulate series production.

This way, visions can create products that allow drivers to interact with their vehicle in ways that reach far beyond the conventional individualization potential established thus far. The GINA philosophy allows BMW Group Design to support and steadily enhance this interaction and help drivers build a strong emotional relationship with their car. With its sensible and careful use of resources for products and their development, the GINA principle contributes to the sustainability of future car generations. After all, the social significance of the GINA philosophy is a product of its heightened application of social aspects both to the development processes and to the conscious reflection of customer requirements.

The popular iPhone goes 3G.  This means that the new iPhone will be capable of more cool stuff as the 3G feature opens up a whole new dimension.

For one thing, 3G means that the data transfer speed of the iPhone increases dramatically - allowing email attachments and webpages to load twice as fast as the previous iPhone.  The 3G network also allows you to do more wireless tasks (e.g. talk and surf, use maps etc..) without having to connect to Wi-Fi.  This new iPhone also claims to give 5 hours of talktime on a single charge - so you can do quite a bit for quite a while.

The 3G iPhone retains the known versatility of the iPhone family - it’s a phone, an iPod and an internet browser all in one.

A whole host of new applications plus 3G technology guarantees that the iPhone 3G will be flying off the shelves when it launches!

I gotta have one!

more at Apple.com

This was a nice surprise from a comment on my lighted slippers post. Steven Dunlap has taken that idea one step further by inventing SeeLippers - Nightlights for your your feet!

SeeLippers comes in various cool designs such as Caterpillar, Tropical Fish, Zoom Zoom Car and Pumpkin. It comes built-in with a neat ‘intelligent’ light system where the lights will go off when not needed - daytime for example. This will extend the life of the lithium-ion batteries that is tucked away in a child-safe compartment on the SeeLippers.

More details at the Seelippers website.

Gotta Have One!

This looks to be a cool one from Nokia. The N810 comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen. The screen measures at 4.13″ and is WVGA with a resolution of 800×480.

It’s not a lot bigger than the average mobile phone I suppose - measuring at 72mm wide and 128mm lengthwise.Memory capacity stands at 2GB internally and it supports miniSD and microSD cards.

More photos after the jump.

More details at Nokia.

]]> http://www.gottahaveone.net/2007/10/18/nokia-n810-internet-tablet/feed/ http://www.gottahaveone.net/2007/06/24/pay-per-click-management/ http://www.gottahaveone.net/2007/06/24/pay-per-click-management/#comments Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:47:22 +0000 izahan http://www.gottahaveone.net/2007/06/24/pay-per-click-management/ If you spend a lot of time on the web, why not make money off of it… right?  What better way to (eventually) earn a living than by doing the thing that you love - web surfing.  Okay, so don’t really make money by just surfing along the web although there are programs out there [...] If you spend a lot of time on the web, why not make money off of it… right?  What better way to (eventually) earn a living than by doing the thing that you love - web surfing.  Okay, so don’t really make money by just surfing along the web although there are programs out there that will allow you to do so.

I am talking more on those of you who own their own websites.  You spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort into your corner of the internet, so why not get some returns out of it?  Turn your website into a business.  That is where pay-per-click could come in handy.

Over at ACSSEO.com, there is a nice little white paper addressing the topic of Pay Per Click Management.  The paper starts off zooming into the two biggest names in pay-per-click advertising and then proceeds to point out the similarities and the differences.  It then focuses on keyword management - the crux of the pay-per-click system - to help give you an understanding how things work.

The paper is more heavily focused into keyword bidding though so you might have to look elsewhere (maybe within the ACSSEO website) to get to know pay-per-click from a publisher’s point of view.

Overall, a useful paper to read.

Gress Aerospace has been developing a unique control technology for vertical take-off and landing system for a while now.  The aim is to achieve a system that greatly simplifies flying and will take much less room than a helicopter.  This will open up the door to aviation vehicles in the normal urban life - kinda like the Jetsons.

So far, Gress Aerospace have come up with a 40% scale unit called the e-Vader with which the development of the control system is being worked on.  It will be great when they pull off a full scale model capable of carrying passengers soon!

If this works, someone will have to come up with a whole new parking system in the city!

The Luminetx VeinViewer uses near infrared light to detect veins inside our body. The near infrared light reflects off tissues surrounding veins but not the blood cells inside veins. The system picks up the reflected light, processes it and then beams a picture back onto our skin, highlighting the vein locations.

This makes it so much easier for nurses to track down a vein when you donate blood and stuff - no more multiple pokes to get to the right vein!

More info and contact details can be found at Luminetx.com

Now this would be a cool thing to have. The Sea Breacher is a two-seater watercraft designed like a dolphin. It is not like the traditional submersible where you sink the craft to stay underwater. The Sea Breacher stays underwater by balancing out it’s buoyancy with its ‘downforce’ producing flippers. What this does is it grants the Sea Breacher fantastic agility - literally behaving like a dolphin!

The Sea Breacher is powered by an Atkins marine rotary engine capable of churning out 175hp. Add-on a supercharger and the same engine will spit out a whopping 240hp! That is when some serious fun begins! With the agility and power combination, one can perform a dolphin leap quite easily (where the dolphin leaps out of the water through hoops and stuff).

Piloting the Sea breacher is simple enough with its innovative control systems. Two independent hand operated controls operate the main wings (dolphin flippers) while foot pedals operate the elevator and rudder system.

The whole craft is built using vinylester and fiberglass with a Nidacore PVC honeycomb core. The cockpit canopy is the same as that mounted on the F-22 Raptor.

I gotta get me one of these!

built by Innespace

It flies.  It’s the size of a football field.  And it looks like a huge pickle… kind of.

According to DARPA, the Walrus flies via a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy generation and management. I’m guessing that the aerodynamics part deals with drag reduction; the thrust vectoring deals with movement (forwards, backwards, up and down) while the gas buoyancy keeps the whole barnyard afloat in the air.

I don’t know if this thing will ever be built but Lockheed Martin and Aeros Aeronautical Corps. were awarded the contract.

Combine this flying warehouse with a host of flying soldiers equipped with battle robotics and you get one heckuva floating strike base!

If you have ever wanted to own an RC helicopter but never had the space to fly one, then the Picco Z would be the one to get. The Picco Z weighs in at about 10g and is about the size of an adult’s palm.

A rechargeable Li-Poly battery powers the helicopter unit and gives about 15 minutes of flight time on a full charge. The RC unit runs on six AA size batteries.
The Picco Z remote control unit can operate three different infrared frequencies so that three helicopters can fly at once. What would be interesting then is to fly two helicopters with on controller running on the same frequency! To make it even more challenging, have one Picco Z pointing away from you and have the other pointing towards you - let the carnage begin!

A fantastic gift for the holiday season I must say.