TRIZ Challenge - July 2001

We challenge you to use your TRIZ skills and your knowledge to help solve a humanitarian or social problem. We hope that you will submit your results for publication in the TRIZ journal. Every few months we will set a new challenge - but that does not mean that you cannot continue to work on previous challenges, indeed you may have chosen to work on this for your project or coursework.

Send your results, ideas, comments and suggestions for future challenges to challenge@triz-journal.com

 

This month is another social challenge - how do we address the problem the car alarms are so common that no one pays attention to them.

You hear a car (automobile) alarm go off in the car park at work. There are hundreds of cars there, in the past it has never been your car - it might be this time. Nobody else seems to respond to these alarms, they are always going off. The noise is annoying. Last time you went to look you could not see a problem. Last week one car was broken into. Nobody is responding to the alarm - should I go and look? …. But I have work to do…..

How do you make an owner aware that it is their car alarm?

How do you design the alarm such that someone is likely to respond?

Can you discriminate between the type of problem?

Can the alarm be used to help catch the thief?