No, not big hairy primates, but a way to create interesting things with limited time, skills, and resources ...

Actual Gorillas tend not to be very creative. This is probably due to the fact that they are extremely well adapted to their environment. Powerful physiques, strong social bonds, and jaws and teeth adapted to chew the readily available plants that make up their diet provide the Gorilla with few motivations to "try a different way".  Alone in a hostile primitive environment, the Gorillas' maladapted cousins, without the benefit of massive muscles, fur, horns, claws, or fangs, needed creativity to compensate in order to survive and flourish.

The species of proto-humans that fashioned the first stone tools lasted over 1 million years before they died out. The simple but effective chipped flint "hand axe" was good enough to compensate for the lack of the natural ability to compete. But settling for this "good enough" solution prevented them from taking the next step of attaching the stone axe to the end of a stick, which would have given them true dominance over their furry neighbors.

So enough about theory. On to the important stuff.

Guerilla Mission: How can I get an aerial movie of my summer cottage?

Sure I could just click on one of the numerous Internet-based satellite access services to see my house from space, but what fun is that? Besides, those images are never shown in real time in order to give the authorities time to edit out all of the UFOs.

A trip into town and a stop at the local, "Beach Toy, Nicotine, Beer, and Prescription Drug Retailer" yielded a "one-time-use camcorder" - $19.99 with a coupon, 30 minutes of VGA video and sound, a tiny color display, playback capability, and batteries included. The lightweight, compact, simple, and cost-effective (cheap) video camera made it the ideal candidate for an experimental application that involved flight, height and probable destruction.

A previous series of experiments provided a high-pressure "soda bottle rocket" launcher (a tire valve, some assorted PVC plumbing parts, a coat hanger, and a recycled aluminum golf bag carrier) and boosters (inverted soda bottles with fins taped on the nozzle end with duct tape). But problems remained - how to keep the delicate electronic camera dry, be able to control it, have it capture and record the flight, and recover it in one piece... And to do all of this in a few hours using hot glue, duct tape, soda bottles, and other assorted pieces of trash. Besides I had already gone to town once that day.

Rocket Launcher

Detail of the Pressure Module

I opted for a water recovery in the great tradition of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs and there happened to be a lake outside my basement door (not to mention that the chances of damaging a neighbor's property were significantly reduced).

Assumptions make an @$% out of you and me

The human mind likes to take short cuts. To "know" what a thing is may be counterproductive relative to the goal of figuring out new applications for it. The key to Guerilla Creativity is to look at things not for what they are, but what they could be. For instance,

• Is a soda bottle a container for a tasty beverage or a lightweight pressure tank with a standard hydro/pneumatic coupling, capable of holding pressures exceeding 150 psi?
• Is an empty beer can an excuse to get a full one or a source of a nice sized sheet of thin stock aluminum?
• Is that an old golf bag carrier in your neighbor's front yard trash or a high tech aluminum portable rocket launcher?
• Is a trash bag a container for refuse or the canopy of a parachute?
• Is duct tape ever used to seal up the seams in ducts?

I decided to use parachute recovery for simplicity but had to figure out a way to deploy the chute. Parachutes are great when you need them, but using them either too soon (acceleration phase) or too late (post landing) can be disastrous. Since most rocket shaped objects forced skyward eventually slow down, reach apogee, turn around and begin accelerating, head first, toward terra firma, I thought that this change of direction could be used to trigger parachute deployment. I used some cylinders cut from more soda bottles to make a loose fitting, telescoping container to hold the parachute and to temporarily join the booster and camera module. When the rocket is positioned "nose up," it all holds together. When inverted, the sections separate and the chute pops out. If inertia and gravity play their parts, all should work perfectly.

Elements of the Rocket

Failure is assured if you don't do something

Some scientists believe that what truly makes humans unique in the animal kingdom is the capacity for "self-delusion". Picture a prehistoric relative wandering through an unfamiliar and hostile landscape with no prospects for food and water. Exhausted and without hope, it is self-delusion that causes him to continue to the next hilltop to survey what lies ahead. Even though the unyielding terrain is identical, he tells himself, "I'll find food and water over that next hill." And even if he does not, he is better off for the attempt. Because giving up and staying put would be a death sentence. Besides, who knows what might be over that next hill?

Once assembly was complete, I tried to think of what sort of tests could I design to determine if the rocket would perform to expectations. Since I only had $20 and a few hours invested, the test plan became obvious - Fill the booster 2/3 with water, stick it on the launcher, pressurize the booster, turn on the camera, and begin the count down ...

(click on the play icon to begin video)

After I recovered the rocket and downloaded the video to my computer, I noticed that rockets sure do travel fast (duh). No need to panic, the free movie editing software I downloaded had a "slow motion" feature. Mission Successful!

A couple questions need to be answered at this point:

1. Did the camera survive? Absolutely! It was hermetically sealed with duct tape, so it lives to fly another day.
2. Did I get the shot? Yes, again. Though the image quality was not up to NASA standards, (I did, after all, have a somewhat limited budget) I got it.

The launch pad at the end of the dock	The cottage, captured on ascent

Innovation Inspiration Sources

A good way to shake up your innovative senses is to check out some really innovative products. Toys are a great source of innovation because no one really needs toys. So they have to be pretty cool to get you to buy them. Here's an example. As you look at the several models of radio controlled helicopters that retail for less than $50, you realize that market demand and competition also drive technology and innovation. These "R/C micro-copters" are about 6" long or less, have lightweight rechargeable lithium gel batteries that keep them airborne for over 5 minutes, contain several tiny electric motors and servos, a radio receiver, and some even have counter rotation rotor blades! When I first showed one of these things to my engineer friends, most of them asked if it could really fly and some even asserted (without data) that it could not fly. The helicopter had already served its purpose, it was challenging assumptions, and when it took off and flew around for several minutes, my friends had a new perspective on what was "possible".

Innovative products like "Disposable pens" and "hybrid shoes" are other good sources of innovation. Amazing and sometimes arbitrary feature mixes like "Retractable highlighters", "Air Brush Markers", "Jogging Clogs",  "Hiking Sandals", "Underwater Dance Shoes", and on and on vying for a niche in a highly competitive and potentially profitable market - IF the product strikes a cord with the consumer. When I first tried on a pair of size 12 Crocs I thought, "no way a grown man will wear rubber 'Mary Jane's' in public". I have four pairs now and Croc stock is "through the roof"...

It is most important to determine that the innovation has value, you can always figure out the "how to do it" afterwards. So go out there and look at the world a bit differently and try something new ...

Reader Note: Experiments of this nature are inherently dangerous. Unless you have experience with fast moving objects, combustible materials, and the tools and techniques described herein, don't try this at home. Even the guys from MythBusters have misfires when attempting experiments of this nature.

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