Design for All 5 Senses | Jinsop Lee | TED Talks

568,671 views ・ 2013-08-06

TED


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00:12
In an age of global strife and climate change,
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I'm here to answer the all important question:
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Why is sex so damn good?
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If you're laughing, you know what I mean.
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Now, before we get to that answer,
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let me tell you about Chris Hosmer.
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Chris is a great friend of mine from my university days,
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but secretly, I hate him.
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Here's why. Back in university, we had a quick project
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to design some solar-powered clocks.
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Here's my clock.
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It uses something called the dwarf sunflower,
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which grows to about 12 inches in height.
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Now, as you know, sunflowers
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track the sun during the course of the day.
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So in the morning, you see which direction the sunflower is facing,
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and you mark it on the blank area in the base.
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At noon, you mark the changed position of the sunflower,
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and in the evening again, and that's your clock.
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Now, I know my clock doesn't tell you the exact time,
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but it does give you a general idea using a flower.
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So, in my completely unbiased, subjective opinion,
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it's brilliant.
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However, here's Chris's clock.
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It's five magnifying glasses with a shot glass under each one.
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In each shot glass is a different scented oil.
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In the morning, the sunlight will shine down
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on the first magnifying glass,
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focusing a beam of light on the shot glass underneath.
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This will warm up the scented oil inside,
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and a particular smell will be emitted.
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A couple of hours later, the sun will shine
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on the next magnifying glass, and a different smell will be emitted.
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So during the course of the day, five different smells
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are dispersed throughout that environment.
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Anyone living in that house can tell the time
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just by the smell.
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You can see why I hate Chris.
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I thought my idea was pretty good,
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but his idea is genius,
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and at the time, I knew his idea was better than mine,
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but I just couldn't explain why.
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One thing you have to know about me is I hate to lose.
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This problem's been bugging me for well over a decade.
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All right, let's get back to the question of why sex is so good.
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Many years after the solar powered clocks project,
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a young lady I knew suggested maybe sex is so good
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because of the five senses.
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And when she said this, I had an epiphany.
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So I decided to evaluate different experiences I had in my life
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from the point of view of the five senses.
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To do this, I devised something called the five senses graph.
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Along the y-axis, you have a scale from zero to 10,
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and along the x-axis, you have, of course, the five senses.
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Anytime I had a memorable experience in my life,
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I would record it on this graph like a five senses diary.
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Here's a quick video to show you how it works.
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(Video) Jinsop Lee: Hey, my name's Jinsop,
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and today, I'm going to show you what riding motorbikes
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is like from the point of view of the five senses. Hey!
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Bike designer: This is [unclear], custom bike designer.
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(Motorcyle revving)
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[Sound]
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[Touch]
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[Sight]
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[Smell]
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[Taste]
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JL: And that's how the five senses graph works.
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Now, for a period of three years, I gathered data,
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not just me but also some of my friends,
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and I used to teach in university, so I forced my --
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I mean, I asked my students to do this as well.
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So here are some other results.
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The first is for instant noodles.
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Now obviously, taste and smell are quite high,
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but notice sound is at three.
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Many people told me a big part
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of the noodle-eating experience is the slurping noise.
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You know. (Slurps)
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Needless to say, I no longer dine with these people.
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OK, next, clubbing.
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OK, here what I found interesting was
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that taste is at four, and many respondents told me
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it's because of the taste of drinks,
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but also, in some cases, kissing is a big part of the clubbing experience.
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These people I still do hang out with.
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All right, and smoking.
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Here I found touch is at [six], and one of the reasons
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is that smokers told me the sensation of holding a cigarette
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and bringing it up to your lips is a big part of the smoking experience,
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which shows, it's kind of scary to think
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how well cigarettes are designed by the manufacturers.
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OK. Now, what would the perfect experience
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look like on the five senses graph?
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It would, of course, be a horizontal line along the top.
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Now you can see, not even as intense an experience
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as riding a motorbike comes close.
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In fact, in the years that I gathered data,
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only one experience came close to being the perfect one.
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That is, of course, sex. Great sex.
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Respondents said that great sex
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hits all of the five senses at an extreme level.
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Here I'll quote one of my students who said,
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"Sex is so good, it's good even when it's bad."
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So the five senses theory does help explain
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why sex is so good.
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Now in the middle of all this five senses work,
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I suddenly remembered the solar-powered clocks project
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from my youth.
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And I realized this theory also explains why Chris's clock
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is so much better than mine.
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You see, my clock only focuses on sight,
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and a little bit of touch.
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Here's Chris's clock.
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It's the first clock ever that uses smell to tell the time.
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In fact, in terms of the five senses,
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Chris's clock is a revolution.
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And that's what this theory taught me about my field.
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You see, up till now, us designers,
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we've mainly focused on making things look very pretty,
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and a little bit of touch,
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which means we've ignored the other three senses.
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Chris's clock shows us that even raising just one
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of those other senses can make for a brilliant product.
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So what if we started using the five senses theory
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in all of our designs?
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Here's three quick ideas I came up with.
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This is an iron, you know, for your clothes,
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to which I added a spraying mechanism,
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so you fill up the vial with your favorite scent,
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and your clothes will smell nicer,
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but hopefully it should also make
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the ironing experience more enjoyable.
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We could call this "the perfumator."
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All right, next.
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So I brush my teeth twice a day,
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and what if we had a toothbrush
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that tastes like candy,
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and when the taste of candy ran out,
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you'd know it's time to change your toothbrush?
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Finally, I have a thing for the keys on a flute or a clarinet.
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It's not just the way they look, but I love the way they feel
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when you press down on them.
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Now, I don't play the flute or the clarinet,
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so I decided to combine these keys with an instrument I do play:
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the television remote control.
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Now, when we look at these three ideas together,
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you'll notice that the five senses theory
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doesn't only change the way we use these products
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but also the way they look.
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So in conclusion, I've found the five senses theory
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to be a very useful tool in evaluating
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different experiences in my life,
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and then taking those best experiences
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and hopefully incorporating them into my designs.
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Now, I realize the five senses isn't the only thing
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that makes life interesting.
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There's also the six emotions
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and that elusive x-factor.
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Maybe that could be the topic of my next talk.
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Until then, please have fun
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using the five senses in your own lives
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and your own designs.
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Oh, one last thing before I leave.
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Here's the experience you all had while listening
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to the TED Talks.
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However, it would be better if we could boost up
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a couple of the other senses like smell and taste.
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And the best way to do that is with
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free candy.
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You guys ready?
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All right.
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(Applause)
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