PHOTO REJUVENATION SYSTEM

 HOME         overview          heads            power          design studio          results            articles            contact

The Dumb Design Awards

The designs that made us wince ... or giggle.
Who will be the next winner?

First Honors: Quasar SP Concentration Cone from Advanthera

The original makers of the portable 'Quasar SP' have often had their own, unique take on engineering principles - perhaps even on the world, itself. This, we do not know. But the self-touted 'Concentration Cone' brings a new benchmark in tortured logic to the laws of high school physics. Here's the theorem as enthusiastically presented ...

'Concentrates all 24 LEDs to a small targeted opening. Imagine the power of our amazing 24 LEDs treating the areas your client is most concerned with!'

Clearly, the distributor somehow believes that light behaves much like water running down the sides of a funnel. So, too, the designers. But alas ...

By the laws of the most elementary physics, most of the light will be reflected away from the output aperture - as well as the face. As described in most any high school science text book, "the physical law of light states that the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence where the reflection angle represents the light bounced away from the surface."

And the more the light bounces, to and fro, within the cone, the lower the intensity by way of both the Inverse Square Law, as well as by way of phase cancellation. Indeed, only the most centrally mounted LED will make it out of the cone's aperture, unimpeded. You don't have to look up your old science or geometry teacher to affirm this. You can simply ask anyone who shoots a little pool, in between sips of a Miller Lite. It's referred to as vector angles (though the pool player will tell you that the spin on the ball, along with felt friction, will allow for a small deviation from the vector principle).

Indeed, in theatrical lighting, conical attachments such as these are called 'snoots'. And, as any Lighting Director would tell you, they're used to confine, restrict, and reduce the projected output of the light source.

Moreover, as it relates to using the Quasar concentration cone, with the funnel-like structure forcing one to place the head farther away from the actual skin surface, you lose even more power - again - by way of the Inverse Square Law. For users of the Quasar SP, you'd be far better off eliminating the cone entirely and simply place the unadorned head directly over, say, the nostril flares or whatever. But don't throw that cone out! Just set it aside. For other possible uses may include ...
 

• Topping off the oil in your car.

• May come in handy if your kid lands the role of the Tin Man in his school's revival of 'The Wizard Of Oz'.

• Can be used as an impromptu dunce cap for the original designers of the Quasar concentration cone.

Concentration - as it relates to light - requires a spaced array of optics, employing plano-convex 'condenser lenses'. And concentration - as it relates to the cognitive - seemingly escaped the original source designers of the Quasar cone.

As such, Quasar wins honors for their long tradition of producing solutions worse than the problem, and cures less desirable than the disease.

Stay tuned for more of DermaWave's 'Dumb Design Awards'! ....

 HOME         overview          heads            power          design studio          results            articles            contact