Company Background
Warren Young has over 20 years in the fashion and textiles industry, where he worked in marketing and sales within one of Northern Ireland’s leading apparel developers. Warren established his own business in 2015 ‘Young Consultancy’, where he supplies consultancy services to the textile industry. He recently identified a market opportunity to develop a novel product called ‘neuro hat’ designed to carry technology, which sends and receives signals from the brain.
Challenge
Warren has potential investors interested in the ‘neuro hat’ but required bespoke modelling solutions to demonstrate the product effectively using CAD technologies, however Warren has no skills in 3D CAD design to create designs and professional realistic renders.
This represented a barrier to Warren who through lack of CAD skills was unable to showcase the bespoke features of the product effectively, preventing him from taking the idea to market.
Solution
The North West Regional College (NWRC) supported Warren through the Innovate US programme, funded by Department for the Economy (DfE), which equated to 30 hours of mentoring support from Aaron McKeever, NWRC Creative and Digital Media Consultant to develop and deliver this innovative solution.
Aaron created a detailed training plan, upskilling specifically delivered with respect to the new neuro hat product, which would allow Young Consultancy to develop their new product and capitalise on the market opportunity that they have identified. This included 3D core design concepts and stimulation elements, alongside creating product mock-ups combined with integrated aminations.
Impact
The main deliverable achieved was developing a working prototype for demonstration. Warren was upskilled in essentials for the development of this product investing in relevant software in-house for future development and innovation. The intended use of the product will be within the medical industry, for patients that have issues using their limbs to receive brain signals from them and be able to make decisions based upon their brain signals but has also boundless applications that be applied to a range of industries connecting the hat to devices without physical interaction.
