Research Directions in Democratizing Innovation through Design Automation, One-Click Manufacturing Services and Intelligent Machines

Democratizing innovation means that tools for users and consumers to engage in product design for customization are available and accessible [1]. Democratizing innovation can also lead to entirely new paradigms of expanding the typical profile of a manufacturer to also include those who operate micro-factories, leading to the prospect of having customized products built anywhere and anytime. Computing technology has created orders of magnitude efficiency in the product life cycle but the skills required to design products have been largely confined to those skilled in the art and science of design and making of things. If barriers to lowering skills needed to engage in product design are reduced, an increased expansion of the innovation ability of the consumer base will emerge [2-5]. Products can be designed by anyone and not necessarily limited to those skilled in engineering and industrial design.