Thanks for touching my big black box

Prototypes are meant to be rigorously tested but sometimes you won't catch any problems until you have finish building your product. That is why it is also important to test a product before putting it to use. I have been building and testing the prototype to my apparatus for a good 6 months now. I had recently put together the finished product (the first one shattered but let's not stress about that). Before I bring it down to the Duke Lemur Center to test it on the lemurs, I enlisted a few willing human subjects to come over my apartment to test the apparatus. All in all, it went well. Although it's much easier to tell a human to do something than a lemur. I anticipate training these lemurs for at least 2 weeks before they have any idea what I want them to do. Thanks to those that came over and touch my big black box!

'Coz Ru, it's made from black acrylic.

It helped a lot to see the apparatus in action. Sometimes if you test your own product, there are some inherent biases that influence the way you see and evaluate something. Having someone else do the testing can give you a sense on how something appears to someone else, which is important, because eventually your product will be used by others people (or lemurs).

My buddy Harry the hamadryas also helped me test my apparatus. He is going to be my research buddy when I'm in Durham, North Carolina so you'll see a lot of him. It seems like he had no problem doing the task at all! Let's hope the lemurs won't have any problems as well.

Harry testing the structural integrity of the apparatus.

Harry testing the apparatus. He approves.

Well, I guess my apparatus is good to go! Again, thanks to those that dropped by and helped me run a few trials. Guess what? This apparatus actually can be taken apart and lay flat for easy transport. I plan on checking it as a luggage when I fly to Durham on Saturday so my first stress is to anticipate retrieving this apparatus in one piece. Y'all pray for me!

For those that are interested in this apparatus, I will be presenting a poster on it at ASP 2015 in Bend, Oregon. Looking forward to answer questions and chat about it.