Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Have designed an umbrella with a leash attached to it to keep me dry while I'm walking the dog. I want it to be operated using only one hand. It's an automatic umbrella with a retractable leash attached. Can find research and product info on dog umbrellas-those that cover the dog with a leash attached to it. Can't find anything for my product. Need help with website(s) to see if there really is something out there about this umbrella/leash combo.

Hi Doceviljay - Our experts at Ask an Expert are available to answer questions related to science fair projects. They can not do research for you, especially related to product development and market research.

Is this project you've designed somehow related to a school science fair?

Amy
Science Buddies

Hi - have you tried the advanced search feature on your favorite search engine? This is a great way to learn about how to do better web searching! Try your current search, but tell the search engine to exclude words like "dog" and "pet".

I found this patent reference you might be interested in: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7036519.html

Keith

This is a science fair project! It's an invention convention. I have to have research to back up my report. I'm not trying to market this product!

I have been searching every way I know to search. I haven't used dog or pet in my searches. That is why I have come here. I am very frustrated and this is not helping.

Did you try the advanced search option? For instance, if you are using google, it's here: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en. If you don't understand how to use the advanced search option, you can ask an adult for help, maybe the school librarian or your Language Arts teacher? Learning how to do real searches is an important part of your education. In this case, I used the option to exclude the words "dog" and "pet" in my search.

Did you look at the patent I found? It was on the second page of my advanced search. You will need to go deep into the search pages to find what you're looking for. This is what researchers do all the time - you can't stop on the first page and say there are no relevant search results.

After you've looked carefully at the results your search engine gives you, you may want to further narrow your search. As an inventor, I can tell you that searching for "prior art" is a very time consuming and difficult process, but absolutely required.

Good luck and Happy Inventing!
Keith

Hi doceviljay,

We have a couple of pages about how to go about finding research papers. Check these out and see if they are helpful:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... pers.shtml
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... aper.shtml

Your project is similar to an engineering project. We have a page about the engineering design process which you might find helpful:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ring.shtml

I looked for a few minutes and couldn't find anything similar to your invention either. Your invention might be unique. I suggest you look at other types of umbrellas that have something attached to them, such as a flashlight.
I found this patent about an umbrella with a flashlight: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5280799.html

Often it can take many searches to find what you are looking for. Don't give up or get discouraged!

The reason Amy responded to your question as she did is because we get many questions from students that are not really related to the forum, which is why she asked you to clarify if it was a science fair project. We only have so many volunteer experts to answer questions, so if it is not science fair related we ask them to find help elsewhere. Sometimes it isn't entirely clear from the original post what kind of project it is. So please don't take it personally, we just have limited resources and because of that our forum is specialized .

This forum is more specifically for science experiments and engineering projects, not really invention convention type projects, but we do have some resources that may help you (which I described above). Although, your project sounds a bit more like an engineering project than most invention conventions (most of the time they don't require students to do much background research or testing, so it isn't really an engineering project).

We get a lot of students who want us experts to do all the work for them, which is why we generally recommend a quick google search first. A lot of the time it takes us one second to put in some keywords and find tons of resources, so it is clear that they haven't looked very hard . It sounds like you have put some effort into this, however, and are having some difficulty finding background information.

Good luck!