Reverse Engineering & New Product Development

What does it mean to reverse engineer something?

Reverse engineering is the general process of analyzing an object in order to determine how it was designed or how it operates. Reverse engineering is not confined to any particular purpose, but is often used as a part of a company's research and development. The process of taking something apart and revealing the way in which it works is often an effective way to learn how to build a new product or make improvements to an existing product.

How is reverse engineering performed?

To reverse engineer, a researcher gathers data needed to document the specifications of a product or part by performing a product inspection. Reverse engineering allows researchers to understand both the form and structure of an object and any aspects causing it --or the product it is apart of -- to malfunction.

What are the benefits of reverse engineering?

The primary benefit of reverse engineering is new product development. With reverse engineering, manufacturers can compete against products that dominate their market. Creation of better product designs often begin with the reverse engineering process.

How is reverse engineering used in product development?

Understanding a product's use Locating and fixing malfunctions or limitations with product inspection Studying design ideas Creating compatibility between products Finding out if someone has copied elements of a product that is protected by intellectual property law Improving obsolete products

How does reverse engineering differ from other types of engineering?

When a product is engineered, the process begins with an idea that, working forward, becomes a product. When something is reverse engineered, the process begins with a product that, when examined reveals, ideas and other concepts used to create it. Reverse engineering aims to duplicate the product in order to modify or enhance the original product design.

What stages are involved in reverse engineering a product?

Identifying the product or component which will be reverse engineered Measuring the product by digitizing it using a 3D digitization / 3D laser scan Documenting the specifications of the product Implementing the data generated by reverse engineering in a replica or modified version of the original product Designing a new product

Is reverse engineering for new product development legal?

Yes. Reverse engineering is a legitimate form of discovery in both legislation and court opinions. The Supreme Court has confronted the issue of reverse engineering multiple times and has upheld it as a vital method of the dissemination of knowledge that encourages innovation in the marketplace and avoids the creation of monopolies. See: Nonobviousness and the Incentive to Innovate: An Economic Analysis of Intellectual Property Reform - (PDF 238.2KB) from Federal Trade Commission The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering by Pamela Samuelson, Yale Law Journal Kewanee Oil v. Bicron [416 U.S. 470, 476 (1974)] Bonito Boats. v. Thunder Craft [489 U.S. 141 160 (1989)]

Does making a temporary copy of an object in the reverse engineering process infringe intellectual property rights?
Though companies have attempted to bring claims against those who reverse engineer, reverse engineering is considered a fair use when "no alternative means of gaining an understanding of those ideas and functional concepts exists." See: Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade

Is reverse engineering an object affected by patent law?

Yes and No. Sometimes a product may contain components from different manufacturers that may be protected by patent law. However, the specifications of the component must be disclosed in the published version of a patent. Since some components are very complex, it would not be possible to figure out how the whole product works without having to replicate some of its parts.

Does trade secret protection of information contained within a product restrict reverse engineering?

Yes. However, the status of a trade secret depends on efforts undertaken by the owner to maintain the secrecy of the information. There is no limitation on how long trade secrecy is enforceable; trade secrets can potentially provide eternal protection for any product.

Should someone who plans to reverse engineer a product be concerned with trademarks?
No. Trademark law protects words, names, symbols, or devices that identify the source of goods and services -- not the product or components of a product.

Should someone who plans to reverse engineer a product be concerned with copyright?
No. Copyright protects an expression, such as a literary, musical or artistic work. Copyright does not cover ideas, processes, procedures, systems, or methods of operation.

3D Laser Scanning in a nutshell...

3D laser scanning / digitizing is a technology that captures the digital shape of physical objects. Our patented technology will decrease engineering costs, improve product times to market, and provide a whole new perspective.

Inspection & Reverse Engineering using 3D Laser Scanning

Through the power of Laser Triangulation Technology, our 3D laser scanners are ideal for applications in Inspection and Reverse Engineering. Whether you're an animation engineer creating animated movies for the big screen, or in quality control or product development, you can shorten product development time through our cutting edge solutions. Take a clay model and quickly place it into a virtual world. Or use our technology for reverse engineering, quality control, manufacturing, and product design. Read Application Stories about our 3D laser scanning technology.

How 3D Laser Scanning Works

Laser Design's technology uses Laser Triangulation, a precise method of 3D data acquisition. Laser triangulation is an active stereoscopic technique where the distance of the object is computed by means of a directional light source and a video camera. A laser beam is deflected from a mirror onto a scanning object. The object scatters the light, which is then collected by a video camera located at a known triangulation distance from the laser. Using trigonometry, the 3D spatial (XYZ) coordinates of a surface point are calculated. The CCD cameras 2D array captures the surface profiles image and digitizes all data points along the laser.

Software Specialized for 3D Laser Scanning

Through specialized software from Laser Design Solution Partners, the 3D laser scan can be easily compared to a CAD file, enabling deviations from normal to be

graphically displayed. Other software programs allow NURBS surfaces to be applied to the scan data as well as STL and CNC tool path files. Please contact us or your nearest Laser Design Authorized Distributor for additional product information.

Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc.) apart and analyzing its workings in detail, usually with the intention to construct a new device or program that does the same thing without actually copying anything from the original. The verb form is to reverse-engineer, spelled with a hyphen. Reverse engineering is commonly done to avoid copyrights on desired functionality, and may be used for avoiding patent law, though this is a bit risky: patents apply to the functionality, not a specific implementation of it. Reverse engineering is often used by military in order to copy other nations' technology, parts of which have been obtained by intelligence operations. It was often used during the Second World War and the Cold War. Reverse engineering software or hardware systems for the purposes of interoperability, for example in order to support undocumented file formats or hardware peripherals, is mostly believed to be legal, though patent owners often aggressively pursue their patents. Other purposes of reverse engineering include security auditing, removal of copy protection ("cracking"), circumvention of access restrictions often present in consumer electronics, pure curiosity and customization of embedded systems, for example engine management systems.

[edit]

Reverse engineering of mechanical components

Mechanical components of mechanical systems, such as motors, or electrical systems, such as plugs, sockets, and edge card connectors can be reproduced by measuring their mechanical characteristics. In RE of mechanical components, the shape of the component under scrutiny must be completely and accurately measured. The forces acting upon it

must also be analysed in order to ensure that the new component can withstand the forces that the original withstood. Coordinate-measuring machines (CMM) can be used to create a 3D model of the original component, which can then be used in computer-aided modeling. New and improved techniques in reverse engineering include laser scanning which uses laser beams to scan across the surface of components of any shape and create a very precise image of the component surface. This scanning creates a series of slices that, when combined, can represent the surface of the object in a computer simulation. [edit]

Reverse engineering of software

The term "reverse engineering" as applied to software means different things to different people, prompting Chikofsky and Cross 1 to write a paper researching the various uses and defining a taxonomy. From their paper: "Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing a subject system to create representations of the system at a higher level of abstraction." It can also be seen as "going backwards through the development cycle" 2. In this model, the output of the implementation phase (in source code form) is reverse engineered back to the analysis phase, in an inversion of the traditional waterfall model. Reverse engineering is a process of examination only: the software system under consideration is not modified (which would make it reengineering). In practice, two main types of reverse engineering emerge. In the first case, source code is already available for the software, but higher level aspects of the program, perhaps poorly documented or documented but no longer valid, are discovered. In the second case, there is no source code available for the software, and any efforts towards discovering one possible source code for the software are regarged as reverse engineering. This second usage of the term is the one most people are familiar with, so that at times, reverse engineering becomes a synonym for decompilation. [edit]

Reverse engineering of binary software

This process is sometimes termed Reverse Code Engineering or RCE 3. As an example, decompilation of binaries for the Java platform can be accomplished using ARGOuml.org. One famous case of reverse engineering was the first non-IBM implementation of BIOS which launched the historic PC clone industry. In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act exempts from the circumvention ban some acts of reverse engineering aimed at interoperability of file

formats and protocols (17 USC 1201(f)), but judges in key cases have ignored this law, since it is acceptable to circumvent restrictions for use, but not for access. The Samba software, which allows systems that are not running Microsoft Windows systems to share files with systems that are, is a classic example of software reverse engineering, since the Samba project had to reverse-engineer unpublished information about how Windows file sharing worked, so that non-Windows computers could emulate it. The WINE project does the same thing for the Windows API, and OpenOffice.org is one party doing this for the Microsoft Office file formats. Reverse engineering of software can be accomplished by various methods. The three main groups of reverse engineering are: 1) analysis through observation of information exchange (most prevalent in protocol reverse engineering), 2) disassembly using a disassembler, and 3) decompilation using a decompiler. [edit]

Reverse engineering as business research

Reverse engineering is also used by businesses to assess competitors' products. It is used to analyze, for instance, how a competitor's product works, what it does, who manufactures it, what components it consists of, estimate costs, identify potential patent infringement, etc. Value engineering is a related activity also used by business. It involves deconstructing and analysing products, but the objective is to find opportunities for cost cutting. [edit]

Similar tasks
Research of physical laws is reverseengineering the world. Black box testing in software engineering has a lot in common with reverseengineering, the tester usually has the API, but his goals are to find bugs and undocumented features by bashing

the product from outside. [edit]

Examples
Jerry can. During World War II, British and American forces noticed that the Germans had gasoline cans with an excellent design. They reverse engineered copies of those cans. The cans were popularly known as Jerry cans. The Tupolev Tu-4. During World War II, a number of American B-29 bombers on missions over Japan were forced to land in the USSR. The Soviets, who did not have a similar strategic bomber, decided to copy the B-29. Within a few years they had developed the Tu-4, a near perfect copy. [edit]

See also

Reverse engineering 101

Portable CMMs and software make reverse engineering useful for modifications, new designs, and duplicating parts without drawings.
Robert Pearce Applications Engineer Faro Technologies Lake Mary, Fla.

A portable CMM digitally captures the position of the turbine blade, root, and shaft surfaces. In this case, a measuring pattern should follow concentric circles around the hub. A completed image can be manipulated by various CAD programs to add surfaces to the image,

measure uniformity of individual blades, or even test flow properties in a simulation program.

Pro duc tio n equ ip me nt and line s can be fin etun ed afte r cap turi ng crit ical di me nsi ons usi ng rev

ers eeng ine eri ng tec hni que s. In this cas e, a las er trac ker , tem por aril y in the cen ter of the pro duc tio n line , can me asu re to any spo t on the ma

chi ne. Las ertrac kin g dev ice s suc h as this one hav ea ran ge of 230 ft wit h up to 0. 001 -in. acc ura cy.

Th e bes t app roa ch to dig itiz

ing a co mp lex sha pe is to div ide it int o sim ple zon es. Zo nes 1 to 5 and 7 wo uld be sca nne d usi ng a par alle lpla ne tec hni que . Zo ne 6

wo uld be sca nne d wit ha 3D han dsca n met hod to co mp lete ly cap tur e the fill et rad ius.

If you can mea sure an obje ct, you can reve rse engi neer it. The

key is mea suri ng with suffi cien t accu racy to capt ure the degr ee of deta il nece ssar y for a faith ful repr odu ctio n. The con cept behi nd reve rse engi neer ing (RE ) is sim ple. First ,

mea sure the obje ct or part. The n tran scri be dim ensi ons into a digit al or CA Dco mpa tible for mat as an ima ge of dots , stre ami ng line s, or wire fra mes. The ima ge can be enh ance

d for end use by engi neer ing prog ram s that deal with surf acin g, stres s anal ysis, hum an fact ors, ergo nom ics, plan t layo ut, or prod uct flow . Sev eral exa mpl es of reve rse

engi neer ing sho w its usef ulne ss. For inst ance , engi neer s in a steel mill nee ded to repl ace an agin g 7,50 0-hp mot or. The prob lem: The new mot or wou ld not fit on the old mou

nt. Rev erse engi neer ing let engi neer s desi gn an ada pter so the old mou nt coul d acce pt the new mot or. RE also recr eate s dra win gs for old part s. For exa mpl e, a blad

e on the imp eller of an air com pres sor brok e off after year s of serv ice. But the com pres sor man ufac ture r aske d for eigh t mon ths to mak ea new one. Plan t engi neer s deci ded to

reve rse engi neer a new one fro m the orig inal, and mea sure d the dim ensi ons to digit ally capt ure blad e loca tion s. Shaf t and bear ing dim ensi ons wer e also reco rded . This data

was load ed into a CA M prog ram to gen erat ea mac hini ng plan . The new imp eller was mill ed fro m an alu min um blan k with the toug hnes s and corr osio n resis tanc e at least

equ al to the orig inal. Fro m start to finis h, the proj ect took only thre e wee ks. Too l mak ing and prod uct testi ng also ben efit fro m reve rse engi neer ing. Usi ng a phy sical mod el,

dim ensi ons can be take n to crea te ever ythi ng fro m mol ds to fixt ures for robo tic wel ders . The sam e proc ess is used to adju st tooli ng to dialin spec ifica tion s. For com

plex auto moti ve asse mbli es, fabr icat ors hav e cut alm ost a year off the time to qual ify socall ed first artic le part s. A part recr eate d in CA D can also bec ome a test obje

ct. For inst ance , the digit al part can be stres s anal yze d, chec ked for flui d flow , and repr odu ced on rapi dprot otyp ing equi pme nt for ergo nom ic stud ies. In the past, mea

suri ng a com plex shap e requ ired nov el tech niqu es. One was stic k buil ding . Poin ts on an obje ct wer e mea sure d usin g cali pers , rule s, or dept h gag es and a mod el

was built with stic ks, each repr esen ting an indi vidu al mea sure men t. Mo del accu racy dep end ed entir ely on the skill of the mod el mak er and the proc ess usua lly requ ired wee ks to

get righ t. Eve ntua lly, engi neer s beg an usin g con vent iona l CM Ms to digit ally capt ure obje cts. Acc urac y grea tly imp rove d but the proc ess rem aine d fairl y slo w

beca use the CM M had to be prog ram med for each diff eren t shap e. RE's tool toda y is a devi ce orig inall y dev elop ed for qual ityassu ranc e dep artm ents to mak e fast, inpr

oces s qual ity chec ks. The port able CM M is base d on an artic ulati ng arm, with joint s hou sing opti cal enc oder s. The y repr odu ce the X-YZ loca tion and I-JK orie ntati on of a styl

us to an accu racy of up to0 .000 2 in. The arm mov es freel y with in a sphe re defi ned by its own reac h. It capt ures data rapi dly, with a mea suri ng pote ntial for hun dred s of poin ts per

min ute. The arm reco rds mea sure men ts as indi vidu al poin ts or stre ami ng line s for CA Dcom pati ble soft war e. Soft war e for port able CM Ms also sim plifi es data gath erin g. Mos t

part s are com pose d of pris mati c shap es such as arcs, circl es, sphe res, and rods . Use rs spec ify a stan dard shap e fro ma men u, mea sure seve ral poin ts, and let the soft war e com plet

e the shap e. Non pris mati c shap es can be digit ized free han d, or by usin g one of seve ral "loc kedplan e" scan tech niqu es in whi ch a part is trac ed and the soft war e secti ons the

trac e as para llel plan es, radi al secti ons, or con cent ric circl es. Alth oug h the soft war e is not inte nde d as a desi gn med ium, it prov ides way s to man ipul ate ima ges by reve rsin

g, dou blin g, or repo sitio ning the m. Wh en a part is sym metr ical, stan dard prac tice is to digit ize half, then dupl icat e and reve rse or mirr or it in soft war e, and join the two halv es. An auto

moti ve mod el sho p uses the tech niqu e to cut its digit izin g wor k in half. It digit izes one fend er then uses the soft war e to crea te the mirr or ima ge. A FE W AP PL IC AT

IO NS FO R RE VE RS E EN GI NE ER IN G EN TY CO D PI M US CA M E L ON OF FO SO IM R FT AG M W E AT AR E PA CK AG ES To Wi CA oli re M ng fra soft me war (lo e w- and den NC sity pro ima gra ges ms ) Pol ygo nal sha pes (hi gh-

den sity ima ges ) Mo Wi CA ldi re M ng fra soft me war (lo e w NC den pro sity gra ) ms Pol Sol ygo idnal mo sha deli pes ng (hi soft gh war den e sity Mo ) ldfilli ng sim ulat ors Dig Wi CA ital re D mo fra soft deli me war ng Pol e ygo Sur nal faci sha ng pes pro gra ms Re nde rin g soft

war e (for pre cis e vis ual rec reat ion s) Sol idmo deli ng soft war e Pro Pol CF tot ygo D ype nal soft test sha war ing pes e Ra pid pro tot ypi ng soft war e FE A soft war e Erg Wi Sur ono re- faci mic fra ng s me soft sha war

pes e Ext ern al ren der ing soft war e Hu ma nfact ors soft war e Aft er cap turi ng a bas ic ima ge by a por tabl e C M M, eng ine eri ng pro gra ms tra nsf or

m the ima ge int o mo re use ful sha pes .A few co mp atib le for mat s incl ude CA M2 Me asu re X, Cat ia, Pro /E, ST EP, and VD A.

Where Reverse Engineering Makes Sense

RE works well in: Design, by adapting a structure to a mating surface and to compress the time-to-market cycles. Development, by rapid prototyping and prototype testing, for ergonomic, flow testing, or other evaluations. Tool making, by reducing the time required to develop tooling and improve tool accuracy. Repair, by creating new parts from old, fractured, or worn originals. Fabrication, by creating elements of materialhandling systems or other processes. Manufacturing, by developing one-off pieces of equipment or structures.