{"id":16533,"date":"2025-03-28T15:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T19:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=16533"},"modified":"2025-03-28T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T19:40:16","slug":"from-idea-to-invention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2025\/from-idea-to-invention\/","title":{"rendered":"From Idea to Invention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How Charles Johnson Turned an Idea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into an Invention<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

When Charles E. Johnson Jr. \u201998 came up with an idea for a one-handed game controller, he couldn\u2019t have anticipated the 12-year odyssey he was beginning. Through patience, determination, smart networking, and a DIY spirit, his idea is finally coming to life.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bill Ibelle<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever had an idea for a tool that would solve a real-life problem? Maybe you\u2019ve wondered, \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t someone invented that?\u201d Maybe you\u2019ve even thought, \u201cI should invent that!\u201d

Charles E. Johnson Jr. \u201998 had one of those ideas. But instead of letting the idea become a passing thought, he devoted 12 years to bringing it to life.

It has been a roller coaster of elation and frustration, of breakthroughs and dead ends\u2014all of which he powered through, fueled by unflagging persistence. \u201cTo me, each obstacle was just a problem I had to overcome,\u201d says Johnson, who teaches history and social studies at Times2 Academy, a charter school in Providence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE SPARK<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The idea came to Johnson when he was playing a video game\u2014\u201cMadden NFL\u201d\u2014with his cousin, who was born with only one hand.

\u201cHe couldn\u2019t stop the blitz because there was no way for him to maneuver the two back triggers on the controller simultaneously,\u201d recalls Johnson.

It just wasn\u2019t fair. Johnson vowed to create an affordable, one-handed controller that would remap all the buttons so that a person playing with one hand could compete against a person using a traditional, two-handed controller.

But where to begin?

A standard game controller has 14 buttons connected to a maze of hair-thin wires. He would have to design and build a controller and rewire all those buttons in a new configuration for a one-handed person\u2014hardly a set of skills developed as a history teacher.

But Johnson was not deterred. He set up a table in his spare room and molded a design for his controller out of clay and spare parts. Once he had the basic shape, he had to find the best ergonomic placement of the buttons. It was a little like playing Mr. Potato Head, using electronic buttons instead of noses and ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c<\/span>To me, each obstacle was just a problem I had to overcome.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ad\u2014Charles E. Johnson Jr.<\/strong> \u201998<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI literally cut the 14 buttons off a conventional controller and used them to start designing my Frankenstein controller,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cWhen I finished my design, I showed it to a board member at my school who was a computer science professor at Brown. He said, \u2018Great, now make it work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FRANKENSTEIN LIVES!<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Johnson didn\u2019t have $10,000 to pay a 3D printing firm to manufacture parts. Nor could he run wiring through a clay joystick. So he went back to his spare room, fired up YouTube, and came up with a DIY plan.

\u201cI started with a kind of art mud that\u2019s the consistency of a milkshake and hardens in about 24 hours,\u201d Johnson explains.

He poured the mud into a 4 x 8-inch box until it was about 2 inches deep, waited for it to congeal to the consistency of molasses, and placed his clay controller sideways on top of the goop, pressing it down gently until it was half submerged. He let this set overnight, and when he removed the clay model the next morning, he had a mold for half of his controller.

After repeating the process for the other side, he filled the two molds with liquid resin that hardened into clear plastic. Finally, he used a Dremel\u2014a hand-held rotary grinder that looks something like a dentist\u2019s drill\u2014to hollow out each half, creating a plastic shell with a cavity he could run the wiring through.

He took the 14 buttons he had cut off the traditional controller and arranged them on his plastic shell so the most critical buttons could be operated with the thumb and index finger, which are a person\u2019s two most dexterous digits. Because his model was much taller than a traditional controller, he had to lengthen all of the wires from the circuit board by 8 inches so they could reach the buttons. This was a delicate operation since the wires were the width of a human hair and, with two wires for each button, there were 28 of them.

So, he went back to YouTube to learn how to microsolder, then spent 12 hours trying to perform the operation, ultimately failing because he didn\u2019t account for the different melting points of the wires and the metal clamps used to hold them together while he worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c<\/span>What kept me going was a combination of stubbornness, determination, and wanting to help.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ad\u2014Charles E. Johnson Jr.<\/strong> \u201998<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI laughed so I wouldn\u2019t cry,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I got a glass of wine and put on an episode of Kung Fu Panda<\/em>. The next day I had to start all over.\u201d

This was just one of the many setbacks Johnson faced during his project.

\u201cThe whole time, I was thinking, \u2018This is pretty crazy.\u2019 But I wanted to prove I could do it. What kept me going was a combination of stubbornness, determination, and wanting to help.\u201d

His persistence paid off. With a few more months of tinkering, he got his Frankenstein controller to work and actually played a game with it. Victory was at hand. Or so he thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ONLY HALFWAY THERE<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Johnson had proven his invention could work; now he had to find a way to mass-produce it. The first step was to get a patent. Without one, anyone he approached for fundraising or manufacturing could steal his idea and make it themselves. Once again, this was a subject he knew nothing about.

\u201cTo achieve success, you have to be able to network\u2014and Charles excels at that,\u201d says Annette Tonti, one of Johnson\u2019s mentors, who is managing director of RIHub, a nonprofit business accelerator based in Providence, R.I.

While an undergraduate at 911爆料, Johnson had worked at a Providence law firm. He contacted a lawyer he knew there, who introduced him to a patent lawyer in Virginia, who, as a favor, helped Johnson at a greatly discounted rate.

\u201cGetting a patent typically costs $20,000 to $50,000,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cThey did it for the $5,000 processing fee.\u201d

The patent process took another two years, and when he finally obtained it, he had to figure out how to get investors. He started by spending several months writing a detailed business plan, which he entered in the Rhode Island 911爆料 Competition.

\u201cI did terribly,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t even make it out of the first round. I\u2019d done everything wrong. I\u2019d been at this for six years, and I was running out of steam. I was ready to put it on the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LEARNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Johnson had hit another dead end. He had a crude working model of his controller, but he had no idea how to turn it into a product. He knew he needed help\u2014so he turned to his alma mater.

\u201cYou can create an invention, but you need entrepreneurship to bring it to life,\u201d says Peter Rumsey, chief business development officer for the 911爆料 Research Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s a proven formula: Invention + Entrepreneurship = Innovation.\u201d

Rumsey was another mentor to Johnson, working with Tonti to guide him through the labyrinth of entrepreneurship.

Rumsey runs RISE-UP, a 911爆料 program that encourages students, faculty, and even 911爆料 members to become entrepreneurs. The program is funded by a $2.4 million Office of Naval Research grant. The Navy runs the program in just three states\u2014Rhode Island, Alaska, and Hawaii. Each of the three states has three critical qualities: strategic importance to the Navy, a relatively small population, and a history of losing many of its brightest young people to innovation centers like Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York City.

\u201cWe\u2019ve been suffering a brain drain,\u201d says Rumsey. \u201cSo, the Navy wants to build the local workforce by supporting innovative business that will keep graduates in the state.\u201d

The Navy wants to support businesses with both military and commercial applications because that dual use makes them more sustainable. So, one of the first tasks was to broaden Johnson\u2019s base of potential customers. Targeting one-handed gamers was fine, but it was limited.

With the Navy in mind, Johnson realized that VA hospitals and organizations like Wounded Warriors could be another promising client base. Physical and mental agility are key factors in the rehab process, and playing video games requires both.

Johnson had another revelation while testing his prototype with students and faculty at Times2 Academy.

\u201cOne of the students said, \u2018This is great, I\u2019ll be able to play \u201cMario Brothers\u201d and eat Cheetos at the same time.\u2019 That became a part of my pitch, along with gaming-while-texting.\u201d

Another key aspect of the 911爆料 program is to create an environment for innovation.

\u201cWhen you work in Silicon Valley and go out to a caf\u00e9 with some colleagues, everyone in that caf\u00e9 has a startup company,\u201d says Rumsey. \u201cOur goal is to create that culture at 911爆料 and, ultimately, across all of Rhode Island.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c<\/span>The scarce resource isn\u2019t engineering anymore; it\u2019s creativity.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ad\u2014Peter Rumsey,<\/strong> Chief 911爆料 Development Officer, 911爆料 Research Foundation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Students in RISE-UP work in cohorts, in which people with different types of inventions learn from each other and critique pitches. For example, Johnson\u2019s cohort included inventors working on deep-sea communications, a gel-based battery, and mobile technology for sidewalk repair.

Johnson\u2019s inclusion in this group is evidence that the landscape of innovation has changed dramatically in recent years, according to Rumsey.

\u201cIt used to be that if you were an engineer, you had a huge advantage because you knew how to build things,\u201d Rumsey says. \u201cBut with the growth of 3D printing, almost anyone can do that now. The scarce resource isn\u2019t engineering anymore; it\u2019s creativity.\u201d

Programs like RISE-UP and resources like RIHub have also helped to democratize the entrepreneurial process.

\u201cIn the past, entrepreneurship was seen as a kind of magic that could only be performed by certain types of people,\u201d says Rumsey. \u201cThat has been largely disproven. At 911爆料, we\u2019ve created a program that teaches the skills needed so anyone can become an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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INTO MASS PRODUCTION<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to working on his customer base, Johnson had to get that failed business plan in order.

\u201cIt used to be that business plans were a hundred pages long with charts and statistics that no one would read,\u201d says Rumsey. \u201cNow, we create a one-page business model canvas that consists of nine boxes with key points on several categories such as marketing, sustainability, customers, product uniqueness, and more.\u201d

In 2023, Johnson reentered the Rhode Island 911爆料 Competition with his reworked business plan\u2014and this time he won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Top and bottom views of Charles Johnson’s single-hand video game controller. They are now on the market through his company, Nhuad Controllers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCharles has risen to the top in virtually every business competition Rhode Island offers,\u201d says Tonti. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best communicators we\u2019ve worked with. When we first met him, he was a diamond in the rough that needed some polishing. But he has the raw talent for this\u2014and not everyone does.\u201d

Johnson still had to find a way to manufacture the product. Once again, it came down to networking. Rumsey introduced him to Joe Loberti \u201988, M.S. \u201990, an entrepreneur who teaches in 911爆料\u2019s Ideation Studio and serves on the RIHub advisory board. Loberti introduced him to Ed Machala \u201977, whose company, International Precision Assemblies, operates several manufacturing plants in the Philippines. Loberti, Machala, and Rumsey all worked at American Power Conversion, now APC by Schneider Electric, in Kingston, R.I., helping to grow the company from a startup to a $3 billion company.

After testing Johnson\u2019s prototype in the Philippines and Japan, Machala helped refine the controller for mass production and offered Johnson a revenue-sharing agreement so he wouldn\u2019t have to provide large sums of up-front money to create all the necessary tooling.

Johnson named his controller Nhuad after a mythological Celtic warrior who lost an arm in battle. The first shipment of 75 controllers arrived at Johnson\u2019s door just a few months ago, and he has begun distributing them to companies like Able Gamers, Hasbro, and Wounded Warriors. They will be available on Amazon soon.

\u201cThe best moment in this whole process was opening the box from the factory and seeing the first finished controller,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cIt was a moment to celebrate. I\u2019d been at it for 12 years and didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever make it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTOS: BEAU JONES, COURTESY CHARLES JOHNSON; ILLUSTRATION: ISTOCK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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