A Lasting Impression

There's been a lot of excitement around the construction project in front of our building. When it's finished, there will be a new bike path next to Flying Cloud Drive. First, there was the excavator's accidental discovery of an electrical line. No one got hurt, but the server was down for a bit. Later that day, a front loader hit a gas line that led to the building evacuation. We, along with a few clients, escaped the rotten egg smell at the bus stop across the street for about an hour.

Today, Anne spotted the fresh cement! We made handprints, fistprints and asterisk prototpye imprints in the drying curb cement. I expected my hand to sink into the cement just like it would in mud, but it was so compact that is was hard to leave a mark unless you really dug in and moved your hand around. It brought out the 4th-grader in me!

ECONNOVATION: the package IS the product

Where does the package end and the product begin? The lite2go by Knoend is both at once — revolutionizing the package/product paradigm! The outer-wrap of the package functions as a container and transforms into a light diffusing lamp shade. The only disposables are the hemp twine and recycled paper. This is a much needed step towards zero waste in package design. Let's look to nature for inspiration: apples have skin, eggs have shells, water droplets have surface tension...

Minnesota Helps Monitor Olympic Air Quality

Air pollution levels at the 2008 Olympics remain a hot topic and one of WhiteBoard Product Solution’s clients is helping monitor the situation. TSI Incorporated is supporting the Chinese Environmental Protection Bureau’s air quality improvement efforts by providing critical measurement instruments to Olympic venues in Beijing.

WhiteBoard has collaborated with TSI on a number of industrial design and engineering projects including the new DUSTRAK II Aerosol Monitor being used in Beijing. The DUSTRAK precisely measures contaminants such as dust, smoke, fumes and mists. Congratulations TSI!

Check out the video and article from WCCO

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TSI product page for DUSTRAK

Smart Truths

Hoping you've been fortunate to see one of these little guys on your street; I bet your still wondering how the heck people fit in it. Follow the link to the Truth about Smart site to find out all you need to know about the smart car. And see it get hit with a wrecking ball.

Toyata Winglet Trumps Segway

I spent one week with a Segway, devising ways to turn it into a crowd pleasing head turner for advertisements. I drove the Segway around my neighborhood, and unadorned it turned heads - perhaps because I looked a bit geekish and lazy. It seems the biggest problem with the Segway, is that even with the introduction of an off-road version, people generally feel no real sense of adventure while riding on it.

Enter the Toyota Winglet, and things are about to get interesting. Looking more like inline skates than a moving podium, the Winglet looks sporty. It is a hands free device which allows for posing (and frankly who wouldn't throw their hands out in a "I'm riding the wind" stance on this thing).

The Winglet isn't exactly the flying car we have been waiting for, but it certainly stands a good chance of turning heads away from the Segway and towards the future of urban transportation.

Now lets see how long it takes to get it decked out for off-road.

(Thanks to gagadet.com for the video!)