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volume 1, issue 5
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may 2008
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Greetings! We can finally say it's Spring!
April was the month that nearly got away! It mostly pretended to be March. We had rain (so what else is new in Seattle?) and snow (!) day after day. By the end, everyone was getting grouchy - what happened to Spring? Spring, as my East coast friends told me, had comfortably settled into their neighborhood. Sigh... Mid-month a trip to Vancouver BC was on the calendar as I did some speaking at Western Grafik'Art on the 12th and 13th. If you want to download a copy of a light-hearted presentation on the " History and Future of Printing," you can get it here>> You'll recognize some of the unusual technology from these very newsletters! Following are a few excerpts from my blog postings during April; enjoy!
If you like, you can connect via a RSS feed to get the posts as they
happen. Please visit my site and join the conversation as I continue to observe trends, identify new technology, and comment on developments in the graphic communications industry - printed and digital, mailed and e-mailed. There are always new links to articles, websites, and blogs that I hope you will find interesting. All the best,
Gail Nickel-Kailing, Managing Director
Business Strategies Etc.
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Personalization at Work! Starbucks Coffee Card...
 Examples of " mass customization" turn up every day; and I've discovered yet another one!
In the middle of the month, I tried out a great new service from Starbucks
- customizable coffee cards! You can read about the process here>>. Just over two weeks later, the coffee card arrived in a nice greeting card complete with a personal message. By the way, the greeting card and its envelope were printed on paper consisting of 30% post-consumer waste.
I gave the card a score of 8 on a scale of 1-10; read my reasoning here>>. |
Hand-held Projectors Get Smaller - the Pico Projector
Not so very long ago, if you wanted hook a projector to your laptop for
a presentation, you had to haul around a piece of equipment that was so
big it was guaranteed to give you back spasms. Digital projectors are
shrinking faster and faster, and now there is the Pico Projector, currently being developed by Microvision, a Redmond WA company. The image below shows a concept phone from Motorola with the projector built in. Read more here>> How small is small? I was curious, so I looked it up. A "pico," according to the International System of Units, is pretty darn small; just multiply the number to which it is attached by10 -12. A pico-meter is 10 -12 times a meter. Get out your calculator - that's small! |
 Miles of Cheap Plastic Solar Ribbon
When someone mixes the phrases "inkjet printing" with "solar cells" it always gets my attention. Technology has moved ahead by leaps and bounds; now we have something called Power Plastic®,
an inexpensive, lightweight, and flexible light-activated
photo-reactive material that is printed using roll-to-roll printing
processes.
Konarka Technologies has developed a process that uses currently-available coating and printing machines and
technologies to produce continuous solar cells for use virtually anywhere. They
can be incorporated in tents, awnings, roofs, windows and window
coverings. Read more here>>
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 TickeTime - Smart Ticket and a Watch??
Definintely one for the "New and Unusual Technology" category! Your ticket - whether for
an airline flight, a cruise, or a train trip - can now tell you the
time. A combination boarding pass and wristwatch, called TickeTime (designed by Jacky Wu, Neo Chen & Eric Liu),
is composed of a paper ticket/boarding pass, a detachable "smart strip"
watch, and a small magnet to hold the watch closed on your wrist.
It's smart card technology at work! See more here>>
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 Gail Goes Completely Around the Bend!
What more can be said? Movement generates energy - yes, I remember that from my basic Physics class. But here is a dress that captures kinetic energy and stores it.
An MIT-designed outfit modeled by grad student Heather Knight at the Seamless: Computational Couture fashion show held at Bosto's Museum of Science in January 2008, captures and stores energy generated by body movements. I remember that in the 1980s " Power Dressing" had an entirely different meaning! Check it out here>> |
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