Text by Leslie Johnson, Photos by Ko.
The January 2006 IDSA Design Loop at Inventables was a wonderful and thought-provoking event that answered two important questions for me: Where am I and who are all these people?
It started with the demonstration of a liquid that made the audience gasp at the sight of someone's phone submerged in a water-like substance, then made to still ring and function normally. The liquid was then poured on this young sap who could only describe its effect as "cold" and dry. Good thing. It was a substance called "Dry Liquid" made by 3M, that dries three times faster than regular water and cools upon contact. The liquid is ideal for fire suppression in office environments where a false fire alarm can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to electronic infrastructure. It's not as ideal for a drink, but it works for that too.
Inventables, established in 2002, has the ambitious goal of getting products such as this to the Nikes and Proctor & Gambles of the world so these companies can come up with the next big thing. Should these companies find a use for these break-through technologies, Inventables facilitates the meeting of the inventor and the company so they can hash out the gory details of their new union.
A number of technologies were premiered including a "Packers Pen" that projects an image onto the wall in addition to being a handy writing tool, a "Gel magnet" that feels like a mashmallow but acts like magnet, and a "Dry-Erase Sheet", which is a permanently static charged sheet that functions the same as that cumbersome dry-erase board at your job.
The night ended with a voting process to see what the next "favorite" product for the cover of Inventable should be. After some good conversation and our fill of playing with the gadgets, we were all sent home (some to O'Leary's Pub) wondering what future Inventables boxes might hold and wishing we could have one of our own. All and all, a great evening.
Milling around and gabbing.
Osman and Keith of Inventables.
Joey Nakamura of HLB in intense concentration.
Osman dropping science.
The January 2006 IDSA Design Loop at Inventables was a wonderful and thought-provoking event that answered two important questions for me: Where am I and who are all these people?
It started with the demonstration of a liquid that made the audience gasp at the sight of someone's phone submerged in a water-like substance, then made to still ring and function normally. The liquid was then poured on this young sap who could only describe its effect as "cold" and dry. Good thing. It was a substance called "Dry Liquid" made by 3M, that dries three times faster than regular water and cools upon contact. The liquid is ideal for fire suppression in office environments where a false fire alarm can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to electronic infrastructure. It's not as ideal for a drink, but it works for that too.
Inventables, established in 2002, has the ambitious goal of getting products such as this to the Nikes and Proctor & Gambles of the world so these companies can come up with the next big thing. Should these companies find a use for these break-through technologies, Inventables facilitates the meeting of the inventor and the company so they can hash out the gory details of their new union.
A number of technologies were premiered including a "Packers Pen" that projects an image onto the wall in addition to being a handy writing tool, a "Gel magnet" that feels like a mashmallow but acts like magnet, and a "Dry-Erase Sheet", which is a permanently static charged sheet that functions the same as that cumbersome dry-erase board at your job.
The night ended with a voting process to see what the next "favorite" product for the cover of Inventable should be. After some good conversation and our fill of playing with the gadgets, we were all sent home (some to O'Leary's Pub) wondering what future Inventables boxes might hold and wishing we could have one of our own. All and all, a great evening.
Milling around and gabbing.
Osman and Keith of Inventables.
Joey Nakamura of HLB in intense concentration.
Osman dropping science.
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