Proposed “Greenery Solution” from Nectar Design Aims at Sparking Discussion on Outside-the-Box Green Solutions

Long Beach, California (February 6, 2009) – A Southern California design firm has created an unusual concept design aimed at provoking new ideas in the battle against industrial pollution and global warming. This ambitious yet simple idea takes advantage of a “product” previously designed by Mother Nature herself – the tree. As it is currently envisioned, the CO2 Scraper would be a large-scale construction for holding between two to four hundred large-size trees that would potentially absorb dangerous pollutants and convert global warming-related carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen. The creators understand that the Scraper would require a great deal of refinement, research, and engineering to make the concept truly effective from an environmental standpoint.

Designed to be placed near factories or other major sources of pollution, the CO2 Scraper as it is currently imagined would be a relatively simple concrete construction in which trees will be supplied with water and nutrients via a windmill-powered pump system. Primarily energy self-sustaining — the only outside power required in the current design would be electricity for an elevator to be used by maintenance personnel — the Scraper would absorb carbon dioxide and thereby increase the amount of life-giving oxygen in the atmosphere.

In addition, the structure would provide immediate benefits to people and animals in its vicinity, providing a significant amount of shade, while also cooling the air during the hot summer months via the temperature-lowering properties of hundreds of trees. The structure as envisioned may be relatively inexpensive to build – perhaps roughly equivalent in cost to building industrial smokestacks — while still helping local economies by creating a number of green jobs during both the initial construction and later maintenance phases.

The CO2 Scraper is part of a movement of outside-the-box green concepts such as Madrid’s Air Tree Pavilion and Dickson Despommier’s Vertical Farm project. This very new concept has drawn early praise from scientist, consultant, and sustainability specialist Joep Meijer. “Though it is an idea still very much in its infancy, the CO2 Scraper is an outstanding example of the kind of ideas we need to look at now. In a final version, it would be a great investment in natural capital for existing industries,” said Mr. Meijer. “It would show a strong commitment and awareness to the environment as an integral part of doing business, as it would bring improvements to the actual site, neighboring communities, and local ecologies.”

“Right now this is a concept very much in the early idea stages,” said Nectar Senior Designer Yutaka Kazamaki, who has been spearheading the CO2 Scraper project. “Although right now the economy is naturally the focus of world attention, the issue of global warming is clearly among the greatest issues our planet is facing. The need to consider any and all possible solutions that address both our environmental and economic challenges have never been greater.”

About Nectar Design:

Nectar is an award-winning product development consultancy established in 1992. With a firm commitment to thoughtful innovation, the Nectar team helps clients create products that connect to their users and expand their markets. For more information, please contact us by phone at: 562-856-8500 or by e-mail at info@nectardesign.com, or visit us online at www.nectardesign.com.

Contact: Bob Westal 323-384-4299
bwestal@gmail.com or
info@nectardesign.com
www.nectardesign.com

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Midwifing the Rebirth

There’s no doubt that we live in a time of some pretty enormous economic challenges, but the good news is that we all have a gigantic ace-in-the-hole at our disposal, if only we know how to use it — innovation. That’s why Nectar is very proud to be associated as an expert advisor with Larta Institute, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit corporation devoted to nurturing new businesses in fields ranging from life sciences to IT.

With its slogan, “Connecting people to drive innovation,” Larta provides a host of services to help new businesses on the cutting edge and mentor them on a large range of issues facing growing firm today. The institute interacts with such governmental agencies as the National Institute of Health (NIH), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Department of Defense, as well as such multinational conglomerates as Procter & Gamble Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, and Eli Lilly, thus helping entrepreneurs to stay up-to-date on the leading edge of information from both the private and public sectors. Just as important, the institute provides advice on a host of crucial day-to-day matters including patents and obtaining government grants, such as those offered by the USDA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs.

Nectar’s Vice President, Cary Chow, recently participated in a panel discussion on the interaction between technology, product development, and branding held at the Marriot Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Speaking alongside Larta CEO Rohit Shukla, Farida Fotouhi of marketing firm Reality2, and Shawn Ramsey of Crossroads PR, Cary explained some of the user-based thinking that goes into branding and product development. Using the example of MP3 files as an innovative technology that lacked powerful mass market branding until Apple’s development of the iPod made the technology psychologically accessible to a broad audience, Cary described how entrepreneurs could think about innovation and technological progress in today’s world. Speaking to an audience largely drawn from the medical field, he also showed several examples of how Nectar has integrated branding into its product development approach for several of its healthcare clients.

Of course, insights like that are just one part of the jigsaw puzzle facing growing businesses in our current challenging, but still promising, climate. As Larta’s website explains:

Our mission is to vastly improve the transition of scientific and technological breakthroughs from the laboratory to the marketplace, where they can solve problems, enhance economic opportunities and better people’s lives.

All things considered, that’s about as important a mission as we’ve got right now. Thanks to Larta Institute for allowing Nectar to be a part of it.

The Mother of Reinvention

We all know that “reinventing the wheel” is supposed to be a waste of time. Suppose, however, that you actually had invented the wheel and, everywhere you went, your fellow cavepeople were using it like crazy to move stuff via Flintstones-style stone wheelbarrows – and now it was time to further capitalize on your invention or Mr. Slate would soon start issuing pink slip-tablets? Well, that’s when it would be time to think about new uses for the wheel, and it’s where clever marketing can really be a boon. With the right spin, maybe you could persuade someone to start using your reinvented wheels in rock-bicycles (or whatever they would have called them on the Flintstones).

That’s the situation our friends at C2C Group Marketing were trying to help their client, Clegg Promo, with not so long ago. Clegg had enjoyed great success with the talking sound chip, the now-ubiquitous device used in gag greeting cards and countless electronic doodads. That was great, of course, but now it was time for Clegg to generate a second life for their product. The answer was to create an alternative to the motion-trigger used to activate the sound chip, creating a device that would automatically activate and literally speak the instant it was hit by light. C2C then stepped in with the right packaging to show off the applications of the new chip to their best advantage, generating sales without the need for an expensive and time-consuming all-out sales push.

The moral, of course, is that if you have the right presentation, reinventing the wheel can make a lot of sense. For more of this kind of thinking, Tom Wein at C2C Group can be reached at twien@c2cgroupinc.com.

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Going with the Lateral Flow

There was time when finding out whether or not a woman was pregnant involved the slaying of a rabbit. In the age of Juno however, pregnancy tests are cruelty free and as easy to access as the corner store, some contrived banter, and a bathroom. And it’s all thanks to lateral flow technology.

Nectar partner company Diagnostic Consulting Network ( DCN ), a contract developer, is at the forefront of harnessing this versatile technology for a wide variety of applications. Lateral flow essentially works by targeting analytes, substances that act as markers for antibodies, hormones, bacteria, psychoactive drugs, and other substances and organisms. DCN has mined the technology to create applications that include a range of medical and veterinary diagnostics, food science, forensics (including technology that detects and amplifies DNA and RNA from crime scenes), agriculture, environmental testing, industrial health and safety, and even detection of possible agents of biological warfare, such as anthrax.

DCN’s Irish-born founder and president, medical microbiologist Dr. Brendan O’Farrell, describes lateral flow technology as an essentially simple process that, while widely used, has more potential than some manufacturers may realize. “A large part of the service we provide for our clients revolves around educating them on some of the more recent and leading edge facets of the technology,” said Dr. O’ Farrell. “For example, we’ve recently seen expansion in the utilization of fluorescents to create detection products that not only more accurately identify markers for a range of substances and organisms, but more accurately tells us the quantity of these factors. As we like to say, lateral flow technology is a field that’s pregnant with possibility.”

(more…)

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For a PDF of the entire Telemedicine and E-Health July/August, click here.

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What, No Smokestacks?

Back in our second issue, we discussed the fascinating and extremely useful technology of stereolithography for industrial prototyping. However, the newer technology of 3-D printing is opening up, moving beyond the world of industry and into the consumer realm. One company we know of is using it to create custom models of their customers’ World of Warcraft avatars, but our partners at Desktop Factory™ are really taking the technology into a new realm with a product designed and priced for home and office use.

Desktop Factory™ is just what it says it is – a desktop 3-d printer able to print out entire parts or products from CAD designs in a matter of hours. The entire product, which sells for $4995, sits comfortably on a desk and weighs less than ninety pounds.

In the end, Nectar and Desktop Factory™ were able to come up with a product with a modest 20″x25″ footprint which, in a few hours, can actually do the kind of work that formerly required the use of materials costing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, and, usually, the involvement of OSHA and an environmental impact report. Desktop Factory™ might fit easily on to a desk, but it’s no small thing.

Notes for Inventors: Of Information and Perspiration

Thomas Edison, the ultimate American inventor, famously said that genius was “one-percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,” but he left out another “tion” word – “information” is also kind of crucial. Many of our clients who are new to the invention game ask us for our knowledge and advice on this topic, and it often boils down to common sense points like those mentioned in an article we found at Inventor’s Digest – like the fact that too-good-to-be-true invention packaging services offered on late night radio and television ads are not to be trusted, keeping good records is crucial, and that it’s always good to find an unbiased expert to give your invention an unbiased evaluation. (The article suggests the United Inventor’s Association.)

Actually, while we’re plugging Inventor’s Digest , new inventors could also do a lot worse than to take a look at their FAQ page, which answers a number of frequently asked questions that some may, nevertheless, not always remember to ask — such as what is the difference between a patent agent and a patent attorney (and, no, “one’s a lawyer and one isn’t, schmendrick!” is not the answer. Well, not all of it.)

InventBay “a global web community bringing together the needs of inventors with invention industry services” is also worth a look as a way to keep up with the latest industry news, so you don’t find yourself duplicating someone else’s work (a.k.a. “reinventing the wheel.”). And, speaking of InventBay, there’s probably no better source of information, and no more fun way of gathering it, than meeting others who’ve been in the same position. InventBay’s National Inventor’s Expo is going to be held this October in fabulous, expensive, Las Vegas and it looks like it may well be an excellent venue to network with fellow inventors, meet vendors, and generally learn the ins-and-outs of the invention game from a large number of  people who really know.

Of course, Nectar stands ready to help new inventors act on all this good information. For example, the fourth item in the Inventor Digest piece suggests building a model – Nectar can build fully working prototypes that more closely simulate the final product than what most inventors are able to put together at home, and we can usually do it lot faster. Also, when it comes to patent searches, and retaining patent agents and patent attorneys, this is a matter we deal with on a regular basis and we can provide first hand counsel and referrals. Actually, Nectar is able to help at all steps of the invention process and can smooth over the areas where inventors may be less experienced. The ninth item on the Digest checklist probably says it best: “Do what you do well and hire pros to do the rest.”

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