Introduction
As 2023 comes to a close, and we look ahead to 2024, we wanted to reflect back on some of the projects we completed this year for our wide array of amazing clients. Companies of all sizes and industries approach Tomorrow Lab to solve a multitude of engineering and design challenges. And while we cannot share in detail every project Tomorrow Lab takes on, for obvious reasons (NDAs!), we do have the privilege of sharing some of our favorites from this past year.
Highlights
First up, a super fun project that combined material sourcing and the challenge of incorporating electronics into an overall very thin design.
Packet was brought to the Tomorrow Lab team to create a version 2 of this product that resulted in a production ready prototype. Have you ever struggled to send a large amount of data due to limited cloud storage or internet bandwidth? Or does the data you are wanting to send contain sensitive information that you are concerned about malicious parties obtaining? Packet is here to save the day!
The three Packet achievements:
- It is the cheapest content delivery network on the planet (send up to 1TB anywhere in the continental US for 3 stamps!)
- It is the fastest content delivery network for large data sets
- It allows for seamless integration with the US Postal Service and global courier services, by way of the postcard form factor
By having the data stored and shared on an external physical device that can be sent easily through the mail, the ease of use and security options (like tracking and informed delivery) make this device a no-brainer for use cases like sending medical records, identification documents, sensitive work related project files and so much more.
The end product is a beautiful, simple layered paper package that includes additional cardstock envelopes and stickers to seal the USB-C port when sending it again . The USB-C accessible, lash memory storage is embedded in layers of paper, with storage ranges of 16GB to 1TB.
Several thousand units have already been delivered and are ready for use! We cannot wait to see Packet out in the wild traveling through the mail system!
Next up, we wrapped Season 2 of our YouTube series, Potentially Genius with Digi-Key in the early part of the year. In case you are unfamiliar with our series, we leverage Digi-Key’s huge online electronic component library in order to turn a “potentially genius” idea into a real product by way of sketching, schematics and prototyping. There is a guest each episode and the tasks are matched to the best “TL’er” for the task at hand.
In our “Stroller Power” episode, Tomorrow Lab collaborated with Grace Mahary, who is a model, sommelier and Director of Project Tsehigh, which is a clean and sustainable energy solution provider. Grace is also a new mom and presented her idea to Tomorrow Lab for a stroller that could generate electricity kinetically or with solar, in order to power devices while out and about. We’ve got you, Grace! The final design generates electricity which is stored in a battery pack, has a custom phone holder and has the ability to increase and decrease wheel resistance (for when you need that extra workout).
In our “Courier Commons” episode, (sticking with the mail theme this year!), Tomorrow Lab came together with Futurist and science fiction author, Karl Schroeder. Pulling from Karl’s writings about blockchain, cryptocurrency, GPC location and Internet of Thing (IoT) connectivity, they came to the TL team with an idea about gamifying the day to day trips and errands that people do and rewarding them for transporting a box for someone else along their way. Keeping Karl’s comment of creating “a different vision of economics, where it is not about exchange, it’s about social actions and social capital” in mind, the team sought out to create a “smart box” with different layers of access.
And lastly, but certainly not the least, we are so excited to share that Tomorrow Lab’s packaging design for Exponent has won the Dieline award for Best in Sustainability. Exponent is founded by Liz Whitman, formerly president and CMO of The Red Door by Elizabeth Arden. Whitman approached Tomorrow Lab to help solve the challenge of beauty products losing their effectiveness over time due to decreased stability of active ingredients. The solution she came up with was to mix the active ingredients at the point of use and maximize overall effectiveness of the products. Tomorrow Lab ended up collaborating in creating a Self-Activator system that allows users to easily take control of ingredient mixing for fresh skin care, on-demand, every day. The end result ensures the liquid and powder elements dispense a reliable, accurate amount of materials every time. This project was the perfect mechanical engineering and industrial design combination challenge and we could not be more thrilled with the results! It has been so much fun following along on Exponent’s journey and we cannot wait to see where Whitman takes skincare next.
We’ve also been working on projects related to deep sea fly fishing, sustainable packaging for daily supplements, at home scent diffusion, kids wearables related to safety, cold storage, pet housing and so much more! We are looking forward to sharing more about these projects as they continue into 2024!
If you have an idea for a new hardware product, get in touch with us here for a free consultation!
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