“I was trying to take the 1950s bus bench and bring it to the 21st century,” says Christopher Harris, founder of ECOsmart Outdoor Media. The result is the ECOsmart bus bench, a collaboration between local company exec Harris, Toledo solar panel company Xunlight, and several University of Toledo mechani- cal engineering students. Solar panels connected to the bench generate energy to power a wi-fi connection and a 50-inch monitor that keeps riders updated on weather alerts, campus safety issues, bus schedules and other information — environmentally conscious communication of timely messages. “I really wanted to use the bench primarily as a campus safety, security and emergency notifica- tion system in real time,” said Harris. Though the bench is still in the prototype stage (it was shown at UT’s design expo in early December), Harris has high hopes that the eco-friendly innovation will eventually lead to jobs, saying the product “has national potential.”
ECOsmart bus bench
“I was trying to take the 1950s bus bench and bring it to the 21st century,” says Christopher Harris, founder of ECOsmart Outdoor Media. The result is the ECOsmart bus bench, a collaboration between local company exec Harris, Toledo solar panel company Xunlight, and several University of Toledo mechani- cal engineering students. Solar panels connected to the bench generate energy to power a wi-fi connection and a 50-inch monitor that keeps riders updated on weather alerts, campus safety issues, bus schedules and other information — environmentally conscious communication of timely messages. “I really wanted to use the bench primarily as a campus safety, security and emergency notifica- tion system in real time,” said Harris. Though the bench is still in the prototype stage (it was shown at UT’s design expo in early December), Harris has high hopes that the eco-friendly innovation will eventually lead to jobs, saying the product “has national potential.”
