It’s a marvelous experience going for a walk in the early hours of the morning when it’s dark and more importantly when there is a fog.
The fog provides an eerie and very different environment for us to appreciate as we reconcile our senses with the noticeable changes in our limited ability to see and hear.
One morning whilst recently relishing my morning fog perambulation, I recognized that many sounds that I would normally hear quite distinctly had a rather muffled tone, in fact, it was as if I was walking in a sound vacuum.
This was a “eureka moment” for solving one of the biggest issues in the open plan office, that of the “private conversation”!
The innovative solution is to have an array of fine water mist nozzles strategically placed above each employee’s workstation. When they want to have a conversation which they don’t want to share with their surrounding work colleagues, a button would be pressed on their desk that would initiate the release of the mist that would encapsulate the employee and muffle their voice. It would be just like having your own fog!
For those who want a personalized fog, a distinctive colour or scent, could be added to the mist to provide a tailored signature above their workstation.
This unique “private conversation” solution would also have the additional benefit of limiting the time spent in idle chit-chat because if one talks for too long a duration, the speaker would become rather wet with the continued exposure to the mist (unless they resort to using an umbrella).
Thoughts that might just be useful in the future 