I met Chris Hawker briefly in Spring 2010 at the Chicago Housewares show.
I read his recent article on InventorSpot and and am posting this for others to read, it is a very succinct and well written. He covers the different types of prototypes involved in bringing a product to market... Very good article for anyone working on any new invention and covers the terminology and definition (with pictures) of each prototyping stage...
Check out Chris' InventorSpot article by clicking on the link below:
Turning Ideas Into Products: Expert Tips For Invention Prototypes - Part 1 of 3: Terminology
Stay tuned on the same internet channel to catch Parts 2 and 3, in the forthcoming weeks....
Update: 4/3/2013 - Part 2 - Prototyping Methods
Update: 5/13/2013 - Part 3 - Proof of Concept Prototypes