Up by Jawbone

Technology has become an integral part of life, enhancing the way we experience and interact. Up by Jawbone is designed to encourage a healthier lifestyle with sleep monitors, activity tracking, and even a prompt to log daily meals. The idea is to create an extremely personal fitness plan based entirely on the user's data inputs.

Reading about this device brings into question what else this technology can be applied to. Can this be modified to assist in long backpacking trips, factoring in rationing of food and water; or tracking mileage/altitude achievements? Could this prevent heart attacks by monitoring blood pressure and stress levels? Can GPS tracking be incorporated in some way to ensure a safe return for every camper?

And of course, this little genius bracelet has a sleek and simple design that perfectly compliments the iphone app that logs all of this data.

Poler's Napsack

Poler's Napsack is a sleeping bag with a sense of humor. The Napsack allows the user to stay in their sleeping bag for as long as they want. It is described as a summer weight bag with zippers at the shoulders so you can stick your arms out, and a cinch at the bottom so you can stick your legs out. Most of the photos on the website feature someone wearing this sleeping bag in their kitchen, on a couch, or just hanging around. This is a funny little example of how easily camping accessories can enhance our daily lives outside of... the outside!

BioLite

The BioLite is a wood-burning stove for camping and backpacking with an added bonus.  Heat produced from the flames also powers an electric generator for charging electronic devices in remote areas.  The BioLite can boil a liter of water in 2 and a half minutes, folds to 7.5 x 4.5" and weighs 1lb 10oz.  Relying entirely on the BioLite would require a steady supply of dry kindling but would also eliminate the need to carry any form of liquid fuel.

In addition to being incredibly useful, the BioLite is also environmentally conscious, using less than half as much wood as an open fire and reducing smoke emissions by 95%

Heat-It

A new concept from Ortik, the Heat-It is great for alpine climbing. It's fire proof fabric houses the burner on a standard backpacking stove, shields the fire from wind, and condenses the heat. Cables make the stove and pot easily converted to a hanging system. A total 40 percent improvement of efficiency and boiling rate is coldest temperatures is worth the lightweight (6.4 oz) addition to standard gear; in not so extreme cold, 15 percent improvement.

Magnetron Carabiner

Black Diamond just introduced a magnetic locking carabiner.  Although this may seem a little unnecessary, they claim the negative attraction of the magnet forces the latch open, allowing for easy one-handed operation.

The Cave

The Cave is an inflatable tent from Heimplanet, an outdoor product start-up.  This interesting tent is inspired by the molecular structure of a diamond and can be inflated in less than a minute with a standard hand-pump.  At a little over 11 lbs, this may not be your best bet for backpacking, but it is an interesting concept.

MTN Approach

MTN Approach is an Idaho based start-up that just introduced a set of innovative products for backcountry snowboarders.  Their folding system allows riders to quickly deploy and stow cross-country skis in order to travel between locations with the speed of traditional splitboards, but not the hassle.  Besides being innovative, their products also appear to be simple, elegant, and extremely effective.  Their system was designed by Pillar Design in Seattle, Washington

 

Group Members

We thought it would be nice to introduce the members involved in this project as well as give some examples of current design work.

 

From top left: Claudia Anhalzer, MacKenzie Klein, Philip Bayer, William Van Zee, Charlotte Conway, Hailey O'Conner.

Here are a few samples of our work that can be found online, more to come soon!
Charlotte's Website
Hailey's Coroflot
Will's Blog

Cotopaxi

The destination of our winter break trip will be the Ecuadorian Andes, where we will summit Cotopaxi, one of the world's tallest active volcanoes.  For more information on the mountain and the region check out Summit Post.org.  For now, enjoy this stunning aerial photo of the volcano by famed geologist and photographer Bernhard Edmaier.

Schunemunk Mountain

Part of the team went on a weekend backpacking trip to Schunemunk Mountain a few weeks ago to relieve stress and enjoy the final days of summer.  This region is incredibly beautiful so we thought it would be nice to share some photos.

Project Brief

As some of the most driven students of the senior Industrial Design class at Pratt Institute, we have developed a course that will pair our love for design with our passion for the outdoors.  This studio, we believe, will enable us to enter the professional design world that we are so passionate about.  Pratt’s Industrial design department has taught us to seek out the best design opportunities for our education and learning needs.  Due to the strength and skills of its faculty, we are engaged young designers.  Our faculty has fostered our passion, excitement, and extreme sense of drive.  Giving us the ability and freedom to truly explore design to the fullest potential of our creativity.

The goal of this studio is to give students design opportunities outside of the classroom. Incorporating in depth field research, and project testing, this course will engage students in a greater understanding of design and its real world application.

Semester Overview

1.     Semester long senior level Directed Research course

2.     Week-long trip to the Ecuadorian Andes to summit Cotopaxi during our winter vacation.  This trip will act as a kick-off to the semester.  This will foster problem recognition as well as current market research.

3.     2 weekend excursions during the semester to local state parks to give students the opportunity to test initial products and concepts in the appropriate setting. 

4.     One weekend excursion for a final project testing performed around week 12 to test final designs and prototypes.  This will allow students to come back to the classroom to analyze successes and failures as well as provide proper testing to finalize designs and prototypes

Furthermore:

1. We would like to, and have researched to date, companies that might act as industry partners for this project.  We see the value of working with experience in this regard.  We would also like to propose that if we can garner industry partnership that the company outfit the camping trips if possible.  

2. We see that it might be more feasible if we separate the various functions for camping.  Each student in the class would be assigned, or volunteer, to solve one task.  This would enable the group to cover much ground, as well as, focus each students activity in a much more precise way.

In conclusion, course has the ability to be an extraordinary experience for students. We are sure it will be remarkable, breathtaking and extremely productive.  Not only for the students involved but also for the other students and faculty members.  As this class’s deliverables will create a base of knowledge, creating a learning tool, for potential projects to come.