A fever is never something to be ignored, and for children they can be especially dangerous. With that kind of importance in mind, the iTherm armband was designed to keep an eye on a sick child without disturbing anybody’s sleep patterns. With the iTherm, parents can set their phone to watch for temperature outliers and send an alert to wake them up if a child reaches that temperature. This way, prompt care can be given and little risk is taken while providing maximum rest. Parents who want to stay in the know during fevers can get an iTherm for $34, arriving in September 2014.
Category: Health and Wellness
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While weight training is one of the best ways to tone and gain muscle, it can sometimes mean enduring some bruising. For those who want the gain but prefer to avoid that type of pain, WilkWear offers a solution. This particular workout shirt has a padded collarbone area and is made of polyester and spandex to keep padding in place and your body comfortable during your routine. For $40, backers get one WilkWear with an expected delivery of May 2014. This offer is $10 off the anticipated retail price.
The Premise. Runners, cyclists, hikers and other athletes require lots of hydration during their workouts. Unfortunately, water bottles and backpacks can be cumbersome to carry and difficult to access when needed.
The Product. The Hydras is a portable water system perfect for athletes. This product offers shirts with four water bladders and tubes sewn in. The bladders are located at the shoulders and lower back, which are supposed to be the areas least prone to sweating. With perfect balance, the water evens itself out in each pouch for maximum comfort. The main tube comes over the should to make it accessible for drinking. Currently, Hydras comes in short sleeve, long sleeve and sleeveless wear.
The Pitch. Hydras’ main campaign video offers testimonials from wearers of this product with little other detail of its conception or design. The prototyping process fills the rest of the campaign. However, there are no pictures of the different shirts available with this product; that would be helpful for interested backers to see. There is also no mention of whether or not the shirts are machine-washable. This cooling system hopes to raise a staggering $115,000 in its 30-day Kickstarter campaign.
The Perks. Only backers with $150 will receive this hydrating shirt from the campaign. Lower tiers offer just the water bladders and tubes without a shirt or simply the chance to order the product before its official market release. Reward tiers go up to $10,000 with estimated delivery dates of November 2014.
The Potential. The Hydras shirts claim to offer more benefits than simply holding a water bottle or even using a CamelBak. The price seems a bit high, however, for one shirt, whether or not it holds water. Also, it seems likely that the water, while balanced in the shirt, may drag the fabric of the shirt down the back uncomfortably. Water temperature is also something to worry about because the water would most likely heat up during a workout. Still, the Hydras’ main benefit of evenly distributing the weight of the water across the back is essential for many athletes and the product may well appeal to fitness enthusiasts in need of a quick drink.
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As if being tied to a prescription isn’t inconvenient enough, there is also the added annoyance of having to carry it around if you are on-the-go a lot. A pill box is one option, or if you don’t mind carrying your meds around via modified dog tags, that is now also an option. The passion that the developer of The Dog Tag Pill Box shines through as he makes an off-the-cuff appeal for his pill holder. It’s being developed in multiple metals with a potential Italian leather interior and remains securely sealed with neodymium magnets. However, it’s definitely straddles the jewelry category with a price tag $34 when you can buy even a swank pocket pill box for far less. Expected delivery is July 2014.
In the past decade, it has become trendy to espouse that, like any muscle, the brain needs to get a workout every once in a while to stay in shape. The iFocusBand is a piece of smart headgear that slips inside the band of any ball cap and measures brain waves to determine focus and awareness, which it then translates into audiovisual stimulus to help boost athletic performance. Smart headbands are beginning to pop up all over the crowdfunding scene, but the athletic angle may help iFocusBand stand out. iFocusBand will cost backers $295, and has its eyes on the prize for an October 2014 release date.
Working long hours at a computer can be hard on your back, wrists and sometimes soul. It’s easy to forget that even while not in motion, you may not be taking care of your body. Mousebar is a product designed to be ergonomic and friendly to the human wrist. It is long, comes in several different colors and supports your arm from elbow to wrist on the side that you control your mouse from. While slightly clunky, Mousebar is great for compulsive computer-ites and goes for $19 early or $29 regularly on Kickstarter. Mousebar’s creators hope to raise $11,000 in their 30-day campaign.
As the weather warms, it’s great to be able to get out and enjoy different events. However, when you break away from the fun to make use of the restroom, some of them can be a bit on the scary side where cleanliness is concerned. Tidy Potty aims to provide cover when you feel the need to have a seat at public gatherings (as opposed to in the wild). The makers of the plastic cover boast that it is more effective than typical paper covers where protection and sanitation are concerned. Tidy Potty also comes with wipes. Of course, you could always just dig your own. Just $2 lands a pack of covers that are due in June 2014.
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It seems a wild notion to write about a bullet-safe panel that kids can put in their backpack for protection, but interest in such a product is a sad consequence of what was once unthinkable. That being said, the BulletSafe Backpack Pannel is made of the same bulletproof material that police and others in security use for bullet proof vests. Kids just pack it in their backpack right along with their books. As long as schools don’t make them store their backpacks in their lockers, it might just save some lives. For $89 — a bit less than similar options — a backer gets one product with an expected delivery of April 2014.
Computers are great, obviously, but hunching over them all day isn’t. Good posture is hard to achieve when YouTubing it all day. PostureME offers the “most comfortable back support in the world” according to its Kickstarter campaign. This long skinny accessory for your chair offers lower and upper back support and uses ergonomics to achieve its goal without using any high-techery a la the Lumo Lift. While not as stylish as the campaign leads backers to believe, this is still looks like a helpful and reasonably compact comfort aid for the car or office. PostureME has a goal of $10,000 in a 45 day campaign. Early backers can straighten their backs with PostureME for $30. But as cappuccino teaches us, sometimes it’s all about the foam.
The Premise. For years, doctors have suggested that a major factor in the rise of depression, energy loss, and insomnia is a result of the increase in time most people spend in doors, bathed in the glow of computers and televisions. The remedy to this concern is simply exposure to the sun, but concerns about complications from ultraviolet rays keep people unsure about just what to do.
The Product. With a clip onto any article of clothing or accessory, the SunSprite is available to tell consumers how much bright light exposure they need in a day for optimum health benefits. The SunSprite itself is solar-powered, meaning that charging it is as easy as using it. A line of lights on the product’s surface measure how much light its owner has basked in that day, and a companion app helps people plan for harsh UV exposure, advising them to use sunscreen or other protection. The SunSprite comes with no extra cables or attachments and is roughly the dimensions of a house key.
The Pitch. SunSprite is the brainchild of the Harvard-educated doctors and engineers at GoodLux. The message in their introductory video is simple – the human body was designed to be out in the sun, and their device will help make sure its owners are getting enough exposure. Additional videos include a product unboxing and the medical background behind the product’s inception. The graphics help explain the different reward tiers, how the SunSprite works, and how bright light affects the human body. GoodLux needs $50,000 to finish tooling, production, and certification for their creation.
The Perks. The Sunsprite and its companion app are available for contributions of at least $99, and is expected to be arriving in June in time to get plenty of sun. Pledges of $399 also include a SunBox SunRay II (or different model for European backers) that will allow backers to get light exposure even on the cloudiest of days.
The Potential. This simple device is sure to help people make sense of an easy holistic solution to their ailments. Outdoor enthusiasts will surely be adding these to their list of essential gadgets. While it may not become a common accessory based on the price and limited functionality, the self-powering, non-invasive SunSprite will become a fast favorite to those who are serious about lighting up their lives.