Tag: back

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Health and Wellness

BetterBack provides improved posture, produces better backers

Good posture is one of the most ignored health issues out there. Our posture affects the way we breathe, grow and function. Bad posture can have serious long term complications, such as back pain and a hump in our old age.

BetterBack is one solution to this problem. This product is targeted towards individuals who sit a lot and helps them straighten their otherwise slouched over sitting position. The main portion of BetterBack rests on the lower back. Two straps reach from that part to loop around the knees, providing leverage to draw the lower back in while the upper back straightens out. BetterBack can be used and carried around anywhere, making it convenient. It also boasts breathable fabrics so that one’s back doesn’t get all sweaty.

This is one of those products that doesn’t need technology to be innovative and effective. BetterBack provides a simple solution in an even simpler package. The product’s makers may want to consider adding a standing option to their brand, but their existing product is still intriguing. One will cost backers a donation of $75 for delivery in October 2015. BetterBack Kickstarter campaign is looking for $12,500 by May 2.

Categories
Apparel Health and Wellness

Revive Tank shirt holds hot or cold pack where you need it most

Back pain can be a debilitating problem that really hinders one’s quality of life. Many people with back pain choose to see a chiropractor. But in between visits, it’s sometimes necessary to take steps to manage pain and swelling.

Revive Tank is a product that allows the user to use heat or ice therapy and continue moving around and going about their day. The tank shirt has slot for hot or ice pads making it easy to move about while getting relief. It works even if one is experiencing sciatica, which is pain that radiates from the back and down one or both legs, and chronic back pain.

Revive Tank is an interesting idea, albeit slightly awkward. Still, it holds promise for those with chronic pain who simply can’t lie around all day feeling badly. This campaign seeks to raise $30,000 on Kickstarter. Backers get one tank for $100 with an expected delivery of May 2015.

Categories
Kids/Babies Wearables

FixSit fixes kids sitting in a W shape; prevents pain later on

As children grow and develop, their habits can have major consequences for the future. For instance, children who W-sit, meaning sit on their butts with both legs bent and splayed out awkwardly, are at risk for back issues later in life.

FixSit hopes to prevent such issues. Designed for children, this product is a wearable device that affixes to both ankles. It can detect when the child is W-sitting. When this behavior is detected, an alarm is sounded. This way, children are provided with instant feedback about their position and can adjust accordingly.

Best of all, each FixSit looks like a toe-less sock. Made of black stretchy fabric, this product will work great on children because it’s not a bulky piece of tech, like other wearables.

One concern about this product is the use of a loud alarm to correct behavior. However, the campaign states that the creators are adding a vibrate mode so the little nose-miner won’t be disturbed at school by the alarm, smart. For their very own, backers can donate $300 for one “production unit” or pair for estimated delivery in October 2015. FixSit is hoping to raise $75,000 with the help of Kickstarter.

Categories
Health and Wellness Wearables

Upright poises to perfect your posture

The Premise. Poor posture can lead to a slew of health problems as people get older. Those who hunch from time to time in their youth will end up hunching over permanently in old age. With the amount of sitting that people do from day to day, it’s difficult to maintain good posture all the time.

The Product. Upright is a small device that attaches to your lower back. When your posture is poor, the product vibrates, alerting the wearer that they need to straighten out. Multiple sensors allow Upright to detect when the wearer is sitting, standing, running or walking. The accompanying app receives information about your posture habits from the device via Bluetooth technology. Upright is small, white and attaches to your back with a sticky substance.

The Pitch. Upright’s campaign video features several different slouchy people straightening up in situations where confidence is needed, such as an interview or date. Testimonials from users and experts on the benefits of good posture round out the video’s narrative. The rest of the campaign goes through the technology involved in the product as well as detailing the mobile training app that the product comes with. The Swiss-made Upright hopes to raise $70,000 USD on Indiegogo.

The Perks. For an early special price, Upright will cost crooked backers $69. At a regular price, the Upright goes for $79, both with estimated delivery dates of March 2015. Reward tiers go all the way up to $1,725, aka the company pack for any company that wants its employees to sit up straight, not a bad idea. 

The Potential. Posture is definitely a problem for most nowadays. We always seem to be hunched over our computers, books, or phones. Similar to Upright, the Lumo Lift also reminds wearers to sit up straight while tracking activity and posture using an accompanying app. Lumo Lift is a a similar price as Upright, but is worn on the lapel instead of directly on the back. This likely makes it a bit more comfortable if conspicuous. All in all, Upright is a clever product and, if it can stay attached to the skin all day, it will certainly enjoy great success for those looking to alleviate back pain. 

Categories
Health and Wellness

PostureME has your back… in an ergonomically supported position

Picture 4Computers 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.

Categories
Imaging Video Wearables

meMini records your life after the fact

editors-choiceThe Premise. Sometimes the most precious memories in life can be the most unprecedented. These unexpected moments can add a delightful twist of color into life, and they should never be lost or forgotten. But oftentimes it’s either too cumbersome or too late to pull out a camera and take a video that can be cherished forever.

The Product. The meMini is a wearable camera that lets you record events after they happen. Designed to be small and unnoticeable, it magnetically clips onto your clothing and records continuous loops that can be set anywhere between five seconds to five minutes. If something special happens but you were unable to pull your camera out in time, there’s no need to worry. Simply press the Recall button and the meMini will send that moment to its secure cloud based server for you to view later on your meMini.com profile. Because life’s most precious moments deserve to be shared, meMini also has an iPhone app that makes it easy to share your videos with family and friends.

The Pitch. Co-Founder Sam Lee starts off his narration of the meMini by introducing it as the world’s first wearable camera that makes it possible to record moments after they happen. He then shows the process and the detail that he and his team went through to make sure that the meMini was both simple and innovative in the way that we capture, store, and share our most treasured memories.The device eliminates the need for cords and memory cards because of its unique cloud-based storage system, which makes it easy to go back and relive memories in their purest form as they happen. Lee and co-founder Ben Bodely end the video by asking for a donation to fulfill their first order to put the meMini into production.

The Perks. Scheduled to be shipped in June 2014, a few early bird specials that will land you a meMini in the color of your choice for just $149. After this deal is over, you can still claim the same prize for $159, which is still a pretty good deal for a 1080p HD video recording device with image stabilization.

The Potential. Going head to head with wearable video capture products such as the Looxcie 3, the  meMini could change the way that moments are captured. Instead of a performance in front of a video camera, the meMini captures a memory as a candid visual that accurately portrays the moment as it happened and as you remembered it.  Wearable cameras still have their share of stigma, though, and the meMini’s battery will power it for only three hours at a time. Still, it’s the closest thing we might have to the rewind button on what we’ve experienced.