What is the problem that your technology aims to address?
Backpacks are by far the most commonly used carry-on bags today. Although they are very popular, the risks involved when wearing a backpack can be serious towards the body. Most backpacks are designed so that the weight of the load is carried on the shoulders. According to the spinal research foundation, “[this] strains the upper back and supportive muscles of the spinal column, causing neck and upper back pain.” If this continues day by day, it can lead to permanent chronic back and spinal problems such as scoliosis or arthritis. Even though wearing a heavy backpack may be one of several contributions to back related problems such as injuries, lack of exercise or sitting hunched for long periods of time, it is nevertheless an issue that can be avoided. My group attempted to address this issue with our technology, the PosturePack.
The PosturePack has one fundamental goal: remove strain from the back and improve posture. The design of the bag involves cushioned back support as well as a memory foam material to align with the curvature of the back. This will keep the spinal cord aligned and remove stress from the upper back to a more uniform load.
What is the larger social issue that underlies this problem? How are diversity, inclusion, and identity related to this issue?
The larger social issue that we are trying to solve is the stereotype that all posture improving products are only made for the elderly. We want to make it more inclusive by making the technology available for a wider audience, not just the elderly. According to Keywords for Today, an encyclopedia of contemporary words, diversity is “overwhelmingly used in relation to human populations with particular types of internal demographic variation”. What I take that to mean is that diversity is often described to describe a group of people when it can also be used to describe a singular person or thing. A person can also be diverse in that it relates to their identity and what makes them unique. Another important concept, identity is “what you can’t help being, but also what you choose to become”. So basically we can’t choose who we are, yet at the same time we choose the actions we take which decide who we are. The next word in the book is “image”. I think our identity and what we believe we portray ourselves to be helps form whatever image other people see.
Regarding that, a lot of what we portray ourselves relates to our social image and impact.
Furthermore, the posture correcting services that are available for teenagers and younger adults are not fashionable and do not serve the taste of the younger population.
Although the PosturePack will serve for one purpose, its application and users may be vast and diverse. Most posture correcting technology are aimed specifically for adults and the elderly who either already have symptoms of chronic back ailments or a poor posture. This bag aims to serve all ages and abilities. By creating a bag that is the same as what people already have, we aren’t introducing any new fashions, but rather stressing the point of health. We want to get the message across about fixing back problems early on to avoid medical damages and costs in the future.
What made you choose this issue for your project? What in your life experience made it a compelling project?
The idea for our project was a group collaboration, and we wanted to create something that would be available to practically everyone. I use a backpack nearly every day, for both college and for my job during the weekend. Even though I try to limit the weight I carry in my bag, there are certain things I must have: my laptop, laptop charger, packed food from my mom, a water bottle, books, and many notebooks, especially when I go to work. These things add up and can become a heavy load so I need a large book bag. Furthermore, my younger brother, who currently attends high school at Brooklyn Tech, carries many more things than I do in my bag. In a recent to the hospital, his doctor noticed a poor posture. According to the doctor it was due to sitting for long periods of time and carrying a heavy load.
In class, you will test your idea with other students. How do their different perspectives influence your perception of these issues?
By testing our idea with the students in the class we can retain feedback on our product. What we hope to gain out of this is to use this feedback to better our product for society. The idea of the book bag is to maintain comfort and a big part of assuring comfort is knowing your audience. Without criticism we cannot move forward with the project to make it desirable to people. However, everyone has different opinions and comfort levels so it is rather difficult to please everyone. What we can do is appeal to the majority or focus on specific groups. The students in our class use backpacks and can give direct feedback to the technology in terms of comfort and usability which can help us in future modifications.
How did you address these different perspectives in successive iterations of your prototype?
If you were to continue working on your prototype, what would be the next steps in your work plan? What are the unsolved problems?
How did you address these different perspectives in successive iterations of your prototype?
Each iteration is made to address the problem – back pain. The initial sketch was a hypothetical product created to focus on the aesthetics. We wanted to make sure that the bag was fashionable to the modern consumer and to do that is to give people what they already have. By maintaining the original back pack look of having two straps we needed to start implementing an ideal design that would lighten the weight of the bag. In the second iteration we decided to start with the aspect of the straps by making them in an “X” design. This product has been made, but the already created one is across the chest rather than behind the back. So we decided to make cushioned back straps to evenly spread out the weight of the book bag across these two straps. The next iteration focused on the health aspect of lower back pain specifically. This is when we started thinking about materials and what exactly we want to use in our product. The final prototype does not have the actual ideals of the book bag, but it does exemplify what we’d like. There is “breathable tech” which is on most book bags to resist any hard pressure on the back. It allows for easy movement so it does not feel like a ton of bricks on your back. The idea of having a memory foam padding across the spine was originated from Nike’s ideal of creating the posture improving shoe. We want to use the same material used there to mimic the purpose in improving posture. Overall, the bag’s design is geared towards making a design that is both generic and useful.
(See below for images of each iteration)
If you were to continue working on your prototype, what would be the next steps in your work plan? What are the unsolved problems?
The next steps in developing our prototype would be to finalize the design in terms of materials and production. We would want to ensure that the materials are Eco-friendly, but still meet the demands of our initial design goals. Furthermore, because the bag will also serve in a way as a medical technology in correcting posture, intensive research should be done using a variety of age groups and jobs. This will help us determine if the design principles used are valid and if costs can be minimized.
Images: (Left to Right)
Iteration 1 (Looks like): This depicts the initial sketch of our design. One thing we wanted to make sure before proceeding to the following iterations was to have a normal looking bag, with most of the functionalities incorporated with the structure of the back.
Iteration 2 (Feels like): The image shows the main component of the frame of the bag - the X. The arrows show the direction of the tension once the bag is on. The purpose is to move stress away from the shoulders and direct them to the center.
Iteration 3 (Works Like): The image is our first physical prototype of the bag. We built the frame on an existing bag to demonstrate the relative size and capabilities an actual bag would have. The materials used in constructing this iteration were substitutions for more preferable materials as discussed in the response.
Works Cited
MacCabe, Colin and Holly Yanacek. "Keywords for Today." The Keywords Project. Oxford University Press. 2018.
Treat, Melissa. “Backpacks and Text-Necks.” Spinal Research Foundation, 2016, spinerf.org/.
“Back Pain Facts and Statistics.” History of Chiropractic, American Chiropractic Association,
Guerra, Cristela. “How Innovation Can Break down Barriers for People with Disabilities - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 8 Oct. 2018,
www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/10/08/how-innovation-can-break-down-barriers-for-people-with-disabilities/VdxO1N71biO079R3CUxmQL/story.html.
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