A lot of medical devices created today are related to a more grand scheme issue. A lot of tech in that field are subjective to things doctors can use on patients for procedures or maintaining data. When thinking of medical tech, often times the actual patient does not come across. What can the average person use on a day to day basis to help themselves?
About thirty one million Americans experience back pains (ACA). How can this be prevented, or at least mediated? - with the general idea of taking care of a problem slowly with time, rather than the pain escalating and then requiring serious medical attention. Integrating little things in your daily routine is the way we hope to improve posture. The PosturePack is essentially a posture improving backpack that can be used in everyday routines. The purpose of creating this product is to focus on the idea of making a universal design that serves all ages, rather than just one. The demographic we hope to target is not only disabled people or the elderly, but also regular students. Most chiropractic devices are aimed towards the elderly. For that reason we want to get rid of this social misconception and belief that only the elderly have back problems. The idea of the PosturePack is to improve posture to avoid back pain early on and essentially eliminate the need for further medical issues that may arise from bad posture, such as scoliosis or arthritis. “Science Daily found that heavy loads carried on the back in formative years have the potential to damage the soft tissues of the shoulder, causing microstructural damage to the nerves” (NBC News). This “simple irritation” and straining of muscles can eventually cause much serious problems in life. We aim to change the way the book bag is formed overall in order to avoid these damages.
Although there are already renditions of a backpack that is made to help posture, they are often much smaller and are focused on the weight of the materials inside. For example the “Fjallraven Kanken” backpacks are made to lighten the load. However, these stylish bags are made without the consideration of carrying a lot of things. As a student and a commuter, personally I carry a lot of things in my book bag. A small bag like that would not suffice for an entire day of work. The PosturePack is geared towards finding a way to create straps that will lighten a heavy load, rather than creating a smaller backpack to lighten the actual load inside. Essentially, instead of carrying less items in your bag to improve posture, we hope to distribute the weight across the straps of the book bag. There are other iterations of this idea as well. However, the existing styles have straps that come across the front of the chest which is not exactly “stylish”. So for PosturePack we are designing a look that is basic and as old as time, yet it will still lighten the book bag. With the straps in the back we hope to maintain a backpack that is both aesthetically pleasing and functioning. The criss-cross pattern of the straps that distribute the weight will instead be behind the back rather than in front or across the body. This way the backpack looks like a generic two strapped book bag. Also, the bag will contain cushioning air beads for breathable technology. Down the spine will be a memory foam type of material in order to instill comfort. This design will lighten the load of the book bag without actually lightening the load. This is expressed in the second iteration prototype. The green material is representative of the breathable technology. The plastic is the “memory foam” for the spine. Lastly, the main aspect that will lighten the bag, are the straps. These are expressed by the bubble wrap to show the distribution through each of the small bubbles and the thickness of the straps. Overall the iteration is more of a feels-like product, but it does lighten the weight and provide a slight comfort so it is also a works-like product.
The three iterations are as follow:
Initial Sketch ~ Looks-Like : The initial sketch which contains our idea and design of the book bag.
Iteration One ~ Feels-Like: The first prototype was made from string to show how the design of the straps would look like in a criss-cross pattern.
Iteration Two ~ Works-Like: The second prototype is an actual book bag to portray how an actual book bag would feel and work with hypothetical straps and material.
Moving forward with the product we aspire to make improvements by using the actual memory foam material and breathable technology. The initial idea sparked from Nike's proposal to increase productivity in daily activities by using comfortable technology in their sneakers to improve posture. Hopefully we can make a more durable and thicker strap in the back using this same technology to distribute the weight of the book bag. The unsolved problems of this prototype is that it does not remove the weight of the bag entirely and it may still cause some back problems. For now there is no way to completely eliminate the feel and weight of the whole book bag, but it will definitely reduce the weight of the bag and consequently minimize the overall pain a book bag instills on the back. Most of the pain is caused near the lower back which is why the memory foam is prevalent near the end of the spine. Another way we could possibly improve the bag is by creating it with recycled tech in order to make the product more affordable. “Low-back pain costs Americans at least $50 billion in health care each year” (ACA). So, if we can reduce that price by creating a progressive, slow working product then we might as well make it affordable to the general population.
We hope that when in class this design will improve the way the book bag feels on the students. Testing the product and getting feedback from the students will help us understand whether the product works on everyone. There may need to be some adjustments after the product is tested if it is not accustomed to all because the main idea of the product is to make it universal. A universal product is one that can be used by anyone including disability. What makes the PosturePack different from other bags is that it is inclusive to everyone of every age not only the elderly. It also takes into account the disabled which is one of our main salient identities we hope to cater to other than age. A huge part of identity is "what you can't help being, but also what you choose to become"(MacCabe, Yanacek). Identity is what you believe defines you. This relates a lot to how image comes into play which is essentially what others see you as on the outside. Clothing and style often defines who you are and how you feel and that is the identity and image we hope to sell through PosturePack while maintaining health benefits. Although the point of the PosturePack is to prevent future injuries, it is also for people who have existing injuries. Essentially, we hope for it to be useful to just about everyone because we want to remove the notion that posture related technology is only meant for the elderly or injured.
Works Cited:
“Back Pain Facts and Statistics.” History of Chiropractic, American Chiropractic Association,
“Is Your Bag Wrecking Your Back?” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group,
Guerra, Cristela. “How Innovation Can Break down Barriers for People with Disabilities - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 8 Oct. 2018,
MacCabe, Colin, and Holly Yanacek. Keywords for Today: a 21st Century Vocabulary. Oxford University Press, 2018.
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