Meet Igor Koshutin, Founder of HipStar

Have you ever been carrying a backpack and wished that you had an easier or more versatile way to carry things? HipStar is a hands-free, lightweight travel cart that you can use to carry 80 pounds of gear with you. The cart is also collapsible and designed to be able to roll easily across uneven surfaces. It can be used as a cart, backpack, or bike trailer. Learn more about this innovative product by visiting http://www.artmatrix.us.

Our interview is with Igor Koshutin, founder of HipStar.

1. When you came up with HipStar, who did you imagine would use it?

HipStar is perfect for a wide range of travelers, from those who want to go on a short stroll, to professional mountain climbers. It works well for anyone who needs to comfortably transport heavy items, including tourists, hikers, mountaineers, backpackers, fishermen, foragers, hunters, and golfers.

It can even be used in professional or military contexts to carry important equipment and supplies over unpredictable terrain. For serious mountain hikers and military use, the HipStar comes in a more durable option featuring additional hardware that reinforces the structure and allows for heavier gear to be carried with the same ease and comfort.

2. How is HipStar different from existing backpacks or rolling luggage?

The rolling bags and backpacks currently on the market were designed for use mainly in areas with smooth flooring like airports and railway stations. Meanwhile, many tourists and hikers prefer to use conventional bags and backpacks instead of wheeled bags because the internal frame and wheels take up valuable storage space and add excess weight.

Our product is collapsible and can be easily converted into a backpack to maximize storage space and for those times when you are using stairs or negotiating some sort of terrain where you don't want to use the wheels. It also adjusts for height and angle between frame and handles, depending on the weight of the equipment (reducing the pressure on the body in the place of mounting), allowing you to comfortably pull the cart behind you without feeling strained.

3. How did you get this idea?

The idea came to me while traveling in Europe with my family. Between the three of us, we had one backpack with all of our things. After half a day of walking around, my shoulders were already sore. There was so much to see, but I was only thinking about my heavy bag. I only wished I had a companion who would carry all of our stuff for us and never get tired. No matter where and how you travel, even a light backpack begins to weigh as much as a few bricks. You get tired. You get impatient. You waste half your day dealing with back pain. All because there's no other way to carry your stuff other than on your back. What about seniors or people with back problems? They are even more affected by carrying weight around. Doesn't matter if it's light or heavy. This is why I invented the HipStar.

4. How much does it weigh? You show a strong muscular man using the HipStar, but how about someone smaller, or a senior citizen? ​

It is not heavy at all! Even a "heavy-duty" prototype's frame weighs approx. 10 lbs. We cannot count the weight of the wheels because we used the regular 2.5 lbs. wheels to prove a concept. Furthermore, the product design stage will result in approx. 50% decrease in weight by utilizing new materials and wheels. The total weight of the heavy-duty model with wheels will be no more than 7-8 lbs.

With the HipStar in a CART MODE a cargo weight is close to zero due to CG balancing. With the HipStar in BACKPACK MODE, users will not notice a 7-8% weight difference in a short run, when traveling over more difficult obstacles (rivers, ravines, steps, etc.) or when moving on rough terrain that the cart cannot traverse. Users would need to make their choice--to carry their load on the spine all day long or a bit heavier load just for a few moments to go over some obstacles.

5. What is your estimated retail price?

Our product designers are working on finalizing the design (mechanical development and integration) and pricing for the components. In the first year of operation, production cost will be higher until volumes are up. The light version's estimated retail price will be around $100. The mid and heavy versions should cost $150 and $250 respectively.

Note: The Kickstarter campaign for Hipstar is scheduled to begin in April. If you'd like to learn more and to be notified when the campaign launches, visit hipstar.us/pre-launch.

Thanks, Igor!

Meet Richard Mills, CEO of SleepCogni

Richard Mills, CEO of SleepCogni, is a double award winning medical device innovator. His previous product innovation, Swellaway, went onto raise significant VC funding and won the national Medilink innovation of 2015. He has over 20 years experience in leading internet, medical, and technology companies. He is quoted as being one of the top ten of Yorkshire, UK entrepreneurs.

SleepCogni is the world's first bedside sleep device that integrates cognitive science and CBT, stimulus control, and physiological measures that allow the individual to self-manage their insomnia. SleepCogni combines environmental and personal data into an interactive sensory experience device.

A Kickstarter campaign to fund SleepCogni is currently underway.

1. How did your own difficulties with insomnia help give you the idea for SleepCogni?

I had suffered from insomnia for many years, unable to switch off a busy mind and fall asleep. I was so desperate to find a natural way of falling asleep, and determined to overcome his addiction to sleeping pills that I turned to what I knows best--technology. I believed that the secret was in reversing the ill effects of the daily stimulus and helping the mind and body wind-down with natural sleep cues to a sleep ready state. 

My objective is to help the world rid itself of sleeping tablets. They are addictive and harmful, with over 75M prescriptions for sleep disorders written in the US/UK alone in 2014, an average growth of 23% on the previous year. The Centre of Disease & Control (CDC) say sleep deprivation is now a global health epidemic. 

2. What distinguishes your product from other treatments or products meant to help people sleep?

SleepCogni is the world's first bedside sleep device that integrates cognitive science, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and stimulus control. SleepCogni's patented technology monitors the bedroom environment, but more importantly measures you physiologically, which then allows you, the individual, to self-manage and induce sleep. Our independent clinical research has proven that the way you wind down to sleep can actually improve your overall sleep quality and duration, too.

SleepCogni combines environmental and personal data into an interactive sensory experience using techniques based on CBT, the proven gold standard insomnia treatment. The bedside device produces a personalized program of audio, visual, and tactile natural sleep cues based on the user's physiological state, winding the user down to a relaxing, sleep ready state. Engaging with SleepCogni via the trigger component distracts a busy/wandering mind, and the gradually decreasing sleep cues act as confirmation (bio-feedback) that you are relaxing and unwinding from the blur and stress of the day, allowing you to drift off to sleep.

The uniqueness of SleepCogni is that it is personalized to the user; it monitors the body and--unlike any other device on the market--interacts with it to help the user reverse the ill-effects of the day and to induce sleep. SleepCogni also works as a training program, which means it becomes more effective the more it's used as it teaches you to wind down.

3. How does SleepCogni help to counteract the negative effects of the light we take in all day and evening from TV, computers, phones, etc?

Stress and over-stimulus in day to day life is contributing to our inability to fall sleep and stay asleep. We are all being hyper-aroused and over-stimulated from the moment we wake up through all of our visual, sound, and tactile senses. Many things are triggering our "fight and flight" mode. Unnatural sounds and artificial lighting can interfere with our biological clock delaying the natural cues our body receives throughout the day to which circadian phase we are in and ultimately the onset of sleep.

For many, our normal pattern of winding down before bed now involves watching films, using smart phones or tablets, catching up with social media, or browsing the internet before bed. But it is these devices that emit blue light to which our body is most sensitive. Such sub-optimal lighting suppresses melatonin and disturbs our biological clock, delaying our natural cues‎ to sleep. SleepCogni's sensory wind down program helps to counteract the effects of these devices.

4. What are the roles of sound and light when it comes to helping us sleep?

After extensive research, we found that your senses all naturally wind down as you get ready to sleep. Firstly, this happens through visual cues and the light sequence. Secondly, you focus on audio cues through our stereo speakers washing soundwaves over you, listening more intensely as your eyes become tired. Finally, you experience a gentle vibration for tactile cues through the trigger device.

Recent studies have shown that blue light (short-wavelength) has a greater effect on shifting the circadian clock and on melatonin suppression.

One study examined the effects of reading on a light-emitting device compared with reading a printed book. Participants who read on light-emitting devices took longer to fall asleep, had less REM sleep [the phase when we dream], and had higher alertness before bedtime [than those people who read printed books]. SleepCogni avoids using blue light. Instead, we use non-stimulating wavelengths (≥ 510nm).

SleepCogni has an array of sensors that feeds back into the generation of specific sounds which will bring down your heart rate, calm down the mind, and help you sleep more quickly. The music and soundscapes (of which there will be more than one and personalized) will consist of elements that can change tempo, timbre, and pitch.

5. How did you decide on Kickstarter to launch your product--and what are you offering to people who support your campaign?

I really like the idea of crowdfunding, people around the world helping designers and entrepreneurs get their idea/product innovation off the ground. Kickstarter is a global platform, and we believe we have a product that can help sleep sufferers / insomniacs get a good night sleep around the world.

We are offering early birds, before the 10th of December, a 50% discount and to be first to use the bedside device for just £99 / $149. Learn more at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sleepcogni/sleepcogni-wind-down-fall-asleep-sleep-better.

Thanks, Richard!

A New Invention for Public Restrooms

Public restrooms are one of those helpful yet infrequently discussed necessities of the world. I mean, why would you want to initiate a conversation about restrooms? To take that idea a bit farther, upon leaving a public restroom, how hard is it to actually say something to a coworker or business acquaintance or a stranger, even when you might want to give someone a polite warning to "wait a moment before entering"? I'd say it's one of those situations where people just pretend it isn't happening, and that doesn't spare anyone any embarrassment.

A Swedish company called Ixbari Solutions has come up with an invention called WC-Avoider that allows people to discreetly notify others to avoid a "recently used" restroom. We've all seen the indicators on restroom doors that indicate "Vacant" or "Occupied." The WC-Avoider offers a third setting, "Recently Used."

Upon exiting a restroom, a person would have the option of pressing a button or turning a handle inside the restroom door to activate the "Recently Used" setting, thus avoiding the situation of either making an awkward announcement or simply ignoring the issue.

While this invention could be used in public restrooms in all sorts of settings, I think it could be especially useful in the workplace. People spend more and more time working at all hours, and this invention helps restore a little more of a sense of privacy among coworkers.