The Backed Pack: A health-conscious seat, a smart yoga mat, & a multi-tasker

Each week, our friends at Backerjack bring us updates on some of the most successful gadget crowdfunding campaigns.

 

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Darma

Darma is a smart seat cushion that doubles as your posture coach. It monitors your sitting habits, posture, breath, and heart rate to give you helpful tips. If you’re slouching, Darma tells you to sit up straight through a smartphone alert. When your heart rate is high indicating stress, it suggests taking a walk to calm down. Similarly, if you’ve been sitting too long, Darma advises taking standing breaks.

Darma’s karma is rocking out as it’s already raised well over $100,000 and counting with an original modest campaign goal of $40,000. Darma is an interesting new take on the type of smartphone-powered health assistance that are currently popular. Most of these devices are wearables in the form of clip-ons or bracelets. While we’ve seen previous products aimed at improving posture, Darma blends into its surroundings. The constant alerts may prove to be annoying at first, like a nagging mother telling you to sit up straight. However, the long-term health benefits will likely be worth the hassle. All in all, Darma is a great solution for the sedentary and actually one of the least obtrusive solutions to too much sitting.

SmartMat

SmartMat is bringing yoga into the 21^st century. By connecting with your tablet or smartphone via Bluetooth, the SmartMat collects data about your posture, balance and alignment to assist you with becoming a yogi master. It first adjusts your alignment, telling you, for example, to move your right foot forward. Then, it tells you to shift your weight so there is equal pressure on both sides of the body, a very important aspect of yoga. The app lets you monitor your progress over time and even gives you new yoga moves to try out. Powered by battery, this mat boasts up to six hours of life.

Yogis on Indiegogo are going gaga for the SmartMat, helping the campaign smash its goal with weeks still left to go. By all accounts, SmartMat looks like a super cool way to get your yoga on. Most fitness monitoring devices focus on high impact sports. SmartMat, while expensive, provides a ton of useful information since the entire mat is collecting data from the entire body, pretty cool. Looking like a traditional yoga mat and made out of most of the same materials, it’s a little concerning how long this mat will last. Still, this super cool product is a great tool for yoga enthusiasts looking to perfect their practice.

Vox

Vox makes multitasking more effective in our fast paced world. Oh, let tech lovers count the ways! Actually it’s six ways to be exact. Vox has a rechargeable LED desk lamp, USB and laptop charger, Bluetooth speakers, video recording camera, classical clock, smartphone, and tablet dock. At the touch of a button, answer the phone while using a charging laptop, enjoying Bluetooth, and driving the caller crazy. It’s the ultimate multitasking experience with each side of the pyramid having its own unique multitask enhancing purpose!

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Close to its goal, Vox has the support and potential to reach the $25,000 they need on Kickstarter. There’s nothing worse than a desk cluttered with tons of tools and devices. Vox keeps the modern busy bee in mind by integrating several functions into one neat package. Clearly many see the value in such a product and are eager to own one of their own.