Final design?

i think the design has finally come to a resolution, of course there are details to develop before the final is ready for pattern making.

More development.

Just furthering the visual aesthetic development. Attempting to replicate a watersport, technical and functional appearance. Not sure whether to go for the functional military functional look?

Concepts - defining aesthetic

I was trying to work out how the proposed design could look tough and durable, suitable looking pack for surfcasters.

Harness Inflation System

The Harness stores the inflatable bladder. Through use of an ambient intelligent CPU wired to hydrostatic levels and an accelerometer (like that to protect Hard Drives in laptops) the product will know when the user has fallen into the water and requires the bladder to be deployed, even when unconscious.

Mechanism To Detach Pack from Harness.

What I hope to achieve in the design is to be able to remove the pack while still wearing the harness, however some of the mechanism concepts drawn out do display methods that would require taking the backpack and harness off to seperate them. Currently the most promising in my opinion is the rotating pack. - The user would unclip the top shoulder stabilising clips and then reach over their pack and pull the pack down in an anti clockwise motion disengaging the pack.

Colour Variation explorations

Design detailing (pack)

Details of

Concept Explainations

Concept One has been developed to encourage use of personal floatation devices through being a useful product. The user would carry their tackle and gear in their pack to their fishing destination.

Concept Two has been developed to appear like a normal vest but function like a coastal life jacket. The bladder is hidden inside until filled with gas by the CO2 cylinder, where the velcro hiding the bladder releases

Both products can be fitted with either automatic (activated by water pressure or manual inflatable devices). These devices are placed on the shoulder in both products so users can wade out further to cast, without having waves accidentally activate the hydrostatic device.

Other emergency features such as EPIRBS, iridescent dye packs, are being developed that can be added to the vest or buoyancy bag concepts.

Further pictures will be posted to explain the concepts…

Concepts

Concept One - Backpack and detachable harness.

Concept Two - Vest

Watersafety and Recreational Fishing

Project outline:

Abstract from Research and Development Report

First, this project addresses the issue of New Zealand’s high rates per capita of unintentional drowning, with a particular focus on land based recreational fishing. Through a user centric design focused approach to research, the attitudes of anglers towards water safety are investigated. Design research methodologies are used to understand the target user’s latent needs, and to explore and analyse potential designs and prototypes to a concept stage.

Secondly, the existing state of the art in personal floatation devices and technology have been evaluated for features and benefits for the user. Emphasis has been placed on creating a safe reliable product and a semantic analysis and failure modes have also been evaluated.

Furthermore, product forecasting has been under taken which investigates appropriate developments in smart textiles and fields other than personal water safety, which potentially could be incorporated into the final design.

Finally, the results of the design research have generated two concept variations that will be further explored, developed and refined into a final product solution in the second semester in 198.452 Industrial Design Major Project.