Lab2Market Assesment: Mobile & Cozy - an all-textile heating-assisted therapy platform for sufferers of chronic pain

我们的目标是提供一种完全可移动的解决方案，为患有各种慢性疼痛的客户提供热舒适。事实上，北美每5个成年人中就有1人遭受这种痛苦，而他们中的大多数人仍然活跃在劳动力大军中。虽然各种热疗产品以热包的形式存在，并将小型陶瓷加热器集成到可穿戴设备的各个部件中，但大多数此类解决方案目前需要非便携式能源(如微波炉)，或者它们不是离散的或无缝集成的。这些因素大大限制了这类产品在工作场所的使用，同时使它们更适合家庭和娱乐环境。目前，仅美国的电热垫市场规模就达1.1亿美元，预计5年后将增长至1.5亿美元。我们认为，抢占与工作或办公室使用相关的这类产品的市场份额具有巨大的商业潜力，因为专门为这种操作模式设计的产品很少。我们的解决方案是一种完全基于纺织品的离散加热垫，可以无缝集成到任何可穿戴产品中，无论是作为嵌入物还是编织/刺绣图案，以在几个小时内提供受控的加热和止痛。离散性、无缝集成和便利性这三个因素的结合是一个独特的组合，使我们的产品特别适合工作和办公室使用。我们正在开发三种技术，使我们的产品变得离散(在视觉上与可穿戴设备难以区分)、无缝集成(具有与可穿戴设备相同的质地和机械性能)以及使用方便(全纺织品电子产品、合规电源、无线电源)。该项目受益于发达的专有技术和知识产权保护技术的融合。

We aim at a fully mobile solution for providing thermal comfort to clients suffering from various chronic pain conditions. In fact, 1 in 5 adults in North America suffers from such pains, while most of them continue to be active in the workforce. While a variety of thermo-therapy products exist in the form of heat packs, and small ceramic heaters integrated into various parts of a wearable, most such solutions currently require non-portable energy sources (like a microwave), or they are not discrete or seamlessly integrated. These factors significantly limit the use of such products at the workplace, while making them more appropriate for home and recreation environments. The current heating pad market in the US alone is $110M and is projected to grow to $150M in 5 years. We believe that capturing the market share for such products related to at-work or in-the-office use has significant business potential, as few products are available that are specifically designed for this operation modality.Our solution is a discrete fully textile-based heating pad that can be seamlessly integrated into any wearable product either as an insert or a weave/embroidery pattern to provide controlled heating and pain relief over several hours. A combination of the three factors: discreteness, seamless integration, and convenience is a unique combination that makes our product particularly suitable for at-work and in-the-office use. There are three enabling technologies that we are developing to make our product discrete (visually indistinguishable from a wearable), seamlessly integrated (of the same texture and mechanical properties as a wearable), and convenient to use (all-textile electronics, compliant power sources, wireless power). The project profits from a fusion of the developed know-how and IP-protected technologies.