Thermos Beyond Limits

Thermos Beyond Limits reinvents the way you relate to your beverage with a customized experience that empowers visually impaired people.

The visually impaired often have difficulties in daily life activities such as determining the level of liquid when pouring drinks into a container- risk of overflow, stains. There is also the risk of making mistakes when preparing a beverage due to the inappropriate temperature (water may be too cold for a tea or otherwise they may get burned). Furthermore, there are no thermoses with smart functions such as embedded storage, temperature and volume measurements and smart speakers available on the market.

The number of people who are visually impaired in Romania is about 85.700 (statistics from National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions (ANDPDCA) - Autoritatea Naționala pentru Drepturile Persoanelor cu Dizabilități, Copii și Adopții (ANDPDCA) ), but we may have to double the number if we think about the fact that many of them are dependent on another person who helps them with day to day tasks. 

Worldwide, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment (World Health Organization). Globally, the leading causes of vision impairment are: age-related macular degeneration, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, uncorrected refractive errors.

So our thermos can be of adequate use for about 174.000 people in our country and for about 4.4 billion people worldwide.

In our community, it isn’t common for people to resort to the surgery which recovers their eyesight for various reasons - considering the fact that it may not be affordable  for them or that the specialists in the community aren’t able to perform it due the lack of medical technology. So the people who are visually impaired need some kind of assistive tech which is at the same time affordable and can make them live independently. 

Thus, they must rely on someone else in order to ensure that the basic need of hydration is met. In this case, the visually impaired are exposed to feelings of helplessness, frustration, weakness and dependency on others.

Thermos Beyond Limits is an innovative assistive product, designed for the visually impaired. 

It can offer assistance regarding the volume, when it’s being filled. It will emit a sound through its smart speaker, that signals when the maximum volume of liquid has been reached, therefore significantly reducing the risk of spills and stains or even getting scalded. Another smart function is the ability to retrieve information about the drink’s temperature and level: by pressing the intuitive button on the lid, the Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API will generate humanlike intonation of the data collected by the integrated sensors. 

Furthermore, Thermos Beyond Limits integrates two ergonomic drawers that blend with the fluency of the bottle design. This feature is fully customizable and adaptable to customer’s needs as it is suitable for storing pills, sugar sachet, and many more. Therefore, Thermos Beyond Limits brings a sense of organization and supports the medical needs of its consumers.

One common issue the visually impaired confront is misplacing items that results in losing them. Thermos Beyond Limits embeds a Anti-Loss System: when someone pronounces the phrase “Thermos Beyond Limits”, the integrated microphone will collect the soundwaves and analyze them with the help of Google Cloud Speech-to-Text to determine if the input matches to the phrase; in case it does, the thermos will emit localization signals - auditive through the integrated speaker and geographical coordinates on the mobile application. 

Moreover, the mobile application offers a hydration habits analysis program: tracks the consumer’s intake, sends reminders that encourage the consumer to keep staying hydrated based on weight and physical activity.

By creating the concept of Thermos Beyond Limits, we are working to directly and meaningfully improve the lives of visually impaired people. The demographics considered suitable for our product are: visually impaired children over 5 years old and adults, with low, medium and high income, from rural, suburban or urban environments. Our customer persona experiences daily difficulties in taking care of themselves - to fulfill a basic need, as described in  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - physiological. Thermos Beyond Limits is a means for our target audience of achieving independence, while employing high technology and innovative features. Considering that most of the visually impaired people need uninterrupted assistance from a caregiver, our product owns the potential to serve twice as many people as initially estimated. Thermos Beyond Limits addresses their needs by giving them assistance when they are using the thermos ( when they are filling it), in case they lost it, keeps them on top of their hydration goals and displays information related to temperature and volume in accessible format - audio.

When I was younger, I had a neighbor, a lady in her 50s who has lost her vision due to medical condition (Glaucoma). She was married, but unfortunately, a few years later, her husband suffered an accident and passed away. In addition, she was childless and her husband, the person that used to assist her in the daily life was no longer there. Quite often, she found it difficult to navigate the neighborhood and complete daily tasks, so I offered to help her by taking her shopping every week as well as preparing meals for her and giving assistance with her medication. The idea of developing Thermos Beyond Limits has dawned on me when I was getting insight into her daily life. She savored Ginger Herbal Tea every morning, but she always had me pour the boiling water in the cup, so as not to overpour or spill it. During that time, I noticed that she would often misplace her pills and would spend hours looking for them. Assisting her in these daily tasks has shaped the functionality of Thermos Beyond Limits: in order to enable her to independently savor her favorite tea every morning, I thought of a system that can aurally convert the volume necessary to fill the bottle without overpouring and spilling; furthermore, the two drawers attached are a designated storage room for the pills she would always misplace, and combined with the Anti-Loss System, it can save anybody from hours of seeking the missing product. 

We have conducted a word-of-mouth survey in our circle of friends and among relatives. Furthermore, most of them have friends, family members that are visually impaired or have been caregivers, so they are endowed with insight into the life of the people that the product is addressing. All of them were positive about the impact of such a product on their dear ones or even themselves and offered to pre-order it as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, people who have no visual impairment were enthusiastic about utilizing our product as a cool technology gadget.

Our thermos is innovative because it is designed specifically for the visually impaired and it provides a new approach to the problem of accessibility for this population. 

It addresses the specific needs of individuals who are visually impaired, such as providing smart sensors to indicate the level and the temperature of the liquid in the thermos and using audio cues to transmit them.

Furthermore, it offers storage room for accessories in its double drawer container. Our customers can conveniently store medication, which allows them to have it on them at all times. This feature is especially useful for those who need to take medication at specific times throughout the day, as it allows them to keep their medication organized and easily accessible. The two drawers also provide separate storage for different types of medication, which can help prevent confusion and ensure the correct medication is taken at the correct time.

Moreover, the Anti-Loss System is a safety feature embedded in Thermos Beyond Limits. It ensures that the thermos is easily located, therefore it provides added peace of mind for the user, knowing that they will not misplace or lose their thermos. The system is user-friendly, as it responds to keywords and emits localization sounds as well as coordinates in the mobile application.

Thermos Beyond Limits promotes healthy life habits by providing regular reminders for those who have difficulty remembering to drink enough water throughout the day.

These features specifically designed for visually impaired individuals, make it easier for them to use a common household item like a thermos and make it more accessible for them.

Thermos Beyond Limits could be catalytic in a few ways. Firstly, by providing a new and significantly improved approach to the problem of accessibility for the visually impaired, it has the potential to change the market for drinkware products. It may have an impact on other designers and manufacturers to develop more assistive technology products. Secondly, Thermos Beyond Limits enables broader positive impacts for this population. It helps them regain independence and improve the quality of their lives. Being able to complete daily tasks by themselves can raise a sense of self-sufficiency and combat frustration or the Impostor Syndrome.

We hope that this year will be the year that our product will find its home in houses which need it, and here are the 6 clear goals that we set for ourselves : (1)The collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind so we can promote our product in the United States of America (NFB) (2) the collaboration with the Romanian Association of the Blind (ANR) for promoting the thermos in our country(3) testing the product with the help of a network of visually impaired people so we can modify and improve the smart functions so it could be of better use for those who need it (4) getting partnerships with companies who are willing to promote or help manufacturing our product (5) putting the product for sale not only on our website but also on the shelves of shops via our partners (6) employing personnel which is experienced, knowledgeable and can help us to make the unique thermos the best version it can be. 

Thermos Beyond Limits integrates different types of technology in order to carry on its innovative functions. First, its basic insulation function. The insulation is achieved through the use of materials in a technique called vacuum insulation - it involves two walls that reflect the heatwaves in order to reduce the heat transfer. 

When it comes to hardware, Thermos Beyond Limits includes a microprocessor, a power source in the shape of rechargeable battery Type-C (power supply yet to be calculated), a button that will trigger the speech about temperature and volume, a memory bank, communication interfaces (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), sensors, actuators and firmware to control the basic functions.

In addition, Thermos Beyond Limits is equipped with sensors that measure the temperature and the level of liquid then sends the data to the motherboard that collects it and stores it in the memory. 

For the speaker to emit meaningful speech signals we will rely on Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API to convert the information gathered by sensors into a suitable format, audio. As we don’t have the guarantee that the user will connect their thermos to a network, we will preload the necessary phrases to have an “offline” version of the product. 

When it comes to the Anti-Loss System, we will input audio signals using a microphone and process the data with a Cloud-based deployment option. A cloud-based service will be used to build, train and deploy a model of Speech Recognition then we will download it and load it to the thermos’ memory as to be independent of Internet Connection. 

Nevertheless, we will still equip Thermos Beyond Limits with  a Wireless Network Interface Controller and a Bluetooth Transceiver (including the firmware and the driver) to be able to synchronize the thermos with a smartphone application. Moreover, the over-the-air update requires these hardware modules to work jointly with a bootloader and an update management system.

Our solution is still under development as we have gone through a couple of phases by now:

1. Idea Generation and Feasibility Analysis (that’s when we did brainstorming 5 months ago in order to select the most viable idea; we clearly defined our target niche market, understood the problems they face and clearly specified the project’s purpose)

2. Concept Development (during this phase we considered the most practical functions for our product so that it could meet our customers’ needs)

3. Design and Development 

We are currently in the Design and Development phase. We have created 3D models of our product, as well as having conducted research into the process of manufacturing the final product. Despite that, we firmly consider that specialized guidance from engineers, designers and manufacturing coordinators is required in order to launch the final product.

In the next year, we are looking forward to completing Design and Development,Testing and Validation, Launch and Post-Launch Review phases.

We are currently not serving any people since the product is under development. In the first year, we plan to reach about 5% of the people in our local niche market (in total there are approximately 100,000 visually impaired people in Romania), and more important, gain valuable reviews about our product in order to optimize it to the customers’ preference. The numbers may vary due to production capacity, funds, and technical specialists support.

Although we are ready to give 100% of our time, services, money and so much more for this project, we are still inexperienced in the domain so we plan to actively recruit in order to build a team. We don’t want to rush this process so we could make the best team that can make this project a reality and deliver this product to the millions of people who are in need of it.

The barriers that currently exist are of financial and technical matter. We are aware that the development of new technology can be challenging, and delays or unexpected problems can occur. Thus, we need specialized personnel that can advise in the process of prototyping Thermos Beyond Limits and in the process of manufacturing it at industrial scale. We need engineers to design and develop the technology used in the thermos, such as thermal insulation, level and temperature sensors, the microphone and the speaker, as well as the GPS Tracker motherboard. Also, industrial designers are highly demanded professionals who will be responsible for designing the overall look and feel of the thermos, as well as its ergonomics. Moreover, we need a team to market and promote the product along with handling customer service and sales. 

When it comes to the financial sector, we are on the lookout for grants and scholarships that cover the cost of launching the product and sustaining the business in the first few months, before it generates enough revenue to support the production costs.

Furthermore, we should avoid intellectual property issues. Being so unique, our product may suffer attempts of counterfeit which are to be prevented, but this can be a complex and time-consuming process. More often, it is recommended that we seek legal help.

We are currently not partnering with any organization, but we are looking forward to a partnership with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) since it is the oldest and largest organization of visually impaired people in the United States, therefore they could connect us with potential customers. We hope to obtain valuable insight from this partnership and raise awareness about our product to people who really need it. 

Furthermore, we are open to any opportunities that can help us improve our product, from the prototyping phase to the assembly line processes and promotion as well as after-purchase service. 

Our team is tackling the problem of a shortage of assistive technology products that specifically meet the visually impaired people's hydration needs. That derives from the fact that visually impaired people face many more challenges in their lives while just a few of them have access to specialized care. So we have created a thermos as a means of supplementing their senses and facilitating the hydration process in complete safety. Thermos Beyond Limits communicates properties of the liquid that otherwise cannot be fully determined by visually impaired people. Our technology communicates in speech the level and the temperature of the liquid that is stored, prevents the consumer from misplacing the thermos and sends reminders to keep them on top of their hydration needs. Currently, the number of people who are visually impaired in Romania is about 85.700 (statistics from National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions (ANDPDCA) - Autoritatea Naționala pentru Drepturile Persoanelor cu Dizabilități, Copii și Adopții (ANDPDCA) ). Worldwide, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment (World Health Organization). Globally, the leading causes of vision impairment are: age-related macular degeneration, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, uncorrected refractive errors. Furthermore, it has been determined that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555956/) 

Thermos Beyond Limits should be available to people worldwidely, as it will significantly come in handy for those who are struggling to keep themselves hydrated by employing assistive technology which emits audio signals with information provided by our sensors in order to make up for the visual impairment. In order to connect with its customers, Thermos Beyond Limits has been developed with a view towards matching the users’s needs. Crucial statistics have been gained by conversing with social circles that have experiences with visually impaired people as well as target customers. Furthermore, we plan on continuously adapting to our customer’s needs by collecting and analyzing feedback right from our network of users through surveys and interviews.

In the short term, Thermos Beyond Limits gives a sense of confidence and independence to its users as well as a starting point towards a healthy lifestyle. Preventing dehydration will ensure better mood, no brain fog, no muscle fatigue and no dizziness.

On the long term, Thermos Beyond Limits makes an impact by enhancing life quality with a suitable lifestyle while preventing chronic dehydration and associated diseases such as decreased kidney function, kidney stones, hypertension, urinary tract infections, intestinal failure, dementia. (https://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-dehydration#complications)

When it comes to revenue model, Thermos Beyond Limits can be offered at an affordable price for the visually impaired people from any economic background by employing the double business strategy: 

1. on one side, we could target healthy lifestyle enthusiasts that will use the product in the environment of wearable fitness trackers and also earn a high-income; 

2. on the other side, we will offer the product at low-cost for the visually impaired for whom it is necessary.

By employing this method, we could generate enough revenue in order to manufacture and distribute the products to the target group of people - visually impaired - while keeping the price low. 

It is crucial that our product reaches as many people who need it as possible. For the beginning, we are relying on sustained donations and grants in order to launch the product and cover the marketing costs so that it gains traction.

The scaling strategy involves working with partners such as National Federation of the Blind, Romanian Association of the Blind (ANR). Collaboration with them will broaden our customer base which results in raising awareness and gaining significant feedback that we could later use to adapt the features of Thermos Beyond Limits.