Russian realtor Igor Alferov figured out how to turn on the light in a women's handbag:
After all, almost every woman there will break the devil’s leg (I confess, I have too. Until I find mobile phone who calls, he already stops calling).
It's amazing that a man came up with such a function. Although, if he were a woman, he would have come up with it much earlier, and so it took a long 25 years from understanding the problem to its implementation. It was 25 years ago that he noticed how his friend, unable to find something very necessary in her purse at night, poured its contents onto the ground.
About 3 years ago, he came up with a solution to this problem - he decided to put an LED flashlight inside the purse. Rather, instead of a flashlight, he came up with a plastic transparent rivet, inside of which an LED was placed. This rivet should be sewn behind the lining of the bag, a USB port was brought out to charge the LED. And in the upper part of the lady's handbag was placed a switch, with which it was possible to turn this backlight on or off at any time.
The inventor patented (with the help of a patent attorney) his design as a utility model (he spent 220 rubles on patenting and creating a prototype of a backlit bag).
Shot a presentation video:
Created the page svetvsumke.ru:
And I started looking for an investor.
I saw his project on planeta.ru, gust.com, and investgo24.com (sites where startups look for investors). At first he asked for 3 million rubles, then 3 million dollars (apparently changing the concept of his business along the way).
In the fall of 2015, he appeared on the Business Sharks TV show, where entrepreneurs are looking for investors - they refused him there (but when investors refuse, it still doesn’t mean anything, I saw many businesses that, after such refusals, still become successful - due to energy, activity and perseverance of the founders of the business).
You can watch the video of his speech in "Business Sharks" here:
In the TV show "Business Sharks" he showed his prototype, so you can evaluate the invention in action.
The prototype does not look like the video above (to be honest, it personally disappointed me a little - the bag is not illuminated as brightly as in the video; the shapes of the flashlights are round - they do not fit at all with the shape of an ordinary women's handbag; I would make them rectangular or long, along the entire edge of the bag - so that the entire area is evenly lit from the inside; but perhaps I'm just finding fault and the shape of the lighting fixtures is not so important for women):
(the inventor shows his handbag to the mentors from the TV show "Business Sharks")
For three years, the inventor has been looking for money to launch his project (this is to ensure that our inventors do not despair - for an invention, three years is not a time limit).
During this time, the central media wrote and told about him (the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, the TV shows Friday, Good morning", "Live in big city”, “Miracle of technology”).
And recently, on his website, I saw information that the first release of illuminated bags will take place in the spring of 2017 (maybe he has already found an investor?). Bags will be released first Russian production, later - Italian.
What is the hope of the inventor based on, that success awaits him?
On the examples of two inventors: Bernard Sadow, who invented the suitcases on wheels (and earned $20 million) and Robert Plath, who came up with retractable handles for these suitcases (and earned $90 million).
The illuminated bag is like that improved suitcase. About which at first no one knew anything, but then everyone suddenly began to use it - because it became convenient.
In the West, there have already been attempts to introduce into a handbag interior lighting. But the solutions were either cumbersome or expensive, so they never went into mass production.
By the way, I met attachments that other inventors still come up with. Here is one of them, called Bulbo:
It is hung on the edge of the handbag - the ball is out, the rest is inside. The ball sways when walking and transfers its kinetic energy to the batteries inside, which illuminate the inside of the handbag:
This, in principle, is also an interesting option. But if each user screwed the wheels to suitcases, would they become so popular?
Why was the inventor refused by Business Sharks?
In their claims to the inventor, I saw two reasons:
1. The inventor has not yet sold a single bag. All his marketing research boiled down to the fact that he showed his luminous bag to women, they gasped with delight and expressed a desire to buy such a bag (but they haven’t bought one yet, because not a single such bag - except for the prototype - has been sewn).
My advice to aspiring inventors. Before you go to investors, sell yourself. Americans do just that - first they sell to their neighbors, then to the townspeople, collect statistics, and only then go to investors or to TV shows by analogy with Business Sharks.
Igor Alferov should have agreed with some small bag factory that already sews women's handbags to make a trial batch of illuminated bags. And see how sales go.
2. One of the mentors suggested that bag manufacturers themselves would start sewing in such devices for lighting - they would not need the devices that the Russian inventor wants to sell to them.
Apparently, it was for the second reason that Igor Alferov decided to sell the first batches of bags on his own. To do this, he has already come up with and calculated a sales scheme (you can read it on the page investgo24.com/project/10838, under the subheading "Business model").
In short, he proposes to create in each region of Russia a trading company "Light in a Bag - Region", which for the first year and a half will play the role of an online store, accept group applications, bring to offices 12 bags to choose from - of which they will presumably be bought 2-4 bags. During the day, the manager will visit 3-4 offices and will be able to sell 5-8 bags.
In a year and a half, this company, after the formation of a client base, will become a wholesaler of women's and men's bags and other leather goods. And in the regions, with the help of local entrepreneurs, offline stores will be created, in which, in addition to bags, clothes, cosmetics, shoes and underwear will be sold.
But let's see. Perhaps the creator of the LED sewn into the fabric will actually become a millionaire (or billionaire) soon. Follow the news on his website svetvsumke.ru.
Anyway, the idea is very interesting. And someone finally needs to solve the problem of the difficulty of finding women's handbags.
A handbag is an indispensable attribute of any girl and woman. In it, she wears a lot of the most necessary things, from cosmetics to a smartphone and tablet. If during the day any difficulties can hardly arise, then at dusk or at night the ladies have to grope for the desired object for a long time before they can take it out of the bag. It is especially unpleasant when it is dark on the street or in the entrance, but you urgently need to find the key to the apartment. In order to avoid such unpleasant situations, this video tutorial shows how to make a backlight for a women's bag with your own hands.
Required details
So, we need: a women's bag, a small piece of LED strip, a battery box, a magnet, a reed switch.
We take the LED strip, attach it to the wire, put it in the heat shrink. We heat the latter along the entire length so that it fits snugly enough on the tape.
The device will use a step-up module. Its parameters are such that the input can be 2-24 volts, and the output 3-28 volts.
Electrical characteristics
one). Maximum output current: 2
2). Input voltage: 2V~24V
3). Maximum output voltage: 28 V
Solder the LED strip to it.
A switching reed switch must be built into the circuit. As you know, the principle of its operation is based on the fact that when a magnet is brought to it and vice versa, when removed, the contact switches. We put the reed switch in heat shrink.
As you know, absolutely everything can be found in a woman's handbag, except for the order, but how long it will take is a completely different story. Igor Alferov, an inventor from Moscow, decided to make life easier for women and patented his know-how - "Light in a Women's Bag". Of course, before him, developers from all countries were taken for this invention more than once, but their designs were too cumbersome and costly, so they did not receive further development.
Alferov figured out how to fix the LEDs on the lining of the bag, so that it would be cheap, reliable and minimally labor-intensive in mass production. He made a plastic transparent rivet into which he placed the LED. He patented this design as a utility model.
In Russia, it is dark most of the day, so it is difficult for girls and women to find anything in their bag, and they have to highlight their mobile phone. With his invention, the author of the idea wants to make life easier for many women and save their already fragile nerves. He claims that 70% of the girls who have seen the prototype bag are delighted with this feature.
Since women are very demanding and will not buy a bag just for the sake of light, the author of the invention wants to cooperate with the existing bag factories in Italy and Russia. Now he has already agreed with three Italian manufacturers
Igor Alferov plans to release the first collection of Italian-made genuine leather bags in June 2017, and in August to release a collection of Russian-made eco-leather bags. The cost of the product will vary from 3.699 to 3.999 rubles.
AT this moment the inventor has already spent 200 thousand rubles on a patent and the development of 4 prototypes of the bag, three of which were unsuccessful. And now Alferov is preparing for a crowdfunding campaign, which is scheduled for March next year, and is also looking for an investor at the same time.
Women's handbag with LED matrix 2.0
This amazing women's bag with an integrated LED matrix was presented by one of the visitors to the Maker Faire. Her unique product attracted a lot of attention from people around her.
The LED screen consists of RGB pixelated LED strips sewn into the bag, which are disguised as a mesh of leather strips. As a result, a matrix with a resolution of 10 x 15 LEDs is obtained. The LEDs are controlled using the Adafruit Feather controller via Bluetooth, which is provided by the built-in data transfer module - Bluefruit LE. Using a smartphone, you can display various words, pictures and symbols on the screen, both in the form of a permanent image and in the form of a running line.
Since the microcontroller has a built-in charge controller lithium battery, it requires only a small power supply with a USB connector for recharging. The battery and charging port are hidden inside the bag.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to make your own handbag with built-in LED matrix. This unusual women's accessory will always help you to be in the spotlight!
Step 1: LED Matrix
Of course, you can buy ready-made flexible LED arrays, but you can also make them yourself, and it's quite simple. The advantage of creating your own matrices is the flexibility to select the exact dimensions and number of pixels to create the required matrix resolution. To make your own flexible LED matrix RGB, you will need the following components:
Flexible RGB LED strip with individually addressable LEDs, ideally with adhesive backing. Currently, the two most available LED strip options are APA102 or WS2812. Any kind works great in this project. In this case, we used led strip APA102, since they can be used with a wider range of microcontrollers, they are slightly more expensive than WS2812, but have an additional data line. The choice rests solely on your shoulders.
- Vinyl base for fixing the matrix of LED strips.
- Wires, solder and other soldering accessories.
- Microcontroller to check the performance of the matrix Arduino Uno.
First, you need to decide on the size of your matrix. Keep in mind that 5 meter long LED strips are usually soldered together in ½ meter increments. The distance of the connection points may differ slightly, which may break the symmetry of the matrix. This project used a strip 2 meters long containing 60 LEDs per meter. Accordingly, each detachable segment contained 30 LEDs. Next, the LED strip was divided into 8 equal parts, each of which contained 14 LEDs (each 15 LED was cut off).
Next, cut out a rectangular piece of vinyl large enough to accommodate the LED strips. Draw straight lines on it indicating the placement of the stripes, taking into account the spacing between the stripes. In this case, the distance between the LEDs on the same strip was 1.1 cm, and the size of the LED itself was 0.5 cm, respectively, in order to obtain a uniform grid of LEDs, line spacing between the strips was made at 1.6 cm (measured between the centers of the strips). After the marking is done, it is necessary to correctly orient the lanes, since data transfer is carried out only in one direction, from the end of one lane to the beginning of the next. The direction of data transfer is represented by directional arrows on the tape.
Next, you need to remove the protective film from the sticky side of the tape and stick all the strips to the vinyl base according to the markings made. When the fixing of the strips is completed, it is necessary to cut small pieces of wire to connect all the strips. In this case, 26 AWG silicon insulated wire was used. Then all the strips are soldered sequentially, observing the pin assignments and directions. At the end of soldering, the LED matrix was connected Arduino microcontroller Uno and running the standard Adafruit Standtest Arduino sketch, this is necessary to test the functionality of all the LEDs in the matrix. After checking the diagram, using a hot glue gun, you need to fix all solder joints.
Step 2: Electronics and Power
In this project, the Adafruit Feather M0 microcontroller with a built-in module is used to control the LED matrix. wireless transmission Bluefruit Bluetooth LE data. The wiring itself is quite simple. Since the Adafruit Feather microcontroller requires a supply voltage of 3.3V, and the APA102 LED strip requires 5V, a logic level converter was used, which made it possible to connect two devices to one power source.
To connect the power, a quick-detachable connector was used with wires that were soldered (connected) in the middle of the LED matrix to evenly distribute the load. The Adafruit Feather microcontroller is powered by a connection to the LED matrix.
To accommodate electronic components, a small plastic box with a hole for the wires was printed on a 3D printer.
Step 3: Woven Cover for LED Matrix
After the LED matrix is finished, it is necessary to make a decorative coating for it. It is made by weaving thin strips of leather with a crosshair at the locations of the LEDs. In this project, the distance between the LEDs in the matrix is 1.1 cm (both vertically and horizontally), so the first step is to cut a lot of leather strips 1.1 cm wide.
Then, on the basis of the LED matrix, a decorative mesh is woven from cut leather strips. Weaving is done in such a way that the LEDs are visible through the decorative mesh at the corners of the overlap of the leather strips.
At the end of the production of a decorative mesh, it is necessary to fix the strips together with glue. To do this, transfer the grid to something else and use a toothpick to apply glue between the strips at the intersections. In no case do this on the LED matrix itself!
When the glue dries, lift up the decorative mesh and cut off the excess fringe.
Step 4: Sewing the bag
To make a bag you will need the following materials:
- Leather (same as used for decorative mesh)
- Lining fabric
- Fabric for the outside of the bag
- Soft adhesive base (glues fabrics under the influence of an iron)
- Two zippers - one for the wallet on the outside and one for the lining
The size of your bag will depend on the size of your LED matrix. So if your matrix size differs from the given size in this project, you will have to resize some parts of the bag accordingly. Now let's start manufacturing.
It is necessary to cut out the pieces of fabric necessary for the manufacture of the bag itself:
- Leather 40 x 24 cm - 2 pieces
- Fabric for the outside of the bag 38 x 14 cm - 2 pieces
- Lining fabric 38 x 35 - 2 pieces
- One pocket made of lining fabric (if required)
Then you need to cut a rectangular hole in one of the leather pieces for the front of the bag. This hole is required to accommodate the LED matrix. This will be the front of the bag. Since the matrix in this project has a size of 21.8 cm x 11.6 cm, a rectangular area is cut out in the leather piece according to these dimensions. From the top edge of the piece to the beginning of the cutout, an indent of about 4 cm is made, horizontally the cutout is oriented in the middle of the piece.
After that, using fabric glue, glue the leather decorative mesh into the cut out area on the back side. After the glue has dried, carefully sew the mesh around the perimeter on the sewing machine.
To connect the leather mesh and the LED matrix, miniature adhesive-based magnets are used. Magnets are glued to the four corners of the vinyl base and decorative mesh. Once the magnets have been placed, the die can be removed and set aside until the bag is complete.
The following steps will not be considered in detail, as they relate to the sewing business and all the necessary information can be gleaned from the images below. In a nutshell, you will need to join the leather pieces to the fabric for the outside of the bag, sew in the zipper, sew the inside pocket into the lining and place it inside the bag, and finally attach the strap. Then the electronics with the battery are installed.
Software:
To transfer text or characters to the LED matrix, a smartphone with installed application Adafruit Bluefruit LE Connect, which can be downloaded for free in stores Google Play and AppStore.
For correct operation microcontroller, you will need to upload a sketch to it ( programming code) which is available at:
https://github.com/geekmomprojects/led-handbag
or
That's all, good luck to you!