ACTIVE · Sep 2025 — · Wearable hardware
StraightUP!
A posture chip that hides inside a belt. It reads back alignment and answers a slouch with a haptic nudge, not a notification.
2025.09.__ · STARTED · StraightUP! · posture in the belt, not on it
Parameters
- FORM
- slim board concealed in the belt itself
- SENSE
- back alignment, continuous
- FEEDBACK
- haptic nudge at the waist
- MODULAR
- swappable, customisable buckle
- CONTEXT
- Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition
What it was
Posture wearables mostly fail on the same axis: you have to remember to put the thing on. StraightUP! is a slim board built into a belt, so it is worn by default. It tracks back alignment continuously and answers a slouch with a gentle haptic reminder at the waist rather than another notification to dismiss.
The buckle is swappable. That started as a manufacturing convenience and stayed because it is the only part anyone sees — modularity there means one board can sit behind a buckle somebody actually wants to wear.
A team of five built the prototype for the Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition, drawing on CAD, electrical and mechanical design, and enough industrial design to make the buckle worth looking at. It is a prototype and I would call it that in the room: the belt works, the product does not exist yet.