Heart Plate™

Branding

Nowadays, the smartest business decision you can make is to go Smart and design products that can help make people smarter about their choices, too. It’s becoming a crucial aspect in any product design. The market has become used to being online and staying connected, and interest in data is only growing. Being able to gather, store, and organize data allows people more control over various aspects of their lives, in this particular case, their health. Much like we have pedometers or Smart watches, we believe the next logical step is to make our plates smart, too – after all, this is tied to our daily lives, and as such can have consistent, daily benefits too.

Our target audience is broad – if you eat, then you could benefit from the Heart Plate. The design is smart and user-friendly. Its various functions prioritize people with potential health issues or other conditions, who need to closely monitor what they eat and how much. For example, pregnant women, diabetics, athletes, fashion models, or nursing home residents. That said, it’s a must-have tool for anyone who wants to be in control of improving and perfecting their eating habits and nutritional needs, based on data collected directly from their body.

The Heart Plate is a brand new, innovative smart design created to raise awareness of health and nutritional issues, and help make life easier on a day-to-day basis for everyone. It has won several awards and some of the highest recognitions in the field of concept design and innovation – GDUSA’s Health + Wellness Design Award; A’Design Award for Futuristic Design; International Design Awards; In 2017, it ranked Designer & Gentleman as #24 in the USA on World Designer Rankings.

One of the most common problems in the US is obesity. About a quarter of the population – around 80 million – suffers from it. Every person’s an individual, and every person’s obesity stems from a unique combination of factors, most related to genetics and pre-existing conditions. Still, the bottom line remains: obesity can be dangerous. Physically speaking, it affects our blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and puts unnecessary strain on our heart, significantly limiting our lifestyles. Mentally speaking, it can radically change our perception of selves and ruin our confidence, especially in a society where fat = bad and it’s still used as an insult. Still, for the sake of our overall health, there are certain precautions we can take to prevent obesity, as well as steps to regain control of it.

This is where the Heart Plate comes in.

Problem

One of the chief causes of obesity is overeating. In the US, eating healthy is expensive – being able to buy fresh, locally-sourced fruit and vegetables, proper meat, and various organic alternatives is often considered a luxury for many. As a result, many people turn to more affordable options, such as fast food, heavily processed foods, instant and microwave meals, and so on. The problem is, none of these contain as much nutritional value as you need to be sustained for longer periods of time. And so, we get people who eat bigger portions to feel full, and the problem gains a whole new level if we throw in the element of “my eyes are bigger than my stomach”.

Over the years, there have been many tips and tricks on how to portion control, using smaller plates to eat, because it tricks your brain into believing that you have more food on it, when in fact it’s a regular sized portion. However, that doesn’t address the underlying issue: how do we know what a regular sized portion should be for us specifically? Well, Heart Plate can answer that.

Product Design

Heart Plate One

Heart Plate has gone through several iterations since its conception in 2015. After evaluating all of its appropriate ergonomic aspects, dimensions, and functions - using 3D printing technology - the product design has evolved to finally become the Heart Plate. We went for a simple, human-centered design. In terms of shape and functionality, we designed it as a soup plate with a raised bottom in the shape of a heart, which decreases the amount of food that you can fit in it. In terms of purpose, it’s meant to keep you well aware of your eating habits, highlighting what needs changing and what you’re doing well.

There are two additional versions we’d like to present.

The Bio-Plate

Similar to our basic Heart Plate One, but made of eco-friendly materials that help preserve the environment. Let’s say you’re an outdoorsy person – hiking, camping, the whole nine. Or maybe you just like to go to massive music festivals and camp out there! Dishware is normally too bulky and inconvenient to carry with you. You either bring plastic equipment that inevitably damages the environment one way or another, or you have to spend water washing the dishes, storing them carefully, and so on. Despite recent improvements in making camping easier and more environmentally friendly, there is still a way to go. These are the difficulties we’ve had in mind when we designed this plate.

The Bio-Plate is biodegradable, made of materials that can decompose in an hour tops and effortlessly merge with nature without any negative impacts on it. It leaves no trace behind – no trace of the plate, and no trace of guilty conscience!

Heart Plate™ Smart

Dishware that is capable of reading data related to health and nutrition, connected to an app that displays it. It’s also weight and temperature sensitive. Of course, we considered the environment, as well – you can easily charge it using solar energy. The app is connected with SKUs combined with USDA’s database of over 300.000 meals and their nutritional facts. With the Smart Plate™’s help, it gathers and displays data. In fact, the only thing you need to manually input is your own weight. Otherwise, it already contains all the necessary parameters. The fingerprint technology can read data on your blood pressure, heart rate, sugar levels, and so on.

Here is a more concrete example.

It’s lunch time (which you can also log!), and you put some chicken into your Smart Heart Plate™. The plate begins to gather data. First, its integrated scale measures the weight. Using the app, you select the corresponding food in the app – in this case, chicken, or anything else you might decide to add to it. What’s more, the app allows you to select precisely what kind of chicken you’re eating and how it was prepared. After all, there’s a big difference between deep-fried and grilled chicken, right? The plate then does the math and calculates the calories your meal contains and how it compares to how much you require on a daily basis.

Most importantly, it keeps a history that allows you to track your progress and see which meals your body has best responded to, and that have been the most beneficial for you. It can even offer you some dietary advice, tailored-made just for you. This is key in figuring out exactly which steps you need to take in order to adjust your portion sizes – and it helps you make informed decisions on how to change your eating habits for the better.

One more thing: the data you compile can also be shared. You can send it to your personal trainer or nutritionist, to your doctor, or even to your great-grandmother’s caregiver.

Since 2016, we have also had a patent on the Smart Heart Plate™ and have it trademarked as our intellectual property. We have great plans for it, and in fact, we are still open to investors.

If you are interested in getting involved and reshaping the future of healthy eating, please consider reaching out to us.