Fig. 01 · John Rattray

Sparkwear

Patented wearable technology for safer interpersonal interaction in physical spaces — taken from concept to a venture with a granted patent.

  • Wearables
  • Patent
  • Venture

The problem

Physical spaces give people very little signal about how to interact safely with one another. Sparkwear started from a simple question: what if the wearable itself could carry that signal, without asking anyone to change how they move through a room?

What we built

A wearable platform built around patented technology designed to increase safe interpersonal interaction and engagement in physical spaces. The work spanned the full arc that RNS engagements now follow — concept definition, industrial and electrical design, prototyping, and the iteration required to turn a research idea into a product a company could be built on.

Why it matters here

Sparkwear is the clearest example of what RNS does for founders, because one of us was the founder. John founded the company during his doctoral studies and served as CEO for two years — which means the engineering decisions were made with fundraising, patent strategy, and manufacturing reality in the room, not abstracted away from them.

That perspective is the difference between an engineering vendor and an engineering partner. We have been on your side of the table.

All work

Have an idea that needs to become hardware?

Tell us what you are building. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right team for it — and what it will take to get to a working prototype.

Start a project