Better design = Better use = Better protection

My work designing bednets began over 25 years ago.  Long before I focused on malaria prevention, I wanted to provide a personal private space for children to sleep.  Why?  Because a friend of mine had invented the first PlayHut bedtent, and it was enormously popular -- but too small and far too difficult to assemble.  It was a little later, when on vacation, my aunt opened a popup windshield-screen to keep sun from overheating her parked car and I realized I could adapt that popup system somehow. 

US Patent 5,343,887, introduced a self-erecting portable fabric structure, a simple pop-open system that utilized two of those popup hoops.  It allowed parents to build an instant shelter that could be attached to a child's bed.  It featured a type of hobby-horse external frame that held the pop-up hoops and I sold it to QVC Network, ToysRUs and several department stores.
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US Patent 6,502,596, which expanded the design into larger portable fabric structures.  The idea was to offer camping tents, which is a much larger market that seemed stuck in ages-old designs.  To meet the stresses created by the larger dimensions of camping tents, the external frame became more complex.  There were several patents in which I adapted and refined the frame technology.  Each pushed the design further: 

US 6,952,844 – Bed-Tent
A self-supporting tent designed to sit directly on a mattress

 

 

 

US 7,174,584 – Bed-Tent
Structural improvements for stability and ease of use

 

 

US 7,392,555 – Bed-Tent

Further refinements to the frame, entry, and fabric layout

 

 

Developing each invention taught me how people interact with enclosed spaces.  For example: how to make openings more intuitive, how to simplify the setup and disassembly, how to reduce parts, reduce costs -- and how design influences nightly use. These lessons directly shaped my later move into anti-malaria bednets.

I'm not sure how I first came across it, but I stumbled on a story about bednets used as a tool against malaria.  I jumped into researching the current bednet, which is the number one tool to prevent mosquitoes from biting people.  The structures are called bed nets or just plain 'nets.'  But I also realized that millions of people slept under poorly designed nets—awkward, sagging, difficult to assemble, hard to enter, easy to tear—I knew the same principles behind my earlier bed tents could solve a life-and-death problem. Better structures = Better usability = Better protection.

A few months ago I applied for a new patent on my most superior bednet, the OKnet.  Drawing on everything I've learned from those early inventions, it's my best design ever.  The goal is large: creating next-generation malaria bednets that people genuinely want to use every night.