Air pad that inflates with just a few breaths

If you go camping down in the wild woods, the chances of happening upon a conveniently-placed power outlet for blowing up your mattress with an electric air pump are pretty remote. Unless you have a hand or foot pump in your backpack, you'll have to wrap your lips around a tiny valve that likely has a history of being dragged through all sorts of unmentionable nastiness, and then spend the next long while taking deep breaths and blowing. Ryan Frayne's Windcatcher system inflates in just a few seconds with a valve that never touches your mouth.

The idea is that, when you blow into the gaping mouth of the Windcatcher valve, a stream of fast moving, low pressure air is created. High pressure air round about is attracted to low pressure areas and pulled inside the mattress. Frayne claims that the volume of air entering the Windcatcher system is at least 10 to 15 times greater than that leaving your lungs. Once inside, the valve prevents the air from escaping.

The very fact that the inflation system is so fast makes it a good fit for many indoor/outdoor situations where you might think twice about lugging an air bed around, including lazing in the park, an emergency sleep-over when your flight gets canceled, or camping out for concert tickets.

The Windcatcher system includes a manual override, so you can pull out the invertible release and the air escapes much faster, and more completely, than with a conventional valve. The whole thing can be rolled up to about the size of a liter bottle of water, and secured with Velcro straps.

Source: gizmag.comAdded: 22 May 2013