Imagine a tent that captures solar energy to power your camping gadgets, controls the internal temperature of the tent, heats up the groundsheet on cold nights and provides a wireless internet connection.

 

 

The ultimate, high-tech tent, a concept designed by UK-based company Orange and American product design consultancy Kaleidoscope, is turning heads. The two companies claim that it’s the tent of the future and that it will allow campers to keep in touch and power essential camping gadgets.

Some of the innovative concepts of the design are:

Photovoltaic Fabric

Latest research shows that by weaving specially coated solar threads into conventional fabric, revolutionary new ways of capturing the sun’s energy could soon become a reality. These radical advances mean that rather than relying upon familiar fixed panels, designers were free to conceive how a tent of flexible solar fabrics might look.

The Concept Tent’s solar shell uses this technology to full effect with three directional glides which can be moved throughout the day to maximise its solar efficiency, capturing the optimum amount of energy which can to be used throughout the tent in a variety of new and exciting ways.

Glo-cation technology

To avoid not finding your tent in the dark, the Concept Tent would be fitted with innovative “glo-cation” technology. Glo-cation works by enabling campers’ mobile phones to identify their tent using either an SMS message or automatic active RFID technology (a longer range version of that used in London Underground Oyster cards); both would trigger a distinctive glow in the tent helping identify it from a distance.

Wireless control hub

The heart of the Concept Tent is a central wireless control hub which displays energy generated and consumed as well as providing a wireless internet signal; all information is displayed on a flexible, touchscreen LCD display screen.

Integrated into the hub is a wireless charging pouch which powers mobile phones and other portable devices without the need for messy wires and multiple chargers. The ‘magnetic induction’ technology passes an electric current through a coil embedded in the charging pouch, this in turn generates a magnetic field which creates a charge and powers the battery.

Groundsheet heat

Also controlled by the central hub is an internal heating element embedded within the tent’s groundsheet; this under floor heating is triggered automatically once the interior temperature falls below a set level.

Unfortunately for those who love high-tech gadgets, Orange’s and Kaleidoscope’s solar tent is still just a concept. But those who just can’t wait, check out Woods less-techy Solar Powered EZ Tent. woods.ca

Source: Orange

 

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