The average traveler carries a backpack and wears a pair of headphones playing their favorite tunes to get through the commute or hike, or even just a pack with goods to survive a music festival.

Cal Poly grad Jared Becker took the average pack and came up with something more, a backpack to enhance the music experience.

"It opens up this sense, this tactile dimension to music that you don't really get to experience any other way except maybe when you're in a car with huge subwoofers," Becker said.

He calls it a Baserock and it gives the wearer an opportunity to physically feel the music they're listening to through vibrating bass frequencies that are built into it. With the help of Kickstarter—a platform for funding creative projects—the duo set a goal of $15,000 and has already surpassed that, with pledges amounting to $69,514. The product should ship out to the pledgers of Baserock in February 2018.

The musical vibrations are felt right on the wearer's back as the pack uses dual tactile transducers to create the vibrations and is powered by a rechargeable battery.

The intensity of Baserock can controlled or even turned off so the musical experience can be made personal.

Headphones or a speaker can be plugged into the backpack with an auxiliary cord that's already connected. Or if the wearer is at a music festival the pack has an integrated microphone input so it can pick up the bass sounds and vibrate along with the live music. The pack also features a hydration reservoir and spout perfect for an outdoor adventure and ample storage space.

Becker and his partner, Gannon Daynes, listen to music in the car, at work, on the way to work—you could say they love music. They're also big on going to concerts and music festivals and usually carry a pack of some kind.

The duo did some research, curious if there was a product out there that they could use that would hold their stuff as well as enhance their music experience.

"We saw some technology online but there wasn't really anything out there that we would put on or wear walking around Higuera Street," Becker said.

That inspired them to take the idea of a vibrating backpack and bring it to life with the help of Kickstarter and SLO HotHouse—the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Becker and his partner are recent Cal Poly grads and started creating this product as part of a senior project. But the idea of bringing this product to life was too good to pass up.

"We were a few months away from graduating and we really had to ask ourselves, are we going to take the normal route and get a job, a comfortable salary, and, you know, work for a few years build up some experience, or dive right into go into a start-up," he said.

Although the decision was a little scary and didn't have the greatest financial security behind it, they decided to go for it.

"When it all comes down to it, how big of a risk is there? We've already been living like broke college students for four or five years now, we could do it for a couple more years and see if we can pull something off here," he said.

Fast fact

Coast Electronics has been in business on the Central Coast for 39 years after opening its doors in Morro Bay in 1978. The store has thrived by offering technical services for its customers that include computer repair, home theater, car stereos and alarms, communication systems for public safety, and two-way radio systems. In May Coast Electronics signed a lease for a space in the Laguna Village Shopping Center in San Luis Obispo, adding to its locations in Buellton and Morro Bay. For more information on service or products, visit coast-electronics.com. Δ