In 2015 Sebastian Walter was on a tubing trip with his friends and couldn't find a water gun to meet his needs. He decided first that water guns hadn't seen any innovation since the days of the Super Soaker, and then decided to make his own next generation squirt machine. Now with his company Spyra, Walter is crowdfunding the Spyra One, "the next generation of water guns".
The biggest innovation here to me is the pump integrated into the unit. The campaign videos show users placing the gun into water and the pump refills twenty five shots worth of water in approximately fourteen seconds. Users can then shoot twenty five 'bullets' of water, each containing 30 milliliters, and a digital readout tells the users how many shots are left before refilling is required. A filter is in the front of the unit where water is pumped in, because the group recommends water be as clean as possible. Operating temperatures are recommended between 0 and 60 degrees Celsius. The internal battery is rated for 45 fill cycles, or 1125 shots, and needs six hours (in the FAQ the text says 'a few hours') to recharge. Spyra One is 63 centimeters long, 18 centimeters high and 9 centimeters wide, weighing 1.7 kilograms when empty and 2.5 kilograms when full.
Spyra One has completely blasted past its campaign goals to fund this initial round of production costs. The popularity is mindblowingly high considering it's a very expensive water gun and the people ordering units are going to be waiting a full year to receive their guns. The innovation of using an internal pump instead of human-powered suction seems like it would create more design issues, but the intake hole for filling the gun is separated from the nozzle where the gun shoots its water bullets. If this project is successful and delivers on its promises I'll be watching to see how many copycat systems show up in the coming years. The wildly successful campaign ends on September 4 and first units are currently scheduled to ship in August 2019.