May 09
input, research, sports
CNET - A group of researchers says shoes may be the next thing in the busy field of wearable computers and gesture interfaces.
Computer scientists from the Telekom Innovation Laboratories, the University of Munich, and the University of Toronto this week published a paper on ShoeSense, a wearable computing system for a smartphone.
[...] Developing alternative inputs for smartphones makes sense when a person is moving or engaged in other tasks, such as driving, or when it’s inappropriate to pull out a smartphone, such as during a family dinner, the ShoeSense developers said in a paper.
Its developers envision a sensor being placed in a shoe that is able to understand customizable hand and arm gestures. In a video, a user moves his finger along his forearm to turn up the volume on a music player in his pocket, pinches to select the next track, and then pinches with three fingers to send an “I will be late” e-mail to his wife.
Having a sensor device in a shoe has advantages over glasses in that it allows for eyes-free interaction, and it doesn’t constrain body motions. ShoeSense’s designers also think that it can be more socially acceptable to operate a smartphone through arm and hand gestures than via glasses. Potentially, the sensor could be powered by a walking motion.
Jan 20
health, sports
liliputing- Remember when digital watches with calculators were state-of-the-art wearable computers? Now you can slap an iPod Nano on a wrist strap and carry music and apps around on a portable color screen. But there’s another frontier in the wristputer space, and it’s focused on fitness. [...]
Now Nike is launching a slick-new wristband called the Nike+ FuelBand. It can track your steps, calories burned, or time exercised – but also tracks a new metric called NikeFuel which is basically how much oxygen you’re consuming by performing a given task. In other words it doesn’t just monitor our fitness activity when you’re walking or running, but also when you’re sitting still, playing games on yoru Wii, or doing just about anything else.
The FuelBand has built-in LEDs that glow red or green to let you know when you’re reaching your fitness goals (or failing to do so). They can also display text or numbers to show your score, distance traveled, or the time. You can pair the $149 FuelBand with an iPhone over Bluetooth to upload your data to the Nike+ app.
Dec 11
health, research, sports
Wearable Technologies - On January 30, 2012, for the fifth time in a row, the Wearable Technologies Conference will take place in line with the International Sport Business Network (ISPO) Trade Show in Munich. This conference gives visitors the opportunity to discover groundbreaking innovations from the fields of health, fitness and prevention.
The conference will feature two areas of interest, namely the newest developments in the areas of “Sports & Consumers” and “Health & Fitness”. In addition to novel technologies in development, the 2012 WTconference will present products ready for the market. These days, technologies worn on or near the body are experiencing a real boom. The first WT products, those interesting to a wider market, are recording resounding successes. In addition, the many innovative technologies that have just reached the market stage have become all the more important to those manufacturers who can use the new technologies in a variety of their products. Tracks include: Sports and Prevention, Smartphone and Consumer Gadgets, Therapy and Innovation.
Oct 31
health, sports, watch
gizmag - Motorola Mobility has launched MOTOACTV, the company’s first music and fitness device. Designed to help you reach your fitness goals by tracking, syncing and recording your workout data and customizing your music, the Blutetooth-enabled MOTOACTV logs time, distance traveled and calories burned and has an inbuilt heart rate monitor, accelerometer and a GPS which records a map of your routes.
The 1.8 x 1.8 x 0.37 inches (46mm x 46mm x 9.6 mm) square MOTOACTV straps to the wrist or arm or can be mounted on a bike and sports a 1.6-inch full color touch screen that is sweat proof, rain and scratch resistant, and adapts to indoor and outdoor lighting. And it weighs in at a feathery 35grams.
The battery is specced at up to five hours for outdoor workouts, 10 for indoor and nearly two weeks on standby, while the device supports Bluetooth® 4.0 and ANT+ wireless connectivity.
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