99a71212f3784dfc7a2e1781844733e7_large_clipped_rev_1.jpg

A Kickstarter project called ,The Dash, is offering the superhero of bluetooth earphones. The two small buds are packed with sensors such as an accelerometer, thermometer, capacitive touch, bone mic, Infrared LED and optical sensor and more.

All of this so you can listen to music (from a phone or from the onboard 4GB of storage) and track your exercise (speed, pace, distance, heart rate, oxygen saturation, etc.

It naturally blocks ambient sound (noise isolation) but can let through some sounds so you don't get hit by a car.

the product page spends a lot of time describing these interesting earphones that can be had for a mere $199 investment.

Kickstarter (link)

Atlas identifies and tracks all your exercises

January 21, 2014technologyEdward Kiledjian

Most fitness trackers are glorified pedometers. The same pedometer technology we have been using for 30 years with some extra software to make it look more modern. To really track your workouts and help you improve, you need a much deeper level of information collection and a more mature set of data analytics tools.

Over a year ago, I loved the idea of a fitness tracker called Amiigo (link).

Unfortunately the Amiigo is more than a year late to deliver their product and updates aren't very comforting. What I liked about the Amiigo was that was supposed to measure pulse & skin temperature in addition to the standard array of sensors so it could determine what exercise you are performing and how hard you are really working out.

Now a new entrant to the game called Atlas (link) is making some interesting promises. Like the Amiigo, it is able to identify exercises (differentiating between similar movements like jumping rope and jumping jacks). It doesn't have all of the sensors that the Amiigo has but it seems much more capable than other quantifiable self devices (Shine, Nike Fuelband, Fitbit, etc).

They intend to make the app both IOS and Android compatible.

It's important to remind you that this is still being developed by a small smart up and is dependant on funding from IndieGogo (link). Keep in mind that many of these great ideas never materialize or come to market months to years late.

I think this is a great little device and it would be fantastic if they can get it to market. We'll just have to wait and see.

UnderArmour buys MapMyFitness app

November 14, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

Under Armor has its own Armour39 tracking service but most users complained it lacked some basic features and wasn't polished enough. It seems Under Armour heard all the complaints and is buying competing fitness app MapMyFitness (for $150M)

MapMyFitness brings 20 millions users and the ability to suck in data from Jawbone UP, Nike Fuelband and of course from its own smartphone apps. UnderArmor will leverage all of this tech and user base to take fitness analytics to the next level.

Under Armour

Review of the Fitbit Flex fitness tracker

September 5, 2013technologyEdward Kiledjian

Fitbit is one of the early pioneers in mass market self measurement devices. to stay current and hip, they released the Fitbit Flex bracelet style tracker and I went hands on.

In the bracelet style health monitors, the 3 main players are Jawbone UP, Nike Fuelband and the Fitbit Flex. The Fitbit Flex is cheaper than its competitors but seems to offer more value for the money.

The design

The design a a clean bracelet style tracker that is easy to wear but that loses the instant feedback the other Fitbit devices offer with their screens. for this simple reason, some consumers may prefer the Fitbit one instead (which is a great device in its own right).

The Flex has handful of blinking lights that show how close you are to achieving your self-set target.

It is a comfortable plastic design that is easy to wear all day every day. It comes in sizes small and large and should fit most consumers fairly well.

Some call it stylish others call all similar trackers ugly so you'll have to decide this one. I think its discreet and nice.

You have a choice of 5 stylish colors including black, slate, teal, tangerine and navy.

The device

The fitbit flex is designed for all day tracking including movement during the day and sleep at night.

Paired with the IOS or Android app, it gains the ability to track other activities (besides steps) and calories from food intake. all useful when trying to leave a healthier lifestyle.

Similar to the one it offers a vibration based alarm (so as not to wake up your partner in the morning). The flex adds a new metric which represents the number of active minutes in a day.

You get a couple of days of use out of each charge.

The kit

The kit comes with the bracelet itself, a USB charger and a USB dongle for your computer (for wireless synchronization of data back to the Fitbit cloud).

It also comes with Bluetooth so you can sync the data on the run via your smartphone.

Start-up

Start-up is a breeze. You download the small PC and/or smartphone app, create a Ftibit account or log in to an existing one, provide some information (such as age, sex,height, weight, etc)

Verdict

Fitbit is a trusted tracker who is financially solid (which means they will be around). The Flex is a stylish, easy to use and wear device that will gamify fitness and maybe help you lose a couple of pounds.

The Fitbit One is still my preferred fitness tracker but the Flex is a nice option for people looking for a bracelet style model (the One is a clip on).

Amiigo is the smartest fitness tracker

March 4, 2013Health, technologyEdward Kiledjian

Related Articles:

Amiigo is a new product currently being funded on crowd-funding site Indiegogo which is trying to make Fitbit, Shine, Jawbone and Lark Life obsolete. It is promising to use advanced algorithms and a bunch of sensors to do things none of its competitors can.

The main piece is the Amiigo bracelet which contains an accelerometer, skin temperature sensor and pule oximeter). In addition to the bracelet, it comes with a shoe clip which helps the device track “non-arm” exercises and also helps the system identify what exercise you are performing.

The Amiigo team is quick to point out that although the bracelet is state of the art, the real magic happens in the backend when all of the collected data is processed using state of the art algorithms and a huge database of over 100 exercises.

Not only will it provide much more accurate health information, it means the device can automatically identify what exercise you are performing, how you performed it, how many times and for how long. This detection and cataloging is done automatically without any user intervention (think distance, sets, reps, etc).

As customers continue using the system, it will start collecting millions of data points it hope to use for other health services. As an example it would like to use performance data to detect cardiovascular problems. There is no way to know if this end goal will ever be reached but the promise is enticing.

I will remain slightly skeptical until the device is released and tested in the real world but I find the direction of innovation promising. It takes these personal health monitoring systems in the right direction hopefully forcing the others to innovate which is wonderful for consumers. Additionally the automation features (where it auto detects what you are doing and how you are doing it) is fantastic because it keeps users engaged. Competing products require that the user enter exercise type and intensity data which eventually get’s tiresome and leads many to simply give up.

I don’t think the Amiigo is the ultimate device and even they have room to grow but it is fantastic to see everything they are doing.

Smart earbuds for music and exercise tracking