Technology is everyday becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives, and the smaller and more portable devices become, the more aspects of life it can pervade. One such area is the fitness industry; Fitbits and other inventions allow those doing sport to track and quantify their activities and progress in a more precise way than ever before.
Having worked in technology for a long time, and being a netball player, the two interests are united in fitness tech. The most recognised form of fitness tracking tends to be in the form of a wrist band. However as a Netball player, this is less than ideal! With the strict ban on jewelry and other such adornments, there is no way to track your progress (though once during a training match, I managed around 8K, through the sneaky act of wearing it under my sock; not comfortable and less accurate). This is where we get to other innovative wearable tech.
Smart Shoes are a form of ‘invisible’ wearable tech. Eradicating the risk of losing something during vigorous exercise, and available for use during the many sports that ban watches and such things. The tracker is in the sole or base of the shoe, although these are not readily available yet…. one that looks ahead of the game is the Altra IQ (https://www.altrarunning.com/iq) . Excitingly, Adidas recently created a ‘smart ball’ for football training, where the integrated sensor detects the spin, strike and flight of the ball with Bluetooth wireless charging (https://www.adidas.com/us/micoach-smart-soccer-ball/G83963.html) , I am hoping that smart balls will soon be in regular use and available for more sports, including netball.
Then there is literal wearable tech, in the form of clothing. Again, there are questions of how accurate this is as contestant bodily contact is required. There are even earbuds that can track your heart rate! These are other examples of the innovations made in recent years that change the game of tracking your own achievements in sport.
But one thing that seems to be constant is the question of how accurate and how much improvement can be made and an area of constant development and changes.
Let me know if Wearable Tech is something of interest to you as I am currently working with some companies that are developing the next generation of wearable technology. My email is eva.carey@logiksource.com