You’re on the football field, and you collide helmet-to-helmet with a defending player. As you absorb the shock of the play, a coin-sized sensor in your helmet sends real-time data to the coach, who can monitor your condition.
That device is a small, lightweight, plastic detector called the Cue Sport Sensor from Athlete Intelligence — formerly i1 Biometrics — a company that was founded to make products with athlete safety front of mind. The sensor is designed for versatility: It uses radio and Bluetooth to transmit data, can be used online or offline, and not only sends information on athlete safety, such as hits to the head in football or rugby, but also athlete performance.
The Cue, in a way, was born out of the limitations of Athlete Intelligence’s previous device, a mouthguard with safety sensors. “Based upon the form and the design, it was limited to helmeted cage sports,” Athlete Intelligence CEO Jesse Harper said, “and there’s so much interest right now in non-helmeted sports…we wanted to participate in that space, which is why we developed the Cue Sport Sensor.”
The product’s most notable feature, perhaps, is what Harper calls coachable moments. Coaches can use the information from the device not only to detect injuries to athletes, but also to pick up on players who might be risking injury with their techniques or habits in practice and games. Harper, a former multi-sport player himself who has suffered multiple concussions, said the safety aspect is personal.
“We love sports, and it’s challenging and disheartening right now that youth participation in sports is decreasing, and it’s partly because parents are scared,” Harper said. “We looked at that and said, ‘As an industry, we need to do a better job.'”
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But Harper knew that a product built only on safety features wouldn’t sell very much. “Safety, honestly, it’s just not very sexy.” So his team created the Cue to also track athlete performance and feed it in real-time to coaches.
The sensor measures performance by using many of the same components found in smartphones. Each of these components tracks an athlete’s movements and through an algorithm can provide information on speed, distance, acceleration and body angles, among other metrics. On the safety side, the sensor can send a 3D readout of an athlete’s head in real-time to display areas of impact and a given area’s history of exposure.
The product is minuscule—about the size of two quarters stacked together, Harper said. But that feature specifically makes it convenient for use in almost any sport. Athletes can attach it to the inside of a helmet, headband, skull cap, wrestling headgear or almost any other typical athletic apparel. (Athlete Intelligence is working with a number of potential partners to insert the Cue into other products and market them as smart devices.) A micro-USB port allows the device to be charged — although its battery lasts over a week on one charge — but also for its users to download stored data in case the wireless network is out of range.
The biggest challenge Harper has faced in marketing wearable tech is making it appeal to a broad base of consumers. “We all tend to sell to the same three to five percent of the population that are really into technology and gadgets,” he explained. “The broader base of the market doesn’t understand the context — ‘why is it important to me as an athlete or a person.'”
With the Cue Sport Sensor that is scheduled to be shipped in the spring and recent proprietary software, Harper is hoping Athlete Intelligence has found a product that appeals to consumers, individual or on a team.
Athlete Intelligence from Williams Helde on Vimeo.