Seeking to capitalize on consumer demand for wearables, with an expected 322 million devices to be sold this year, the first in-ear, real-time body monitoring wearable — Bodytrak — was launched Tuesday and will be displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
According to Bodytrak, it is able to accurately measure multiple vital health signs including core body temperature (CBT), heart rate, Vo2, speed, distance, and cadence. The benefits could be huge. Ongoing monitoring of multiple vital body signs has the potential to significantly improve physical performance, reduce injury, detect illness and increase recovery time. In contrast, alternative products measure one or two body signs.
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Uniquely compared to other wearables, Bodytrak also uses the ear as a home to measure because of its proximity to the brain. According to the company, this enables it to pick up very accurate and immediate changes in the body and potentially more effectively than when measuring at the periphery of the body, such as wrist-based wearables. Also, due to this unusual positioning, it is quite unobtrusively compared to other, current products, like chest straps which monitor heart rates.
The product is currently being trialled by a number of professional cycling teams and English Premier League football and rugby clubs. It could be used outside of the world of sport, with potential application possible in the defense and health sectors too.
The product, which is aimed at all levels of athletes, is expected to be available to buy in the summer and pricing has not yet been confirmed.
Said Bodytrak CEO Leon Marsh of the launch: “More of us than ever before are engaging in competitive sports and want to use technology to improve our performance. Bodytrak is the first comprehensive wearable to bring multiple vital sign tracking into one device, coupled with an analytics platform, which should prove attractive to those who take training and competition seriously and want to explore their performance limits.”
It was created by London-based Inova Design, a technology company focused on developing new subscription-based services based on automated monitoring of the body, and Bodytrak’s founders plan on raising Series A funding in mid-2017 to support the growth of the product.