Intel’s partnership with Replay Technologies — which will [literally] add 360 new dimensions to the way humans experience sports — was only the start of Intel’s journey to alter the athletic world through the introduction of new technology this past week at CES. The tech powerhouse’s next step is quite the oxymoron, though, as Intel will be leading another huge change in the way sports are viewed using a very, very tiny device.
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
Enter the Intel Curie Module. The Curie is best identified as an evolved dashboard cam coupled with a GoPro, as it can run unperturbed for lengthy amounts of time, yet is particularly versatile. But it is even more versatile than a GoPro because it is roughly the size of a button, and thus small enough to be placed on essentially anything: the brim of a hat, the ridge of sunglasses, the inside of a uniform, the front of a snowboard. Then again, the Curie is entirely different than either a dashboard cam or a GoPro because it doesn’t record video — it records data, and lots of it.
The little chip made its first big appearance a year ago at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but had not been given a true purpose until this year’s CES. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich dedicated quite a bit of his 2016 CES keynote to the Curie, which runs on a 32-bit Intel Quark SE system on a chip and is kept alive by a battery the size of a coin. Krzanich even brought BMX riders onto the CES stage during his keynote, and used the bikers to show how Curie chips (which were embedded into the seats and handlebars of the bikes) can relay information such as the height and rotation of a jump.
The Curie is set to make its debut later this month when ESPN utilizes it during the Winter X Games in Aspen. The chip’s data-mining abilities will allow those watching the X Games, and the Games’ judges, to observe information such as the height a snowboarder or skier jumps, air time, and jump distance. And the X Games are just the beginning: Intel has already partnered with Red Bull, New Balance, and Oakley, all of which are set to make use of the Curie in unique ways as the chip opens up for use in the first quarter of 2016.
Perhaps the best part of the Curie, though? It won’t even come close to breaking the bank, as each unit checks in at just $10.