Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Instabeat - Google Glass that's useful

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I wonder whether Google glass will ever get beyond geek. Personally, I don't need it. I'd rather save up for an extra DSLR for some creative projects I'm getting involved in. But I came across this intriguing use of glasses via the springwise.com site.
Smart sports equipment has been emerging for a while now, and we’ve seen performance-monitoring tennis racquetsbikes, and even basketballs. Electronics and watersports don’t tend to go hand-in-hand – however, Instabeat is a waterproof display for goggles that measures swimming performance and provides feedback.
Where some swimmers may opt for a chest device that can monitor the user’s heartbeat, the Instabeat clips onto any pair of goggles and senses beats per minute from the temporal artery. Colored LEDs on the device let swimmers know how hard they’re working – blue for fat burning, green for fitness workouts and red for maximum performance. Instabeat also measures calories burnt and lap times, alerting users to when they’re close to reaching their targets as they swim. Once out of the pool, the headset can be connected to a computer via USB to upload the data for storing. 
The startup, which is based in Lebanon, recently raised over USD 50,000 through its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and those interested are still able to order one for USD 139, rather than the retail price of USD 149. 
For me, this set of glasses is screaming for another way to get its data across rather than a USB port.


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