In the ever-expanding pantheon of wearable fitness trackers, Garmin is looking for an open seat, ideally at the Cool Kids’ Table (CKT). Garmin makes some of the best GPS sports watches out there, so expectations were high for the company’s first tracker. While it adds a nice trick or two, the holes are just too many.
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As you may have noticed, there are a million activity trackers out there right now. Most of them are glorified pedometers. The upper tier add altimeters, heart rate monitors, and sleep-tracking to the equation. But what if you don’t just want to be reminded to work out—you want to work out better, safer, and more efficiently? Moov might just be the AI coach you’ve been hoping for.
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“Help the aged,” sang the bard, and that’s what Lively aims to do. After all, one time they were just like you, drinking smoking cigs, and sniffing glue. This $150 device, on the other hand, ensures that they’re up and about and staying active while you’re away, giving you a bit of peace of mind while the older folks are at home.
The system consists of a sensor array that communicates with a wirelessly connected base station. When various items are moved around the house – keys, a medicine cabinet, the refrigerator door – the sensors report back and then the app shows you just what they are up to. Are they eating? Taking their meds? Driving to the liquor store? You’ll know about it.
Founded by former adBrite CEO Iggy Fanlo, Keith Dutton, and David Glickman, the company closed a $2.5 million seed round in 2012 and just announced a $4.8M series A led by Cambia Health Solutions and Maveron. They just launched their product which includes the dongle and two months of free service. They took part in a failed Kickstarter in April.
The team prides itself on a sort of minimalist monitoring that will help older folks maintain dignity and privacy. “This is not ‘big brother’ monitoring. Lively’s passive sensing tracks just enough information to interpret meaningful activity that shows how you’re doing without sharing too much. It doesn’t require any video cameras or anything that you have to wear,” said Fanlo.
“Creates new avenues of connection: Lively provides a better way for older adults to share how they’re doing with a connected device that uses passive activity sensors you apply to moveable objects around the home.”
Fanlo created the company after going through a divorce and missing his extended family. As a result, he thought he wanted to find a solution to loneliness and looked first to the aging community. “It was a difficult and in many ways a dark time for me. I was looking at health & wellness. I sought out two things in my preliminary search: the intersection of large and growing market AND an area generally ignored by entrepreneurs. Within health & wellness, aging jumped off the page. That was all good and well, but how is that inspiring even for me. Well, as I visited several facilities and spoke to many people the social side of aging, the isolation, the potential loneliness struck a chord. I had felt that very strongly only a few years before and I saw a light at the end of the tunnel… For many of those over 70, 80 years of age, there might not be another good opportunity to really stay connected. I had my inspiration.”
Interestingly, the service offers LivelyGrams, printed photo booklets created by friends and family and mailed monthly to the Lively user. In this way you get sort of a two way street – data comes out of the home while notes, pictures, and comments come in. Sadly, Lively doesn’t really have an emergency notification system in case someone has fallen and can’t get up nor is it particularly useful if a loved one wanders off – without a GPS tracking system, it’s useless in that case. However, it does help note movements and activities around the house specifically which could make it valuable if you want to make sure mom is taking her vitamins and dad isn’t watching too much TV.
In case you haven’t noticed, fitness gadgets are having something of a moment right now. The past year alone has seen the launch of Nike’s FuelBand, the ill-fated Jawbone Up and a refreshed line of Fitbit trackers. Now another product is arriving that promises to do basically the same thing — namely, track your activity, sleep patterns and food intake using a wearable gadget and mobile app. That thing you see up there is called Larklife and for now, at least, it works exclusively with iOS devices. It’s a splash-resistant (but not waterproof) band that has a pedometer inside, counting your steps throughout the day. It can also tell how long you sleep each night, as well as how long it takes you to nod off. There’s even a vibrating alarm built into the band — something we first saw on the Up earlier this year. (As it happens, Lark’s earlier products were sleep aids, so the inclusion of this feature actually makes a lot of sense.) As for monitoring your dietary habits, Larklife doesn’t automatically track your food intake, but the app does include a food diary where you can manually enter your meals.
Additionally, Larklife uses Bluetooth Smart to automatically sync with your iPhone so that you don’t have to plug the band into a PC just to update your fitness stats. (The new Fitbit trackers work this way this too.) Additionally, the band uses a proprietary technology that can discern when you’re running or walking, which means the app will log workouts even if you forget to enter them. The last intriguing bit is that the app dishes out smart, contextually aware advice. Didn’t get much sleep last night? Larklife will remind you to eat more protein than usual at breakfast, so that you have enough energy to get you through the day. The app also rewards good behavior in the form of iOS notifications and colorful on-screen badges, though competing products admittedly take a very similar approach when it comes to keeping users motivated.
Larklife is up for pre-order starting today, and is priced at $150 — a rather large premium over the new Fitbit One, which will sell for $100. As for precise availability, all we know is that retailers will start stocking Larklife “before the holidays.” Whether that means Halloween, Thanksgiving or some gift-giving celebration will be revealed some other day.
Filed under: Wearables
Larklife fitness tracker syncs your data over Bluetooth, knows when you’re running instead of walking originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It was about a year ago this time that Fitbit released a new fitness tracker, the Fitbit Ultra, so now would seem like as good a time as any for a refresh. Indeed, the company just announced the Fitbit One, which will replace the Ultra, and which adds a “silent” vibrating alarm to wake you up in the morning. (Hmm, where have we seen that before?) Though the alarm is clearly the marquee feature here, the One also steps up to Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, allowing the data to sync to your phone automatically. Additionally, it sports a slimmer, flatter design (read: it looks less like a clothespin). The tracker is also splash-resistant, though not water-proof, so don’t even think of taking it in the pool with you. Other than that, it does the same thing as the last-gen model: it counts steps, flights climbed, calories burned and tracks your total mileage. And, of course, the device syncs with a personalized website, where you can log your meals and view all your stats in easy-to-read graphs.
The Fitbit One will arrive in mid-October for $100. If that’s too pricey for you, the company also introduced the Fitbit Zip, a dumbed-down tracker that’s available now for $60. Though it’s every bit as water-resistant as the One, it offers just basic functionality (i.e., tracking steps taken, distance traveled and calories burned). Meaning, if the silent alarm or even the altimeter is of interest, you’ll want to shell out for the pricier Fitbit One. Oh, and one other big distinction: the Zip has a replaceable battery, rated for up to six months of use. As we said, the One won’t be around until later in the fall, but for now we’ve got a few publicity photos for your perusal.
Gallery: Fitbit One
Gallery: Fitbit Zip
Filed under: Wearables
Fitbit announces two new fitness trackers: the Fitbit One with a vibrating alarm, and the $60 Fitbit Zip originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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