… The third day and particularly the fourth day, as the virus spread and I started to feel very weak, my resting heart rate shot up, as did my stress levels. In fact, that fourth day my resting heart rate was nearly 15 bpm above its usual value, and stayed at that elevated level throughout the whole day. My step counts decreased further as I grew weaker while sleep duration increased drastically.
Then suddenly, on day 5 everything fell back to normal. So that is how long it took to flush the virus out of my system.
Garmin has quietly begun offering the ability for users to start re-broadcasting their heart rate over Bluetooth Smart with certain wearables, via an open beta program. While virtually all Garmin wearables made in the last…ever…support re-broadcasting of heart rate over ANT+, none have supported re-broadcasting over Bluetooth Smart. In fact, almost nobody in the industry supports re-broadcasting over Bluetooth Smart (using the standard BLE HR profile). Whoop started semi-recently doing so with their latest band, and years ago Polar kinda introduced it on certain wearables (but it was fraught with odd compatibility issues that mostly made it useless).
However, today’s update is a reasonably big deal. It lets you pair your wearable up to apps like Zwift or TrainerRoad, for those training indoors. Same goes for even devices like treadmills.
Any smart device comes with its own set of benefits and trade-offs, but there’s one huge shoe waiting to drop with every single one of them: anything you connect can be disconnected at the other end, and there’s absolutely nothing you the consumer can do about it. Today’s example of smart stuff going dumb comes courtesy of Under Armour, which is effectively rendering its fitness hardware line very expensive paperweights.
The company quietly pulled its UA Record app from both Google Play and Apple’s App Store on New Year’s Eve. In an announcement dated sometime around January 8, Under Armour said that not only has the app been removed from all app stores, but the company is no longer providing customer support or bug fixes for the software, which will completely stop working as of March 31.
… Connected devices, more sensors, and the electrification of everything sum up most of the new technology around CES this year. It was no different for the adventure tech we discovered.
Diagnostics, Inc. (MX3), the company that introduced the first saliva-based, portable hydration testing system, announces the pre-order availability of the MX3 Sweat Test, a personalized assessment that determines electrolyte loss during exercise or exertion.
The MX3 Sweat Test determines sodium loss in sweat with laboratory-grade accuracy. Current sweat-testing systems rely on shipping samples to remote facilities or the use of expensive or complicated equipment. MX3’s portable Sweat Test offers unparalleled flexibility and convenience that empowers users to perform sweat testing as frequently as they desire with immediate, actionable results.
Apple on Thursday announced its new “Apple Watch Connected” gym initiative, a new series of partnerships with fitness facilities that makes it easier for people who own Apple Watches to track workouts, buy stuff and earn rewards for working out.
It’s Apple’s latest fitness expansion, helping it to build an entire ecosystem around the Apple Watch and providing owners with more places to use it to improve their fitness tracking. It creates yet another reason for people to buy Apple Watches: If you’re trying to work out, why not get a watch that works seamlessly with the gym you’re joining? And it helps gyms keep customers through rewards-based initiatives.
Target, one of the notable large retailers to embrace beacons a few years ago, had rolled out the technology to most of its stores by last year. Shoppers who download the Target app (which is equipped with software that interacts with the beacons) will display their location on the app’s map as they move throughout the store.
Mike McNamara, Target’s CIO, explained in a video discussing the technology that the store-tracking technology is “a bit like driving your car with GPS. Just click on an item from your list, and the app will indicate on a store map the precise aisle where you will find your item.” McNamara noted that the app will even tell you if the product is on sale.
Because beacons are designed to tie offline behavior (shopping in a physical store) to online behavior (which is often tracked by the use of a store app or via browsing history on a mobile or desktop device), retailers can capture, analyze, and make predictions on a substantial amount of personal data. A retailer then can use this data to increase both online and offline sales by offering discounts, loyalty points, or other incentives in order to further engage customers and drive sales. That means consumers’ private habits are quickly becoming public knowledge, which is then used for commercial purposes.
World Economic Forum, Alois Zwinggi and Adrien Ogée from
The platform economy is changing how companies interact with customers. Enterprises need to connect with their customers efficiently to successfully and rapidly match the latter’s wants and needs with services and products. Being able to authenticate users to enable efficient and effective interaction with organizations is vital to business strategies of the future.
Password-based consumer authentication was initially designed for employees, not customers or clients. User experience was not a concern. Today, in the age of fingerprint readers and facial recognition, people expect a seamless customer experience, and passwords are becoming a key factor in poor customer retention rates. Furthermore, from setup to reset and decommission, password management is costing companies millions of dollars per year.
Visitors of the ISPO Munich can test for example the Volava FitBoxing Kit at the Movesense booth. With the help of Movesense sensors, performance data is measured in real time and transferred to screen, mobile phone or similar. Demos show how the motion sensors work in ice hockey or cross-country skiing. On Tuesday, 28.1. there will also be the opportunity to test the sensor technology during weight training. Then Movesense partner Evomo will present its products.
Movesense is an open development platform for motion-sensitive electronic applications. Sport watch expert Suunto from Finland has developed the sensor, drawing on its long experience in hardware and detector technology. The sensor can detect and measure 8000 sports, creating new business models for sports, wellness and research. Now Movesense is looking for business partners.
… SEMI: Mojo Vision has conducted its own research on human interaction with mobile devices. Why is this important?
Wiemer: Our mobile devices have given us access to the information we need and want, improving many aspects of our lives. But our devices have also influenced our relationships and attention to our environment in negative ways. We believe that the next mobile computing platform must improve this situation. Instead of pulling us away from the moment, our devices need to embrace more human-centric engagement while still letting us access information that improves our quality of life. Mojo Vision has worked to understand this problem through our own studies and research so we can better develop an approach to address it.
SEMI: How are key technical trends driving size, efficiency and capability advancements in mobile devices?
Wiemer: Tiny low-power sensors are enabling ever-smaller feature-rich mobile devices that run longer on a battery charge. Smartwatches are a good example. Just a few years ago, smartwatches were not that much more than small screens on our wrists. Today, we have GPS, EKG/health monitoring, and cellular wireless interfaces all inside the same form factor.
A world where an individual can continuously monitor his or her blood-glucose to gain personalized health advice every 60 seconds and “hack” their food intake based on personal chemistry is already a reality. For example, GenoVive uses an individuals’ unique DNA to develop customized meal and exercise programs to empower consumers to make lasting healthy lifestyle choices. New miniature sensors developed at Tufts University can be mounted directly on the surface of a tooth to directly monitor the effects of food intake on the bodies of human being in real time relaying data on glucose, salt, and alcohol consumption.
The continuous measurement of human biodata is at the core of precision consumption – it can empower consumers to make better decisions about their own health and well-being. “Within ten years, we will have unlocked enough secrets of the microbiome to accurately personalize nutrition as the first line of defense against any type of diseases: whether you have eye problems, heart problems, or you’re at risk of stroke,” explains Robin Farmanfarmaian, CEO and Co-founder of ArO.
Portland’s Pearl District offers an eclectic neighborhood of sought-after restaurants, boutique shopping and reclaimed warehouses. It’s the ideal home for Keen, a leader in outdoor footwear and also a completely independent and family-owned business that restored a six-story brick headquarters in the heart of the Pearl. The story of Keen’s building — a renovation project so intense the brand allowed the architect and contractor only one dumpster of trash during the project and forced reuse of virtually everything in the building — blends right into the brand’s ethos, one with a focus on making versatile outdoor footwear with a sustainable bent that blasts right past lip service and to one of the most aggressive and practical models of environmental stewardship of big footwear brands.
“We want to effect change across all our products,” says Chris Enlow, senior director of Keen Effect. “It becomes a challenge. You can’t flip the switch overnight. I think we have gotten ourselves to a good point.”
The Keen Effect effort currently has three main pillars, creating its robust line of men’s and women’s outdoor sandals, performance boots and shoes and lifestyle silhouettes using environmentally preferred leather that features tanneries that clean the pollutants from water used in the tanning process, odor control that removes pesticides from the footbed to control odor naturally and PCF-free waterproofing that eliminates chemicals harmful to both humans and the environment.
Every January, nearly 3,000 companies from the outdoor and fitness industries descend on Munich, Germany, for what has become the most significant sports tradeshow in the world, ISPO. Thousands more join them to get a first glimpse at the new gear they plan to release in 2020, and among their ranks is a panel of expert judges who comb through hundreds of items to find out which are the year’s best. Their criteria: innovation, function, design and sustainability.
Here’s a selection of the items that won the coveted Gold Award.
Nestled in the back of Danner’s Portland, Oregon factory, tucked near the baskets holding thousands of shoe lasts, is the best-smelling spot in the 59,000-square-foot plant, if not the entire Pacific Northwest: the leather room.
Danner, the maker of work, duty, hike, and hunt boots, brings in leather from at least six tanneries across the U.S., inspecting every single piece of hide by hand with a five-point process. While that attention to detail gives this section of the factory an aroma like no other, the meticulousness extends to the rest of the facility, which churns out about 40 percent of all Danner boot product. Here, craftsmen combine modern machining like laser-scan cutting with World War II-era machines to build each boot, because the old saying is true: They don’t make them like they used to.
Continuing their dedication to sustainable practices, Crescent Moon Snowshoes is gearing up for their award-winning Eva and Luna foam snowshoes to go biodegradable and through the acquisition by Dunn-Rite Products, will transition production from Colorado to Indiana.
Launching for the 2020/2021 winter snow sports season, Crescent Moon Snowshoes’ new Eco-Plastic foam is made from non-edible foods, such as corn or potato starch, including food waste products. Unaffected by temperature and humidity, yet when disposed of the new Eco-Plastic foam degrades at a rate of 50% in just 4 months and 100% in one year. Designed to withstand temperatures of -20 to 140 degrees Celsius and certified non-toxic by SGS, Eco-Plastic requires no additional equipment or cost to manufacture.
… They chop up the tires into small pieces and pulverize the pieces into crumbs. Then they mix the powder into a silicone and catalyst solution that is heated to 100°C. After filtering out a residue of carbon, silica and metal from the end product, they get a yellowish oil comprised of the same polymers that are used as raw materials for tires.
The process worked with bicycle inner tubes and old truck tires that the researchers collected at a local garbage dump. The team used the recovered oil to make new tires for a toy car. The residue was reused as a reinforcing agent in the new rubber.
A polymer that releases acid in response to a hammer blow can trigger “bruising” that reveals where and when it was struck (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b12861). This kind of mechanochemistry—in which a mechanical force sets off a chemical reaction—could eventually lead to materials that offer an early warning signal of impending structural failure, for example. “The overall goal here is to create useful stress-responsive materials,” says Stephen L. Craig of Duke University, whose PhD student Yangju Lin led the work.
Controlling body heat is important in a variety of situations, particularly during heavy physical exertion and when patients have high fevers. Currently there are few methods of lowering one’s temperature, and many of those can be impractical, especially if a power source is required.
Now, a team of scientists at the University of Missouri has developed a material that can cool the skin by about 11°F (6°C) and also act as a substrate for flexible body monitoring electronics. The new material may perform a variety of healthcare related tasks while moderating body temperature, something that soldiers, athletes, and others could benefit from.
The porous material reflects sunlight and allows body heat to escape at the same time and a prototype device containing it was tested on human skin.
Exercise and training routines have many benefits: improved mood, strong muscles and bones, weight management, and reduced risk of chronic diseases, among others. But big training weeks without adequate recovery can negatively impact health and performance, and even your immune system. Here we’ll take a closer look at how training load—or the amount you exercise—can impact your immune system, and what you can do to stay healthy.
Breathing is something you know how to do from a few seconds after you are born. Typically your body does this instinctively and on autopilot. But did you know that paying attention to your breathing while exercising can make a difference? Very often it is an area of training that is neglected as, not surprisingly, many of us take the issue of breathing for granted. However, many experts point out that breathing is not something we should do without thinking, and that we need to make a conscious effort to get it right.
As many as one in six adults experience mental health problems like depression or anxiety every week. And not only is mental ill-health one of the most common causes of disease worldwide – it’s also on the rise. Finding ways to improve mental health is therefore essential.
One type of therapy that is starting to become more popular is “ecotherapy”; which advocates claim can improve mental and physical wellbeing. Sometimes referred to as green exercise or green care, this type of formal therapeutic treatment involves being active in natural spaces. It’s also sighted to be one of 2020’s biggest wellness trends, though the practice is far from new.
There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 million active Strava users around the world; the company claims one million new users each month. Part fitness tracker, part route saver, part social media network, users of all stripes and endurance levels tap that orange icon before throwing a leg over the saddle and hitting the trail or the road (or even the indoor bike roller).
I parsed the numbers recently and pulled out some interesting facts and figures that Strava made available. Sheds a light on at least one segment of the cycling community, and can help put your own cycling experience in perspective. If you use Strava, after all, you’re at least somewhat interested in comparing your rides to those of your peers. Probably more than somewhat, actually.
Kristin Armstrong is one of the most decorated female American cyclists in history. She has three Olympic gold medals (the first rider ever to win three golds in the same discipline), has won the U.S. National Time Trial Championships, and was the oldest rider ever to win a time trial at the Olympics. … “I used to brag about how little I rode the trainer, but after Rio, I didn’t have 3 hours in the middle of the day to go out and ride, so I started riding Zwift every day,” Armstrong says. “Within a few months I rode more on the trainer than I had in my entire career up to that point.”
… It used to be that once the snow had fallen, cyclists around the world would put up their wheels for the season. Now with fat biking on the rise, avid cyclists can bike 365 days of the year.
From snow-packed roads to mountain bike and snowmobile trails, there are a lot of places to ride your fat bike. We’re lucky to live in a part of Oregon with plenty of snowy trails and nearly endless opportunities for winter bike riding.
If you have made yourself a New Year’s resolution, note down 19th January in the diary. That’s because it is the date you are most likely to abandon those best-laid commitments.
According to popular fitness app Strava, which analysed data from 98.3 million uploaded fitness activities, ‘Quitters’ Day’ is just over two weeks away, something that does not bode well for most of us.
Google hopes that one day it might be able to save your life. As the tech giant moves deeper into healthcare, it plans to fight medical misinformation in search results, create tools to be used by thousands of doctors, and improve the accuracy of diagnosis with technologies like computer vision to read X-rays.
Those are just its aims for this year. Google’s broader health mission was outlined at a conference in San Francisco earlier this month, where its top doctor set out to show why the company may be the most ambitious of the many trying to use technology to transform healthcare.
“We have 10 companies with 1 billion users and five with 5 billion or some insane numbers,” said David Feinberg. “We would love to be one of those where we can say we saved billions of years of life this year.”
… Research has shown HRV to be a valid and reliable predictor of the autonomic nervous system which controls the body’s ‘fight or flight’ (sympathetic) vs. ‘rest and digest’ (parasympathetic) state. Unlike resting heart rate, high HRV is generally better. High HRV is associated with high levels of fitness and resilience, whilst low levels are associated with stress, fatigue, and burnout.
Factors that influence an individual’s HRV include age, genetics, mental & emotional stress, physical activity (especially intense training), alcohol, drugs, and nutrition.
The program is a 12-credit online certificate that focuses on topics like how to build an adventure tourism business, how to plan and lead adventures, how to brand, sell, and distribute outdoor gear, and how to market it all.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer News from
As the lithium-ion batteries that power most phones, laptops, and electric vehicles become increasingly fast-charging and high-performing, they also grow increasingly expensive and flammable.
In research published recently in Energy Storage Materials, a team of engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrated how they could — by using aqueous electrolytes instead of the typical organic electrolytes — assemble a substantially safer, cost-efficient battery that still performs well.
… if we want to reach a point where batteries can outperform gasoline or store huge amounts of solar energy, we need some breakthroughs. So IBM has teamed up with Mercedes-Benz and its parent company Daimler to develop new batteries that could match up to our needs.
At the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, they demonstrated a proof-of-concept showing how IBM’s quantum computers could help design cutting-edge solid-state batteries. At the end of last year they touted a new battery made from materials that can be extracted from the sea, which outperforms today’s technology across the board.