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Tag Archives: smartphones

Forget How Many Calories You’re Eating; How About How Many Are You Actually Burning?

By David Ponce on 02/05/13 • Leave a comment!

20130124153143-redBreezing-close_look

The fitness tech field is crowded with a bunch of devices like the FitBit or the Nike Fuel Band, which keep track of your daily activities and are able to tell you with great detail just how many calories you’ve burned and how active you are. However, all these devices make some assumptions about one pretty essential piece of information: your resting metabolic rate. Without knowing exactly how many calories your body burns before you even start exercising, you have to use approximations to get to your daily total. The Breezing Portable Metabolism Tracker hopes to change that.

Using indirect calorimetry, the device measures the levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in your breath and uses this information to determine your basic, resting metabolic rate (RMR). It then communicates the result to your smartphone, for easy tracking. Not only does it tell you how many calories you burn at rest, it can tell you whether your body is burning fat, carbohydrates or both. This is important information to people who would like to know if the special diets they’re following are working. It’s also useful for those who are practicing exercise routines meant to increase RMR, like HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).

Used in combination with devices like the Fitbit, it’s becoming possible to get a comprehensive picture of your body’s energy flow. For data nerds, this is heaven. The Breezing device is currently undergoing funding at IndieGogo, and a $250 will get you one.

[ Project Page ]

Use Sonar And Your Smartphone To Catch Fish

By David Ponce on 01/29/13 • Leave a comment!

Assuming that going fishing isn’t just an excuse for you to go get drunk on a canoe, the Realsonar system pictured above might interest you. It’s an ultrasound device mounted on a buoy, which then communicates with your smartphone through Bluetooth. In this fashion, you get to see where the fish are up to a depth of 150ft. It works at about 4 frames per second, which should be plenty for you to cast your line in the direction and depth required.

But that’s not all the Realsonar does. There’s a Bite Alarm that lets you know when a fish is nearby, so you don’t even have to look at the screen (or even put your line in the water) while you wait. There’s also a mapping feature that lets you get an idea of the underwater topography, which is welcome to any boat owner that doesn’t want to run aground. Salinity and temperature sensors give you an idea of water conditions. And should you lose your buoy in the dark, you just press a button on the phone and it’ll light right up.

The Realsonar system is in the funding phase on IndieGogo. It’s $79 if you get in early, though there’s plenty of room right now.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ DVice ]

New Sensor Constantly Monitors Bicycle Tire Pressure

By David Ponce on 12/24/12 • Leave a comment!

Cars with TPMS sensors are pretty common these days. These are the ones that tell you when you’re getting a flat tire, by constantly monitoring the pressure within. It’s smart, and safe, and about time cyclists got the same treatment. The BTPS sensor aims to do just that, connecting to your smartphone and informing you of the pressure of your tires accurately, between 0 and 174psi. Admittedly, the device is more useful as a convenient indicator of tire pressure; it sure beats having to bend down every time. And since many road bikes need a regular air adjustment, the simple phone-glance convenience is appreciated.

“The BTPS unit itself consists of a pressure sensor, circuit board, and battery. When used with tubeless tires, it is mounted on the rim tape. If tubes are being used, it’s stuck right onto the tube, like a patch.” Currently weighing only seven grams (0.25 oz), it shouldn’t affect your ride in the least. It’s going through funding with Kickstarter though, and is quite far from its goal. Still, if you want one for yourself, a $140 pledge will get you a pair of tubeless-specific BTPS units.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

StickNFind Bluetooth Stickers Help You Find Anything

By David Ponce on 12/03/12 • Leave a comment!

The cost of things like Bluetooth chips is constantly dropping, which means they can start being used in more and more products. The StickNFind Bluetooth stickers are meant to be relatively inexpensive coin-sized stickers that you affix to pretty much anything you want to keep track of. It uses low-power Bluetooth and has a range of 100ft. With a couple of well thought out features, this makes for a pretty useful product. First thing it does is to simply let you play a game of “hot or cold”, indicating on a radar-like display whether you’re getting closer or farther from the tag you’re trying to locate.

Of course, sometimes you may not be within range of a particular tag, so the “Find It” feature sends you a notification once it comes within range. Aside from letting you find objects, this feature allows for some creative uses like notifying you of when your significant other pulls up in your driveway, or alerting you when your luggage comes out of the baggage carrousel.

Finally, the Virtual Leash feature does the exact opposite and sends you a notification when selected tags go out of range. Perfect for pets, or heck, even kids.

Currently undergoing funding on IndieGogo, a starter kit of 2 StickNFind stickers is $35, while 6 will set you back $90. If fully funded, delivery is scheduled for March 2013.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ CNet News ]

SPOT Connect Gives Your Smartphone Satellite Access

By David Ponce on 08/10/12 • 2 Comments

It’s all well and good that you’re the adventurous type, likely at any time to be found camping in the Amazons, spelunking in the Yucatan or trekking in the Himalayas, but bringing your phone with you on those adventures might just be more dead weight in your backpack. Cellular reception is not universal. Satellite phones are notoriously expensive, so maybe the SPOT Connect can be a good compromise.

Simply pair your smartphone with SPOT Connect, and get connected to a global satellite network that lets you send messages and GPS coordinates from virtually anywhere on the planet. Update Twitter and Facebook. Send email and text messages. Request non-emergency help from professional service providers. And in the case of a critical emergency, send an SOS message requesting emergency assistance.

You’re limited to 41 characters at a time for custom messages, and you can save a 120 character predefined message. Not a whole lot, but should be enough for quick updates. More important than letting your buddies in on which caves in Namibia offer the most guano/sq.ft. coverage is the fact that you can transmit your coordinates to the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC) in case of emergency. That right there is reason enough to spend the $169 that the device costs. Plus the $99 yearly for the subscription to the service.

It works with iPhone and Android devices.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ GearPatrol ]

Meet Romo, The Smartphone Robot

By David Ponce on 07/25/12 • Leave a comment!

This has been out for some time now, but we’re just now stumbling across it. It’s called Romo and is a robotic dock for your Android or iOS smartphone. It’s got two treads and is able to roam around the house. But that’s just the start. Depending on the application running on it, you can also use the front facing camera on your phone and turn Romo into a spybot. If there’s music playing in your house, it’ll “dance” to it. Also a new application for Android devices lets you draw on Romo’s face and the little bot will follow the path you draw. The best part about Romo is that the company is young and is seeking developers to expand its capabilities. Anything it’s able to do depends on what application your phone is running when docked, so stay tuned for for more exciting developments from that front. In the meantime, if you want to get your hands on yours right away, it’ll be $149.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ CoolMaterial ]

XWave Sport Can Tell You What Your Brain Should Already Know

By David Ponce on 06/27/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

What you have here is a sports headband with an integrated brain wave sensor. This feeds into a smartphone for analysis. Why? We’re not sure since, while commercially available, the product is in fairly early development. Our understanding is that your “relaxation, focus and other parameters” can be analyzed while you work out to inform you of your own brain status. Are you pushing yourself to the max, or are you just feeling lazy? Now that you’ve been jogging for 4 hours straight, is it your body that’s about to fail, or is it your brain? Are these the sort of questions it seeks to answer? We don’t really know. The company is touting the availability of SDKs for outside developers to create the kind of software that could give the XWave Sport the sort of functionality we hope it can have. For now it’s a sweat-proof, washable headband that can read some brain activity parameters. It’s $99 and available now for Android devices, and not iOS just yet.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmologia ]

Jeans Solve First World Problem With See-Through Smartphone Pocket

By David Ponce on 06/25/12 • 2 Comments

By David Ponce

Ever wanted to see who’s calling but were too lazy to reach into your pocket? Yeah, life can be hard sometimes. So that’s why we’re 100% behind the DELTA415 Wearcom™ jeans. Instead of putting your hand all the way into your pocket, you can just unzip a flap of material and reveal a plastic screen through which you can see your phone. Yes, you can even use your device while it’s still in the pocket, and there’s a special hole through which you can thread your earphone or mic. No, it’s not limited to the iPhone; any 3″ X 5″ or less device will fit.

It’s $160 for the pair, although it appears to be limited to people of more moderate proportions as the largest waist size is 38.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Mashable ]

Your Rice Cooker Can Now Interface With A Smartphone

By David Ponce on 03/20/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

Rice cookers are pretty important in Japan, so it’s no surprise to see manufacturers pay attention to them and bring them up to speed in terms of their technological abilities. Panasonic’s SR-SX102 is perhaps at the forefront of this trend, with the introduction of a cooker that can play nice with your smartphone. Simply wave your supported FeliCa-enabled Android phone (FeliCa is a contactless RFID technology developed by Sony Corporation) over the blue dot on the lid and you’ll be able to set the rice type, cooking type and timer. Also, the phone can then connect to Panasonic’s cooking cloud server and access up to 100 recipes.

This appears to be a Japan only affair, and if pressing buttons directly on the lid and downloading recipes off the Internet like a regular person abhors you, then you’ll have to shell out $600 and find a way to import the machine.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ CNet ]

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