Monitoring your walk or your eating habits, watch the way you sleep or your diabetes thanks to a bracelet, a pedometer or a connected app… The Quantified-Self is spreading in our daily lives, and raises new questions: is the body a new connected device?
Appeared in 2007 in California, this tendency involves taking advantage of digital technologies, which are more and more communicating and miniaturized, to measure, analyze and share your personal data for medical purposes or performance improvements.
In this context, a lots of sport brands collaborate with wearable industries in order to reinvent themselves through technology.
It is the case of SENSORIA, an American company who developed the very first connected socks for running. “Near the end of 2010, we came up with the notion that the clothing we wear every day could become the next ultra-wearable computing form, in a non-intrusive and natural way. Knowing that more than 60 percent of runners suffer injuries each year, we aimed to create a solution that would help reduce this rate. “ explains Davide Vigano, CEO and co-founder of Sensoria
How does it work exactly?
Rewarded at the CES in Las Vegas and at the Innovation World Cup during 2015/2016, these connected socks provide a complete package of tools, including a magnetic ring to wear on the ankle – linked to sensors woven into socks – itself connected by bluetooth to the Sensoria fitness app.
This pack allows riders to have real-time access to data such as the number of steps realized, distance traveled, calories burned and running speed. Better than a pedometer, the Sensoria sock does not only supply data but also analyze pressure applied to every part of your feet, allowing you to rectify the impact of your jogs, thus preventing back and articular injuries.
This clothing computer is very useful for professional joggers, coachs and tutors, but the American brand initially launched its products for everyday athlètes. “ What differentiates us from all the other wrist-based step counting products out there isn’t just the data we are able to capture and the accuracy of it, but rather the fact that our sensors are fully embedded into the garment itself and nearly impossible to detect by the person wearing it”
In fact, underneath this project, Sensoria goal really is to take a step in our daily lives. “We aim to introduce technology with meaningful impact through natural and intuitive execution – basically, we ensure our stuff fits seamlessly into our customers’ lives, they don’t even have to think about it. Each morning, we wake up and get dressed, put on socks, t-shirts, and shoes – we’re injecting our products into a standard human behavior: getting dressed.”
Available for sale at a 199 dollar price (nearly 150€), the complete Sensoria Fitness pack can be seen on their website: http://www.sensoriafitness.com/
THE LOOK FORWARD PERSPECTIVE
Seeing their success, Quantified Self apps answer a real need of information about one’s personal health.
Connected health really is a major theme today, and might grow again by betting on change of attitudes and the will to reduce health costs.
Is Quantified Self the answer to e-health ?