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The revolutionary gadgets changing sport in 2017

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das
An image of the RunScribe fitness tracker
RunScribe © RunScribe

Plenty of sports are sticklers for tradition, but that doesn’t mean there’s not still space for cool technology and innovation, even when it comes to sports like basketball or running. Quite the opposite, in fact, which is why we’ve rounded up some of the coolest gadgets that are revolutionising sports in 2017.

Vi

Lots of fitness trackers can be used as a replacement for personal trainers, letting you access the information you need to push yourself harder and harder, but the Vi headset is actually a personal trainer, albeit one based on artificial intelligence. The headset packs in speech recognition so you don’t need to worry about fiddly buttons or screens while you’re on the move, and just like a real trainer, it can set you goals, offer insights into what you’re doing right and wrong and share your fitness app data with you. Vi isn’t just about intelligence, either, with Harman Kardon providing the sound, a great looking design and a claimed all-day battery life. What’s not to like?

Want your own AI personal trainer? You can pre-order Vi for $249 on the Vi website.

ShotTracker Team

Aimed at competitive basketballers, including both amateur and professional ranks, ShotTracker has the potential to properly change the game. As the name cunningly hints, it’s all about tracking your shots, and the Team version is a coach’s dream, with sensors for the court, a team ball and each individual player, letting them use the accompanying app to monitor literally everything that’s happening on court in real-time. Miss a shot, and ShotTracker will know about it. There’s also an individual version of ShotTracker, with a wrist sensor that captures information on each and every shot attempt you make, and a net sensor to register whether those shots are successful or not.

Buy the individual ShotTracker package for $149 on ShotTracker’s website.

RunScribe

Running is one of the sports we’ve seen plenty of technological advances in, with wearables including GPS-based watches and fitness trackers proving increasingly popular, but RunScribe is claimed to be the most advanced running wearable so far. Rather than attaching to your own body, the tiny RunScribe tech attaches to each of your running shoes, offering a couple of benefits over traditional wearables. For starters, it enables RunScribe to monitor the symmetry of your running, feeding back on your running stroke, left versus right metrics, impact shock and more. It can also offer details on step rate, contact time, flight ratio and motion profile details, with a huge array of metrics on offer to help get the most out of your training. It won’t track your heart rate, but it can offer actual insight into *how* you’re running, which could be even more valuable to you.

Interested? You can buy the RunScribe Pro for $199 here.

Glassy Zone

Glassy Zone is a wearable aimed at surfers and designed by surfers. It looks like a regular fitness band, with neat styling and a group of icons that shine through the black finish, but there’s a whole load of clever tech packed away inside, including GPS, an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which enables Glassy Zone to monitor exactly what you’re up to on a surfboard. The result? The designers claim it can help you keep tabs on the number of waves you catch, the time you’re riding waves or paddling for and the distance of every wave you ride. Alongside the app, it can let you know what the surfing conditions are like, and it even monitors the amount of UV radiation you’re being subjected to, letting you know when it’s time to pack up and head away from the sun. Currently on Indiegogo, Glassy Zone is expected to hit the waves later this year.

While the cheapest Indiegogo offers have sold out, you can still pledge $129 to get your hands on Glassy Zone here.

Athos

Athos is the wearable that could change your fitness regime forever: it’s a piece of smart clothing capable of monitoring a comprehensive range of biometric data, giving you detailed insight into your performance. It uses seamlessly integrated biosignal sensors within the clothing that can link up to your smartphone to provide a valuable look into how much effort your muscles are making, what your heart is up to and more. The designers also claim that it’s capable of helping you to perform the right exercises, with the right form at the right intensity, and you can see if you’re firing the right muscles each time you hit the squat rack or engage a deadlift. Your own always-on personal trainer, then.

Athos is currently available as a top, shorts, leggings or full body kit. Don’t expect it to come cheap though – the shirt alone costs $398. Find out more on the Athos website.

[“Source-redbull”]

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Internet

How the internet is changing rural and developing countries

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Payal Arora’s work The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond The West details these biases as the world gets ready to connect three billion users —population that lives under a day-to the internet

Payal Arora’s work The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond The West details these biases as the world gets ready to connect three billion users —population that lives under a day-to the internet

Technology is often considered a great equaliser. You would always find someone detailing the benefits that would accrue to the poor when technology will be introduced. “The world would change; technology would aid the poor and lift them out of poverty,” they will foretell. Same was the case for internet. Internet was supposed to be a great saviour of the masses. The developed world assumed that internet would aid people in developing areas to eke their way out of a life of drudgery and join civil society. Instead, what internet has done is exposed the biases of developed and the rich as regards to technology. Much to their disdain, technology is being used by the poor in a similar fashion as the rich. Not that technology has not aided in lifting people out of poverty or plugging leakages in a corrupt system. But internet is as much a tool for development, as entertainment.

Payal Arora’s work The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond The West details these biases as the world gets ready to connect three billion users —population that lives under $2 a day-to the internet. A digital anthropologist, Arora does not limit herself to ideas of poverty alleviation, but discusses the state of internet in countries such as India, China and Saudi Arabia to explain how internet perception is not too different or radical from the western world. Although there are some distinctions, citizens in each of these countries have found their freedoms within the confines of technology. These people are exploring entertainment, leisure, love and privacy all within this digital habitat. The author does not limit herself to the idea of internet from people’s perspective but also provides a picture from the corporate side on how monetisation of ideas and data is taking place given the widespread use of internet. In the eight chapters that follow, the author discusses examples of internet in each of the countries and under different scenarios and settings. She does so by detailing her interviews and research, drawing from anecdotes and instances from the past.

Although the author does try to cover most biases, her approach towards digital is one on generalising the poor as a homogenous group. The poor do wish to play, but it is not that they do not wish to do anything besides playing. More important, in the context of the internet they want to do much more. Internet does represent hopes and dreams for millions. And, stories of slumdogs do inspire millions. It is not by happenstance that a lot of companies have cropped up from rural India, or use of agri-tech apps have increased amidst farmers.

Yes, Facebook and YouTube are mediums of entertainment for millions, but they are also platforms for many innovations and circumventions. Take #MeToo for instance. Those dismissing it as a western phenomenon would be surprised to find that the move found as much resonance in India as it did with the western world. Technology has fascinated billions and would continue to do so, but that is not to say that it is not to be used for fun. After all, breads and circuses can only take you so far. Even if there are more phones in Nigeria than toilets, these phones may lead to a revolution that goes beyond toilets. YouTube by showing a million stupid cat videos, also shows videos where you can point and say why don’t we have that in our country. Arab Spring is a classic example.

[“source=financialexpress”]

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