I spent my first full day at CES, and most of the descriptions I’ve read are spot on. It’s a complete zoo, it’s exhausting, and it’s awesome. I started the day at Tech West, spending most of my time in the Sands Expo. I first worked my way through more fitness/health trackers than I previously could have imagined existed. There were obviously dozens of Fitbit-like step counters and sleep trackers, which seemed increasingly irrelevant as much of this functionality, at least the step counter part, is a feature on most new smartphones.
I found a “Smart Basketball”, 94fifty, that sends real time data on your shot speed, backspin, arc, and dribbling to your phone:
There was Skulpt, which initially sounded ridiculous to me, but within minutes I was very impressed. It’s a piece of hardware that measures the strength of each of your muscles. You have to hold it to each muscle area — forearm, bicep, tricep, shoulder, quad, etc — to get a reading. It then rates each muscle on a quality and fat percentage scale. You can then use the readings to set goals and track results with follow-up readings. Again, it sounds ridiculous. But it was very easy and quick to use. The hardware seemed thoughtful, and the software looked impressive and easy to use and interpret.
I rolled up my sleeve and the founder put the hardware up to my arm to get a reading, which took about two seconds. My muscle quality was 110, which was characterized as fit, while my fat percentage was “amazing” — must be all the pushups from the 10K Pushup Challenge:
Here’s their breakdown of muscle quality readings:
I tried another health reader, MyBiody Balance, which requires you to take their hardware and hold it in one hand while touching the other side to your ankle, and it reads bone mass, muscle density, hydration, body fat and a few other metrics. I found the hardware to be awkward and klunky. It’s a French company, and it was amusing to watch the two representatives arguing in French accents about how I should be holding it. When it wasn’t working, they kept insisting it was the simplest thing in the world, implying the lack of a reading was entirely my fault. After a few tries they got it, and then the device synced some data to an iPad that basically said I was in good health. Not sure who would use this:
The device looks like a half guitar:
Then there was obviously Fnitbit:
And a company that makes small tracking devices to put on bikes, skis, snowboards, surf boards, and any other activity hardware — once you’ve attached the devices they track speed, spin, and other motion to provide a 3D rendering of whatever it is you do (e.g., bike jumps, ski flips, etc). Seemed pretty interesting, but obviously not too relevant for the average person:
I never figured out what this was:
Of course now that human activity trackers are becoming mainstream, the new frontier is per trackers. There was FitBark, which is a small device that goes on a dog collar to measure steps and distance:
There was also a wireless pet fence system:
Bellabeat is a device that allows you to listen to your unborn baby’s heartbeat. Really?
And finally, not sure why this was here, but there was a free tooth whitening booth:
So that pretty much covers my first hour of my first day. I’ll hopefully post more soon.