The following post is by guest blogger Wayne Ward who leads the Emerging Solutions Group at Sprint. This team is focused on embedded and machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions that takes wireless beyond the mobile phone by interconnecting a vast variety of electronic devices.
To create real buzz in the M2M (machine-to-machine) space, it requires applications that people really want, and Sprint and BodyMedia announced one of those at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
BodyMedia, which makes wearable body monitoring and weight management systems, is expanding its product line to include embedded devices and apps that address the interests of the fitness conscious. And aren’t we ALL fitness conscious – at least in the first few weeks of a new year, until the resolutions wear off?
BodyMedia is a founding partner in the Sprint ID program, which lets users personalize their Android device experience by selecting ID packs that feature convenient bundles of apps, widgets, screen savers, and more. For BodyMedia, Sprint is the exclusive wireless partner and the Sprint 3G network and location-based services will power the next generation of armbands to launch in 2011 which, thanks to M2M, will collect health data from the wearer and transmit that data to the user’s smartphone. There, a special app can provide near real-time feedback and analysis based on the data.
The health data includes heart rate, activity levels, calorie burn rate, and more. With the Sprint ID BodyMedia Pack available by mid-year, users can leverage custom Android apps to gauge their fitness levels and performance and create personalized workouts.
The technology may be M2M, but we like to think of it as B2P (body-to-phone). In fact, we can imagine the following scenario: Julie is on her smartphone talking to a friend when she hears a beep. She checks the phone and tells her friend, “Hey I’ve got to go. I’ve got a call coming in from my heart rate.”
OK, it may not happen just like that. But this is clearly a very useful, and fun, app. And credit goes to the Sprint M2M effort and its encouragement of developers of applications and app packages. Even the CEO of BodyMedia cited Sprint’s “ability to provide the best in class developer community support,” and added that “with Sprint as our development partner, we now have the opportunity to create an innovative platform of wireless body monitoring systems that will revolutionize the body monitoring industry.”
-Wayne Ward
