Amiigo bracelet looks to become the next big thing in fitness tracking

The world of fitness tracking has come on in leaps and bounds recently, especially since CES last week, which saw big player Fitbit launch a bracelet device called Flex much like Jawbone’s Up and Nike’s Fuelband. Well now there’s a new gadget on the scene – well, nearly – that could well shake up the current favourites.

Today TechCrunch wrote a feature about Amiigo, a fitness tracking bracelet and innovative shoe clip rolled into one device. Amiigo is a bit different to the rest as it uses super sensitive hardware sensors and gesture-based algorithms to tell which kind of exercise you’re doing and serve up more accurate data than other kinds of gadgets.

In this way it seems like a much better option for those that don’t just want really basic tracking information, like steps taken, but are looking for a more detailed breakdown of their activity. Abe Carter, the man behind Amiigo, told TechCrunch the bracelet can detect the most subtle differences in activity:

“To say not only that you are ‘running on the treadmill’ as opposed to ‘the elliptical’, but also that your running is faster today, or choppier or less consistent. This principle holds true with all exercises.

“We’re building a feature where the user can actually record different types of running in a practice session, and then see how/where those are turning up during competition or performance. Additionally, by using activity recognition data from friends and/or standardized references, a user can get feedback on how closely his/her ‘run’ resembles that of a friend or some professional athlete. It can be used as a powerful learning tool.”

The bracelet is also able to track other things that are important to keeping tabs on your health and fitness, such as your blood oxygen levels, heart rate and skin temperature.

The Amiigo bracelet hasn’t hit the market yet, instead the makers are looking for crowfunding over on Indiegogo.

[Via TechCrunch]