When you think of Epson, the first thing that comes to mind is printers. Fortunately, Epson has the foresight to branch out for future profits and they have chosen the wearable market to try their hand. They are marketing two lines of wrist smart wearables – their Pulsense activity tracker, which was announced in November 2013, was joined this CES show by their Runsense running watch and the M-Tracer Golf Swing Analyzer. Epson even signed up celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, Olympic silver medalists Meb Keflezighi and top golf instructor David Leadbetter to help promote their new wearables.
The new Pulsense Fitness Watch and Band offers two models, the cheaper PS-100 Band, which will monitor your heart and track your fitness and sells for $129.99 and the more expensive PS-500 that adds sleep tracking for $199.99. With continuous monitoring and LED indicators, you can get your heart rate at a glance, even while you are working out. They will track your steps and estimate calories burned and the PS-500 will also monitor your sleep patterns – calculating your sleep quality by sensing your motion and heart-rate data. Your data can be stored for up to twenty days on the device and then it can be stored and reviewed on either your mobile device or the PS-500 users even have the option of using a desktop PC.
There are four major designs in the Runsense watch series, the 310, 510, 710 and 810 models that run from $250 to $350 and they will be shipping in the second quarter this year. The SF-310G GPS Sports Monitor has GPS for accuracy and a battery that will last 30 hours as well as customizable screens. The SF-510F Sports GPS with Smart Stride adds stride sensors and a tap-screen function. The Runsense SF-710S is an Advanced GPS Sports Monitor that adds advanced training modes. The SF-810B adds a built-in optical heart rate sensor and comes in black and the SF-810V comes in a violet or purple color.
The final product, M-Tracer Golf Swing Analyzer, attaches directly to the golf club itself near the bottom of the grip. The Bluetooth enabled device will track and record your golf swing and then send the data to your mobile device in real-time so you can make corrections on the next swing. It analyzes and displays a 360-degree in 3D graphics, it will tell you your face angle at impact, the attack angle, and swing path. It will accurately measure and display the duration of the backswing and downswing. It can store 200 swings and the battery is said to last up to four hours of continuous swing recording. It will be available in March 2015 for $300.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page what you think of Epson’s new wearables – the golf swing device is a nice deviation from the usual smartwatch… as always, we would love to hear from you.