If your New Year’s resolution had anything to do with fitness, then there is an earbud coming that may be able to help you keep to your promise. The Bodytrak earbud, built by a UK-based startup, is able to function both as a more traditional earbud and as a fitness tracking device. Fitness accessories are all the rage these days, with wristbands and even shirts being packed with sensors for registering and tracking body metrics such as heart rate and oxygen levels. As it stands, Bodytrak will have some serious competition right out of the gate. However, the fitness tracking earbud is offering up some new functionality that may very well set it apart.
First of all, the Bodytrak earbud will sport some of the same functionality offered by other fitness devices. It does track oxygen intake, speed and distance, and heart rate in real time. The earbud will even track the consistency of strides taken. Not many devices can claim to efficiently track off all of those metrics in a single device, but Bodytrak strives to go further than that as the device is an earbud that can sync to your Android device, it will also play music. In addition to music, it has the ability to increase the volume of background noise around the wearer – a feature Bodytrak calls “hearing and situational awareness.” Remarkably, the Bodytrak earbud also claims to be able to measure core body temperature. Fitness buffs will know that core body temperature readings can give insights into how effective a workout has been, among other things. Core body temperature is not easily measured and devices that do measure it are ordinarily much more intrusive than an earbud.
Having the reported level of functionality built into a single device that can also play your workout playlist would not be a bad thing. If the device functions accurately as advertised – given the proliferation of fitness tracking in recent years – both consumers and the company may do very well. The device is currently being tested by several athletics institutions in the UK, including football and rugby teams. The product is expected to release in the summer of 2017, although there is no official word yet on pricing, a release date, or release locality for BodyTrak.
