Apple developing activity monitor for skiers, snowboarders, bikers
According to AppleInsider, Apple appears to be working on an activity sensor similar to the Nike+ iPod sport kit geared towards skiers, snowboarders and mountain bikers that would be capable of determining their “air time,” “speed,” and the amount of “power” or energy absorbed during those sporting activities.
“It is well known that many skiers enjoy high speeds and jumping motions while traveling down the slope. High speeds refer to the greater and greater velocities which skiers attempt in navigating the slope successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully),” Apple wrote in a new patent filing discovered by AppleInsider this week. “The jumping motions, on the other hand, include movements which loft the skier into the air. Generally, the greater the skier’s speed, the higher the skier’s loft into the air.”
The Cupertino-based electronics maker further notes that the interest in high speed skiing is apparent simply by observing the velocity of skiers descending the mountain. Meanwhile, interest in the loft motion is less apparent, though it is known that certain enthusiastic skiers regularly exclaim “let’s catch some air” and other assorted remarks when referring to the amount and altitude of the lofting motion.
“The sensations of speed and jumping are also readily achieved in other sporting activities, such as in mountain biking. Many mountain bikers, like the aforementioned skiers, also crave greater speeds and “air” time,” Apple wrote. “However, persons in such sporting activities typically only have a qualitative sense as to speed and loft or ‘air’ time. For example, a typical snowboarding person might regularly exclaim after a jump that she ‘caught’ some ‘big sky,’ ‘big air’ or ‘phat air’ without ever quantitatively knowing how much time really elapsed in the air.”
There are also other factors that extreme sportsmen sometimes assess qualitatively. For example, if a snowboarder goes down a double-diamond ski slope while a friend goes down a green, easy slope, when they both reach the bottom, the double-diamond snowboarder will have expended more energy than the other, generally, and will have worked up a sweat; while the green snowboarder will have had a relatively inactive ride down the slope. Currently, there is no method or system to quantitatively compare how rough their journeys were relative to one another.
This is where Apple is looking to step in with a device — or series of devices — capable of detecting and displaying a visual and quantitative measure of how much “air” time and, in certain aspects, how fast a user moves in a particular activity.
