Cross platform OS agnostic SDK arrives for in-depth motion tracking
FocusMotion is offering an SDK that will turn pretty much any wearable into a fitness tracker.
Using a wearable’s accelerometer, gyroscope, electromyography and magnetomete, it can understand a users movement and pace. Using a series of algorithms, FocusMotion can be taught to the detect individual movements of a workout, according to The Next Web.
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Once you’ve programmed in your workout, let’s say press-ups, sit-ups and bicep curls, the software will only pick up those movements. It’ll ignore you going to the toilet, getting a drink or sending a text, judging those as background movements and not the actual programmed workout.
FocusMotion will track reps, pace, form, force and ratio, providing users a good impression of what they’re doing, and how they can improve. How accurate this will be is unsure, but it’s a good idea for the many smartwatches and wearables that lack decent fitness training.
At the moment it only works with wrist-based wearables, but the co-founder, Cavan Canavan, hopes to extend to a wider array of wearables styles in the future.
He said, “Wearing a smart device on your wrist seems to be the most socially acceptable. But if more wearables become popular, we’d be happy to incorporate our SDK with them as well.”
FocusMotion currently has a partnership with Pebble, but states the SDK works with any open wearable platform no matter the smartwatch OS.
There are already a lot of fitness apps for your wearables and manufacturers are often updating device’s firmware with new skills. FocusMotion will have to perform very well and provide accurate and useful data to become essential workout software for your wearable.
The SDK is available now for developers, and a launch is expected in the next four to five weeks.