A new start-up is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to tracking martial arts.
The ORB Sport Smart Mouthguard combines dental protection with advanced performance tracking for athletes.
The ORB Sport Smart Mouthguard tracks over 20 metrics, including heart rate, calorie burn, movement intensity, distance covered, workout duration, difficulty level, and workload.
But it also looks at impact data, which as g-forces exerted on each side of the head, which could offer huge insights for contact sports such as rugby or American Football.
The Smart Mouthguard provides insights on heart rate zones, movement intensity, and step count, and can steam live data to the sidelines, or session summaries.
“Athletes in every other sport are already using wearables to track heart rate, load, fitness, VO2 max, and other biometrics, but MMA fighters, boxers, and similar athletes haven’t had this advantage because they can’t wear wristbands, chest straps, or other devices,” Robert Paterson, ORB founder told PULSE by Wareable.
“MMA athletes have essentially been training in the dark, relying purely on feel. With the Smart Mouthguard, we’re giving them physiological and performance data for the first time, and that’s the real value proposition—the main selling point for us.”
The Smart Mouthguard uses optical sensors, similar to those in smartwatches, but designed to measure from the palate of the mouth.
Paterson says this positioning reduces movement artifacts—unlike wrist-worn devices, where the sensors can be thrown off by the arm’s motion during activity.
“We also include accelerometers and gyroscopes for movement and impact tracking. The mouthguard’s strong coupling with the user’s mouth ensures it stays firmly in place, allowing for more accurate readings of heart rate and movement than a wrist device,” he continued.
ORB was acquired by Glidewell, a $1bn dental big beast from the US, which saw the potential of the heart rate tracking mouthguard. That could see ORB’s technology make it into healthcare and wellness monitoring.
