Wearable tech has been one of the main trends seen at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas - sports and fitness are areas where the benefits of these technologies have been most immediately evident.
The Apple Watch is coming, and there were a whole lot of fitness orientated smartwatches at CES, but we wanted to see what other sport tech has been getting people excited .
Concussion mouth guard
Force Impact Technology have been attracting a lot of attention at CES with its FITGuard mouth guard. It has sensors that can measure the impact of blows to the head - LED lights are embedded in the gum shield and light-up in different colours, depending on the severity of the hit.
The technology is being aimed at young athletes, and hopes to avoid instances when athletes suffer concussions but do not present immediate symptoms.
By alerting coaches and officials when a player receives a high impact blow to the head they can be withdrawn from games - limiting the possibility of the player experiencing second impact syndrome.
FITGuard can be synced to smart devices. You can input the age, weight and gender of the athlete. The guard can also relay impact data back to the software.
E-Yoga
SmartMat is another interesting piece that has been on display this week. The promo video has a bit of a late night infomercial vibe - but it is impressive technology.
What is particularly interesting is that it can read data from its sensors to analyse and improve your technique. This information is also fed back to the app, so you can log and track your sessions.
Yoga enthusiasts seem to be backing the project. This company started a crowd-sourcing campaign at the end of September - it hoped to raise $110,000 (€93,000) - by the time it ended two months later it had raised $317,683 (€267,000).
Smaller/Smarter trackers
The FitLinxx AmpStrip is a light, discreet, water proof heart monitor. Athletes stick it to their torso and it can gather heart data throughout the day and relayed it to any smart device.
This is aimed at more serious athletes - it features an accelerometer to track movement, and measures skin temperature too.
The AmpStrip is 3.5 inches by one inch, and designed to be worn 24/7.
Under Armour 2.0
D30 makes a compound that is extremely light and flexible, and offers amazing shock-absorption. The company has been around for a while - the technology has been used to make everything from phone cases to motorbike helmets.
Having previously been involved in protection-gear for winter sports, it is now working with Under Armour to use the material's shock absorption qualities to make hi-tech American football pads.
Tennis rackets, baseball gloves and runners are all being made out of the substance.
Call us biased, but that’s gotta be the coolest Sports Wearable Tech RT @D3Olab: #wearables at #CES2015 #sportbiz pic.twitter.com/7qaGwJXgRx
— Schutt Sports (@schuttsports) January 6, 2015
Databall
Tennis is also getting the smart treatment with this new racket that Sony are developing - it can track swing movement, and where the ball makes contact with the racket.
