Today the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the finalists of the 3rd Annual Bluetooth Innovation World Cup (IWC). The nine finalists, one of whom will be named Bluetooth Innovator of the Year, include developers and entrepreneurs who submitted market ready products and concepts for applications and devices using the low energy feature of Bluetooth v4.0.
The 2011 Bluetooth Innovation World Cup focuses on three categories including sports & fitness, which were selected from more than 330 international submissions by a global panel of experts. The selected finalists in the sports & fitness category transform the sporting experience making training more efficient and wirelessly enabling a more complete athletic solution.
The finalists include:
— Recon Instruments created a Bluetooth low energy enabled remote control for the Recon Instruments Transcend goggles, a skiing accessory which offers a revolutionary heads-up, unobtrusive micro optics display on the goggle lens, that gives the user extreme flexibility with virtually no necessary charging time.
— Eric and Meaghan Zorij (Diesel Dogs LLC) submitted a concept for Bluetooth Barbells that monitor the form being used for various free weight exercises, log the form observed and offer suggestions on form improvement.
— Vlad Savchenko (SoundOfMotion) developed a heart rate monitoring system integrated into headphones that enable athletes to measure the heart rate without wearing an uncomfortable chest belt.
Three finalists for each of the categories will be presented at the MEDICA trade fair this week in Dusseldorf (Nov. 16-19), where the Wearable Technologies Showis participating in the Wearable Technologies Show. The winners for each category and the overall winner of Bluetooth Innovator of the Year 2011 will be announced at an awards ceremony on Jan. 30, 2012, at ISPO trade show in Munich, Germany.