LIT activity tracker is crowdfunding on Indiegogo with only one day left

LIT is the first activity tracking watch designed to interpret movements in surf, skate, snow, moto and other Action Sports. LIT also tracks simple activities like walking, running, or even gardening along with the technology to track and measure big airtime, peak g-force, rotations, jumps and a host of other unique metrics. This Sports Techie blog Q & A covers this first of its kind in the action sports category.

“While existing products do an awesome job interpreting steps and general activity, none of them provided metrics or scores relevant to my lifestyle,” says Richard Zinn, CTO, co-founder, inventor of LIT, and avid action sports enthusiast. “Not only does LIT track movements for Action Sports, but it scores your everyday activity in an informed way.”

LIT

LIT is a modular, rugged, water resistant, activity tracker designed for Action Sports. While LIT certainly scores day-to-day activities like walking and running, it is specially designed to recognize, analyze and score movements during action sports sessions for surf, skate, snow, mountain biking, BMX and motocross.

Lit Gives Users Maximum Data In Head-To-Head Challenge of Today’s Most Popular Activity Trackers. LIT’s advanced sensors analyze your movements 24×7, scoring both everyday activity and action by interpreting steps, distance, duration, intensity, strokes, paddles, jumps, rotations, turns, g-force, airtime, and more.

LIT connects to smartphones via Bluetooth LE to transmit data and share scores through the app with friends and on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Watch this short piece for an overall view of Vapor Studio’s design process from concept to final design.

LITxVapor- The Design Process

“Unlike other trackers, LIT is designed to be rugged and robust so you can leave it on 24/7, even in the snow and surf,” says Ricardo Camargo, creative director and co-founder of LIT. “When you start active sessions, LIT seamlessly begins tracking all the movements that make your sessions important and translates that into scores and highlights that you can share on social media platforms.”

Q&A

1. How big is the sports technology market of activity tracking for action sports?

Michael Ford: In the US there are 20M action sports enthusiasts in the four core sports we focus on (Surf, Snow, Skate and Moto).  Based on this, we consider it a multi-billion dollar industry.

2. Is the LIT recording data from multiple complementary sensors that measure rotation matrices and 3D vectors proprietary, and if so, how did this unique idea come to light?

Richard Zinn: Sensor fusion (recording data from multiple complementary sensors) is not a proprietary concept, but much of what makes our application of this technology so great for the sports we focus on is.  We’ve done a lot of algorithm development and tons of field testing to find ways of making the kind of tracking we needed possible and fit in to the fun and unencumbered user experience we were after.  Some of the biggest challenges we faced early on were finding that data collected from any one MEMs sensor. All of the other fitness trackers are using sensors that are super noisy. In other words, they aren’t fully aware of what the user was doing at the time. Seeing something like a huge spike in g-forces was really difficult to interpret. So, we had to find solutions for all of that.  Most of all, to be successful we needed to build wearable tech that people would see on display at their local skate or surf shop and immediately feel like it was something they would want to wear. We wanted it to enhance their experience and make them a better athletes. We think we’ve accomplished this.

3. Can you explain the importance of the displays time, cumulative score, steps, and LIT battery life?

Ricardo Camargo: Since one of the main modalities is to wear it on the wrist, we wanted to have good base-line stats available right on the module.  The richness of the experience though is in the app, and that’s where we want people to go to do the analysis and share with friends, etc.

4. Why did you choose the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform and would you recommend it to Sports Techie entrepreneurs?

Michael Ford: Indiegogo was very friendly to us from the beginning and seemed to go out of their way to show us we could have a good experience hosting our campaign there.  Also, fitness products can’t be hosted on Kickstarter, and while ours isn’t primarily a fitness product, it does have many of the elements of a fitness product and we thought we would get some pushback there.  We would definitely encourage others to host on Indiegogo – they should at least have a conversation with the folks at Indiegogo about potential fit and hear what they have to say.

Gadget Friday LIT Sport Sensor

LIT Testing

The team at NZN Labs, Inc. selected various locations throughout California to compare the experience delivered by their LIT Activity Tracker to those provided by existing products. Specific activities included running in San Diego Harbor, surfing at DMJ’s in Camp Pendleton, snowboarding in Mammoth, skateboarding and BMX at the Krause Skate Park near San Diego, and riding motocross at Lucas Oil MX Park in Perris.

Summary of Results:

• Over five days, LIT tracked:

o   223 min. surfing (2191 paddles, 39 turns, 2.6 max g)

o   197 min. snowboarding (63 airs, 64.7 sec airtime, 1.9 sec big air, 76 turns, 3.2 max g)

o   61 min. skateboarding (253 airs, 185.8 sec airtime, 1.3 sec big air, 320 turns, 2.9 max g)

o   131 min. riding moto (212 airs, 137 sec airtime, 1.4 sec big air, 107 turns, 6.2 max g)

o   29 min. riding BMX (149 airs, 126.2 sec airtime, 1.4 sec big air, 72 turns, 3.1 max g

o   70 min. running (12,228 steps, 7.6 miles, 9:14 / mi pace, 10.2 mph max speed)

o   61 hours of other activity including walking (22,179 steps, 10.5 miles)

o   47.3 hours of inactivity (includes sleeping, sitting, etc.)

• Over those same five days, commercial activity trackers tracked:

o   FitBit

§  33839 steps, 4764 calories, 16.8 miles, 108 stairs

o   FuelBand

§  34414 steps, 4874 calories, 15788 Fuel Points

o   UP by Jawbone

§  35729 steps, 4527 calories, 17.6 miles

LIT Challenge

NZN Labs posted a video about the results of The LIT Challenge putting the industry’s most popular activity brands to the test next to the newly launched LIT Activity Tracker.

LIT VS Fuelband Comparison

See LIT in action during a skate session. LIT caught 72 airs, 31.3 sec of airtime, 0.8 sec big air, 16 rotations – LIT skate session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RP4nCxTYcg

About MOCAP Design

We live for the successful execution of technical hurdles. We make it our business to be knee-deep in the tough stuff–the true development of electronics devices and systems.

We obsess over our helmet-mounted camera design. All development is done in-house so we can offer top-quality facial motion capture equipment to our customers.

About Vapor Studio

Vapor Studio is the 3rd founding partner in LIT, their job is to design and brand the best product you can imagine. They are a creative-driven product design and branding agency that passionately lives to create iconic brand experiences that define popular culture. The design journey for LIT was a twisty and intriguing path.

About NZN Labs, Inc.
NZN Labs Inc. creates thoughtfully designed wearable technology products and apps that promote active lifestyles and encourage users to share and compare real-life experiences. Their devices are optimized for action, comfortable and stylish and encourage social and competitive community involvement.

• NZN Labs, Inc. on Facebook /nznlabs
• Follow NZN Labs, Inc. on Twitter @nznlabs #ActionIsEverything
• YouTube channel YouTube /nznlabs

Sports Techie, Wear the LIT 24 hours a day. It even goes underwater up to a depth of 300 feet. Easily synch LIT metrics with video and tag them with keywords like “BMX”, “Surfboard” and “Big Air.” The LIT gives users optimal data in a challenge with Fitbit, FuelBand and UP in action sports such as surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding and motocross.

The following functionality is not available with this LIT version but will be added at some point or else there is a work around in place. Rendered videos do not upload directly to YouTube yet. It does not have any heart rate monitoring capabilities yet. No sleep related data is recorded thus far. The activity tracker does not have GPS but most smartphones like the iPhone do have it, which the LIT can pull data from and use. Android and other mobile device apps will be available soon.

The entire team at NZN Labs is Sports Techie. As an example, their CTO is a programmer, surfer and moto rider. Initial product testing was done with family and friends that participate in action and extreme sports. They had an X-Games star as part of the testing crew.

The company is based in the Southern California region. They hired a Los Angeles area PR company and decided to focus on sharing their initial messaging to the S.F. media and with bloggers like me because of our history of being supportive to sports tech products and crowd funding campaigns. This last part of the LIT design piece by NZN Labs is on Indiegogo in order to finalize the manufacturer and sign up early adopters. Look for LIT to be ready for delivery by early summer at a cost of about $150.

Sports Techie who want to support the campaign these last 24 hours and reserve LIT, visit www.nznlabs.com/Indiegogo

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