We found 19 new high-tech fitness devices — and you’ll want them all
Hi-tech health and fitness devices were the hot trend at the giant 2019 Consumer Electronics Show held last month Las Vegas. From conglomerates to tiny start-ups, the number of companies from all over the world hawking devices to help you improve your workouts, eating habits, sleep quality, and monitor everything from blood pressure to blood sugar grew by 25%, according to organizers. Here are some of the standouts we found for you:
1. Feel like you’re flying
Turning our desire to fly into a workout, German-made Icaros combines core balance and virtual reality in a spectacular way. Laying atop the unstable metal structure in a kind of plank position, you can don a pair of virtual reality goggles (or just look at at screen) as use the muscles of your trunk and spine to maneuver over the peaks and valleys of the virtual Alps, scoring points if you successfully pass through targets. It’s not easy learning how to smoothly shift your weight and balance, but great fun (they had to pry me off it) and a sweaty, challenging core workout that raises your pulse, and tests your coordination and reflexes. Around $2,700 for the full VR package, icaros.com
2. Ball with a brain
If you get a kick out of data, the InsideCoach Smart Soccer ball provides a wealth of it: taps per minute, passes, distance, height, spin, force and speed of the ball. Drills are suddenly fun again. Sensors connected via wifi to your smart phone also give real-time coaching cues (“cut left”; “step over”; “scissors”) through a wireless headset. The regulation Size-5 ball charges wirelessly in a base. $200, insidecoach.com
3. Hit the range
Golfication X uses a tiny glove-mounted wearable and tagged golf clubs to provide goal metrics and swing analysis, including club speed, path and tempo and GPS rangefinder. The app includes 24,000 courses worldwide and “EageEye” AR, which identifies hazards and shot visualization via a smartphone camera. $219, golfication.com
4. Smart Kettlebell
JaxJox, billed as the first connected kettlebell, instantly adjusts from 12 to 42 pounds in 6-pound increments at the touch of a button. It records reps, sets and time between lifts on your smart phone and leads you in dozens of workouts. $349, jaxjox.com
5. Budget ECG
If you need to monitor your heartbeat for atrial fibrillation (A-fib), arrhythmia or other conditions in real time, the Withings Move ECG (electrocardiogram) watch is a lower-cost alternative to the Apple Watch series 4, which pioneered wrist-top ECG. The Move ECG also monitors heart rate and activity tracking. $129, withings.com
6. Light for your bike
Being seen on a bike is a matter of life and death. That’s why the Cosmo Connected smart helmet light brightens as you slow down and stop, and blinks if you fall. The removable light, connected to a mobile app, will also send alerts to emergency contacts via SMS and email. can Signal left/right turns with a remote control on the handlebar. $79, cosmoconnected.com
7. Watch that blood pressure
The Omron Heart Guide, which recently received FDA clearance as a medical device, is billed as the first wrist-watch blood pressure monitor. A patented inflatable blood pressure cuff is built into the wristband. An app stores and tracks the data, offers coaching and makes it easy to see how changes of diet, exercise and lifestyle affect your numbers. $499, omronhealthcare.com
8. Fingerprint-activated lock
Ever forgotten your combination and gotten locked out of your own gym locker? Never again with this device, billed as the world’s first fingerprint-activated padlock. The Benjilock is a Shark Tank success story that matched Los Angeles inventor Robbie Cabral with Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary. It also opens by key. $69.99. A smaller TSA-approved model is now available, $49.99. benjilock.com
9. Truer scale
InBody claims that its new H20N measures your percentages of body fat, muscle and metabolic rate better than other consumer smart scales for two reasons: A patented, hospital-grade bioelectrical impedance analysis method that is said to be more accurate, and a retractable, electrode-embedded handlebar, which allows for truer upper-body data results than estimates derived solely from foot-plate sensors. To be released in April. $350, inbody.com
10. Sensing skateboard
The Spectra Silver electric skateboard has four-wheel drive and hands-free posture control, meaning it slows down and stops with a backward lean and speeds up with a forward lean. Five sensors under the deck use a self-learning 3D Step algorithm to sense your movements. Top speed: 23 mph. Range per charge: 20 miles. $1,399, walnuttech.com
11. Good-bye ‘tech neck’
Tech-neck syndrome is the new epidemic, according to Atiya Sayverson, a certified professional ergonomist. She’s fighting it with her invention, the Tekneksavr, which attaches to the back of a smart phone and telescopes out, allowing you to bend less by perching the screen closer to your eyeballs. The product doubles as a kickstand for video watching. $25 and up, amazon.com
12. Wilderness watch
Finally, a sports watch for off-the-grid endurance maniacs. The battery charge on the new Suunto 9 claims to last a stunning 120 hours. The key is its unique FusedTrack technology, which provides estimated GPS with just a few GPS pings, sparing major battery drain while still allowing full access to heart rate, sleep monitoring and other standard features, the company says. $499, suunto.com
13. Instant brushing
Brush your teeth in 10 seconds? That was the goal of French researcher Benjamin Cohen, who noticed that his young nephew only brushed for 30 seconds — too short a time to give each individual tooth the expert-recommended 10-second cleaning. So he invented the FasTeesH Y-Brush, a soft, flexible, nylon-bristle-covered mouthpiece that vibrates at 250 mhrtz and cleans an entire set of teeth at once. $125, y-brush.com
14. Produces its own juice
The Verde G690 ECO-POWR non-motorized treadmill not only uses no electricity, but creates it. Billed as the world’s first energy-producing treadmill, it harvests 74% of the energy generated during workouts, according to SportsArt, the manufacturer. A built-in USB slot lets you charge your phone as you run. It includes a durable slatted-belt design, contact heart rate, and a unique “sled” mode in which you push uphill against resistance. $9,875. gosportsart.com
15. Revved-up massage
What if you crossed Korea’s top massage chair brand with a Lamborghini? The result: The world’s loudest and most expensive rubdown, the luxurious Bodyfriend LBF-750. It not only uses Lambo-approved start buttons and logos, paint schemes and Italian leather upholstery, but also includes stereo speakers, recorded Lamborghini engine sounds, and wild all-body massage patterns, which roll down the body from the top of the neck to the bottom of the feet. $29,999, bodyfriend.com
16. Deep-sleep brain band
Many products use heart rate, HRV or body-movement monitoring to estimate your sleep quality. But Dreem claims more accuracy with a special electronic headband that is equipped with sophisticated signal-processing and machine-learning algorithms. It monitors actual nightly brain activity plus key biological signals such as heart rate, respiration rate and movement. Then, through an app, it offers personalized solutions and techniques that allow you to sleep deeper and wake more refreshed. $499, dreem.com
17. Anti-snore mask
Curt Ray wanted to replicate “the nudge” — the elbow to the ribs that his wife applied to stop his snoring. So the serial inventor created Hupnos (a play off “sleep” in Greek), a sleeping mask that listens to you, and responds. Its smartphone app hears your snoring, analyzes it with artificial intelligence, and has the mask give you a gentle vibration that causes you to change position. If that doesn’t work, it increases your exhalation pressure through a valve that dilates your nasal passage airways until the snoring stops. The app also keeps track of your sleeping and snoring patterns over time. $179, hupnos.com
18. Aqua-eye massage
Bleary-eyed from too much screen time — or reading this story? Meet Aurai, the world’s first water-propelled eye massager. A choice of cool or warm water in three levels of intensity vibrates ocular muscles in a bladder of soft medical-grade silicone, which instantly molds to different face shapes. $290, amazon.com
19. Needle-free blood sugar detector
The Holy Grail for diabetics — a wearable, non-invasive blood glucose monitor — could arrive by the end of 2019, according to Alabama-based AerBetic. The technology in its bracelets and pendants, inspired by specialized dogs trained to smell diabetes on human breath, will use nano-sensors to detect gases emitted through breath or skin that are symptomatic of high or low blood sugar. An app will give diabetes patients and their caregivers readings and alerts on their cellphones. Beta testers needed. Price to be determined. aerbetic.com
