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A group of PhD students from Imperial College London have hit Kickstarter success by securing full funding for their innovation – wearable technology that helps you ski better – which they've named Carv and aim to start selling from November. www.carvnow.com
Showcased in January at the Action Sports show ISPO in Munich, Carv, is a wearable device that has its own 'brain' that analyses motion and pressure data to give real-time feedback on how to improve your skiing by providing step by step drills and coaching via your earphones. It even advises how to adjust your positioning to land that perfect jump, reducing the risk of injury.
Carv is made up of two elements. The first is a wearable which you can attach to the ski boot and the second is an insert placed inside the boot. All the data is analysed through an app available on iPhone and Android. Skiers receive feedback on their performance either on-screen, or through earphones or heads-up displays.
The PhD students behind Carv have been analysing data from more than 2000 skiers all around the world for the last three years, including current ski cross champion Filip Flisar and have designed the device to be useful for everyone from novice skiers to pros.
For sophisticated skiers, Carv has the Carv Coach platform, which automatically synchronises video footage with the data, allowing instructors and coaches to scrutinize the video alongside the overlaid data.
"With Carv we feel like we're really able to democratise the technology that's currently only available to champion skiers," said founder Jamie Grant, adding, "We're working on introducing a machine learning element too that can 'learn' about each individual skiers and anticipate the mistakes that they are likely to make before they have even made them."
The product is available for advance order through a new Kickstarter campaign (which at time of writing had already raised nearly four times the target investment).
www.kickstarter.com/projects/333155164/carv-the-worlds-first-wearable-that-helps-you-ski