Looks like rappers are taking over the rapidly evolving headphones industry. Curtis Jackson's SMS Audio announced that it has been working with Intel to develop a pair of fitness-tracking headphones that athletes can wear to monitor their heart rate. Jackson is better known by his screen name 50 cent.
Although SMS Audio is no Beats by Dr. Dre, the company's newly announced BioSport In-Ear Headphones has certainly caught the attention of those following the wearable industry. This isn't the first fitness-focused pair of headphones to make it to the market, but the BioSport is different because, unlike other pieces of hardware such as the LG Heartrate Monitor Earphone, this one from SMS Audio does not come with a chunky component that houses the earbuds' battery and sensors.
BioSport is a lightweight piece of technology designed by Intel to measure the user's heart rate and states of relaxation using built-in biometric sensors that send data to the user's smartphone through the phone's 3.5 mm audio jack. A third-party app called RunKeeper then processes the information, along with the user's speed and distance tracked using the phone's GPS system.
More importantly, the sweat-proof and dust-resistant headphones are powered by the smartphones they are connected to. As long as users charge their smartphones, they can continue to use the BioSport headphones without the hassle of having batteries hanging from the wires or strapping them to their bodies. The headphones are also made to seamlessly integrate a music player to its monitoring capabilities so users can still listen to music while their headphones track their heart rate.
"That's sort of the magic part," says Intel's senior wearable electronics designer Mark Eastwood. "We eliminated an entire component in ditching the battery pack, which is sort of the bane of all these technologies. It becomes one less thing you have to deal with."
Intel is seriously invested in the burgeoning wearable industry. Earlier this year, the chip maker snapped up Basis Science, a maker of high-end fitness bands with features not seen in other products in the same category, including the ability to measure things like perspiration and skin temperature. Intel has also forged a partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to try and come up with a treatment for the disease using wearable technology.
"This is not a hobby for us at Intel," says Mike Bell, Intel's general manager of its new devices group. "We really believe that wearable technology is going to be a large segment."
