Pulkit GuptaMoneycontrolWith evolution in technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is likely to be present in every aspect of our lives in the coming years. Taking this cue, Noida-based sports technology startup Boltt Sports Technologies has developed an AI-based shoe that tracks your fitness, as you walk.
Co-founded by the brother-sister duo, Arnav Kishore and Aayushi Kishore in 2015, the company offers a range of fitness wearables which include smart shoes, fitness band, a stride sensor and wireless headsets. All these devices come in combination with an AI-based health coach.
In order to develop smart shoes, Boltt tied-up with US-based sports tech firm Garmin to build sensors with motion sensing and human reflex reading capabilities.
The smart shoe comes with an embedded sensor that records the bio-chemical activities of the user. It is expected to cost around USD 80 post its launch in 13 countries, including India, next month.
How the idea evolved
“I was a professional tennis player for 16 years – it was during that time I started using fitness wearables,” shares Arnav.
“Sports shoes are something people wear on a daily basis. We thought of capturing their activity data via a sensor embedded in the shoe. That led to the idea of making smart shoes . Since then, I became passionate to enter the smart wearables space,” he adds.
The brother-sister duo enjoy a background in sports and fitness industry – Globalite, the parent company of the startup is one of the prominent sports lifestyle brand in the country, started by their father.
“We were very much aware how the industry works in terms of retailing, designing and product placement. The idea of getting tech into sports was a natural extension,” Aayushi said.
The common problem with most of the fitness wearables is that people don’t know how to utilise data tracked by such devices. Many lose the motivation to use such devices in a short span of time.
“Most people dump a tracker after using it for some time. If your tracker tells that you’ve taken 10,000 steps a day…what will you do with it? We took a step beyond tracking data and worked on the user experience side,” Arnav said.
The company aims to fill in this gap with the help of Artificial Intelligence, where the data tracked will be used to achieve personalised goals. Mumbai based wearables startup Goqii also onboards coaches and yoga trainers on its platform to let people achieve their fitness goals via a smart wristband.
How Boltt wearables works
Under a robust on-boarding process, the user has to enter her lifestyle details and medical history. An app works in tandem with the wearable. It tracks your activity, fitness, sleep and nutrition data 24x7.
An AI-based chatbot called ‘B’ analyses this data and give real-time feedback to the users. B guides users in two ways – one when user is doing any physical activity and second on the side of wellness.
‘B’ can differentiate between various kinds of motions such as walking, running and brisk walking. It also analyses the quality of food intake. Combining the data, it will give personalised results to the user and mentor real-time training.
The company has team of fitness experts and nutritionists from around the globe, who have designed various coaching and diet programmes that helps users to improve on their lifestyle, habits and health.
The voice-coach will help the users at the ground level, telling them where they are going wrong and how they can do better. To provide a better experience, these programmes are constantly updated on the backend.
“Our aim is to provide holistic personalised coaching platform. We want to humanise the AI-experience for the users than just being a robotic voice,” said Arnav Kishore.
Road ahead
Initially, the AI-platform will be only available for Boltt’s wearables, however, the company also plans make its platform available for other wearable devices too.
“As far as growth is concerned, we don’t want grow rapidly and then crash. We want to grow at a very sustainable level.”
The startup is now looking enter the fintech space too, where they will be tying up with banks to enable trackers for payments.
The company also plans to introduce physical education curriculum for school students.
The company aims to offer fitness bands which in the price range of USD 50 to USD 60. Most fitness bands available on Flipkart and Amazon from companies such as Portronics, Goqii and Samsung are available between Rs 2000 to Rs 3500.
Boltt’s AI-based chatbot will be available on iOS and Android platform. To launch in Dubai, Boltt recently inked pact with Trigon LLC as the exclusive country distributor for UAE market.
The startup has so far raised seed funding of about USD 1 million, of which 80 percent came from promoters and rest from undisclosed investors.
pulkit.gupta@network18online.com
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