Mio made some fairly cool heart-rate watches a few years ago but they required you to place a finger on two little pads while running in order to take the measurements. It was interesting, and when you consider that most other heart-rate watches require a chest strap, fairly unique. However, nobody wanted to touch a little thinger just to get their heart rate.
Enter the Mio Alpha. This new product uses a precise light sensor to sense your heart rate on the go. No straps, no muss, no fuss. It’s pretty ingenious.
I got a chance to sit down with the watch a few days ago and I was really impressed. They’re tooling up right now to start manufacturing them and they will cost $99 when you pre-order through Kickstarter. The watches work by sensing changes in blood volume moving through the skin. It takes a moment to begin sensing but once it’s figured out your heart rate it’s ready to go. A small LED on the top tells you if you’re in the proper heart-rate zone and you can program it for various activity levels.
They’re looking for $100,000 and they’ve already hit $30K so things look good for an on-time arrival. Given that this watch does away with annoying straps and futzing, I’m pretty excited.