Sony announced the Smart B-Trainer at this year's CES as part of its continued efforts to log your life. This fitness-oriented device isn't the wrist band you might expect. Instead, it's a headset. Now Sony has provided a few more details, including a launch time frame. The Smart B-Trainer is scheduled to hit the US this fall.
The SSE-BTR1 headphone-integrated device comes with six sensors. There's a barometer and gyroscope, along with the tech required to measure your acceleration, cardinal direction, GPS location, and heart rate.
The companion app lets you log your runs. This means tracking how far you ran, how long you took, how high you went, how many steps, how quickly you moved, how many calories you burned in the process, and a number of other measurements.
What is perhaps the Smart B-Trainer's most interesting feature is its ability to alter music playback based on your heart rate. It can automatically select music based on how hard your heart is working. If your heart rate is higher, then it can play a song with a slower tempo to signal you to slow down. The Smart B-Trainer will come with 16GB of internal memory to store those songs.
Runners can also tap into training plans that guide them through runs. Some training aims at specific goals, such as burning fat and building endurance. The device will be water resistant enough to handle the resulting sweat and a decent amount of rain. It can also make calls.
Look for pricing information when the Smart B-Trainer comes to store shelves in just a few months.
PRESS RELEASE
Run to the Rhythm with the New Smart B-Trainer™ from Sony
All-in-one running device that personalizes your running regime and features versatile training plans through an app.
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Electronics announced today the new Smart B-Trainer™, an all-in-one training device and application that features intelligent music playback based on heart rate1 monitoring, various training plans, and real time voice coaching2. Developed for avid runners, the Smart B-Trainer™ comes in a non-slip, neckband-style housing to provide maximum freedom of exercise movements.
This sports companion integrates Sony's latest audio advancements with sensor and software technologies to provide a holistic exercise experience. It consists of the SSE-BTR1 headphone-integrated device that is packed with six types of sensors – heart rate, acceleration, GPS, compass, gyro and barometer – and measures, as well as records, eleven types of running logs – heart rate, burned calories, distance, time, speed, pace, cadence, steps, stride, running route and elevation.
Based on a preset user profile and heart rate goal, the Smart B-Trainer™ measures your heart rate and automatically selects music for efficient training. Music tempo analysis is carried out by Sony's 12 Tone Analysis technology, which extracts a variety of metadata through signal and statistical processing to analyze music waveforms. When your heart rate is higher than your targeted speed, a song with slower tempo will be automatically selected to guide you to slow down, and vice versa when your heart rate is lower than the targeted speed. Additionally, runners can also adjust the tempo of the song to match running moods and styles3.
Smart B-Trainer™ for Running4 is an app that enables you to manage running logs on your smartphone by tracking graphs of past records to give a clearer picture of your training progress. After you finish a workout, you can transfer the running log to the app to view the results and easily visualize your performance through graphs and comparisons with past accumulated records, best records, and trends. An awareness of detailed results typically leads to a more effective, sustainable progress and training. It also provides a versatile selection of training plans, be it to get in shape, build strength, or even to prepare for a marathon. After making your selection, send the plan to the Smart B-Trainer™ via Bluetooth® to begin training immediately.
There are two sets of training plans to choose from – Basic and Premium. The Basic Plan offers a range of options, enabling you to manually set running goals for the day (time, distance, burned calories, pace, etc.), or select from theme-based trainings, such as "Fat burning training" or "to Endurance training".
The Premium Training Plan offers a selection of training plans for a variety of levels, from walking to full marathon. Designed by professional coaches and other experts, the content is arranged in such a way that you can experience professional coaching, all from just voice instructions from the device. In addition, new training menus, which will be added later this year, will have a voice of a professional running coach supervising you during training, warming up, and cooling down sessions. He will even share post-workout pointers, which can be checked on the app to track progress and design your next exercise regime.
Premium Training Plan in collaboration with MY ASICS
Smart B-Trainer™ can work in coordination with the MY ASICS Training Plan developed by True Sport Performance brand ASICS. Training plans created in MY ASICS can be experienced in real-time on the Smart B-Trainer™, and you can store and manage your running logs. Simply enter the necessary details in MY ASICS, such as your current level, gender, age, and training frequency to set six different periods, including Speed Training Period and Full Run Period. You will then be able to see the training regime required to achieve your target.
"We are excited for runners to sync the new Smart B-Trainer with the MY ASICS Training Plan," said Greg Macias, Director of Marketing at ASICS America Corporation. "This customized experience is an extremely valuable training tool for runners of all ages and ability levels to set, manage and reach their goals. We are confident that runners using the MY ASICS Training Plan will see it as a game-changer for their training as it was expertly-developed at the ASICS Institute of Sport Science in Kobe, Japan, utilizing data from thousands of runners in order to create training plans that cater to each unique runner's needs."
The built-in memory of 16GB5 stores up to approximately 3,900 songs6, so you won't have to worry about running out of songs to listen to while exercising. The Smart B-Trainer™ has waterproof performance equivalent to IPX5/IPX87, so you can run without the worry of rain, weather or perspiration. Additionally, it can be used as a Bluetooth® headset to answer phone calls hands-free.
The Smart B-Trainer™ will be available in the United States Fall 2015. For more information on the Smart B-Trainer™, please click here .
