Carat Pro: heart rate monitor & 4GB storage biometric earbuds

December 11, 2016 Ivan Jovin Crowdfunding, Wearables 2 min read

Wearables suppliers are increasingly looking beyond the wrist, and the ears may very well be the next big growth area as they present a great platform for fitness monitoring. It is a little known fact that, earbuds, rather than watches, tend to be the most accurate heart-rate monitors, outperformed only by traditional chest straps.

We’ve already seen a number of products from Samsung, Jabra, Bose, LG, Bragi and Sony. Carat is the latest company with an eye on this $10 billion market. The outfit has turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for biometric earphones with high quality sound, heart-rate monitoring, sport feedback, music storage, voice search and magnetic design.

Unlike other fitness tracking earbuds, Carat Pro supports five different types of exercises – running, biking, walking, yoga and indoor training. The wearable will dish out stats on your heart rate, VO2, calories burned, distance travelled, speed, cadence, total steps and more depending on the type of workout you are doing. Real-time coaching is always only a button press away.

In terms of its music function, Carat Pro features audiophile-grade sound and 4G of storage which is enough to store up to 1,000 of your favorite songs in MP3, WAV, FLAC or AAC formats within the earbuds themselves. These songs can easily be found by using voice commands which means you can leave your phone safely tucked away.

These fashionable earbuds also feature something called Speed Dependent Sound (SDS). Depending on your speed, SDS will produce corresponding beats and sound effects to keep you energized and moving. Finally, with a nine-hour battery life, Carat Pro are the longest lasting biometric earbuds on the market.

With about a month left in its campaign, the San Jose outfit is nearly halfway to meeting its $50,000 goal.