Meet the world’s first smart ski
PIQ, a French sports wearables start-up, has teamed up with ski maker Rossignol to create what they are referring to as the world’s first smart ski.
This futuristic looking device has been embedded with PIQ’s ultra-high performance sensor PIQ ROBOT, a nano-computer that has the capacity to analyze in real-time more than 195,000 data points per minute. The skis provide a complete overview of your runs and dish out stats on your carve angle, transition time, G-Force, jump height, rotation and air time.
Essential reading: Head off to the slopes with these gadgets
The main novelty, however, for this type of wearable is that all these stats viewable on the ski’s built-in LED display. This essentially gives the skier immediate, actionable feedback which they can use to improve their technique. That is, if they remember not to get too distracted!
The new skis build on Rossignol and PIQ’s earlier effort on a boot mountable ski wearable that keeps tabs on your runs, jumps and turns. The main difference is that the new ski sensor does not require wearing a separate tracking device, and you are not tied to your smartphone to view the stats.
PIQ seems determined to bring artificial intelligence to as many sports as they can. The company already sells a number of smart gadgets including the Babolat and PIQ Tennis Sensor, Mobiee and PIQ wearable Golf Tracker, PIQ Kiteboarding Sensor, Rossignol and PIQ Ski Sensor and Everlast and PIQ Boxing Sensor System.
For now, this is only a prototype and PIQ has not revealed any details on consumer availability. The skis will be displayed for the first time later this week, at the ISPO 2017 sports business show in Munich.
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