The latest in wearable devices has the potential to revolutionize extreme sporting competitions

This exciting new device is starting to garner some attention in the tech world as well as in the extreme sporting communities it was designed for. Wired listed it as one of four “fitness-tracking wearables to watch out for,” and was recently featured in windsurf magazine.  The most impressive part about all of this buzz is that it was only just successfully funded on September 14, 2013, according to its Kickstarter page.

The Xensr (pronounced like sensor) is “is the first wearable sports motion capture device that measures an athlete’s performance in 3D with insane accuracy and precision.” It enables athletes participating in sports such as windsurfing to measure their entire performance; from the height of their jumps to the rotation of their spins. It takes measurements up to 400 times per second, so its developers are right to be confident in its accuracy. These data can be added to a video they were taking, shared on social media, or used to participate in real-time competitions with other Xensr users around the world.

It comes in the form of a waterproof device which, at roughly the size of an oreo, is easy to attach to a surfboard, snowboard, skateboard, helmet, or practically anywhere else necessary. Xensr also sells a smartphone case which works with an app to give you the same data as the small device would.

With the creation of this device, Xensr hopes to totally “change the way sports are consumed” Not only have they given athletes a way to answer the question “how high did I jump?”, which they consider to be the “holy grail” of the sports-motion industry, but they have created a way for the subjective judging of these sports to be made objective. For example, it could be used instead of a judging panel at a surfing competition. Rather than judges rating each surfer based on subjective opinions of how skillful their performance was, the Xensr can be used to compare data between competitors to objectively determine which performance was the best. 

While it doesn’t offer quite as wide of an appeal as the incredibly popular Fitbit, the Xensr does follow the same trend as that device in that it is a wearable with the potential to become an essential part of its consumers’ lives.

By MaryElizabeth Koepele