Stewart, March 4

FINAL DRAFT:

By Megan Stewart

The constant evolution of technology has shaped how consumers perform day-to-day tasks, and society can only expect many more technological leaps for 2014.

From wearable technology to the way individuals commute, developers such as Stephan Bolitan, a founder of Notch, and Kyle Doerksen, the inventor of Onewheel, have found innovative ways to alter what is available today.

Wearbles have been on the rise with products from Fibit, Jawbone, Nike and more; however, Bolitan said one of the newer products to be launched this year, Notch, exceeds the company's capabilities.

The Notch system links up to 10 sensors, which can be placed around your body, tracking individual motions, he said.

“To use the sensor network, the user simply snaps on the Notch modules, starts recording and moves around,” said Lakshmi Sandhana, in her article for Gizmag. “The modules use inertial measurement units to capture the user's movements, and algorithms process the captured data. The app uses a skeletal model of the user's body to reconstruct and present them with a 3D visualization of the way they've moved, which can be replayed, downloaded and shared.”

The people who are most excited for Notch are individuals involved in sports, Bolitan said. Some of the advancements the company is making are different applications for sports and medicine that focus on reconstructing movements of the body for triage.

The product goes beyond measurements, though. The ability to compare one’s movements, strength and form to an expert is another feature, as well as to provide a haptic feedback when the move one is trying to improve is done incorrectly, he said.

Wearables aren’t the only consumer electronics shaping the way people live. In the form of riding, Onewheel has brought a new method of traveling around town.

In spite of a steep starting price point of $1299, the product gained a great show of excitement from backers on its Kickstarter campaign, Doerksen said. The company exceeded its goal and will have the first set of products launched in September.

Onewheel is not just another electric skateboard added to the market, he said. It is an entirely different form of riding.

“It feels a lot more like snowboarding or wake boarding than it does skateboarding,” Doerksen said. “It’s a little different. For people who’ve never ridden a skateboard, they’re not really at any disadvantage riding with only one wheel. Most people can learn in two or three minutes.”

Contributing editor of Engadget Alexis Santos took a ride on the prototype for Onewheel at CES 2014 and said while skeptical at first – he was soon proven as to how easy it was to glide across the pavement.

“I started to slowly get into (the idea of), ‘Hey, this isn’t so bad,’” he said. “And I immediately started to wobble and then I had to jump off, but after the second or the third try (I got) more stable on the thing and then by the fourth try I was putting along fairly well. It wasn’t anything spectacular, anything impressive. I wasn’t going really fast and my turning wasn’t all that great but … it’s one of those things that you know if you keep at it, you’ll get better.”

The idea behind the product is a gyroscope that computes information to help the rider out, Doerksen said.

“There’s a motor in the hub of the wheel and then there’s batteries and control electronics,” he said. “The control electronics have motion sensors and accelerometer sensors, and they look at what angle the board uses relative to the ground. Then there’s some software running on a little computer that looks at those angles, does the math and calculates exactly how it should drive the motor to balance you out. So if you lean forward, it drives the motor faster to catch up with you.”

The charge time is another aspect to the product’s popularity for a method of transportation, Doerksen said. The ability to spend $100 more to upgrade to an ultra charger means consumers can plug it into a wall outlet for 20 minutes to receive a full battery, which will last anywhere from 4 to 6 miles.

Although the product won’t hit the streets for a few months, the company has high expectations for what else is to come, he said.

“Our goal is when you look at a sidewalk five years from now, it’ll look different because there will be all these people zooming around on these electric vehicles we’re making,” Doerksen said.