Heapsylon, a wearable technology start-up from Redmond, Washington, is the latest health-tech company to venture down the crowd-funding route. Earlier this week the company launched an $87,000 Indiegogo campaign to complete development of their Sensoria smart sock.
The Sensoria system comprises a washable smart sock containing pressure sensing textiles, a magnetic anklet which houses the core circuitry for the sock, and of course an app to log and co-ordinate and socialize your activities. In addition to the standard altitude, calorie estimation and step counting features, the sock generates stride frequency, stride length and foot loading patterns.
The foot loading feature in particular is interesting, and it seems Heapsylon has engaged a number of senior podiatrists as advisers to refine this feature so that the Sensoria may be used as a means to avoid running injuries due to poor foot loading. The Heapsylon site also references applications for the management and prevention of neuropathic ulcers in diabetic patients, hinting at a more medically-oriented version of the system down the line.
The Heapsylon team features some serious credentials in the form of former Microsoft management and engineering alumni, and has been backed by Flextronics, one of the world’s major electronics manufacturers. As is standard for any Indiegogo campaign, there is a menu of pre-order options to choose from ranging from $3 – $8,000. It is early days yet, but this is one campaign we will be watching closely.
