COLLABORATION
GET CONNECTED
A
s with all the best tech innovations, Advagym by Sony started life as a pipe dream – a project to create
a piece of kit that would use the human body as a ‘conductor cable’
Sony and Precor are collaborating. Henrik Bengtsson, head of business at Advagym, tells Wendy Golledge about Sony’s latest foray into fitness
to connect two pieces of tech. Even its creator, Henrik Bengtsson,
“Back in 2015, the project was
“One usage example was to enable
now head of business for Advagym,
to develop a chip set, which could
someone to wear a wrist band on
admits that while the premise for
communicate using the body as
one arm, which would unlock their
the technology was revolutionary, no
a cable – it was called body area
mobile phone held in the other hand.
one quite knew what to use it for.
network technology,” he explains.
Then Apple created fingerprint ID and the idea became redundant.” It’s a long way from Advagym’s sleek sensor pucks, which log and save any strength workout, in real time, to a mobile app that also stores custom programmes, offering a complete tracking journey for exercisers. In the app, members can also log favourite workouts and preferred machine settings, add freeweight workouts, set up training plans and view workout history. “We decided to research using this technology in the gym. Personally, I hated having my fitness programme on a piece of paper, and having to carry it around with me and fill it in after each exercise. It led me to wonder, could we use body area network technology to create a tech solution for this frustration?” Bengtsson and his Swedish team wanted to allow consumers to wear a wrist band, which would talk through their body to a sensor on a piece of strength equipment and count reps, etc.
Bengtsson has been developing Advagym since 2015