Smartwatches and smartphones are great for tracking a workout for runners or skiers, but not so much for swimmers as they aren’t able to look down at their wrists mid-stroke. Ovao – a Lithuanian swimming technology company – is working to give swimmers real-time insights into their workouts, and so they made goggles smart.
“We were looking for the least intrusive ways of providing feedback to swimmers,” Ovao CEO Aldas Juronis told e52.
Ovao came up with a virtual training assistant that can be attached to the strap of a swimmer’s goggles at the side of the head. The device flashes color-coded lights that signal where a person is in the workout. For example, after a five- to 10-minute warmup period, a flashing green LED light means that the swimmer should increase her speed and a second light means that she is about to enter the second heart rate phase of his workout.
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The goggle lights are coordinated with the Ovao app. There are a variety of workouts to choose from including swimming performance improvement, smart fat burning, endurance improvement and setting a personalized program.
“You just have to remember five colors which indicate your heart rate zone. And when you are able to track your heart rate zones while training you can achieve better results within less time,” Aldas said.
Heart rate, lap time, speed and pace, calories burned, lap count, stroke rate, stroke count and distance can be analyzed after workouts.