Do you need a smart jumprope? Probably not. Do you want a smart jumprope? I don’t know, but after seeing the video below, you probably will.
For the most part, Smart Rope is exactly what you’d expect form such a device. It’s got embedded sensors that keep track of every jump, and a little Bluetooth radio that relays all collected fitness data back to your smartphone, where it’s crunched and displayed in an easily-digestible format inside of an accompanying app.
Pretty standard fare for any gizmo bearing the “smart” label — but jump tracking and wireless connectivity isn’t all that Smart Rope has going on under the hood.
You know those alarm clocks that seemingly display the time in thin air by waving a stick of blinking LEDs back and forth? Smart Rope does something similar, but instead of displaying the time on your nightstand, this thing displays your workout stats right in front of your eyes.
As you jump, a row of embedded LEDs will blink out information right when the rope swings down in front of you. The rope can display up to four digits, so you can get all kinds of different information — jump count, the number of calories you’ve burned, or even the amount of time you’ve been training for. A button on the handle lets you switch between these settings without skipping a beat.
It isn’t available for purchase or pre-order quite yet, but the company behind the rope, Tangram, has plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the device later this month, on the 25th. No word yet on what pricing will be like, or when the first production run will finish, but all will likely be revealed on launch day. If you want to be one of the first to get one, you can sign up to get an email update as soon as the project goes live.
