The ultimate sport headphones have arrived: Kuai, good for any sport and the perfect mate for your smartphone. The Kuaiwear team is headed by three triathletes and Ironmen; marathon masters with business acumen and engineering experience. Seriously, their records include multiple Ironmans in China and Malaysia, as well as the Escape from Alcatraz this year, so they have personal experience with next-level sports gear, and they’ve realized it would be nice not to have to carry a suitcase of it just to track your performance. The Kuai multisport biometric headphones give you info that would usually require a bunch of sensors and straps. Now you don’t have to feel like you’re suiting up for war every time you head out to train.
Swimmers, surfers, triathletes, skiers, and snowboarders, fear not — the Kuaiwear’s are waterproof to three meters, so you don’t have to worry about water shorting out your expensive new gear. They even come with multiple earbuds for sport-specific use; for instance, the cycling buds hold securely while letting you hear what’s going on around you — like that SUV coming up on your left a little too close for comfort.
But of course waterproofing is just the beginning. The Kuai multisport headphones are not just waterproof wireless headphones — they have a built in 8GB MP3 player, an accelerometer and an infrared pulse oximeter. What this means is that these headphones can calculate your calories burned, speed, heart rate and VO2 max, and whisper this info right into your ear. It’s like a sports watch that talks to you – it also makes your old heart rate band envious and sad when you leave it behind.
These features are crazy convenient to have in one device, all running on a battery that will last between five and seven hours, depending on use. But it gets better — the Kuai headphones are BLE and ANT+ compatible, so you can link them with other sensors if you choose to, though it seems like they’ve go that covered. They don’t have a built in cadence sensor or power meter for cyclists, so those are pretty much all that’s left to link up. The BLE and ANT+ will likely come in handiest for uploading the headphones’ .FIT data to your computer or iOS or Android smartphone. Once there, you can manipulate your training plans, create your own workouts and workout schedule, and set up custom voice alerts. All of this info goes back onto the headphones, and voila! You have an in-ear coach, telling you when to pick it up and push a little harder.
At this point, you may be wondering if these sound too good to be true. They’re not. The Kuaiwear team already has several working prototypes based on over 30 licensed patents validated by Duke University School of Medicine. The only part that’s too good to be true is that you can’t just up and walk into any Best Buy and grab a pair of these off the shelf. Well, not yet anyway. For now, the Kuai team is asking for Kickstarter funding to cover software fine-tunes, molds, and manufacturing. Check out their Facebook page for info on a drawing to win a free pair.
