I began this project by looking at problems I currently face in my life or have faced before. I also looked at some concepts that I thought might be fun or cool: 1. My feet get cold when I go skiing. 2. I always forget what groceries I need / Making a grocery list is very time consuming. 3. My fishing kayak has very little storage and the storage it has is inaccessible while in use. 4. I have a hard time accurately tracking my gym progress. 5. When towing with my vehicle, I have no idea if the lights are working and tires pressure. 6. Being able to duel friends in a manner similar to the sport of fencing, but with weapons other than foils. I then made a chart ranking the above problems and the result of a solution to the problem, based on ideas from Lean Six Sigma and an objective business view. Maximum Weight is 5 and rank for each problem is 1 through 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best with the weighted highest scoring concept being the best. Concepts Weight 1 2 3 4 5 6 Market Size 5 6 10 4 9 7 5 Profit Potential 5 7 7 5 8 5 8 Technology Readiness 4 8 7 10 10 10 8 Market Entry Difficulty 3 5 1 8 7 1 4 (1 = Very difficult) Competition 3 7 5 8 7 5 7 Total: 133 131 133 167 118 130 The idea of tracking gym progress was the clear winner due to the large market size and ease of integrating technology. Gyms largely consist of dense and dumb metal objects that are moved around. Since most components of a gym are simply metal formed into a shape at a certain weight, it is a rich environment for improvement. Almost all serious lifters document their progress to determine the proper exercise to maximize progression. The problem is that it is time consuming and requires a person to carry around a notebook and pencil or fumble around trying to type data into a phone between sets. Some people try to record their lifts when they finish working out, but this leads to inaccurate recordings. Personal fitness devices, such as the Fitbit, constantly record data, but don t track anaerobic exercise. This led to a potential product that incorporates sensors and feedback into a form of gym equipment that can provide meaningful data directly to a person s mobile device.
2 I began my study by observing the most routinely used portions of the gym. The following list summarizes the most used equipment to the least used equipment. As a note, this observation only included the free weights section of the gym that does not contain cable machines or treadmills. 1. Bench Press Station (35) 2. Low Weight Free Weight Section (29) 3. Squat Rack (27) 4. Olympic Platform (18) 5. High Weight Free Weight Section (14) The equipment was ranked based upon frequency of use as opposed to duration of use. This is because it was not feasible to constantly monitor and measure the amount of time people spent at individual stations. Data was taken over three weeks on Saturday. Of the three days, data was taken twice during each day for a total of 6 sample times lasting 30 minutes each. At this stage a google search was done using keywords such as smart and advanced to see if there were any existing products for the Bench Press, Squat Rack, free weights or Olympic Platform. Nothing could be found relating to Bench Press Stations or Olympic Platforms with integrated technology. A single instance for the squat rack was found that measured the angle of the squat and could measure free weight lift angles. A link to the product page can be seen in reference [2]. Since the Bench Press Station had the highest frequency of use and no potential competitors in the smart sector of the technology, it was chosen as the way forward. Next a morphology chart was created to conceptualize different interactions of the same product. In order to make the report more concise, only the chosen design is shown in the start-up business model that follows.
3 Sense Bench Pro The revolutionary way to improve your workout! The platform contains 12 pressure sensors that are used to determine weight distribution Sense Bench Pro is the next generation in anaerobic exercise technology. Combining the increase in App use and the rise in sensor technology, Sense Bench Pro allows user to get real time feedback from their bench-press routine. Gym goers are data hungry people. Some of the most common activities for them is comparing statistics about the amount of weight they lift and tracking personal progress. Sense Bench Pro takes real time data as a user lifts to determine actual work performed as well as pressure readings to improve lift form and stability.
4. Sense Bench Pro Technology. Sense Bench Pro uses an aluminum frame and integrated lifting platform. The platform contains 12 pressure sensors that are used to determine weight distribution. Strain sensors located on the rack determine the barbell weight. Located on the top of the unit are two cameras. These cameras track the movement of the barbell to determine the total movement of the bar and angle of the lift. A NFC box located on the rear of the unit provides a storage place for a portable device while working out and allows data transmission. The data is transferred through secure NFC to the Sense Bench Pro App The electronics are routed through the frame, allowing for a simple design. An onboard computer analyzes the readings from the 12 pressure sensors, 6 strain sensors and 2 cameras to produce the output data. The data is transferred through secure NFC to the Sense Bench Pro App. The NFC box is configured with a signal blocking lid to maintain security during data transfer. Sense Bench Pro is low power as it only activates when there is a portable device within the NFC station and weight is detected on the bench press platform. Sense Bench Pro is configured with a standard 120V power cord.
5. The App. The hardware is only half of the product. Paired with the bench is the Sense Bench Pro App. The App has four main sections: Form Stats, Lift Stats, Input Data and share and compare. These four areas are accessed from a basic homepage. As long as the application is open, it will automatically sync with a Sense Bench Pro lifting station (when placed in the NFC box). The most useful screens to the user are the Form Stats and Lift Stats pages that display real time information about the current lifts. Shown below, the Form Stats page displays weight distribution averages for the last set performed. Since there is no sensor for the feet of the lifter, the value is determined by using the input weight of the lifter, from the App, and the weight of the barbell. The weight of the barbell is found via the strain sensors located on the stops. Since the total weight is known and three out of four of the contact points are known, the final contact value can be determined. The contact points change color based on the pressure applied.
6 Having this type of data available to a lifter is incredibly valuable. Reviewing the data will allow the user to adjust their form in such a way that they have the proper weight distribution. The user can also review the angle of their lift to see if the bar is being raised directly upwards. The Range of Motion (R.O.M.) data is also extremely valuable. Now persons with different body types and arm lengths can determine who performed the most work while doing a lift rather than who lifted the heavier object. This data gives users another data point to use when comparing themselves to their friends and competitors. The Lift Stats page acts as the journal that is commonly seen with gym users. No longer does a user need to carry a pen and paper or manually type in the lifts. The data is automatically logged as the lifts are being performed. This page displays the total work performed for each set. This metric gives a better comparison to personal improvement since it takes into account range of motion as well as weight lifted. The Inputs page is the only page that requires user input. It uses data of a user s height, weight, gender and age to compare their lifting capability anonymously with other users. The comparison can be filtered to only compare against others with similar characteristics. If enabled, the user can also compare against other lifters in the same location. All of the data is totally anonymous and the ability to share the data is controlled entirely by the user.
7. Sense Bench Pro Business Model. The Sense Bench Company acquires revenue from two sources: direct sales of Sense Bench Pro and App revenue. App revenue comes in the form of money generated from ads and money acquired by users paying for the ad free version. The difference between a regular bench press and Sense Bench Pro is easily visualized in the below chart. This chart was evolved from the Ten Types of Innovation presentation. Sense Bench Pro provides the same benefits that a normal bench press station would. It improves on the design by adding interaction and feedback. The major improvements over a traditional bench press other than the profit model are: customer engagement, Network and product performance. Network and customer engagement are improved through the social interaction of the device. By tracking data metrics from use, a user is able to compare themselves to trends based on height, weight, age and/or location. Product performance improves because the product is now able to offer much more in return for each use. Originally, a bench press only existed as a structure to hold weight. Now the bench press can return feedback to help improve a user s lifts. Target audience for the Sense Bench Pro will be college campuses. College campuses will be targeted due to the high rate of gym goers per capita. First products will be gifted to colleges as trials so that they may be seen by the market. The different look and innovative sensor involvement will peak curiosity that will help attract users. The original models will be equipped with a viewing screen that shows the same data as the application. This way the users will have
8 an idea of how the integrated system works. From this point word of mouth between users will be the primary source of advertisement. Since a large portion of revenue comes directly from the App, Sense Bench Pro systems can be sold at lower margins than existing bench press systems. The system can even be sold at a loss or given away to stimulate application downloads since the sale of the bench is not the only source of revenue. This is very similar to how Amazon marketed the Kindle Fire or how printers are sold. The main structure is sold at a loss to obtain market share. Once the market share is obtained, revenue is created over time by use (Amazon use for the Fire and buying ink for printers). The rise of App use within the consumer market has grown by 33% on average [1]. Health and Fitness applications have grown at almost double the rate with a 62% usage growth from December 2013 to June 2014 [1]. By integrating the use of an application into a familiar structure, users can have a revolutionary experience in the ability to track, compare and analyze their lifts.. Conclusion. The bench press is widely considered the most popular lifts to do at the gym. Combined with the squat and deadlift; bench press is one of the big three training exercises. Sense Bench Pro fills a market niche by allowing users to sync their portable device to the system and collect data that previously was unobtainable (lift angle / work performed). Combining the fulfillment of this niche with a revenue system based on application downloads rather than product sales allows for a cheaper cost of entry since margins on sales can be much lower. Sense Bench Pro is the revolutionary way to track, compare and analyze bench press metrics.. References. [1] - http://www.flurry.com/blog/flurry-insights/health-and-fitness-apps-finally-take-fueled-fitnessfanatics#.u6lhlmypoli [2] www.smartspot.io/?ref=producthunt