The Bluetooth SIG AnnouncesBluetoothInnovator of the Year

The Bluetooth SIG has awarded the Bluetooth Innovator of the Year award to Edward Sazonov, Physical Activity Innovations LLC for his Fit Companion.

Sazonov’s entry was one of more than 250 entries received for the 2009 Innovation World Cup, an international competition, organized by the Bluetooth SIG in search of new applications and products using the Bluetooth low energy technology. Entries received for the inaugural competition were reviewed and judged by a panel of 15 industry experts from all over the world.

Munich, 8 February, 2010: The Bluetooth SIG has awarded Edward Sazonov, Physical Activity Innovations LLC, the title of Bluetooth Innovator of the Year for 2009! Sazonov received this recognition at the official award ceremony held in-line with the Wearable Technologies Show at ispo 2010, the world’s largest trade show for sporting goods. The award includes a cash prize of €5,000 and a Bluetooth Qualification Program voucher (QDID) valued at up to US$ 10,000.

The Innovation World Cup 2009 drew more than 250 entries illustrating the abundance of opportunities for product development with the new Bluetooth low energy wireless technology. “The interest in the Innovation World Cup echoes the great amount of excitement we have seen in response to the announcement of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG. “Bluetooth low energy technology will open up new market opportunities and also enhance many existing areas of Bluetooth development including home health care and sports and fitness.”

Sazonov’s winning idea, The Fit Companion, is a small, unobtrusive sensor that when clipped-on to a user’s clothing or integrated in to a shoe, provides feedback about their physical activity. The data, transmitted via Bluetooth low energy technology, can help individuals to lose weight and achieve optimal physical activity. Intended for use in both training and daily activities like walking or performing chores, this simple, measuring device may offer a solution for reducing obesity.

As part of the competition the Bluetooth SIG also choose three finalists, whose well elaborated and original ideas were recognized at the awards ceremony by Robbert de Kock, Secretary General of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI). The Flare Snowsport invented by Patrick Coulbourne from Antware, is a fitness monitoring solution specifically created for winter snow sports that transmits data such as track and heart rate via Bluetooth low energy nodes located at the head and end of trails to a USB port worn on the body Pool-Mate created by Lisa Durlam from Swimovate and her team is a Bluetooth enabled wrist watch designed for swimmers. The watch measures distance, strokes, calories burned and other performance data and transmits it to the Internet via a mobile phone enabled with Bluetooth low energy wireless technology.

The Fertility Manager and Body Monitor developed by Michael Köhler, Edumotion, were recognized as a finalist for the device’s applicability for future opportunities in telehealth. This innovative device is a small, coin cell based, digital thermometer that can transmit temperature data to a mobile phone via Bluetooth low energy technology for processing with fertility management software.

The Bluetooth Innovation World Cup 2009 was sponsored by Nokia, Freescale Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Nordic Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics and Brunel. The Bluetooth Innovation World Cup 2010 competition will be opened for entries on June 1, 2010.

About Bluetooth® Low Energy Wireless Technology
Bluetooth low energy wireless technology is a new low energy enhancement to the Bluetooth wireless technology Core Specification that paves the way to a vast new market for watches, remote controls, and healthcare and sports sensors. It has the potential to communicate with the hundreds of millions of Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, PCs and PDAs that are shipped each year. Consuming minimal power, it offers long-lasting connectivity, dramatically extending the range of potential applications and opening the door to brand new web services. Bluetooth low energy technology features ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption; ultra-low cost plus small size for accessories and human interface devices (HIDs); minimal cost and size addition to handsets and PCs; global, intuitive and secure multi-vendor interoperability.

About Bluetooth® Wireless Technology
Bluetooth wireless technology is the global short-range wireless standard for personal connectivity of a broad range of electronic devices. The technology continues to evolve, building on its inherent strengths – small-form factor radio, low power, low cost, built-in security, robustness, ease-of-use, and ad hoc networking abilities. More than eight new Bluetooth enabled products are qualified every working day and more than 20 million Bluetooth units are shipping per week. There are over two billion Bluetooth devices in the marketplace and that number climbs daily, making it the only proven wireless choice for developers, product manufacturers, and consumers worldwide.

About the Bluetooth SIG
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), comprised of leaders in the telecommunications, computing, consumer electronics, automotive and network industries, is driving development of Bluetooth wireless technology and bringing it to market. The Bluetooth SIG includes Promoter group companies Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba, along with over 12,000 Associate and Adopter member companies. The Bluetooth SIG, Inc. headquarters are located in Kirkland, Washington, U.S.A. For more information please visit www.bluetooth.com.

The Bluetooth word mark and logo are registered trademarks and are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc.

Note to Editors: Media assets (stills and video) to accompany stories about Bluetooth wireless technology are available on Bluetooth.com, hosted by The NewsMarket: http://www.bluetooth.com/thenewsmarket

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