Imagine pedometers, heart rate monitors and other activity trackers that capture data, but don’t require you to log the information manually to get a true picture of how much fat you are burning and how active you are.
That is the promise of recent Minnesota health and welllness startup VaporWire.
The company is beta testing its system by which consumers can pick the devices they want to use and avoid manually logging the tracking information. Instead VaporWire’s system analyzes the tracking data from the devices and returns it to people in the form of points, rewards and kudos. The company has similar plans for employers, fitness professionals and healthcare providers as well. Rewards are in the form of insurance credit, a gift card, a day of paid time off or a discount at favorite stores. Each user can customize his or her rewards catalog.
Currently, VaporWire is seeking $450,000 of which $50,000 has already been raised, according to a regulatory filing.
A call to CEO Brady Anderson wasn’t immediately returned. It’s not clear, just looking at VaporWire’s website, exactly how the system works. But the startup will be competing in a space that is already crowded with heavy hitters like FitBit and Nike Fuel Band.
FitBit is a wireless activity tracker that can track steps taken, floors climbed and how much sleep a person has and uploads the data from the device automatically and wirelessly.
By Arundhati Parmar
Arundhati Parmar is the Medical Devices Reporter at MedCity News. She has covered medical technology since 2008 and specialized in business journalism since 2001. Parmar has three degrees from three continents - a Bachelor of Arts in English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; a Masters in English Literature from the University of Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has sworn never to enter a classroom again.More posts by Author
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