In recent years, the Arrow Electronics’ Open Lab at the Hong Kong Science Park in Shatin has been giving technological help to both budding entrepreneurs and established companies across the Asia Pacific to build prototypes that turn their innovative ideas into reality.
One of them is Platysens, a local startup focused on sports sensors and analysis. Founded by sports enthusiasts six years ago in 2014, the company has availed Arrow Open Lab’s free engineering consultative services to develop a robust wearable designed for swimmers.
"Today the world of sports has been increasingly shaped by technology integration," said CY Wong, founder of Platysens, who himself is a triathlete. "We see there is a unfulfilled demand in the market for robust smart wearables to provide swimmers with accurate and real-time data and analysis. With the engineering guidance and support by Arrow, we are able to rapidly integrate IoT and sensing technology and shorten our new product introduction cycle."
The company is able to combine algorithm, IoT, and sensing technology to put together a working prototype for its new product SEAL, which is expected to be launched by end of the year.
The smart gadget is designed to capture the motion and force of the swimmer exerted by different parts of the body over time. Powered by STMicroelectronics MEMS, force sensor, and Nordic Semiconductor Bluetooth low-energy system-on-a-chip, the device transforms physical strokes and force movement into digital data, delivering real-time and accurate actionable insights for swimmers and trainers to understand efficiency and maximise performance.
"We are consistently seeking ways to make it easier for innovators and engineers to create, make and manage the technology of tomorrow," said Jacky Wan, Arrow's vice president of engineering for APAC. "We are excited to be a trusted technology partner to Platysens and many other technology startups and companies in the region, guiding them through the journey, starting from ideation to proof of concept, design, testing, and mass production."
The global sports technology market is expected to see rapid growth in the coming years as big sports events such as the National Football League, the Major League Baseball and the English Premier League have embraced the use of technology in sports. A recent report published in February predicts that the market will reach US$51,689.7 Mn. by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 20.4% during the forecast period.
Meanwhile, Platysens is an Incu-Tech program graduate of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) in 2017. Peter Yeung, head of electronic & ICT clusters at the HKSTP lauded the company’s collaboration with Arrow Open Lab.
"HKSTP offers world-class infrastructure and services to help tech companies and startups accelerate their innovation journey to commercial success. Many of our startups are young engineers and entrepreneurs with great ideas. The collaboration between Arrow and Platysens is a great example of two companies with different expertise coming together within our ecosystem,” he said.
