If there is one thing you can count on at CES, it’s seeing tons of big TVs and futuristic cars. One thing that doesn’t get much attention is fitness tech. Enter FITLIGHT™, a set of wireless RGB lights meant to capture your athletic performance, reaction time, speed, agility, and coordination. We gave the FITLIGHT Trainer™ a try at the company’s booth, and it’s very clear we’re no Steph Curry.
The FITLIGHT™ crew had the program’s lights mounted on metal frames meant to look almost like a pound sign (a hashtag for all you social media nerds). They then pulled up a pre-configured workout routine meant to test our reaction time. One by one the lights turned on randomly, which we then had to hit, like playing whack-a-mole. If we didn’t hit the light in time it would turn off and that data would be logged on a companion tablet. Or if we did hit it in time the companion tablet would register the time it took us to hit the sensor.
After completing what felt like an amazing session, we were told we missed a vast majority of the FITLIGHTS™ and had a horrible set of results on the tablet controller. After a second try, our results were much better as we only missed 4 of the 20 lights. Although we didn’t have the fastest time, we were going for accuracy, not speed.
As we finished, we were shown more uses for the FITLIGHT™ system, such as batting accuracy for baseball players where the player would swing his bat at specific lights, dribbling accuracy to make sure the basketball is being bounced in the same spot repeatedly, and speed drills for soccer players where they would need to float their foot above specific lights that were laying in front of them.
The FITLIGHT™ system was extremely impressive in our time with it, and seeing how it can improve an athlete’s performance was very interesting. Our biggest concern was how much abuse the lights could take, but the company assured us its system is extremely durable. The FITLIGHT™ team even said the U.S. Military shoots practice rounds at the lights for training.
The main Trainer system comes with 24 lights, a tablet, and a power supply, which is housed in a Pelican-like case that also acts as a wireless charger for the lights. FITLIGHT™ even showed us a smaller version of just 6 lights called the FITLIGHT Jr.™ This is meant more for kids who are trying to improve in whatever sport they are participating in.
Of all the tech we get to see at CES, it’s cool to find something that can truly benefit someone’s life.
