Fullpower Technologies

Fullpower Technologies, Inc.
Private
Industry Wireless, Life Sciences, Biotech
Founded 2003
Headquarters Santa Cruz, California
Key people
 Philippe Kahn, CEO
Sonia Lee, President[1]
Slogan The Power of Innovation
Website www.fullpower.com

Fullpower is a privately-held intellectual property and technology licensing company based in Santa Cruz, California. Fullpower's technologies are used in products from Jawbone, Nike, and others to track activity and monitor sleep.[2]

History

Fullpower was founded in Santa Cruz, California in 2003 by Philippe Kahn and Sonia Lee. The inspiration behind some of the key Fullpower technology stems from Kahn's passion for sailing; Kahn created prototype sleep trackers using biosensors that optimized 26-minute power naps to maximize sleep benefits and sail time.[3]

Kahn and Lee's previous two companies they founded, Starfish Software focused on over the air synchronization of wireless synchronization and LightSurf, creator of the camera phone (cell-phone camera) were acquired for hundreds of millions of dollars by Motorola[4] and VeriSign.[5]

MotionX

MotionX brand logo
Nike+ Running App, powered by MotionX, on an iPhone 4

The MotionX Platform announced in 2008 is a suite of coupled and integrated firmware, software and communication components for wearable wireless devices. The MotionX Platform is used by several wearable product brands, including Nike, Manufacture Modules Technologies (MMT), Alpina, Frederique Constant, Mondaine, Jawbone and others.[6]

In 2008 Fullpower announced applications for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch under the brand MotionX.[7] The first application released was MotionX-Poker, a multi-touch and motion-based dice game for the iPhone available for sale through Apple's App Store.

Fullpower released MotionX-GPS on the iPhone in October 2008. MotionX-GPS is a handheld GPS Multi-Sport app for runners, hikers, sailors, stand up paddle boarding (SUP), cyclists, geocachers, and other outdoor sport enthusiasts. It leverages the iPhone built-in GPS chip as well as other on-board sensors to provide location data. MotionX-GPS supports map data provided by OpenStreetMap, Google, USGS and others.

MotionX-GPS Drive for the iPhone, a door-to-door pedestrian and driving navigation application, was released in September 2009.[8] With the announcement of the iPad in May 2010, MotionX released customized versions of its navigation application for the iPad.[9]

On September 7, 2010, Nike released the Nike+ GPS App (now called Nike+ Running) that tracks human motion using the accelerometer and GPS sensors of the iPhone. MotionX provides the underlying motion sensing technology for the Nike+ GPS Application.[10] The application was selected as one of the Wall Street Journal's ten best iPhone Apps of the year.[11]

At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, JVC and Pioneer Corporation announced car stereo systems that integrate with the MotionX-GPS Drive application so that driving directions are shown on the in-car screen and audio verbal directions are heard over the car speakers. This was said to be the first time a commercially available iPhone navigation application used an after-market in-car screen as a display.[12]

In February 2012, the MotionX 24/7 application was announced for the Apple App Store. The application has functions for sleep analysis, heart rate monitoring, and activity monitoring.[13]

Wearable devices and end-to-end infrastructure

Jawbone UP Band with MotionX technology inside

Jawbone launched the UP band with ID design by Yves Behar and powered by the MotionX technology in November 2011.[14] The device analyzes the user's activity and sleep with the sensors built into the Band. A vibrator in the Band is used to wake the users up at the optimal time in a given time window and provided inactivity alerts when the user has been idle longer than a set time interval.[15][16] MotionX technology is also in the less expensive UP Move that launched in November 2014. Like previous UP bands, the UP Move coin-cell battery powered pod counts steps and tracks sleep, but it does not have the vibrating motor feature. [17]

Jawbone ERA bluetooth headset uses MotionX to recognize motion

MotionX technology is used by the Jawbone Era bluetooth headset for recognizing human motion.[18]

Fullpower formed the joint venture Manufacture Modules Technologies (MMT) in 2015 with Union Horlogere Holdings and launched the MotionX Horological Smartwatch Open Platform for the Swiss watch industry.[19]

Fullpower creates and manages the circuit design, firmware, smartphone applications, as well as the cloud Infrastructure. MMT manages the Swiss watch movement development and production as well as licensing and support for the Swiss watch industry.[20]

The initial partners were Frederique Constant, the Geneva based luxury watch manufacturer of classical watches; Alpina, the Swiss Sports Watch manufacturer founded in 1883; and Mondaine, well known for its SBB Swiss Railway watches. Together, they are offering ten different models in designer collections for both women and men.[21]

Patents

As of April 2015 the Fullpower Wearable patent portfolio includes more than 50 issued patents and another 50+ patents pending covering Sleeptracker, MotionX, bands, pods, smart watches, eyewear, clothing, sensor-fusion, health, medical, wellness and machine learning.[22]

Some of Fullpower’s 50 issued US patents include:[23]

References

  1. ↑ "About Fullpower Technologies Leadership". Company web site. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  2. ↑ The Verge (February 27, 2015). "Swiss watchmakers show off a new line of smartwatches". Wearable Tech. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  3. ↑ "How an Obsessive Sailor and His Fitness Tracker Supercharged Yacht Racing". Wired. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ Randy Weston (July 14, 1998). "Motorola to purchase Starfish". CNET. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  5. ↑ Dawn Kawamoto and Ben Charny (January 10, 2005). "VeriSign to buy messaging firm LightSurf". CNET. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  6. ↑ Stephen Pulvirent (February 26, 2015). "The Swiss Have Finally Started Making Luxury Smartwatches". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  7. ↑ "'MotionX Poker' for iPhone is Impressive". Touch Arcade. July 18, 2008. Retrieved July 18, 2008.
  8. ↑ Wilson Rothman (October 5, 2009). "MotionX GPS Drive Review: Hands Down the Best Value In GPS Apps". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  9. ↑ "MotionX GPS HD 22.0 For iPad". Tom's Guide. May 12, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  10. ↑ Graham Bower (January 23, 2011). "Are Apple and Nike Falling Out?". Cult of Mac. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  11. ↑ Wall Street Journal Video
  12. ↑ CNET
  13. ↑ About.com
  14. ↑ Courtney Boyd Myers (November 3, 2011). "Jawbone’s UP wristband and iPhone app available Nov. 6th for $99". The Next Web. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
  15. ↑ Bumgardner, Wendy (2012-12-23). "Jawbone UP Activity Monitor Review". About.com. Retrieved 2013-01-16.
  16. ↑ Pogue, David (2012-11-14). "2 Wristbands Keep Tabs on Fitness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-01-16.
  17. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/04/jawbone-up-move/
  18. ↑ CNET
  19. ↑ Paul Lamkin (February 27, 2015). "Swiss guard: MMT promises stylish smartwatch revolution". Wareable. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  20. ↑ Sarah Mitroff (February 26, 2015). "Swiss watches are getting smart without sacrificing style". CNET. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  21. ↑ Stephen Pulvirent (February 26, 2015). "The Swiss Have Finally Started Making Luxury Smartwatches". Bloomberg. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  22. ↑ Olivier Müller (February 27, 2015). "The horological smartwatch is here!". WorldTempus. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  23. ↑ Darryl K. Taft (October 31, 2013). "Fullpower Awarded Key Patents for Wearable Technology". eWeek. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  24. ↑ http://www.santacruztechbeat.com/2015/04/02/fullpower-another-important-patent/

External links