200 Members of ANT+ Interoperable Ecosystem Bring Wireless Connectivity to Hundreds of Available Sport, Fitness and Health Products
ANT+ interoperability enables new standard of practical consumer devices. Manufacturers choose solution that ensures high functionality, low power and seamless user experience in sport and health monitoring.
Cochrane, Alberta (PRWEB) January 21, 2010
ANT Wireless ("ANT" www. thisisant. com), a division of Dynastream Innovations Inc. today announces that over 200 leading brands, manufacturers and developers now contribute to the established ANT+ interoperable ecosystem. Pelstar, LLC, the maker of Health o meter® Professional scales for weighing, represents the 200th company to join the open ANT+ Alliance and follows recent members: LeMond Fitness, iMetrikus, Dyaco, Bosch, Wahoo Fitness, Compass Systems Corp (commercializing G. Pulse), iKingdomCorp, BAE Systems and S3 Group.
“We chose ANT+ because we believe it will help make it easier for professional users and patients to communicate vital data which supports healthy solutions,” stated Lynne Jele, Director of Marketing, for the Health o meter® Professional brand. “We are developing a generation of innovative products that will guarantee a complete and simple user experience and ANT+ gives us what we need for making healthcare communications easier in the long term.”
Health o meter® Professional scales have been sold since 1919 and are well established in professional applications addressing acute care, bariatric, dialysis, fitness/therapy, long-term care, pediatric/neonatal, primary care/physician, professional home health and veterinary health needs. The company, who recently shipped their 15 millionth professional scale, sees connecting health professionals and patients as an important step and is pleased to join a committed group of ANT+ members.
With over 200 ANT+ enabled individual products in the market today (totaling many millions of devices), ANT+ already addresses sport, fitness and consumer health monitoring. Member products currently available include watches, heart rate monitors, weight scales, foot pods, bike speed and cadence sensors, bike power meters, and bike computers. Recognized as the leading digital standard in ultra low power wireless communication, ANT+ ensures efficient, seamless and practical functionality while requiring very little battery life.
“ANT+ enabled devices have positively changed the way physiological data is collected and transferred,” said Brian Macdonald, Director, ANT Wireless. “This technology is unique – it maximizes functionality while ensuring a simple and seamless solution. It is proven and it’s available today.”
Based on the leading ANT protocol, ANT+ continuously raises the bar in ultra low power wireless solutions. Several blood pressure applications are currently in development and the ANT+ Blood Glucose working group (TWG) has recently been incorporated to enable ANT+ blood glucose products this year. As well, ANT+ now facilitates digital communication to and from cardio machines, integrating activity indoor and out.
“The technical advantages of ANT+, combined with the commercialization efforts of the Alliance members, creates a real and powerful ecosystem of leading brands and products,” added Macdonald. “Actual products will demonstrate the leading functionality of ANT and ANT+ in fitness applications at the IHRSA Conference in San Diego. Additional developments will be announced prior to that at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
ANT is available on Nordic Semiconductor products (the AP1 and AP2 family). A family of network node products will be available from Texas Instruments starting 2Q2010. All ANT parts support ANT+.
About ANT / ANT+ (www. thisisant. com)
ANT is a proven protocol and silicon solution for ultra-low power (ULP) practical wireless networking applications.
ANT+ facilitates interoperability between ANT+ Alliance member devices and the collection, automatic transfer and tracking of sensor data. Applicable in sport, wellness management and home health monitoring, ANT+ (built on the base ANT protocol) defines device profiles that specify data formats, channel parameters and network key. The ANT+ Alliance is an open special interest group of companies who have adopted the ANT+ promise of interoperability. The Alliance ensures standardized communications through optimized brand value and partnerships with other top tier products.
The company behind ANT Wireless is Dynastream Innovations Inc. Dynastream was established in 1998 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Garmin International Inc. in December 2006. Dynastream is based in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, and is a world innovator in the research and development of inertial and wireless technology. www. dynastream. com
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