Those who are serious about their fitness know that an in-depth understanding of one’s personal health data is key for efficient exercise. Samsung’s cord-free Gear IconX earbuds were designed to work with the S Health app to deliver comprehensive fitness data, arming users with the proper knowledge to optimize their workouts. Principal Engineer Jiyoung Kong and Senior Engineer Kidong Hong of Samsung’s Service R&D Team explain.
Q. How did you come to add a fitness tracker to these Bluetooth earbuds?
Jiyoung Kong: We wanted to make the Gear IconX the most convenient choice for users to accurately measure their activity. A new, cord-free standalone device.
Because music playback is a must to keep boredom at bay during workouts, it was only natural for us to develop the Gear IconX as a combination of a music player and fitness tracker.
As a developer of S Health, I’m delighted that we now have another line of fitness trackers to add to our wristbands and smartphones. Though smartphones excel in computational functions, we usually find them bothersome while at the gym. I am glad to see more diversity in wearable devices because it will surely help us meet our users’ increasingly diversifying needs.
Q. What was the main focus when incorporating S Health support into the Gear IconX?
Kidong Hong: Although the earbuds may look simple, it took a lot of collaboration with other teams to incorporate support for fitness tracking features—such as exercise recording and heart rate measurement—while ensuring that the Gear IconX still delivered a top-rate Bluetooth listening experience.
Since we have numerous fitness tracking options available in other Samsung wearable devices and smartphones, S Health now has more sources to help users collect and optimize exercise data. So we also focused on ensuring optimal usability when the Gear IconX is connected to the app. For instance, we had many discussions regarding how the earbuds would send information to S Health and how that data would be displayed.
