Boost Validation and Studies
Here’s How We Made History
In 2014, the U.S. Army assigned the Human Integrated Performance Optimizer Project with mission guidelines to create mobile fitness trackers that provide results within 95% accuracy of a V02 mask test, the clinical standard.
Essentially, the Army wanted a biomechanics lab that could be deployed on soldiers in the field without the lab. For fitness trackers, these mission guidelines were the equivalent of daring to put a man on the moon.
To meet the audacious mission objectives, GoX Labs created an evolving, multi-modal algorithm that considers physiology, biomechanics of movement, external load weight, and environmental conditions such as temperature.
The result is a patent-pending algorithm that rigorous, six-month testing under the supervision of U.S. Army scientists confirms meets the mission guidelines for 95% accuracy of V02 mask test results for calories burned. The GoX Labs algorithm with many metrics measured has been selected for the Army’s largest wearables program.
Fortunately for consumers, the research partnership with the U.S. Army allows GoX Labs to license commercial use of its patent-pending algorithm.
Basic biometric data of weight, height, and heart rate that drive current consumer devices can’t provide lab-accurate results. By also incorporating aspects like a person’s kinetics of movement, the temperature they are exercising in, and load weight, GoX Labs has created a smarter mobile solution that averages 11.7 times greater accuracy than the leading consumer fitness trackers for calories burned.
Beginning in November 2016, GoX Labs plans first to pursue licensing strategies for their algorithm to find companies that want to improve the accuracy of their devices.
“We’ve looked at all the leading company’s devices,” says Dr. Bruce Floersheim, Chief Operations Officer and Co-founder of GoX Labs. “We can literally give any one of them a seven to fifteen-fold boost in accuracy in a matter of days.”
More on Testing
Testing of GoX Labs’s technology occurred under the supervision of U.S. Army Scientists in all kinds of conditions including different loads and at different temperatures. Testing involved twenty military veterans and fifteen recreational athletes. The tests were evenly split across men and women ranging in age from 18 to 60. Over 200 tests found GoX Labs’s algorithm provides accuracy within 95% of a clinical VO2 mask test.
Further testing across five subjects revealed that GoX Labs was 7.6 times more accurate than the Apple Watch for calories burned, 12.3 times more accurate than a Fitbit Surge, and 15.1 times more accurate than the Garmin Fenix 3.
Multiple consumer and university tests including results published in the peer-review American Medical Association’s journal of internal medicine have already confirmed that current consumer devices have yet to approach the accuracy of a clinical VO2 test — results that GoX Labs is nearly achieving.
“Even though we’re within 5% accuracy of the clinical standard, we’re developing further enhancements that learn and customize the algorithm to evolve with a person’s individual fitness level,” says Joe Hitt. “Soon, we may even be able to match the accuracy of a $10,000 machine.”
