Google Glass Will Hunt You Down

... if you don't workout. Lack of motivation is one of the worst enemies of exercise. Perhaps that’s why Alexandria, Va.-based LynxFit already has over 5,000 users of its Google Glass app. And that’s despite the eyewear not being available to the public.

The company, one of four winners in this week’s NVTC Destination Innovation awards, built a Google Glass app that designs workouts, sets reminders, tracks how well the user is doing in their routines and goals, and sends results to trainers and coaches. At only 10 months old, it’s already a Google Glass featured app. Founder Noble Ackerson took this Google Glass photo after receiving the Destination Innovation award. The other winners included Homesnap, LMI, and Key Cybersecurity. 

Noble, left, launched the company with his own $60k after experiencing that lack of motivation when he had to hit the gym or eat healthy. He knew technology could help. After getting his hands on Google Glass, he built a prototype last April and started getting positive feedback from users. He recruited CTO Cecilia Abadie, who had been building sports simulators for 20 years. (She was also the first person pulled over for wearing Google Glass.) Mauro Canziani, a developer with an artificial intel background, was hired as product VP.

Aside from individual users, the startup is talking to fitness companies like Les Mills and fitness clubs as potential clients. And Noble expects the app to really take off once Google Glass is made available to the general public, which could be later this year. He says users will spend over $1B this year on wearable devices, not including Google Glass. One challenge is adoption — it takes people awhile to get used to wearing the device and how to use it. For example, Noble ran the Miami Marathon in January wearing Google Glass and was able to track his progress and take pictures as he ran.