I.Q. [Innovation Quotient] award
Seiva Technologies
Milwaukee
www.seivatechnologies.com
Innovation: Sensor-embedded smart fitness apparel
Andrew Hampel, co-founder and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Seiva Technologies, got the idea for his company when a friend of his was rehabbing a torn ACL.
He teamed up with Sam Wesley, co-founder and head of marketing, to develop proprietary sensors they could embed in compression garments to measure the internal biometrics of muscles.
The sensor-embedded garments measure up against medical grade adhesive electrodes traditionally used in these settings, Hampel said.
“We’ve found that our sensors are as good, if not better than, the traditional electrodes. The quality of the signal from our garments is on the elite level,” he added.
Seiva Technologies is currently working with several athletes to continue to test the garments in various situations, Hampel said.
The sensors allow athletes and coaches to determine which muscles are being used, whether it’s an efficient movement and if an athlete is compensating with other muscles during motion.
Currently, there’s a detachable hardware piece connected to the garment that operates with a Bluetooth antenna to feed real-time data to a PC, Wesley said.
Seiva is working on converting the technology to a mobile application that will be available on Apple iOS in the next few weeks, he said.
Seiva Technologies currently uses its internal team of employees, the resources available in the Milwaukee startup community, and local textile and hardware manufacturers for the business.
“We’re extremely grateful for the support we’ve gotten from the community,” Hampel said.
While the idea for Seiva stemmed from the physical therapy and rehab space, the company is currently focused on the athlete development market.
Seiva hopes to expand testing in the physical therapy and rehab space in the future.
“We see a lot of opportunity for physicians and rehab specialists to work with patients remotely while still receiving real-time data and information,” Wesley said.
