Jumping rope "hasn't changed much since it was invented," said Adam Clark Estes at Gizmodo. But a Kickstarter campaign for a "Smart Rope" aims to bring this humble piece of workout equipment into the 21st century. Like most high-tech fitness gadgets, this "LED-laced, sensor-laden jump rope" can track your activity — jumps, in this case — and sync with a smartphone app to help you "analyze your stats." But you don't have to wait until after your gym session to gauge your workout's quality, since the Smart Rope has embedded LEDs that display your stats — including pace, time and calories — "in front of your very eyes while you're working out," creating the illusion of LED stats floating in midair. For now, the Smart Rope is still raising funds, but early backers can reserve one, starting at $60.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Film reviews: The Fantastic Four: First Steps and CloudFeature A space-age superhero team mounts a redo and Reality catches up with an online reseller
-
'Grief and condolences are not enough'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Senate confirms Trump loyalist Bove to top courtSpeed Read The president's former criminal defense lawyer was narrowly approved to earn a lifetime seat
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestoneSpeed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two yearsSpeed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on XSpeed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellitesSpeed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodesSpeed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 yearsSpeed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthroughSpeed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
