Movesense – an open, online sensor development platform utilising IBM Cloud

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As technology spreads everywhere, sports becomes more and more digital making data-based insights more valuable. Suunto’s latest innovation is the Movesense Micro Sensor, which detects and measures all kind of different motion.
Suunto is a well-known Finnish manufacturer of sports watches, instruments and dive computers, so the idea for this new sensor was inspired by sports and sensing different types of movements. The Movesense sensor can measure, for example, speed and acceleration and it can be attached to people, equipment or devices. Suunto is also a part of global sporting goods company Amer Sports, which owns a number of world-famous brands such as Salomon, Atomic and Wilson.

It wasn’t long before Suunto found that its new Movesense sensor was suited for additional purposes and could appeal to a much broader audience, not only helping athletes take training and performance to the next level, but also for applications across industries. The sensor could be connected to the cloud and anyone could visualize the data collected by the sensor, gain insight by utilizing analytics capabilities and build their own applications on top of the sensor.

Movesense utilising IBM Cloud

Suunto decided to open the Movesense platform to a wider community and needed a cloud platform to support the versatile open development. In the IBM Cloud environment, experts and pioneers can experiment with the sensor data and integrate analytics capabilities into Movesense APIs, developer tools, and programming libraries. It was important for Suunto to have a platform that is scalable and flexible so that any developer, regardless of their technical or programming skill level,  could easily start working on their own solutions.
As a manufacturer, Suunto is able to offer ready-made sensors for other companies that are easily connected into the cloud. Thus, companies that do not necessarily have the experience or resources can themselves create applications from the beginning and choose ready-made components. In this way, companies can also release time for innovation and development of new solutions. IBM Cloud compatibility makes it easy to get into the world of artificial intelligence and to utilize a variety of Watson capabilities in their own applications.
Examples of industries utilizing this solution can vary from health care to manufacturing industry. Suunto’s solution is a good example of how co-operation and ecosystems are increasingly important. The Movesense ecosystem continues to grow and has quickly expanded to a group of more than 400 developers. The ecosystem includes a variety of developers: small businesses, large international companies and enthusiastic individual developers.

Open Development and API’s

In addition to the sensor, the Movesense concept includes an open development environment and APIs. With the help of a ready-made sensor, Suunto aims to shorten the product development cycle of other companies in order to make the creation of new IoT solutions as easy as possible. By utilizing the skills build within the ecosystem and the ready-made components, it is faster to introduce the new product to the market. This encourages companies to focus their resources, create new growth stories and build solutions to global markets. When utilizing the capabilities of the ecosystem, it is possible to reach goals that might not have been reached by doing it alone, without the collaboration. This also creates Suunto new sources of revenue streams in addition to their traditional business. I am looking forward to seeing what different companies will be developing around the sensor in the future!
Movesense includes a set of developer tools, API’s, the Movesense sensor and professional support that will allow you to create dedicated applications and services for your favorite sports and other motion sensing needs.

Click here to learn more about Movesense. Moreover, any developer who would like to try developing Movesense solutions, can view recipes and sample applications made by our partner Symbio in the IBM Developer Works library.

For any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at riikka.purovesi@fi.ibm.com.