Apple has been gearing up its hardware products as instruments to achieving a fit and healthy living. On Tuesday, the iPhone maker opened the doors of its fitness lab tucked away in its Cupertino headquarters, which has long been under wraps from the public's eyes.
Jay Blahnik, Apple's director of Fitness and Health, disclosed that the company's fitness lab has already accumulated more than 33,000 hours of data on how people walk, run, swim, cycle, and sit. The lab has 13 medical doctors, physiologist, and exercise experts in the roster on top of 29 nurses and medics.
Of the latest developments in Apple's venture into the health and fitness landscape, the lab offered a look at some of the first fitness gears that tap a beta version of GymKit to sync data in real-time between the exercise gear and an Apple Watch, Axios reported.
Apple is the largest buyer of 50 metabolic carts, a machine used to measure oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production as well as to evaluate the requisite energy during exercise and to regulate work capacity.
The company disclosed to MIT that the fitness lab was built a couple of years ago before the Apple Watch was first rolled out in 2015. At the time, Apple envisioned to make it a playground to test and refine fitness-tracking systems of its wearables.
In its gym-like lab, Apple uses its employees as its test subjects. Whatever they do, this gear does monitor how much movements or activities have been done by this gear. Apple's senior vice president of operations told ABC News that these employees were not aware the company was testing the Apple Watch.
Apple is expected to release more wearables down the road. Recently, it was revealed through a granted patent that Apple has been working on a fitness-tracking AirPod. The tiny product, however, did not make an appearance in the said event.
