The Internet of Anything: This Wearable Could Keep You From Throwing Out Your Back

Kinetic is a wearable device that helps warehouse workers lift boxes more safely.
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Kintetic

Warehouse workers are the unsung heroes of the modern economy. Everything from food to iPads passes through their hands as the world's goods move from farms and factories to you. They are, in the words of entrepreneur Haytham Elhawary, "industrial athletes."

It can be grueling. And dangerous. Lifting and lowering boxes and other objects caused more than 100,000 workplace injuries in 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All those injuries cost businesses some $15 billion, according to the [2014 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index](file:///Users/sellout/Downloads/WSI%202014.pdf).

Someday this work might be done by robots, or by humans wearing robotic exoskeletons that reduce or even eliminate the risk of injury. Until then, Elhawary's startup Kinetic has an idea. The company has developed a wearable device---essentially a high-tech back brace---that detects when you're performing a lift and the muscles you're using. It provides realtime feedback through a wristband to let you know whether you made the lift safely or unsafely. Elhawary believes improving employees' awareness of what their body is doing will lead to fewer workplace injuries.

Kintetic

"Most workers have been trained to lift in a particular way, but when you get busy you lift in the fastest way, and maybe forget your training," he says. "But when [the wrist band] goes off, it can remind you about your technique."

Beyond providing feedback, Kinetic also provides data to managers, who can quickly determine who might need additional training or where changes in procedures or workplace environment could improve safety. For example, the Kinetic team noticed workers in one warehouse often lifted boxes off the floor and placed them on high shelves, placing great strain on their shoulders. The team recommended installing steps or a device that could raise the box to hip height.

That may seem like an obvious observation, but Elhawary says it can be hard for managers to determine how much time workers spend doing particular activities. "Everyone knows you shouldn't lift heavy stuff over your head," he says. "But does it happen an hour a week, or an hour a day?" By collecting this sort of data, both workers and managers can prioritize what changes they need to make based on how workers actually behave in a warehouse.

Eventually, Kinetic hopes to branch into other fields, such as health care, where workers experience roughly three times as many back injuries as construction workers, according to a recent investigation by NPR. In fact, Elhawary came up with the idea for Kinetic after his mother, a nurse, injured her back lifting a patient. "I think nursing is important, because it's going to be really hard to replace nurses with robots," he says. "So we definitely plan to go into those markets as well."

But the company is starting with warehouse and manufacturing workers because it will be easier to tailor its algorithms to recognize lifts, because such workers tend to spend a lot of time lifting and moving things. As Kinetic learns from these workers, it will apply that data to other fields. Another reason to start there: Aside from automation and robotics, warehouse workers have been underserved by the tech sector.

"This field is so sleepy," he says. "They're talking about the same equipment that's been available for 20 to 40 years. We want to provide these workers with some of the same sort of support that athletes have."