Canadian firm Design 1st has created an air-flow fitness tracker that measures breath flow and composition to check calorie burn, respiratory performance and metabolic tracking in real time.

The company codesigned Calibre, a precise breath tracking wearable and app that collects data from multiple gas sensors to measure the composition and flow of inhaled and exhaled air, allowing it to measure dozens of biometrics accurately. These include real-time calorie burn rates, oxygen intake and nutrient usage. Calibre was launched to a selection of beta users in May.

At an early stage, Calibre Biometrics chose Design 1st as a design partner, after surveying major national design firms. Design 1st’s integrated design process mitigates unnecessary risks while getting clients to market quickly. The team has over 75 design awards and experience honed within Design 1st, and from tenures at top Fortune 500 companies.

“Design 1st ‘s creative, product design and mechanical engineering services really stand out,” said Udi Meirav, CEO of Calibre. “They are a smart, experienced team, and their rapid prototyping and test capabilities played a major role in shaping our innovative device. Design 1st is also a one-stop shop, including supply chain access. This latter part is fairly complex, but they’re well connected to a system of manufacturers for prototyping and mass production, and their ability to bring all of this to the table really helped deliver the product we envisioned to market.”

A key challenge for the Design 1st team was to determine human acceptance of this wearable fitness tracker. They had to develop a device that was comfortable to wear, aesthetically appealing and engineered for precision and long-term use, as well as efficient mass production. The result is a wearable that continually measures breath volume and composition, a significant departure from most wearable fitness trackers that primarily measure motion or heart rate.

“With Calibre, Design 1st had the opportunity to incorporate extensive early market and user research and continuous testing to successfully de-risk from possible design or engineering challenges down the road, given the uniqueness of the project,” said Kevin Bailey, CEO of Design 1st. “We’re excited to have partnered with Calibre Biometrics to deliver a wearable that’s truly the first of its kind.”

Calibre packs a suite of gas and pressure sensors into a tiny, portable, wireless module that clips to a comfortable face piece allowing users to go anywhere and do anything, while tracking dozens of real-time metabolic and respiratory biometrics, measured up to fifty times per second. Activity agnostic, its tracking app collects real-time data on airflow composition and enables users to monitor daily activity effects on the body.

Design 1st is a full-service product design firm with over 25 years of expertise, 1000 products developed, and 130 client patents secured across a range of industries. As a design partner to companies from start-ups to enterprises, it leverages core competencies in human behaviour, industrial design, mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, embedded firmware and manufacturing setup.