GOQii Archives - Page 21 of 31

March 1, 2017 By Ruta Satam 1 Comment

Enable the disabled to walk again

Help change the lives of 400 persons with disabilities in Ladakh, Kashmir

It’s so difficult for most able bodied person to accept a person with disability. But, they aren’t asking much. All that these individuals need is love, empathy and a sense of belonging.

Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust is just about doing that. The organisation is committed to the welfare of people from the most underprivileged strata of society without distinction of caste, creed or colour. Its emphasis is on assisting the children and youth who are the citizens of tomorrow and the disabled who need a support to help them join mainstream society.

The organisation is changing the lives of 400 disabled people in Ladakh, by donating Jaipur Foots, Wheelchairs, Callipers, etc. enabling them to walk again. The organisation is on a mission to give persons with disabilities from disadvantaged backgrounds the freedom to walk and move again. The aim is to transform the lives of the disadvantaged and disabled people to become contributing members of the society, instead of being perceived as a burden to their families.

MOBILITY CAMP AT LEH

A camp will be organised in June 2017 at Mahabodhi International Meditation Center (MIMC) in Leh, with a mission to impact the lives of 400 physically challenged patients.

The camp will provide the following services to the disabled

Fitting of Jaipur foot prosthetic to amputees.
Distribution of wheelchairs to people with spinal cord disabilities
Fitting of Callipers to polio-affected children/youth.

A screening camp will be organised under the presence of Ratnanidhi’s technical team prior to the distribution camp. The technical team will then manufacture the Jaipur foot & Callipers at Ratna Nidhi’s Mumbai centre. Post which, the distribution camp will be organised in Leh-Ladakh in the month of June 2017.

This camp will target patients from the most isolated regions of Ladakh & will empower the disabled to walk in the mountains with pride and self-esteem. This camp will be conducted at an altitude of 11000 ft above sea level.

As part of GOQii’s Karma initiatives, its partnership with Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust has been established to promote and support the different social initiatives undertaken by the NGO. Some of the projects that GOQii’s has supported and promoted in the past on its Karma platform in the GOQii App were Food for Education, Education sponsorship project to victims affected during terror attacks and the health and mobility project.

GOQii is now supporting the ‘Disability’ camp project to be held in Leh, Ladakh in June wherein 400 persons with disability will be empowered with wheel chair, Jaipur foot and callipers to walk in the mountains with pride and self-esteem.

A small donation of Rs 2500 will help Ratna Nidhi provide prosthetics or a wheelchair to 1 person attending the camp.

http://www.ratnanidhi.in/health-and-disability/Lets-change-the-lives-of-400-disabled-people-in-Ladakh

February 21, 2017 By Anusha Subramanian Leave a Comment

Sports for Social Inclusion

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do”—– John Wooden

GOQii supports Social Premier League (SPL)

Sports they say is a great leveller. It can bring the privileged and the underprivileged on the same platform to compete with each other in true spirit. Sports can very well be used as a tool for social inclusion and to bring about a social change. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that when applied correctly, sport can create bridges where boundaries usually exist, giving participants a lesson in teamwork, empathy for their teammates and respect for their opponents. It helps develop a strong sense of morality; and the development of an appreciation of diversity.

Sport is clearly not just about competition and exercise, but also regulates behaviour and creates a feeling of belonging, which in turn leads to the strengthening of democracy.

Singing Footsteps Foundation (SFF), is one such organisation in Patna, Bihar that is trying to bring about a social change through sports. The organisation started by Toni Sharma, a professor at NIFT and currently pursuing PhD (ECONOMICS) at IIT aims at bringing about true equality in human lives as well as balance in the ecology, using sports as the driving force to bring together the youth and achieve the social balance.

Sharma is a strong proponent of an egalitarian society, a philanthropist and a social activist at heart. He also mentors startups and advises various incubation centres. His idea with SFF is to showcase and effectively address the most burning and plaguing issues of our society at a large scale, on a single platform.

He says, “Our vision is to bring about social change by harnessing the power of youth and sports. We are constantly focusing on social changes through innovative strategies. We believe in the intent backed by invention”.

So what does SFF do with sports? It has started a league cricket game called ‘Social Premier League’ (SPL), to bring together the virtues of sports to fight the inequities of the society.SPL is a cricket tournament involving the entire youth and corporate fraternity to effectively spread the message of social integration and awareness. It is an initiative that endeavours to bring together the youth from all backgrounds in a relaxed and natural environment that are ideal for harnessing the power of sports to engage communities and change lives.

This year’s SPL that was held at the beginning of this month included Autorickshaw drivers, slum children and, girls and boys of premier colleges.

By way of the cricket tournament, SFF has been able to bring about a behavioural change among the auto drivers such as being more responsible on the road, minimising honking etc. “We have seen a tremendous change in the attitude of the auto drivers since they have been playing this tournament. They have developed empathy and we realised that we can create awareness about lots of issues along with them. If we enable them with the right tools they can help us in disseminating information and creating awareness,” says Sharma.

As participation in the league tournament, each of the auto drivers teams was also asked to pick a social cause that they would like to create awareness about. The two issues that the auto drivers were keen on creating awareness about was Cancer and Malnutrition. They carried messages on these issues in their auto.

SFF is now working towards a financial inclusion of these auto drivers by opening bank accounts for them and after this, they will conduct health check-ups for their children and family as a whole.

According to Sharma, “Sports is the most powerful and the only stimulus in the world that can help build a positive attitude, instil fearlessness and leads to significant overall development.”

“We believe that to make a significant contribution we need to employ the best of youth to uplift those at the lowest rung of the society. We believe in concentrating on the weakest. We believe in mutually beneficial relations that help us raise resources in a way that others can’t. And yes, we don’t settle for the second spot, in order to give the best to those who need our help the most,” Sharma concludes.

As a company, GOQii has been supporting several causes through its Karma Platform. As part of our ongoing efforts to do good karma in the society and get our players to do the same. Supporting SPL and SFF is one such initiative in this direction. GOQii believes that giving to others gives an inner happiness to one while also improving one’s own health.

February 21, 2017 By Anusha Subramanian Leave a Comment

Know your HeartBeat

Heart disease has been a leading cause of death for both men and women. Bad lifestyle is one the main reasons for people developing heart ailments at a young age.It’s remarkable that heart attacks are so common and cause so much pain (emotional and physical) disability when they can more often than not be prevented.

The good news is that people are getting aware of the risks of a bad lifestyle leading to many taking to fitness and indulging in activities such as running. They have become more conscious of their well-being and their bodies. With the heart being one of the most vital organs, they at every juncture are keen to monitor their heart rate.

What is heart rate? Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time. Simply put, it is also how well your heart is able to pump oxygenated blood.

Keeping in mind the above factors and also as a part of extending their services, GOQii, one of the leading health ecosystem and preventive healthcare platform has launched its latest service offering-GOQii Heart Care which focuses on cardiovascular health.The key feature of this service is its ability to connect consumers to cardiovascular specialists through the GOQii application and a new GOQii tracker which has capabilities to monitor heart rate.

Today, there are so many devices generating huge data most of which is essentially junk if not analysed and acted upon. “When we launched the GOQii service, we launched it precisely with personal coaching so that the user is aware of the data and the coach can help him or she follow a routine and lifestyle based on that data. Similarly, the GOQii Heart Care is a one-stop solution that tracks and analyses data generated by the Heart Rate trackers and can connect the GOQii user to the GOQii doctor who can help make sense of the data. It is a unique offering as compared to any other wearable device or service available in the market,” says Vishal Gondal, CEO, GOQii.

To use this new feature, all that the GOQii users have to do is share their health and heart rate data via the new GOQii tracker with the GOQii Doctor for his analysis. The doctor will go through this data and provide specific inputs to the users on how to maintain good heart health. In specific cases, if required the GOQii doctor will refer the user to a cardiac specialist at Max Hospital and other partner hospitals. GOQii has partnered with max Hospitals.

The constant rise of cardiovascular cases across the globe was one of the primary reasons behind the development of this specialised offering. With this new service, GOQii aims to create the world’s leading health eco-system which connects the GOQii users to leading professionals in the fitness and healthcare space. Having said that, the heart care service is not a replacement for a regular doctor and does not apply to any emergency medical or chronic situations.

Consumers can upgrade their existing wearable devices with the new service as well. With regards to third party hardware which includes the Heart Rate Monitor, consumers can avail of the service by paying a nominal consultation fee. The services along with the new GOQii Heart Rate tracker will be available at a subscription Rs 2999 for 6 months and 3999 for 12 months respectively.

February 15, 2017 By Champ Alreja 3 Comments

How accurate is the GOQii band

In the last one-year fitness trackers or wearable as they are called have grown in popularity. But, yet there is a lot of confusion around how accurate are these trackers when it comes to counting steps. One is not sure if they can trust the numbers that are captured by the tracker.

Today, almost every second person is wearing a fitness tracker to monitor his or her health and fitness levels on a day-to-day basis. I am constantly flooded with questions of how accurate is the band when it comes to monitoring the level of physical activity during a 30-minute workout session or while running or trekking in the outdoors?

These questions have prompted me to write this blog on how the steps are counted and how accurate is the band.

Let me begin with the first question

1) Why does my band count steps when I ride my bike or when I sit in an auto?

A fitness band is a sophisticated and modern version of an analogue pedometer. In a digital form using complex algorithms and an accelerometer (an instrument for measuring the acceleration of a moving or vibrating body). Fitness bands such as the GOQii, are designed to measure 3 axis movements of your body by being worn on your wrist.

The band counts steps on the principle of movements in a certain direction and velocity which are programmed using Japanese algorithms. Hence, movements in a certain pattern and pace are tracked as steps.

The band uses predictive equations using your body’s acceleration in different directions to estimate energy expenditure.

Let me explain how it works…

Velocity and Direction

If you are walking too slow or running too fast it will not pick it up. On an average, you need to walk -200 steps per minute.

According to University of Nebraska researchers who examined various fitness monitors (Jawbone, Fitbit, Nike Fuel Band, and Actigraph), accelerometer-based monitors can overestimate or underestimate energy expenditure by 10-15 percent, depending on the monitor.

2. Talking to our players and users of other fitness bands, they often tell me that while jogging, running or playing a sport, the tracker doesn’t show the exact distance.

How does the device measure distance? I am often told by players that they have gone for a jog and taken 10 rounds of a jogging track that measures 400 mts in length but, the GOQii band has clocked only 3.5 km instead of 4 km. How is that possible?

The device measures motion. Distance is an algorithmic calculation based on estimations of your average stride length x the number of steps taken. A person who is 5’6” tall has an average stride length of 0.7 meters. Hence, 100 steps taken will show as 70 meters. When you run, your stride length increases above average and when you jog, it falls below average.

GOQii’s main service offering being lifestyle change calculates distance based on your day and not on particular activities. So, during certain activities you may lose or gain steps, however, the average for the day is well indicated.

Stride Length Pics velocity 50 steps/ minute-160 steps/per minute

3. I have been walking a lot but, my band only shows minimalistic steps.

Running on a treadmill, cycling, swimming and playing certain sports may not accurately display your steps taken. Such as, while cycling, your hands stationery and placed on the handlebars, the tracker being designed to detect motion will pick up steps from your stationery hands. Similarly, you may experience the same while pushing a stroller or a bag. In many cases, you can put the core unit in your pocket (instead of your wrist) to record motion, especially, when your hands are still.

Hand swing motion

Images Courtesy of The Progress Group, Analog Dialogue.

Here’s a short video of GOQii being put on an apparatus in a testing lab to test accuracy

Enable the disabled to walk again

Know your HeartBeat

How accurate is the GOQii band

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