LSN : News : Form’s augmented reality goggles improve swim training

Inhabit promotes mindful, ethical hospitality

Inhabit, London

London – The new hotel brand aims to align every aspect of its design and services with a holistic approach to wellness.

Set across six Georgian townhouses, Inhabit describes itself as London’s ‘first mindful hotel’. The concept looks to offer a restorative experience in the city, celebrating conscious hospitality with a range of sustainable, eco-friendly and ethical initiatives.

Throughout the hotel, Inhabit promotes a sense of wellbeing by maximising natural light and filtering pollution with air filtration systems from Airlabs. Its 89 bedroom feature ethical homewares, personal care products using sustainably sourced ingredients, and Casper’s eco-friendly VOC-free mattresses, which are made of natural organic materials such as wool and cotton. Its fitness facilities include Peleton indoor cycling and a Clearlight Infrared Sauna, as well as meditation pod where guests and visitors can enjoy five-to six-minute-long guided sessions.

In our Conscious Tourism Market, we explore some of the ways travel and hospitality brands are promoting sustainability.

Form’s augmented reality goggles improve swim training

Augmented reality goggles by Form

Vancouver – The swimming goggles feature an augmented reality display that delivers performance metrics in real time.

Available for £162 ($199, €178), the FORM Swim Goggles were developed in collaboration with professional swimmers and athletes. The augmented reality display is integrated into the lens of the googles, providing an unobtrusive view of key metrics, while the in-built computer uses artificial intelligence to track and display metrics like split times, distance, stroke rate and stroke count.

Rather than targeting professional athletes, the wearable device aims to make the training experiecing smarter and more engaging for swimmers of all levels. ‘Even if you’re not a high-level swimmer, Form makes swimming much more engaging and just plain fun,’ says Scott Dickens, director of strategic partnerships at Form. ‘You always know exactly what you’re doing, and you’re able to compete with yourself while you swim.’

Performance technology is growing up, with consumer wearables such as Form embedding technology that would typically be targeted at professionals.

Facebook’s cafés will offer personalised privacy check-ups

UK – The social media company is opening five pop-up cafés across the UK, which will offer visitors advice on personalising privacy settings.

Opening in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Brighton and Cardiff between 28 August and 5 September, the branded Facebook Cafés will act as temporary advice centres. They will be located within existing coffee shops, providing visitors with a privacy check-up as well as a free cup of coffee or tea.

According to Facebook, many social media users do not know how to customise their privacy settings, but the company hopes that the spaces will serve to improve general understanding. ‘At our pop-up cafés you can get help and advice on how to change your privacy settings – and all in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee,’ says Steve Hatch, vice president of Facebook northern Europe.

With consumers growing increasingly distrustful of Facebook over its use of their data, the pop-up cafes represent the company’s ongoing efforts to redeem itself in the eyes of the public. For more, read our Morality Recoded macrotrend.

Facebook cafe, UK

Stat: British packaged food is the healthiest in the world

Packaged food and drinks sold in the UK are the healthiest in the world, according to a new analysis of 400,000 food and drink products in 12 countries by the George Institute for Global Health. To determine the healthiness of the products, Australia’s Health Star Rating system was used. Britain ranked best for levels of sugar, fat, salt and calories found in common foods, while the US and Australia closely followed.

Meanwhile, India, China and Chile ranked lowest in the study. According to lead author Dr Elizabrth Dunford, ‘Unfortunately, it's the poorer nations that are least able to address the adverse health consequences that have the unhealthiest foods.’ This leaves an opportunity for brands to make healthier food more accessible in emerging economies.

To see how retailers can make high-quality products available at a fairer price, read our microtrend Affirmative Fractions.