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PROVO — A team of students at Brigham Young University is well on its way to helping extreme athletes stay connected and safe.
The idea for Wavio, a two-way Bluetooth radio, came to MBA student Dallin Anderson's father while they were rock climbing together during the summer. Vocal commands are critical while climbing, but voices can be difficult to hear, so Anderson's dad suggested that having a radio earpiece could be useful.
The idea resonated with Anderson, who brought the idea back to school. He talked to other students who enjoy outdoor sports and formed a team to develop a small device that syncs to headphones people already own. Wavio can connect people who are within about a 2-mile range.
"You can plug your headphones directly into it, or you can sync with Bluetooth and then anyone that has a Wavio, you'd just hit the sync button and sync them together," he said. "You can use it anywhere you don't have cell signal."
One of the features that sets Wavio apart from traditional walkie-talkies is its ability to connect to phones. It is also voice activated.
"That way you can listen to music while you're doing these different activities, and when you need to speak to someone you'd just say like, 'Hey Steve,' and your music would stop and then you could talk to Steve," Anderson said. "Or you could say, 'Hey everyone,' and talk to your whole group."
Wavio is still in the development phase, but it already snagged the top award of $2,000 at BYU's Student Innovator of the Year Competition. The team hopes to have Wavio ready for Kickstarter early 2016 so it can ship before next Christmas.
"Any time in the early stages of a company you have doubts or discouragement, but then when you do well at a competition or hear from other people how much they like your project or your idea then it really gave us the motivation to keep going or keep pushing forward," Anderson said.
Those who are interested in receiving updates about Wavio can subscribe to its mailing list online.
