Chinese tech giant Huawei has opened a laboratory in Finland to carry out research into its health and fitness wearable products.

Equipped with the latest testing equipment, the laboratory will serve as the research platform for Huawei’s health and fitness sector.

Sized at almost 1000 square metres, the laboratory is equipped with a diverse range of sports equipment covering over 20 types of sports. Each area will showcase Huawei’s wearable sports and fitness algorithms in real-life applications. At the same time, these will serve as open research platforms that contribute to technological research, detection and verification, standards R&D, and industry incubation.

Acknowledging the growing need in the health and fitness market, Huawei has pledged to deepen its research in health monitoring algorithms through its wearable technologies. This led to the establishment of three health labs across the globe since 2016: Xi’an and Songshan Lakes in China, and now one in Helsinki, Finland.

The lab in Finland is staffed with a multidisciplinary scientific research team comprising six PhDs and 20 experts from five fields – physiology, AI, machine learning, software testing and software engineering – across seven EU countries. This aims to assure every area of sports and health research reaches the world’s standards.

The laboratory contains true-to-life sports environments and scenarios in five major testing areas covering more than 20 sports and tracking over 200 physiological and biomechanical indicators. Participants will also be monitored while using Huawei’s wearable devices, such as the Watch GT 4. The main five areas are a counter-current pool, ski simulator, multi-functional treadmill, instrumented treadmill, and open gym area comprising various cardiovascular workouts.

Huawei built its counter-current pool based on professional standards, ensuring swimmers can be accurately assessed on their swimming performance. The pool is equipped with dynamic water jets that can produce a controllable current flow rate up to 350m³/hr and allows the modification of water temperature and quality.

As skiing remains one of the most popular sports in Europe, the lab has introduced a ski simulator with adjustable speed, incline, and interactive routes and poles. The simulator is also built with sensors that detect the user’s speed, position, carving angles, forces and performance data.

The multi-functional treadmill can test running, cycling, wheelchair racing and so on with speeds adjustable up to 50km/h. The treadmill can even import GPX data from GPS devices to simulate real-world terrains and routes, giving participants true-to-life scenarios that will more accurately put their running and cycling skills to the test. The camera then detects their performance scientifically, providing immediate feedback to allow technique improvement in real time.

To improve consumers’ lives through innovative sports and health technologies, Huawei has actively collaborated with local Finnish institutions and regional European experts.

ICare4CVD is part of the IHI (Innovative Health Initiative) programme, which brings together medical and technology industry and the European Union in one of the most ambitious research initiatives in the area of artificial intelligence and cardiovascular disease. Huawei is the only wearable device manufacturer to participate in ICare4CVD, and will co-lead the work package that will develop methods to improve patient motivation.

Huawei has co-founded the Interlive consortium with six European universities and one of the most scientific and rigorous testing standards for wearable devices. The consortium strives towards developing best-practice recommendations for consumer wearables to measure direct and derived metrics. The partnership has further cemented Huawei’s wearable technology reliability and will ensure the continued scientific validity of its wearables based on four standards: heart rate, step counts, caloric expenditure and VO₂ max (maximum oxygen intake).

Huawei plans to pursue research cooperation with European universities and disability health centres to further its research into the needs of users with disabilities. By understanding the sports and fitness management needs of wheelchair users and uncovering more options, users can look forward to a more dynamic sports health and performance monitoring technology in future smart wearables.

Huawei (www.huawei.com) has formulated privacy and security principles for its wearables. While the company remains openly collaborative with partners in the healthcare and sports ecosystem, it ensures these partnerships are carried out with full compliance to data privacy causes. This means every step of the research process – including data collection, authorisation, transmission and storage – complies with privacy and security principles.