Start-Up: "Walk Tall" with Arki from Zikto

    SEOUL, KOREA, November 13, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Majority of working professionals are suffering from back pain. Medical professionals say the pain results from having a bad posture or not getting enough exercise. How can you relieve the pain and achieve a healthy lifestyle at the same time?

Korean start-up company, Zikto (www.zikto.com), released its first Arki band and application wh ich helps people correct their bad walking posture and walk right.

Arkiband Pic

What's the score of my walking?

Arki has a function called 'Sound Walking' and it alarms the users' bad walking postures through haptic vibrations on a real time basis. When users are watching their smart phone or putting a hand in a pocket while they are walking, the Arki automatically senses imbalance of their bodies and gives them a signal. This works similar to a Lane Departure Warning System in luxury level cars.

The core element that differentiated Arki from the other wearable competitors is its responsive interface. Other wearable bands simply show the number of steps taken, calories burnt, but Arki provides the quantified measurement of quality of steps you take. Arki acts as your walking coach that keeps reminding and correcting walking postures.

In addition to walking posture adjustment, Arki calculates the imbalance of your body (shoulder, back, and hip) easily. Normally, you wear Arki on your preferred side. Once a week or month, if you wear Arki on the other arm, Arki can collect both arms' swing data. In this way, Arki can tell you which part of your body is imbalanced and provides a personal workout recommended by fitness professionals and physical therapists to get your body balance back. Furthermore, since everyone has a different walking pattern, it can be used a biometrics method just like your fingerprints.

Zikto was founded by CEO Ted Kim and CFO David Suh, who both graduated Purdue University, and CTO Shawn Kim. Afterwards, a product designer, Henry Lee, a project manager, Brian Kim, and the principal engineer, Thomas Choi, joined to the powerful team. With their wide experiences in global corporations like Samsung, LG, SK Telecom, Shinhan Investment Corp, they are aggressively targeting the global market, especially the U.S.

On November 11th, Zikto's journey starts with Kickstarter campaign. CEO Ted Kim mentioned that "the target amount is $100K and we think Kickstarter project will be a very practical way of testing the actual demands in the US market. Through successful funding, we will get traction for receiving funds from US based VCs."Zikto will be participating in the 'Creative Business Cup 2014' in Copenhagen, Denmark in November and 'SXSW 2015' in Dallas, Texas as a representative of Korean start-ups.

Zikto is planning to expand their business to a medical service in connection with hospitals by developing its own algorithm and utilizing their big data.

Wearable market is a big battle field for consumer electronics giants from Apple to Fitbit. We are looking forward to seeing how Arki penetrates into this battlefield and successfully grab a customer's attention.

ZIKTO | Every movement matters | www.zikto.com

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