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Health tech startup Cardiogram has raised $2 million in a seed round led by the a16z Bio Fund for an app that screens users’ cardio health and gives them help improving or maintaining it.
The company started out with an Apple Watch integrated app, initially. But it is ultimately planning to be a “device agnostic” business, and to make its app utilizable with all manner of wearables such as Android Wear watches, or various fitness bands and activity trackers from the likes of Fitbit or Garmin.
In addition to the seed funding round, Cardiogram today unveiled what it’s calling “an app store for habits,” in which it features apps for guided meditation, or physical and mental health exercises, which the startup believes will help its users improve or maintain good heart health....
Some scientists of Massachusetts institute of technology have developed a wearable device that can help blind or visually impaired people to read. The device is a ring shaped structure that can be worn in...
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Healbe finished up its Indiegogo scampaign for its miracle, calorie-counting wristband on April 15 with promises to ship in June. As we have reported previously, even if the product was suddenly scientifically possible (which it isn’t), that was a really tough deadline to meet. For one thing, manufacturing a complicated electronic product in two months would be unheard of and, for another, when photos of its prototype leaked online, hardware experts who we showed them to commented that it looked rough and primitive.
Well, after Healbe had teased that it would be releasing its June delivery schedule this week… it turns out we were right....
There’s a new bubble in technology – the wristband. Fuelled by Nike’s success, Jawbone’s on the Up, Polar’s in the Loop, Sony’s trying to Force its way into the game, while Fitbit’s aiming to stay as number One. (If you’ve ever wondered how branding executives choose their product names, that’s how.) Analysts are falling over each other to estimate how large the market will be by 2018. They’re wetting themselves at the prospect of smart watches, seeing the wrist as the saviour of the high tech industry now that smartphones have lost their Shine. (Which has nothing to do with the wrist, but that’s another story.) Currently Credit Suisse holds the prize for unwarranted optimism with a prediction of a market value of up to $50 billion for wearables in 2018. I think they’ve all missed the largest potential market for wearables – a category I’m going to call Hearables. The ear is the new wrist.
Analysts making these predictions almost invariably assume the wearable market is intrinsically linked with the smartphone market – currently around a billion units per year and worth over $250bn. To them, wearable seems to be mostly about smart watches and phones which extend small parts of the phone experience to something we wear. They ignore the fact that we still purchase smartphones to make calls. All of those calls send audio to our ears. As well as voice, hundreds of millions of people use their phones for music, as evidenced by the ubiquitous cables trailing from ears. Sound drives the bulk of our technology use and earbuds are the only piece of wearable tech to have gained ubiquity and social acceptance. These devices are about to undergo a revolution in capability, getting rid of their cables and giving them the opportunity to be the standard bearer for wearable technology....
Lumo Back features include activity tracking, doctor approval, a slim sensor that no one will know you're wearing, and very long battery life.
ly The AliveCor Heart Monitor fits on most mobile devices. It simply rests on your fingers or chest to record an ECG.
AliveCor’s proprietary technology converts electrical impulses from user’s fingertips into ultrasound signals transmitted to the mobile device’s microphone. Fast, efficient signal transmission results in minimal battery drain....
As the sensor based health monitoring market continues to expand, the USPTO on has granted Apple a patent for a biometric headphone system.By positioning the headset in or near the ear, an embedded activity sensor can measure temperature, perspiration and heart rate data, among other metrics. In addition to skin-based readings, an accelerometer may also be incorporated into the earbud chassis to facilitate the collection of accurate movement data.
The Cefaly headband is a battery powered device that may prevent migraine headaches. It works by pressing a self adhesive electrode, positioned at the center of person’s forehead, which sends an electrical signal through the skin to the trigeminal nerve. By stimulating the nerve, the device was shown to help prevent the migraine headaches in a study of 67 people. This week the FDA approved it for marketing..
Setting a new standard for dental hygiene, the next SmartSeries toothbrush will include a smartphone app, helping users to know if they are brushing too hard or if it’s time to brush another area of their mouth.
If that’s not enough, the new Oral-B connected toothbrush experience also suggests nearby dentists for you, gamifies teeth cleaning, and even provides weather updates. Sounds exciting, but does it make sense for the customer?...
Digital fitness devices are the rage -- among healthy people. The healthcare community won't know the value to sedentary patients until unbiased research arrives.
The Lumo Lift tracks body movement, recording steps, calories and mileage. Users can also calibrate it to gently vibrate when they start to slouch.
Watch this space for a new wave of wearable gadgets for tracking activity. Flushed with earlier successes, the new generation of activity trackers looks even better! Take a look at seven early entrants in fitness and health segments.
A French company made a "smart" shirt, which monitors the wearer's health condition. Its unique ability the shirt has gained due to the material with microsensors, which can detect the first sympthoms of pathology and fatigue.
This work of French scientists was presented at International Consumer Electronics Show, held annually in January in Las Vegas, News reports. According to the developers, the new material reads thewearer's body heat, heart rate, motion and location.
"This fabric can be used to produce any type of clothing: gloves, shirts and trousers, - says the managing director of Revillon City Zen Gilbert Reveillon. - First time we managed to introduce into the fabric sensors and thus combine the two industries. "...
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The promise of IoT is "smart" everything. Nest's Internet-connected Learning thermostat, Nest Cam surveillance camera, and Protect networked smoke alarm promise a more energy-efficient, safer home. IoT technology is a key part of the pitch for "smart cities," "smart buildings," "smart factories," and just about every other "smart" proposal from sensor manufacturers, networking companies, and big technology consultancies. Seemingly everyone is looking for a piece of the biggest potential collection of integration projects ever. Sometimes the "smart" is relatively close to the sensor itself, but it often relies on a remote cloud service or data center to process the information and control actions.
On the consumer side, while devices like Nest's get much of the attention, wearable IoT devices are just starting to take off—despite the relatively low impact so far of high-profile efforts like the Apple Watch. "The Apple Watch may be on a slower liftoff cycle than other recent Apple hardware launches, but it has a complex number of use cases which are finding their home, purpose, and meaning," said Mark Curtis, the chief client officer at Fjord, Accenture's design consultancy. Within the next two to three years, he predicted, wrist-based devices will lose the need to be tethered to a smartphone. "At the same time, interactions between wearables and nearables (e.g., beacons, Amazon Echo, connected cars) will grow."
The health field is the most immediate fit for wearables, because they can gather data that has a benefit without conscious human action. "A good example is our Fjord Fido diabetes platform," Curtis said. "It requires complex linking between devices and data but would not have been possible without a smartwatch."...
...Wearing a safety harness and walking on a treadmill in the room-sized system, participants of a recent study engaged in audio-visual balance games, explored virtual environments, and used an avatar to simulate activities fro on a surround screen.
CAREN’s interactive games allow for physical rehabilitation, combined with cognitive tasks, such as requiring someone to dig for objects in a virtual world while still walking on a treadmill. Distraction gait training could help balance, mobility and coordination in PTSD, traumatic brain injury or stroke patients....
Hanging out on Jimmy Fallon’s show one week, a first-place finish at a pitch competition the next — things are rolling for the folks at StratoScientific.
Led by 15-year-old CEO Suman Mulumudi and his father, Mahesh, StratoScientific won first place at Wednesday’s WTIA Spring First Look Forum.
The new startup is developing two medical products: The Steth IO iPhone-enabled stethoscope, and the LesionSizer, a device that reduces unnecessary stents in angioplasty....
Hugh Herr and his colleagues at MIT s Biomechatronics group develop artificial limbs that complete or augment the human body. His presentation is amazing, but if you re short on time skip to 13:40. Really, watch the whole thing.
Introducing disposable diapers you and your pediatrician can use to track your child's health Smart Diapers work with our app to keep track of your child's health.
BlueMaestro’s Pacifi monitors a baby’s temperature and transmits the data to a parent’s phone or tablet. Its app plots the data in a graph. Parents can record when medication was administered, set-up alerts, and share the information with nannies and doctors.
Artefact Dialog allows epilepsy patients to track, manage, and predict seizures.The patch-like wearable connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app. It can help wearers remember to take their medications, warn them about seizures, and alert friends, family, or caregivers when a seizure happens. Connected apps help users analyze where they have been and what they were doing when seizures occurred, and instruct bystanders and responders what to do during an episode...
B-Shoe utilizes sensors and an embedded motion device to detect when a wearer loses balance. Using algorithms and a microprocessor, the motion device gently rolls the shoe backward until the person regains balance. The sensors ensure that the corrective action is taken only when needed. The project was crowdfunded on Indiegogo
.It is based on the bio-mechanics of the human body, its center of gravity and base of support, a study of balance maintenance and disorders, and the backward step which healthy and younger people take to regain balance. Older people often do not take this step because of slowed reflexes....
GoBe is the first and only wearable device that automatically measures the calories you consume and burn, through your skin--by reading the glucose in cells.
GoBe is the only way to automatically measure calorie intake—through your skin, by reading the glucose in your cells. Simply wear it to see calories consumed and burned, activity, hydration, sleep, stress levels, and more, delivered effortlessly to your smartphone.
Everything else is just a manual calorie tracker. Only GoBe precisely calculates calorie intake, burn, and metabolic rate during any activity, with no logging, tracking, or guesswork....
Wearable computing devices can be applied to nurse fatigue, staffing, and other quality-of-care problems.
...Sound far-fetched? Many experts believe this scenario may be closer than you think and could help overcome some of the biggest challenges in healthcare.
For example, consider the issue of nurse fatigue. A recent survey showed that nurse fatigue is pervasive in the healthcare industry and, if unchecked, can have a negative impact on the quality of care, patient and employee satisfaction, and even operational costs. Sixty-nine percent of responding healthcare professionals reported that fatigue had made them concerned about their ability to perform during work hours. Even more alarmingly, nearly 65% of participants reported that they almost made an error at work because of fatigue, and more than 27% acknowledged that they actually had made an error resulting from fatigue....
I just returned from the most exciting Consumer Electronics Show I’ve ever covered. Thanks to extraordinary demand for gadgets that make us healthier, stronger, and smarter, the technology industry is putting some serious brain power behind the next generation of wearable health devices. Over the next year, a torrent of new devices is hitting the market to provide automated elite coaching, a pocket-sized clinical lab, and your own personal assistant.I just returned from the most exciting Consumer Electronics Show I've ever covered. Thanks to extraordinary demand for gadgets that make us healthier,..
From activity trackers to wristbands that track and notify you about all kinds of things – nobody is safe from this new wave of wristbands, in which brands, big and small, want to get their piece of the cake. Both, Bluetooth Smart as well as optical sensors are state of the art for most of these bands.
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Health and workplace applications ahead for wearables.