Feb 02
health, research
CNET- Scientists and engineers have built a monitor that tracks heart rate, respiration, and movement–without requiring direct contact with skin.
The “life and activity” monitor, developed at Oregon State University, is wearable and non-invasive. The sensor does this via a 5-axis inertial measurement unit and a non-contact heart rate sensor that allow for ongoing and simultaneous monitoring of movement, heart rate, and respiration. Imagine adhering such a device to your pants instead of wearing yet another arm or wrist band that’s trying to resemble a watch.
The researchers, who reported on their emerging tech this week, say the next step is to continue to miniaturize a device that is already just two inches wide–ultimately taking the form of, say, a disposable bandage prescribed by a doctor for a few weeks of continuous monitoring.
Jan 20
health, sports
liliputing- Remember when digital watches with calculators were state-of-the-art wearable computers? Now you can slap an iPod Nano on a wrist strap and carry music and apps around on a portable color screen. But there’s another frontier in the wristputer space, and it’s focused on fitness. [...]
Now Nike is launching a slick-new wristband called the Nike+ FuelBand. It can track your steps, calories burned, or time exercised – but also tracks a new metric called NikeFuel which is basically how much oxygen you’re consuming by performing a given task. In other words it doesn’t just monitor our fitness activity when you’re walking or running, but also when you’re sitting still, playing games on yoru Wii, or doing just about anything else.
The FuelBand has built-in LEDs that glow red or green to let you know when you’re reaching your fitness goals (or failing to do so). They can also display text or numbers to show your score, distance traveled, or the time. You can pair the $149 FuelBand with an iPhone over Bluetooth to upload your data to the Nike+ app.
Dec 11
health, research, sports
Wearable Technologies - On January 30, 2012, for the fifth time in a row, the Wearable Technologies Conference will take place in line with the International Sport Business Network (ISPO) Trade Show in Munich. This conference gives visitors the opportunity to discover groundbreaking innovations from the fields of health, fitness and prevention.
The conference will feature two areas of interest, namely the newest developments in the areas of “Sports & Consumers” and “Health & Fitness”. In addition to novel technologies in development, the 2012 WTconference will present products ready for the market. These days, technologies worn on or near the body are experiencing a real boom. The first WT products, those interesting to a wider market, are recording resounding successes. In addition, the many innovative technologies that have just reached the market stage have become all the more important to those manufacturers who can use the new technologies in a variety of their products. Tracks include: Sports and Prevention, Smartphone and Consumer Gadgets, Therapy and Innovation.
Dec 07
fashion, health
wireless and mobile news - Forget that old fashioned Baby monitor, you will soon be able monitor the baby’s vital signs on your computer, cell phone or tablet with Exmobaby by Exmovere wireless transmitting baby pajamas.
Exmobaby is a snap-on transmitter designed to measure critical vital signs in infants, including heart rate, skin temperature, moisture and movement. The data is transmitted at regular intervals to the parent’s computer, tablet and smartphone and is used to interpret the baby’s emotional states and behavior, transmitting alerts to parents and caregivers when their babies require attention or care.
The Exmobaby onesie is already available for sale. The onsie is safe, washable, rechargeable and transmits data via Zigbee up to 100 feet. It is based on patented technology from Sensatex and Georgia Tech.
Nov 07
gadget, health
University of Pittsburg – People attempting to lose weight won’t need to track their daily food intake anymore, thanks to a wearable, picture-taking device created at the University of Pittsburgh. eButton—a device worn on the chest (like a pin) that contains a miniature camera, accelerometer, GPS, and other sensors—captures data and information of health activities, eliminating the need for daily self-reporting. The eButton prototype was the result of research from a four-year NIH Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative grant that ended this year.
The eButton’s reporting extends even further than food and exercise: It can determine the amount of time wearers spend watching TV or sitting in front of a computer screen and how much time they spend outdoors. It tracks where food is bought, how meals are prepared, which restaurants are visited, and what items are ordered.
Retrieving the results of eButton is convenient [...] it’s as easy as transferring pictures from a digital camera onto a computer. To protect participants’ privacy, the data are coded so they cannot be read until scanned by a computer to block human faces.
Oct 31
health, sports, watch
gizmag - Motorola Mobility has launched MOTOACTV, the company’s first music and fitness device. Designed to help you reach your fitness goals by tracking, syncing and recording your workout data and customizing your music, the Blutetooth-enabled MOTOACTV logs time, distance traveled and calories burned and has an inbuilt heart rate monitor, accelerometer and a GPS which records a map of your routes.
The 1.8 x 1.8 x 0.37 inches (46mm x 46mm x 9.6 mm) square MOTOACTV straps to the wrist or arm or can be mounted on a bike and sports a 1.6-inch full color touch screen that is sweat proof, rain and scratch resistant, and adapts to indoor and outdoor lighting. And it weighs in at a feathery 35grams.
The battery is specced at up to five hours for outdoor workouts, 10 for indoor and nearly two weeks on standby, while the device supports Bluetooth® 4.0 and ANT+ wireless connectivity.
Aug 11
health, input, research
CNET – Engineers at the University of Illinois have unveiled novel, skin-mounted electronics whose circuitry bends, wrinkles, and even stretches with skin. The device platform includes electronic components, medical diagnostics, communications, and human-machine interfacing on a patch so thin and durable it can be mounted to skin much like a temporary tattoo.
What’s more, the team was able to demonstrate its invention across a wide range of components, including LEDs, transistors, wireless antennas, sensors, and conductive coils and solar cells for power. ”We threw everything in our bag of tricks onto that platform, and then added a few other new ideas on top of those to show that we could make it work,” said engineering professor John A. Rogers in a news release. The research is described in detail in the online journal, Science.
The range of medical applications includes EEG and EMG sensors to track nerves and muscles–something that tends to be limited to a lab given the number of electrodes and wires involved.
And the patch itself, mounted on a thin sheet of water-soluble plastic before being laminated to skin with water, can be applied not only like a temporary tattoo, but even on top of a temporary tattoo to help conceal it.
Jul 14
health, input
Fast Company’s Design – A combination of a sensor-infused wristband and a smartphone app will provide nudges for healthier living, based on your behavior.
[...] On stage at TED Global, Jawbone announced the grand project they’ve been quietly working on for years: A wearable band called Up, which is infused with sensors and smartphone connected, allowing you to track your eating, sleeping, and activity patterns.
The interest grew when people realized how large this market is.
“The CDC says that for the first time in history, lifestyle diseases such as diabetes are killing more people than communicable diseases,” Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s VP of product management, tells Co.Design. “We’re trying to solve that problem.” The Up’s sensors collect data about how much you’ve been sleeping and how much you’ve been moving. That data is then fed into a smartphone app, which also takes in information about your meals. (You enter meal data manually, in part by taking pictures of what you’ve eaten.) Based on all that information, the smartphone program provides “nudges” meant to help you live healthier, day by day. For example, if you haven’t slept much, when you wake up the app might suggest a high-protein breakfast and an extra glass of water.
Jun 21
health, input, research
MIT Technology Review - Do you know how much REM sleep you got last night? New types of devices that monitor activity, sleep, diet, and even mood could make us healthier and more productive.
On a quiet Wednesday night in April, an unusual group has assembled in a garage turned hacker studio nestled in a student-dominated neighborhood outside Boston. Those gathered here—mostly in their 20s or 30s and mostly male—are united by a deep interest in themselves. They have come to share the results of their latest self-experiments: monthlong tests of the Zeo, a consumer device designed to analyze sleep.
The group is part of a rapidly growing movement of fitness buffs, techno-geeks, and patients with chronic conditions who obsessively monitor various personal metrics. At the center of the movement is a loosely organized group known as the Quantified Self, whose members are driven by the idea that collecting detailed data can help them make better choices about their health and behavior. In meetings held all over the world, self-trackers discuss how they use a combination of traditional spreadsheets, an expanding selection of smart-phone apps, and various consumer and custom-built devices to monitor patterns of food intake, sleep, fatigue, mood, and heart rate. [...]
Apr 13
gadget, health
TechEye — We don’t know about the rest of everyone in Internet Land but if there was a way to make phone calls from a dog we’d be all over it. Laura Boffi, of the Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design [and her colleagues: Mary Huang and Li Bian], has come up with a wearable vest for messenger dogs with built-in GPS.
The idea is that the dog is trained to trek around disaster areas, and when they find a stranded straggler, they’ll sit in front of them. When he’s walking around, his jacket will play sounds to make nearby survivors aware of their doggy internet saviour. A hammy sounding American guy will then tell you, from the vest, that this dog is a messenger dog, and guide the rescued through recording a voice or picture message
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