A method that uses liquid metal to make an elastic material that is impenetrable to both gases and liquids has been created by an international team of researchers. The material can be used to package valuable technology that needs to be protected from gases, including flexible batteries.

“This is an important step because there has long been a trade-off between elasticity and being impervious to gases,” says Michael Dickey, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work and the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. “Basically, things that were good at keeping gases out tended to be hard and stiff. And things that offered elasticity allowed gases to seep through. We’ve come up with something that offers the desired elasticity while keeping gases out.”

A gallium-indium eutectic alloy (EGaIn) is used in the novel method. Eutectic refers to an alloy with a lower melting point than its component elements. The EGaIn is liquid at room temperature in this instance. A thin coating of EGaIn was produced by the researchers, who then covered it with an elastic polymer. Glass microbeads were placed on the polymer's internal surface to prevent the liquid coating of EGaIn from pooling. The end result is essentially a liquid metal-lined elastic bag or sheath that is impermeable to gases and liquids, reports Matt Shipman at NCSU News.

By measuring how much liquid content was allowed to evaporate and how much oxygen was permitted to escape from a sealed container made of the novel material, the researchers were able to determine how successful the material was. “We found that there was no measurable loss of either liquid or oxygen for the new material,” says Tao Deng, co-corresponding author and Zhi Yuan Chair Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The researchers are also conscious of the costs associated with manufacturing the new material. “The liquid metals themselves are fairly expensive,” Deng says. “However, we’re optimistic that we can optimize the technique – for example, making the EGaIn film thinner – in order to reduce the cost. At the moment, a single package would cost a few dollars, but we did not attempt to optimize for cost so there is a path forward to drive cost down.”

The researchers are currently exploring testing options to determine whether the material is actually an even more effective barrier than they’ve been able to show so far. “Basically, we reached the limit of the testing equipment that we had available,” Dickey says. “We’re also looking for industry partners to explore potential applications for this work. Flexible batteries for use with soft electronics is one obvious application, but other devices that either use liquids or are sensitive to oxygen will benefit from this technology.”

DarioHealth, a leader in the global digital therapeutics (DTx) market, announced an agreement with Dexcom, the global leader in real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology, to integrate its market-leading CGMs, into Dario's multi-chronic condition platform.

Dexcom CGM uses a small, wearable sensor to continuously measure and send glucose levels to a receiver or smart device, enabling people with diabetes to make real-time decisions about their health. This agreement enables the integration of data from Dexcom CGMs directly into Dario's metabolic solution, making it easy for people using the wearable device to benefit from Dario's highly personalized support. Dario's integrated digital health solution provides highly personalized support for people living with chronic conditions by using clinical, engagement and behavioral data to adapt each user's experience over time. Data from glucose monitoring devices such as Dario's proprietary smart meter and now Dexcom CGMs enable highly personalized journeys that guide users to the most effective and engaging path to better health, according to a press release.

"Nearly two million people use a continuous glucose monitor today, and the ability to capture that data in Dario's platform expands our ability to deliver a dynamic, highly relevant experience to more people living with diabetes. It's an exciting development that will ultimately benefit every Dario member as the CGM data enriches our overall data ecosystem," said Rick Anderson, President of Dario.

The integration with Dexcom builds on the collaboration between Dario and Sanofi US which aims to establish an ecosystem of dedicated technology partners and industry-leading digital therapeutics solutions.

Read more: Medtronic MiniMed Improves Outcomes for IDDM Patients

"We're proud of our ongoing collaboration with Sanofi US which is helping Dario to establish new innovations to meet the needs of our customers and members as demonstrated by this Dexcom integration," continued Mr. Anderson.

About DarioHealth

DarioHealth Corp. is a leading digital therapeutics(DTx) company revolutionizing how people with chronic conditions manage their health through a user-centric multi-chronic condition platform. The platform and suite of solutions deliver personalized and dynamic interventions driven by data analytics and one-on-one coaching for diabetes, hypertension, weight management, musculoskeletal pain, and behavioral health.

The user-centric platform offers people continuous and customized care for health, disrupting the traditional episodic approach to healthcare. This approach empowers people to holistically adapt their lifestyles for sustainable behavior change, driving exceptional user satisfaction, retention, and results. Dario provides its high user-rated solutions globally to health plans and other payors, self-insured employers, providers of care, and directly to consumers.

Stratix Corporation, a leading provider of Managed Mobility Services (MMS) in the U.S., has partnered with Hanover Research on a new survey of IT leaders that shows companies are investing in mobile technology solutions to get the nimbleness and efficiency they need to succeed as disruption continues and the economic outlook appears recessionary.

Stratix's 2023 Enterprise Mobility Outlook report found 86 percent of organizations are using more mobile now than in the last three years, and 97 percent say mobile is very, or extremely important to their business outcomes. It's a clear indication business leaders are rapidly turning to mobile technology use cases that enable agility and increase productivity, states a press release.

"What is different in this year's Enterprise Mobility Outlook report is that we are seeing IT leaders prioritizing mobile investment strategies to transform workflows, enhance employee enablement and collaboration, and improve supply chain efficiencies," explained Stratix Senior Vice President of Marketing Elizabeth Klingseisen. "Despite - or perhaps because of - economic conditions, businesses are doubling down on cost-effective mobile technology to be more competitive and effective."

The study also found the proliferation of mobile use cases is expanding to more than phones and tablets. They found:

• 59% are leveraging more wearable devices in workflows now than in the past three years
• 67% are using more IoT
• 78% say emerging technology impacts overall IT strategy

The report also revealed the proliferation of mobile technology is putting pressure on those same organizations.  

"Most IT teams are overwhelmed by the number and diversity of technology solutions they're now expected to support," said Klingseisen. "It's leading to burnout, security concerns, and other problems, so they are increasingly turning to partner with MMS providers to get the expertise needed to be successful."

Read more: Apple Study: Women Experience Abnormal Periods

The full survey results and findings can be found in the Stratix 2023 Enterprise Mobility Outlook research report. You can also listen to more analysis from Elizabeth Klingseisen in the Enterprise Mobility Insights podcast.

About Hanover Research

Founded in 2003, Hanover Research is a global research and analytics firm that delivers market intelligence through a unique, fixed-fee model to more than 1,000 clients. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Hanover employs high-caliber market researchers, analysts, and account executives to provide a service that is revolutionary in its combination of flexibility and affordability. Hanover was named a Top 50 Market Research Firm by the American Marketing Association in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and by the Insights Association in 2019.

About Stratix

As the most experienced pure-play enterprise mobility specialist in the U.S., Stratix is dedicated to guaranteeing nonstop mobility. The company leverages four decades of expertise to accelerate and inspire mobility transformation for some of the world's largest organizations. Stratix's SmartMobile programs ensure each client has the right technology, tools, and support programs in place to stay ahead.

According to a research article published in JAMA, ChatGPT responded to inquiries about cardiovascular disease prevention "mostly appropriately." 25 questions were created by researchers to cover key ideas in heart disease prevention, such as risk factor counseling, test findings, and prescription information. They asked the AI chatbot the questions three times, and a clinician rated each set of answers.

If the chatbot's responses varied in each set, the doctor assessed the responses as appropriate, improper, or unreliable. The responses were also assessed in two different contexts: first, as patient-facing platforms, and second, as draft replies to patient messages given to a doctor for review, reports MobiHealth News.

In the study, it was discovered that 21 of the 25 questions were rated as appropriate in both scenarios, while only four were improper. Three of the four sets of wrong responses contained all three incorrect answers, while one set contained just one such response.

The analysis's limitations were recognized by the researchers. Cardiovascular disease prevention cannot be covered in just 25 questions at this time because the chatbot is not yet intended for medical usage. They advised using more reviewers to assess responses in subsequent studies or creating a formal grading system that didn't rely as heavily on a clinician's opinion.

"Findings suggest the potential of interactive AI to assist clinical workflows by augmenting patient education and patient-clinician communication around common CVD prevention queries. For example, such an application may provide conversational responses to simple queries on informational platforms or create automated draft responses to patient electronic messages for clinicians," they wrote. "Whether these approaches can improve readability should be explored, because prior work has indicated low readability of certain online patient educational materials for CVD prevention."

Many businesses promote chatbots for use in the healthcare industry. The company Wysa raised $20 million last summer. Wysa creates a chatbot that leads customers through cognitive behavioral therapy for issues including depression, anxiety, and stress.

Woebot Health, a business that also develops chatbots for mental health issues, received a $9.5 million investment from Leaps by Bayer about a year ago. In 2021, Woebot's postpartum depression digital therapy was given FDA Breakthrough Device Designation.

Leitwert is a Zurich-based start-up founded in 2014 during a robotics project at ETH Zurich’s Autonomous Systems Lab. Over time, Leitwert has been specializing in the development of firmware for wearable devices. The company enables patients, care providers, and researchers to improve the quality of life and health outcomes through deeper insights gained from wearable biosensors.

Leitwert provides market-leading firmware for wearables and enables device manufacturers to efficiently manage their device fleet with IoT applications and provides a platform for the integration of health data from wearables in clinical processes and digital health solutions.

Watch the whole interview with Lukas Geissmann, CPO at Leitwert, below to learn more about their interesting technology!

This past week, Italian artist Mattia Casalegno debuted his latest thought-provoking installation, Aerobanquets RMX, at Miami Art Week in Miami, Florida. The multisensory experience combined VR technology with delicious food to deliver a mixed-reality meal quite unlike anything seen before.

Aerobanquets RMX is a collaboration between the artist Mattia Casalegno and the team behind the restaurants Rahi, Adda, and soon-to-open Dhamaka — the chef-partner Chintan Pandya, the restaurateur Roni Mazumdar and Rahi’s chef de cuisine, Soham Deshpande — who together designed the menu. The performance debuted in 2018 at an arts center in Shanghai, reports NewYork Times.

Throughout the unique gastronomy experience, guests dined on five to seven dishes prepared by Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning chef Chintan Pandya.

Since they are unable to see their food in the real world, an animated rendering of each one-bite course appears in the virtual space as it’s served. As a result, there are no preconceptions of what one’s about to eat and diners find their senses heightened, each flavor affected by what they are hearing are seeing in the virtual reality space.

“Your senses are more open. You’re more attentive and aware of what you are eating,” Casalengo told Artnet News. “VR is a game for me. It’s a way to extend your senses and focus more on taste and texture.”

This is a wonderful way to eat a meal. Virtual space animations swirl around you, taking you to enigmatic voids with floating fruits and musical instruments or colossal classical statues. Gail Simmons, a food writer whose dulcet voice you may already be familiar with from her 16 years as a Top Chef judge, narrates the meal and describes each one-bite course.

This incredibly distinctive gastronomic and artistic experience was initially offered by Casalegno at Shanghai's Chronus Art Center in 2018; it is now being presented with Meta Open Arts and produced by Flavor Five Studio as a special event at Superblue Miami exclusively for this year's art week. The James Beard Foundation in New York also started using aerobanquets in 2020, but this is the biggest one yet, accommodating up to 16 people per meal. Every time, Casalegno works with a different chef, changing the virtual reality graphics and music to go with the new meal.

Reservations are required for dining at Aerobanquets, where patrons can select between a $58 five-bite, 30-minute experience or a $200 one-hour VIP lunch with ten bites and alcoholic beverages. The pillowy milk bread topped with mushrooms and lentils and the intensely spicy bite of Hudson Valley foie gras are highlights of the VIP version.

Japanese tech startup Diver-X made news when it launched an ambitious VR headset earlier this year. Now, Diver-X has unveiled an innovative glove that is capable of flexing and compressing to replicate the sensation of touch.

Dubbed ContactGlove, the wearable is a revolutionary VR controller in the form of a glove, equipped with haptic feedback and high-precision hand tracking. With button input just like conventional VR controllers, ContactGlove allows you to experience a truly immersive VR world. Plus, it's compatible with all SteamVR content.

Hand Tracking/SteamVR Skeletal Input

Until now, VR gloves were only not accessible to the mass due to their high cost and proprietary software requirements. Driver-X has changed that by making the VR glove controller compatible with SteamVR, the most popular VR content platform, thus making it accessible to a wider audience. Now, everyone can enjoy the benefits of a VR glove controller at a more affordable price.

Built-in Controller Input

ContactGlove is a unique glove-type device that not only captures finger movements but also reproduces buttons and stick operations with just finger movements. This allows for a more intuitive and immersive experience in virtual reality.

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Read more: Apple Could Soon Launches AR/VR Headset with 8K Display

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ContactGlove SDK

To make content development using ContactGlove as smooth as possible, the company provides SDKs for Unity and UnrealEngine. This allows developers to easily integrate ContactGlove into their VR projects and take full advantage of its unique features.

Specification

• Battery: 6 hours without haptic feedback, 2 hours with haptic feedback (will be improved by a software update)
• Charging time: 2.5 hours (USB type-C)
• Wireless connection: includes a dedicated dongle
• Size: S/M/L
• Hand tracking: bending sensor and IMU (standard version does not support finger opening)
• Vibration: Back of the hand (equipped on all models)
• Tactile feedback: thumb, index finger, middle finger (on tactile-equipped models only)

Only Available On Kickstarter

The company is pitching ContactGloves starting at ¥65,000 (~$490) for models without the flexible touch membrane, and ¥94,000 (~$710) for non-haptic models with Tundra Trackers included. All haptic-capable versions of ContactGloves are already gone, which were priced starting at ¥115,000 (~$870).

Daily health-tech pioneer Baracoda provided the general public with its first glimpse of BHeart, the world's first health tracker with an "endless" battery. Integrated discreetly within bracelets and watch bands compatible with any classic timepiece, BHeart uses its patent-pending BMotion energy harvesting technology to recharge itself entirely by motion, body heat, and environmental light.

BHeart gathers sufficient energy to power a range of sensors that deliver health data to a smartphone app for iOS or Android devices. BHeart uses this captured energy to encourage a more active lifestyle by its wearer. Thanks to its advanced technology, BHeart was awarded a CES Innovation Award in the sustainability category, according to a press release.

BHeart is an example of the next generation of daily health-tech products, which Baracoda believes will increasingly center design on blending into existing objects, fashion, and routines, making health-technology more hassle-free and invisible. By contrast, today's health trackers often require considerable user intervention, including frequent charging, manual updates, and complicated data interpretation. The complexity can form barriers to adoption by those who don't want another gadget to manage and seek more passive ways to keep tabs on their health or to share data with healthcare providers and caregivers.

"The first health trackers were important for establishing that wearable technology can encourage healthier lifestyles, but we must reach more than athletes to improve public health," said Thomas Serval, CEO of Baracoda. "People of all ages and fitness levels need easier ways to track their health, so we must design products that fit into everyone's lifestyles, including people who don't find today's technology accessible or easy to maintain."

Read more: Using Wearables to Help People Affected by Substance Use

BHeart is designed to be subtly worn as a screenless watch band for an existing timepiece or as a bracelet. Despite its simplicity, its clever design hides complex sensors and energy collection technology. Baracoda's AIoT platform transforms the data coming from multiple health sensors into actionable insights about users' body energy, health status, mental resilience, activity level, and sleep quality.

BHeart's smartphone app shares these insights and also provides simple, personalized advice, if needed, on the state of the user's health in order to improve it daily. In addition to health indexes, users can see the energy they produce each day and over time, showing personal baselines and how behavior influences health, to encourage daily improvements.

BHeart is also created with sustainable principles in mind, including not only its energy-autonomous design but also the selection of plastic-free materials used in its manufacturing. Sustainable leather and high-quality and lightweight alloys have been chosen for durability and its design for use with current classic watches further reduces the electronic waste associated with some smart watches' short life cycles.

"Helping people become healthier shouldn't demand they take on entirely new routines, and technology doesn't have to be disposable to be low maintenance," added Serval. "We can build tech that lasts to build habits that last. It just has to be designed tofit into our existing lifestyles."

For the base model of the watch band, the material is a lightweight metal, in silver, dark silver, or gold tones to match most classic watches. The extended product line will include a watch band or standalone bracelet made of sustainable leather to easily match any daily outfit.

BHeart is compatible with standard watches with a lug width of 18-22mm. The price of BHeart starts at $100 and will be available to purchase at bheart.io from April 2023. The BHeart app will be free to download from iOS App Store in April and Google Play Store in June 2023.

About Baracoda

Established on three continents, Baracoda is a leader in daily health-tech. Baracoda infuses connected tech into the everyday routine, leveraging AI, data analysis, machine learning, app development, gamification, and more. The firm launches products and scale business alongside global market leaders, relying on a unique B2B2C business model. Its CES-awarded innovation model is driven by quantitative indexes, developed in-house to recognize daily habits that improve health and wellness.

Advancements in Virtual Reality let its users do many things in a virtual environment. However, one aspect that has been difficult to replicate is the sense of touch. That may be about to change with the development of the Haptic Metaverse Glove by Japanese start-up AI Silk Corporation. AI Silk, a Tokyo-based wearable-tech startup, is set to unveil a new haptic glove at CES 2023 which approaches both haptic feedback and finger-tracking in a different way altogether.

Called Lead Skin, the controller houses these conductive fibers, which not only provide finger-tracking and control buttons on the back of the gauntlet-style controller, but also an electrical haptic pulse that aims to simulate manipulating virtual objects.

Made from AI Silk’s proprietary conductive fiber, LEAD SKIN®, Haptic Metaverse Glove powered by LEAD SKIN features built-in finger-bending sensors, as well as control buttons on the back of the wearer’s hand, all of which are also made of the same conductive fiber. Providing wearers tactile feedback when they “touch” Metaverse objects, the ultra-lightweight glove enables users to enjoy a truly immersive Metaverse experience without having to hold a bulky remote control, reports Heraus.

“Our Haptic Metaverse Glove powered by LEAD SKIN is a game-changer for Metaverse exploration because it enables players to move around and manipulate AR objects freely and intuitively, just as you would in the physical world,” said AI Silk CEO Hideo Okano. “What makes this possible is LEAD SKIN, our proprietary and patented conductive fiber that has the potential for a wide range of uses beyond AR games. We are very excited to launch our new product and introduce this innovative technology at CES 2023.”

One of the major advantages of the Haptic Metaverse Glove is its lightweight and comfortable design. It weighs only 380g (~13.5oz), or about the weight of two Quest 2 controllers with batteries included. Lead Skin is said to measure the current impedance from the expansion and contraction of the fabric within, and then through deep machine learning-developed algorithms “understand the intended actions from glove wearers’ physical finger movements,” AI Silk says in a press statement.

AI Silk Corporation’s Haptic Metaverse Glove could be a game-changer for virtual reality, bringing the sense of touch to the forefront of the technology.

Meta (formerly Facebook) has acquired the Netherlands-based 3D smart glass maker Luxexcel, as it doubles down on its Metaverse dream in 2023. Meta, however, did not disclose the sum it spent on acquiring the company.

As first reported by Belgian Newspaper DeTijd (Dutch), the Turnhout, Belgium-based company was quietly acquired by Facebook parent Meta in an ostensible bid to bolster the development of its in-development AR glasses.

Luxexcel was founded in 2009 and is best known for 3D printing to make prescription lenses for glasses. Currently, the Belgian-Dutch company focuses on developing smart lenses which can be printed with integrated technology like LCD displays and AR capabilities.

Read more: Facebook Owner Meta Unveils VR Headset

Luxexcel can integrate the elements needed to create an augmented reality (AR) experience within a prescription lens, such as holographic film and projectors, reports The Verge.

"We're excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies," Meta said in a statement.

In September 2021, Meta unveiled the Ray-Ban Stories, a pair of smart glasses that can take photos and videos, or make hands-free, voice-controlled calls using Meta platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook. Now, Meta will likely leverage the company’s technology to produce prescription AR glasses, a product that has long been anticipated to come out of Meta’s billions of dollars of investment into its Reality Labs. However, a report this summer stated that Meta was scaling back its plans for consumer-grade AR glasses, which were initially slated for 2024. Meta did not comment on these rumors at the time, reports TechCrunch.

Even as Meta works toward building its first pair of AR glasses, we may not see a finished product for some time. Andrew Bosworth, CTO & Head of Reality Labs, says Meta’s AR glasses will “require years of progress” as it attempts to make the device “slimmer, lighter, faster, and more powerful.” In June, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported that the first version of Meta’s AR glasses will only be available to developers — just like Snap’s Spectacles — while two later pairs could become available to consumers over the course of several years.

At IFA 2022 in Berlin, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Meta Platforms, Inc. announced a multi-year agreement to collaborate on a new era of spatial computing powered by Snapdragon extended reality (XR) platforms and technologies for the Meta Quest platform. The companies have worked together on cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) innovations for over seven years, most recently with Meta Quest 2, and this agreement solidifies the mutual commitment to deliver multiple generations of premium devices and experiences powered by custom VR platforms in the years to come, Qualcomm said in a press release.

“By partnering with Meta, we are bringing together two of the world’s Metaverse leaders to revolutionize the future of computing for billions of people in the coming years,” said Cristiano Amon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. “Building off our joint leadership in XR, this agreement will allow our companies to deliver best-in-class devices and experiences to transform how we work, play, learn, create, and connect in a fully realized Metaverse.”

Read more: Technavio: AR/VR Integration To Drive Metaverse Market Growth

“We're working with Qualcomm Technologies on customized virtual reality chipsets - powered by Snapdragon XR platforms and technology - for our future roadmap of Quest products,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta. “As we continue to build more advanced capabilities and experiences for virtual and augmented reality, it has become more important to build specialized technologies to power our future VR headsets and other devices. Unlike mobile phones, building virtual reality brings novel, multi-dimensional challenges in spatial computing, cost, and form factor. These chipsets will help us keep pushing virtual reality to its limits and deliver awesome experiences.”

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator and the driving force behind the development, launch, and expansion of 5G.

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan's largest and one of the world's leading high-tech applied research institutions, announced it will introduce sports and fitness technologies at its CES 2023. ITRI also will exhibit its innovations in sports and fitness at CES Unveiled Las Vegas.

ITRI's sports and fitness highlight technologies include iSportWeaR, a wearable device that monitors physiological data and provides health analysis and management during exercise; and the Digital Twin for Sport Guidance with Vital Sign Sensing, the world's first virtual coach for indoor bike and flywheel training using contactless detection technology to provide advice on breathing, biomechanics, and coordination.

ITRI's CES 2023 highlight technologies in AI, robotics, and ICT include AI Aquarium, a CES 2023 Innovation Awards honoree, the world's first smart aquarium that helps identify marine life in real time; Cubot ONE: Indoor/Outdoor AMR, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) integrating AI, IoT and 5G technologies, that can operate indoors and outdoors, take elevators and travel on the rugged ground; and RobotSmith, an AI and robotic system for metal workpiece grinding and polishing.

iSportWeaR is a smart personal health management solution for fitness and sporting enthusiasts. Featuring non-contact low-power radar technology, it can be integrated into accessories such as sunglasses and bike handle grips to provide real-time detection and continuous monitoring of physiological parameters. It accurately measures heart rate, breathing rate, and activity behavior such as cycling posture and resting status. This helps athletes better understand their health status and optimize training across various exercises such as running and cycling. Long-term usage history is logged in a personal database, which users can check anytime.

iSportWeaR also provides data for sports injury prevention. When detecting abnormal physiological conditions, it sends out alerts via the smartphone to users, helping to prevent injuries such as heat exhaustion.

The application in bike handle grips is the first of its kind in the current bike accessory market, marking a breakthrough in health-monitoring cycling solutions. ITRI worked with a leading bicycle brand to develop iSportWeaR and is introducing this technology to various pioneering product designs for additional cycling applications.

The iSportWeaR miniature module enables seamless integration into different sporting accessories, and it eliminates the need for sensors that have direct contact with the user's skin. The sensing device even works with sweat interference and through gloves, and it works indoors or outdoors, rain or shine, in temperatures ranging from 41 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 50 degrees Celsius) and with a relative humidity of 10 to 90%. iSportWeaR uses Bluetooth Low Energy communication to receive and transmit signals, with measurement range for heartbeat rates of 48 to 240 beats per minute (bpm) and respiration rates of 6 to 60 bpm.

The Digital Twin for Sport Guidance with Vital Sign Sensing is the world's first virtual coach for indoor bike and flywheel training using contactless detection technology and big data analytics to provide advice on breathing, biomechanics, and coordination. The system measures respiratory rate via thermal sensing and includes a depth camera for skeletal imaging and motion tracking. It analyzes the user's back, shoulders, elbows, arms, hips, and knees through image-based skeletal movements. It compares collected data with the statistics of world-class cyclists and offers real-time professional-level suggestions on breathing adjustment, motion strength, and body coordination, improving users' training experience and progress. With no monitoring wearables, users can focus more on realistic road condition simulations and enhance training effectiveness. ITRI has cooperated with world-renowned bicycle manufacturers to create powerful solutions for training athletes with the Digital Twin for Sport Guidance with Vital Sign Sensing.

Additional sports and fitness technologies that ITRI will showcase include:

iMetaWeaR is a smart clothing technology enabling haptic feedback via multi-position electrical stimulation to create an enhanced Metaverse experience for users playing virtual sports such as boxing and fencing. Dry, washable fabric-based electrodes are screen-printed into somatosensory garments, eliminating the need for adhesive electrodes. The elastic feature and customized design offer high comfort, and the robust control mode allows for stimulation variations in an immersive environment.

The Athletic Armband for Contactless EMG Detection is a capacitive electromyography (EMG) athletic armband for continuous real-time measurement of electric signals from muscles without direct skin contact. This sports armband can measure muscle strength in professional training, providing information including the order of muscle activation, the level of fatigue, and injury alerts through an app. The wearable design includes flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) and redistribution layer(RDL) technologies, and the sensing distance is up to 0.3 mm.

mSafety is a development platform with a connected wearable that allows you to design value-adding health and safety applications. With mSafety, your health business can unlock the possibilities of real-time monitoring of digital biomarkers. You will have complete control over the solution design and the health data you collect. Choose to develop your unique mSafety solution in-house, or make use of our development service and have Sony do it for you.

There are already products available that rely on the expertise of Sony's mHealth Platform in the healthcare market, elderly care market, or in the field of clinical trials and sports.

Sony's mHealth Platform allows Service providers a:

• Fully scalable and quick to implement
• Easy fleet management
• Reliable connectivity
• Bi-directional communication

And enables end users with:

• Bi-directional communication
• Easy to use
• Data subscription plan and global roaming profile
• Single-purpose wearable device
• Highly luminescent black and white display
• IoT low-power consumption – long battery life

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Want to know more? Watch this interview with Sony at the Wearable Technologies Pavilion at MEDICA 2022:

Synchron, the endovascular brain-computer interface (BCI) company, announced an oversubscribed $75 million Series C financing round led by ARCH Venture Partners. Gates Frontier, Bezos Expeditions, Reliance Digital Health Limited, Greenoaks, Alumni Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Project X join ARCH as new additional investors. Existing investors, including Khosla Ventures, NeuroTechnology Investors, METIS, Forepont Capital Partners, ID8 Investments, Shanda Group, and the University of Melbourne participated in the round. The Series C funding brings the total amount raised since inception to $145 million.

The funding will accelerate the development of Synchron’s first platform product (Synchron Switch™ BCI), and launch a pivotal clinical trial. Ari Nowacek from ARCH Venture Partners will join Synchron’s Board of Directors, and ARCH Co-Founder and Managing Director Robert Nelsen will join as Board Observer.

Read more: Neuralink’s Brain Chip Gets A Wide-Ranging Update

“We have an opportunity to deliver a first-in-class commercial BCI. The problem of paralysis is much larger than people realize. 100 million people worldwide have upper limb impairment,” said Tom Oxley, M.D., Ph.D., CEO & Founder of Synchron. “We are extremely excited to work with ARCH and this world-class syndicate to bring this technology to the people who need it.”

“At ARCH, our approach has always been to pair great science and technology with remarkable teams to build disruptive companies. The technology we witnessed at Synchron is helping people with previously untreatable conditions regain connection to the world. It is an exciting time for neurotechnology,” said ARCH Co-Founder and Managing Director Robert Nelsen.

The Synchron Switch brain-computer interface is implanted in the blood vessel on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain via the jugular vein, through a minimally-invasive endovascular procedure. Once implanted, it is designed to detect and wirelessly transmit motor intent out of the brain, restoring a capability for severely paralyzed patients to control personal devices with hands-free point-and-click, reports BusinessWire.

Synchron has an ongoing US clinical trial, COMMAND, that assesses the impact on daily tasks such as texting, emailing, online shopping, and telehealth services. The FDA granted Breakthrough Device designation to Synchron in August 2020 and an Investigational Device Exemption in July 2021. The first US patient was implanted in July 2022 at Mount Sinai in New York. Synchron CEO 2022 said at a TED Talk, “A brain implant that turns your thoughts into text.”

About Synchron

Synchron is a clinical-stage endovascular brain-computer interface (BCI) company. Since 2012, the company has been developing a BCI platform that avoids the need for open brain surgery by using a minimally-invasive procedure. The Synchron Switch BCI received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2020 and is currently in human clinical trials in the US and Australia. Synchron has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals including Nature Biotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering, and JNIS. Synchron is based in Brooklyn, New York with R&D facilities in Melbourne, Australia.

Rockley Photonics, a global leader in photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions, announced that it has developed what it believes to be the world’s first micro-Transfer-Printed (mTP) silicon-photonics-based laser for commercial applications. This groundbreaking achievement is expected to allow Rockley to further increase the density and reduce the size of its high-density spectrophotometer chips — which are already the world’s smallest for broadband infrared wavelength laser spectrometry (covering 1000 nanometers of the spectrum)and are smaller in area than LED-based solutions currently used in wearables.

This advancement could potentially have a significant impact across a wide range of applications, including the design of exceptionally small wearable devices for detecting and measuring multiple biomarkers. New silicon-photonics-based biosensing chips using mTP technology are expected to be available in the first half of 2024. The new chip technology should not impact the upcoming launch of Rockley’s Bioptx™ biosensing band nor any current-generation products that Rockley and its customers are developing, reports BusinessWire.

With this breakthrough in the mTP of silicon-photonics-based lasers, Rockley has dramatically increased the laser density of its photonics integrated circuits (PICs) for biosensing, creating what it believes to be the world’s highest-density broad-wavelength laser spectrophotometer chip, surpassing its own previous achievements. Moreover, the mTP process is expected to reduce manufacturing costs and enable thinner, smaller footprints and higher-density chip designs. These attributes are powerful benefits for use in consumer and MedTech devices and could facilitate the integration of Rockley’s biosensing technology into future tiny wearables.

Leveraging the mTP process, the new PIC technology will integrate a laser-generating “membrane” with a thickness of only 4 microns. The potential applications for this higher-density and smaller-footprint chip technology extend beyond biosensing and health monitoring into other areas, such as ultra-small wearables, clothing, or XR/VR/AR headsets, and glasses.

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This mTP breakthrough is the direct result of Rockley’s multi-year partnership with the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork in Ireland, X-Celeprint Limited, and the Irish Photonics Integration Centre (IPIC), with funding support from the Irish government’s Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). The project started five years ago with a focus on developing a custom mTP process for Rockley’s silicon photonics platform and has involved a multidisciplinary team of world-class engineers and researchers. This technology, along with many other Rockley innovations, is backed by a robust multidisciplinary patent portfolio of over 200 issued patents and 295 pending patents in total.

“Applying the micro-transfer printing process to the production of integrated lasers is a huge breakthrough that we believe will have a tremendous impact on wearable biosensing and on the photonics industry as a whole,” said Dr. Andrew Rickman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rockley. “We arguably have some of the most sophisticated photonics technology in the world, and this unprecedented level of miniaturization raises the bar even further. By creating biosensing chips that are smaller, lower-cost, and more efficient, we can continually improve our wearable biosensing products and deliver novel, relevant, and more powerful ways to monitor our health.”

“I believe that this next-gen, heterogeneous integration platform will lead to several significant technological advancements, including higher densities of lasers, increasingly smaller chip sizes, and ultra-high-volume manufacturing,” said Aaron Zilkie, Chief Technology Officer of photonics at Rockley. “The team has been working on this project for years, and we are extremely excited to have reached this important milestone. We are grateful for the close collaboration we’ve had with our research partners and for the funding support from the Irish government and its Science Foundation Ireland and Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund.”

About Rockley Photonics

A global leader in photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions, Rockley Photonics is developing a comprehensive range of photonic integrated circuits and associated modules, sensors, and full-stack solutions. From next-generation sensing platforms specifically designed for mobile health monitoring and machine vision to high-speed, high-volume solutions for data communications, Rockley is laying the foundation for a new generation of applications across multiple industries. Rockley believes that photonics will eventually become as pervasive as micro-electronics, and it has developed a platform with the power and flexibility needed to address both mass markets and a wide variety of vertical applications.

Formed in 2013, Rockley is uniquely positioned to support hyper-scale manufacturing and address a multitude of high-volume markets. Rockley has partnered with numerous tier-1 customers across a diverse range of industries to deliver complex optical systems required to bring transformational products to market.

Tiny sensors the size of a grain of sand could allow brain-machine interface control of prosthetics and implantable wearable tech.

UC Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles, or organs in real-time. Because these battery-less sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the door to “electroceuticals” to treat disorders such as epilepsy or stimulate the immune system or tamp down inflammation.

The so-called neural dust, which the team implanted in rats' muscles and peripheral nerves, is unique in that ultrasound is used both to power and read out the measurements. Ultrasound technology is already well-developed for hospital use, and ultrasound vibrations can penetrate nearly anywhere in the body, unlike radio waves, the researchers say, reports Robert Sanders at UC-Berkeley.

“I think the long-term prospects for neural dust are not only within nerves and the brain, but much broader,“ said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and one of the study’s two main authors. “Having access to in-body telemetry has never been possible because there has been no way to put something super tiny super deep. But now I can take a speck of nothing and park it next to a nerve or organ, your GI tract or a muscle, and read out the data.“

Maharbiz, neuroscientist Jose Carmena, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, and their colleagues will report their findings in the August 3 issue of the journal Neuron.

The sensors, which the researchers have already shrunk to a 1-millimeter cube – about the size of a large grain of sand– contain a piezoelectric crystal that converts ultrasound vibrations from outside the body into electricity to power a tiny, on-board transistor that is in contact with a nerve or muscle fiber. A voltage spike in the fiber alters the circuit and the vibration of the crystal, which changes the echo detected by the ultrasound receiver, typically the same device that generates the vibrations. The slight change, called backscatter, allows them to determine the voltage.

Motes sprinkled throughout the body

In their experiment, the UC Berkeley team powered up the passive sensors every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses, which gave them a continual, real-time readout. They coated the first-generation motes – 3 millimeters long, 1-millimeter-high, and 4/5-millimeter-thick– with surgical-grade epoxy, but they are currently building motes from biocompatible thin films which would potentially last in the body without degradation for a decade or more.

While the experiments so far have involved the peripheral nervous system and muscles, the neural dust motes could work equally well in the central nervous system and brain to control prosthetics, the researchers say. Today’s implantable electrodes degrade within 1 to 2 years, and all connect to wires that pass through holes in the skull. Wireless sensors – dozens to a hundred – could be sealed in, avoiding infection and unwanted movement of the electrodes.

“The original goal of the neural dust project was to imagine the next generation of brain-machine interfaces, and to make it a viable clinical technology,” said neuroscience graduate student Ryan Neely. “If a paraplegic wants to control a computer or a robotic arm, you would just implant this electrode in the brain and it would last essentially a lifetime.”

In a paper published online in 2013, the researchers estimated that they could shrink the sensors down to a cube 50 microns on a side – about 2 thousandths of an inch, or half the width of a human hair. At that size, the motes could nestle up to just a few nerve axons and continually record their electrical activity.

“The beauty is that now, the sensors are small enough to have a good application in the peripheral nervous system, for bladder control or appetite suppression, for example,“ Carmena said. “The technology is not really there yet to get to the 50-micron target size, which we would need for the brain and central nervous system. Once it’s clinically proven, however, neural dust will just replace wire electrodes. This time, once you close up the brain, you’re done.“

The team is working now to miniaturize the device further, find more biocompatible materials and improve the surface transceiver that sends and receives the ultrasounds, ideally using beam-steering technology to focus the sound waves on individual motes. They are now building little backpacks for rats to hold the ultrasound transceiver that will record data from implanted motes.

They’re also working to expand the motes’ ability to detect non-electrical signals, such as oxygen or hormone levels. “The vision is to implant these neural dustmotes anywhere in the body, and have a patch over the implanted site send ultrasonic waves to wake up and receive necessary information from the motes for the desired therapy you want,” said Dongjin Seo, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer sciences. “Eventually you would use multiple implants and one patch that would ping each implant individually, or all simultaneously.”

Ultrasound vs radio

Maharbiz and Carmena conceived of the idea of neural dust about five years ago, but attempts to power an implantable device and read out the data using radio waves were disappointing. Radio attenuates very quickly with distance in tissue, so communicating with devices deep in the body would be difficult without using potentially damaging high-intensity radiation.

Marharbiz hit on the idea of ultrasound, and in 2013 published a paper with Carmena, Seo, and their colleagues describing how such a system might work. “Our first study demonstrated that the fundamental physics of ultrasound allowed for very, very small implants that could record and communicate neural data,” said Maharbiz. He and his students have now created that system.

“Ultrasound is much more efficient when you are targeting devices that are on the millimeter scale or smaller and that are embedded deep in the body,” Seo said. “You can get a lot of power into it and a lot more efficient transfer of energy and communication when using ultrasound as opposed to electromagnetic waves, which has been the go-to method for wirelessly transmitting power to miniature implants”

“Now that you have a reliable, minimally invasive neural pickup in your body, the technology could become the driver for a whole gamut of applications, things that today don’t even exist,“ Carmena said.

Other co-authors of the Neuron paper are graduate student Konlin Shen, undergraduate Utkarsh Singhal, and UC Berkeley professors Elad Alon and Jan Rabaey. The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense.

Due to cost or social stigma, millions of people who could benefit from hearing aids frequently choose not to use them. However, Taiwanese researchers used 21 volunteers with mild to moderate hearing loss to compare Apple AirPods to conventional hearing aids. The "Live Listen" app, which functions as a microphone, was used to connect the AirPods to Apple cellphones.

They found that the AirPods Pro model, which has a noise cancellation feature, performed as well as premium hearing aids in certain environments. They hope this knowledge will encourage more companies to include features in smartphone technology that help people with hearing loss.

Read more: Apple Study: Women Experience Abnormal Periods

For the study, AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro were connected to the iPhone XS Max smartphones with iOS version 13.0 for this study. The hearing performance of hearing aids and AirPods were then analyzed to understand the similarity and differences between them in the study, which was supported by grants from the National Science and Technology Council, Veterans General Hospitals, and the University System of Taiwan Joint Research Program, states BusinessInsider.

The electroacoustic characteristics were compared, including frequency response bandwidth, frequency response smoothness, maximum output sound pressure level at 90 dB sound, and others. The most similar qualities to a hearing aid were found in AirPods Pro, while AirPods 2 only partially matched such features.

According to the study's findings, those who have mild-to-moderate hearing loss might consider using AirPods Pro. The basic hearing aid and AirPod Pro performed very identically; however, the AirPod 2 was not a good match for this.

However, the study points out that there are limitations to using the AirPods Pro as a hearing aid, including battery life and stronger microphones to pick up environmental sounds. But as Yen-Fu Cheng at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, who co-wrote the study, says, the AirPods Pro are “a good way for people to experience what the world would be like if they could get some help, an upgrade for their hearing.”

Evidation, the company that connects directly with individuals to measure health in everyday life, has launched FluSmart, a digital flu monitoring program that brings together individuals, researchers, and public and private organizations to understand flu at its earliest stages.

Evidation’s FluSmart is a nationwide program that helps people proactively understand risk factors for flu and provides personalized insights related to flu and influenza-like illness. Using user-permission data from wearables and self-reported information, Evidation alerts individuals when a change is detected that may be correlated with flu-like symptoms and prompts them to complete a symptom survey. Individuals can report flu symptoms at any time and do not need a wearable to participate in the program. When appropriate, Evidation can also direct eligible individuals to relevant resources, including clinical studies in their geographic area, reports Evidation.

FluSmart continues Evidation’s industry-leading work measuring flu and flu-like illnesses using wearables. Evidation has developed machine learning detection models to compare flu and COVID and validated and extended this work with collaborators. Evidation’s algorithms have already been trained with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people; almost 90,000 people have already signed up to participate in FluSmart on Evidation in 2022, with enrollment ongoing via the Evidation app.

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“FluSmart helps individuals learn about meaningful changes in their activity data and get insights using Evidation’s battle-tested algorithms and information they share with us,” said Christine Lemke, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Evidation. “We have been studying and characterizing influenza-like illness using wearables since 2017, and FluSmart makes this expertise actionable for individuals. In addition to helping identify potentially symptomatic individuals, Evidation’s predictive models have proved effective for engaging diverse and historically underrepresented populations.”

Evidation is committed to user privacy and consent, and participation in the program requires users to opt-in to any research use of their data.

To participate or learn more about FluSmart on Evidation, visit the Evidation website.

About Evidation

Evidation creates new ways to measure and improve health in everyday life. Built upon a foundation of user privacy and control over permissioned health data, Evidation's consumer platform is trusted by millions of individuals—generating data with unprecedented speed, scale, and rigor. We partner with leading healthcare companies to understand health and disease outside the clinic walls. Evidation is working to bring people individualized, proactive, and accessible healthcare—faster. Founded in 2012, Evidation is headquartered in California with employees working around the globe.

Masimo announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study regarding Masimo SET® pulse oximetry performance in varying skin pigmentation in the Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing. The retrospective trial, “Racial effects on Masimo pulse oximetry: a laboratory study,” by Drs. Steven J. Barker and Wilson C. Wilson found that there was no clinically significant difference in the accuracy or bias between Black and White subjects studied with Masimo SET pulse oximetry and Masimo RD SET sensors.

For this newly published study, Dr. Barker (Chief Science Officer, Masimo) and Dr. Wilson (Chief Medical Officer, Masimo) performed a retrospective analysis of Masimo laboratory data obtained from self-identified Black and White volunteer subjects, to evaluate differences in Masimo pulse oximeter accuracy and bias on the basis of skin tone. The investigators reviewed data collected between October 2015 and July 2021, which included 7,183 paired samples (3,201 Black and 3,982 White) collected from 75 subjects (39 Black and 36 White), who were screened with the same criteria to remove potential bias based on health conditions. All subjects were exposed to the same hypoxia protocol, which varied the arterial saturation of hemoglobin (SaO₂) between 70% and 100%. Noninvasive oxygen saturation (SpO₂) values were obtained from Masimo SET pulse oximeters with RD SET® sensors and time-matched with simultaneously taken arterial blood gas (ABG) samples analyzed using an ABL-835 blood gas analyzer, reports BusinessWire.

The data were analyzed to determine the bias (mean difference in paired SpO₂ and SaO₂ samples), precision (standard deviation of the difference), and accuracy (root mean squared error, ARMS*) for both groups. A negative bias of 0.20% was found for Black subjects, compared to 0.05% for White subjects. This difference of 0.15% (p < 0.001) is not clinically significant and the values are numerically indistinguishable because the SpO₂ display resolution is 1% on commercially available pulse oximeters (both from Masimo and other manufacturers). The investigators also found a precision of 1.40% for Black subjects and 1.35% for White subjects. Accuracy (ARMS) was 1.42% for Black subjects and 1.35% for White subjects. These results are consistent with the accuracy specifications of RD SET sensors (1.5% accuracy ARMS), which are twice as good as the current FDA clearance thresholds for medical-grade pulse oximeters (3.0% accuracy ARMS).

Read more: The New WHOOP 4.0 Comes With Pulse Oximeter and Skin Temperature Sensor

In discussing their findings, Drs. Barker and Wilson describe how Masimo SET accounts for skin pigmentation when measuring SpO₂. “The absence of racial bias and highly accurate overall performance exhibited by Masimo SET pulse oximetry can be logically explained by Masimo’s engineering design and testing paradigm. Conventional pulse oximetry uses the standard red over infrared algorithm to provide SpO₂, while Masimo SET uses that conventional algorithm along with four additional signal processing engines that all run in parallel. These signal processing systems allow the distinction between arterial and venous signals during motion and low perfusion by identifying and isolating the non-arterial and venous noise SpO₂ from the true arterial SpO₂ components in the signal. These multiple signal-processing engines work together to overcome the limitations of each independent method. This advanced technique allows for a more accurate picture of the pulsatile (arterial) signal and significantly reduces the impact of static absorbers such as skin pigment, bone density, and tissue thickness (e.g., finger, toe, or earlobe). Finally, the Masimo SET SpO₂ algorithm is calibrated and then validated using nearly equal numbers of dark and light-skinned subjects.”

Drs. Barker and Wilson summarized, “In conclusion, this retrospective study of healthy human volunteers monitored with Masimo RD SET pulse oximeter sensors showed an absence of clinically significant differences in accuracy between Black and White subjects.” The authors suggested that additional prospective clinical studies should be conducted to validate their results in critically ill patients utilizing Masimo SET pulse oximeters and those from other manufacturers.

Digital health start-up H2o therapeutics received 510(k) marketing clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its prescription mobile app Parky for monitoring Parkinson's Disease. Parky App monitors symptoms such as tremors and dyskinesia in real-time via the use of the Apple Watch. It is a tool for sharing meaningful and reliable data between patients and medical professionals regarding the course of the disease.

The app leverages the Movement Disorder API, a tool developed by Apple. The API was validated in a study of 343 participants, including longitudinal tracking of 225 participants for up to six months and used the clinical gold standard (MDS-UPDRS) as a reference. Details of the study were published in Science Translational Medicine last year, according to a press release.

10 million patients worldwide live with Parkinson's Disease, the fastest-growing neurological disorder. Healthcare professionals in this area need reliable feedback and data for optimized treatment plans. Parky App helps medical professionals to develop a clinical profile of the patient while outside of the clinic. The Parky App strengthens the possibility of data-driven, tailored treatment procedures and bridges the gap between real-life and in-clinic settings.

Related: NICE Wil Evaluate PDMonitor For Parkinson’s Disease

"As a woman-founded, non VC-backed company based in Turkey, receiving our first 510(k) clearance is a huge milestone for us. We believe Parky will bring great value to the Parkinson's Disease community as an easily scalable and data-driven product," Yagmur Selin Gulmus, the founder of h2o therapeutics, said in a statement. The company has 2 more digital therapeutics products in the pipeline based on wearable devices and FDA submissions are planned to be completed in 2023.

h2o therapeutics is developing digital therapeutics with a focus on mobile technologies, Augmented Reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). h2O intends to make real-time human data become a handy tool for disease management in certain therapeutic areas. Their core understanding of digital therapeutics lies in the power of AI, the robustness of their clinical health research, and high levels of user engagement.