Irish Medtech giant Medtronic has acquired California-based Klue, a startup that uses gesture sensing and other behavioral health metrics to determine when a user is consuming food, providing real-time insights into eating habits.

Related Klue Announces Partnership with Stanford and Crossover Health for Its Behavior Change Tracker

Klue’s technology is expected to be incorporated into the Medtronic Personalized Closed Loop (PCL) insulin pump system, currently in development. The PCL system is designed to automate insulin delivery in a way that is real-time, personalized and adapts to the user, with a goal of dramatically simplifying diabetes management for the patient. In addition, the Klue technology can be leveraged to enhance the company’s market-leading analytics and insights in their smart CGM technology to help people using multiple daily injections (MDI) stay ahead of high and low glucose events, Medtronic said in a press release.

“Bringing Klue and their unique meal detection capabilities into our organization will accelerate our progress to help people with diabetes live with greater freedom and better health,” said Alejandro Galindo, president of the Advanced Insulin Management division, which is part of the Diabetes Group at Medtronic. “Based on our learnings from a first-generation hybrid closed loop system around the importance of simplifying diabetes management, we believe the Personalized Closed Loop system will be transformational for diabetes management, and the integration of the Klue technology helps clears the path to a true hands-free closed loop system.”

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By using gesture sensing via activity trackers combined with analytics technology, Klue has developed fine motor artificial intelligence software that can detect meals and provide insights into user eating behaviors. Because food consumption is intrinsically related to insulin requirements for people living with diabetes, the ability to automate meal identification along with the corresponding insulin delivery is an unmet need that could greatly simplify living with this disease.

In February 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave PCL Breakthrough Device designation. In addition to Klue, the recent acquisition of Nutrino Health and their expertise in nutrition data science will play a key role in the accelerated development of this breakthrough technology. Both acquisitions strengthen the company’s capabilities in automation and in the integration of artificial intelligence into diabetes management systems.

Related Medtronic, IBM Watson Health Launch AI-Powered Hypoglycemia Prediction Feature on Sugar.IQ Diabetes App

“Klue’s truly unique early meal detection technology can help transform diabetes care,” said Katelijn Vleugels, CEO & founder of Klue. “Joining Medtronic creates a tremendous opportunity to advance diabetes therapies and, together, we will accelerate our shared mission to help people with diabetes live their happiest and healthiest lives.”

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Comcast announced a partnership with California-based wearable technology startup NuEyes to offer its Xfinity Stream app to visually impaired customers through NuEyes’ virtual reality technology. Xfinity Stream is pre-installed on NuEyes e2 smartglasses, allowing users with visual disabilities to see TV shows, news, movies, live sports, and more, independently.

Read more NuEyes, Pico Interactive Partner Up for Next Gen Wearables for the Visually Impaired

The NuEyes e2 is a wireless headset that can be worn for long periods of time. A camera on the front of the device can be used to visually amplify what is ahead.

“Being blind since birth, I know firsthand the power of technology to enhance independence,” said Tom Wlodkowski, Vice President of Accessibility at Comcast. “Our partnership with NuEyes is an extension of our commitment to designing great entertainment experiences for people of all abilities.”

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NuEyes was founded by Mark Greget, an U.S. veteran. He’s also the CEO of the company. NuEyes’ mission is to give millions of people across the U.S. who are visually impaired the independence they may have lost due to conditions like macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa, reports Business Wire.

“Collaborating with Comcast has been an absolute joy,” said Greget. “To be able to stream content directly to our consumers’ eyes in a way that has never been done before enables millions of visually impaired people to continue enjoying their TV experience and more.”

Read more Augmented Reality Smartglasses Deliver True Visual Independence for People with Severe Vision Loss

Over the past several years, Comcast launched the industry’s first talking TV guide, introduced a voice-activated remote control, launched X1 eye control for the TV and produced the first live entertainment show in U.S. broadcast history, The Wiz Live, to be accessible to people with a visual disability. Comcast also has a service center specifically dedicated to customers with disabilities where agents are specially trained in the company’s accessibility features and general support issues.

Tandem Diabetes Care, a San Diego, CA-based insulin delivery and diabetes technology company, announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the company’s t:slim X2™ insulin pump with Control-IQ™ technology, an interoperable automated glycemic controller device that automatically adjusts insulin delivery to a person with diabetes by connecting to an alternate controller-enabled insulin pump (ACE pump) and integrated continuous glucose monitor (iCGM).

Read more Dexcom Receives FDA Clearance for Dexcom G6 Pro Continuous Glucose Monitor

“With this clearance, we will be launching the most advanced automated insulin dosing system commercially available in the world today,” said John Sheridan, president and CEO of Tandem Diabetes Care. “This is a testament to our commitment to improving the lives of people with diabetes by offering simple-to-use products that deliver superior performance.”

The FDA’s decision was based on a clinical trial of the Control-IQ Technology controller that included 168 participants with type 1 diabetes. The study demonstrated that the controller determines and commands safe and effective insulin delivery from a compatible ACE pump based on iCGM readings, with limited user intervention outside of mealtimes.

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The t:slim X2 insulin pump with Control-IQ technology uses CGM values, in conjunction with other variables such as insulin on board, to predict glucose levels 30 minutes ahead and adjust insulin delivery accordingly. Control-IQ technology also offers optional settings for sleep and exercise that will change the treatment values to better match the different physiologic needs during these activities, reports Business Wire.

With the interoperable automated glycemic controller designation, the FDA establishes a new device class which includes special controls outlining requirements for this and future submissions in this category, as well as describes the reliability, device interoperability, cybersecurity, and clinical relevance data required to demonstrate acceptable performance. The t:slim X2 insulin pump was also the first to receive an ACE infusion pump classification in February 2019, and the first insulin pump designated as compatible with iCGM devices in June 2018.

Read more Abbott and Novo Nordisk Partner Up to Link Diabetes Devices

All in-warranty t:slim X2 pump users in the United States will have the option to add the new feature free of charge via remote software update.5 The update is expected to be available by the end of January 2020, and new pumps with Control-IQ technology will begin shipping to customers in the same timeframe.

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Chronolife, a Paris-based AI-powered health tech company, announced the commercial launch of Nexkin™, a CE-marked washable smart T-shirt that monitors six key physiological parameters to enable prevention, risk reduction, and remote monitoring. The company also announced the closing of new fundraising from Paris-based startup studio and investment fund iBionext, French insurance company Adrea and Swiss family office Celeste Management to boost its commercial and industrial phase. The amount secured was not publicly disclosed.

Related Hexoskin Smart Shirt Accurately Measures Breathing, Could be Useful for Monitoring COPD

The Nexkin platform uses cutting-edge wearable electronics to integrate 10 biometric scanners into a comfortable, machine-washable T-shirt capable of continuously recording a user's electrocardiogram, abdominal and thoracic breathing, body temperature, physical activity, and pulmonary impedance. Data from the shirt is transmitted via Bluetooth to the user's smartphone, where data from multiple sensors can be integrated using Chronolife's unique HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time Surfaces) algorithms to deliver accurate and actionable health insights, which can subsequently be downloaded or transferred to secure servers for review by health professionals, reports Chronolife in a press release.

The T-shirt is comfortable enough for round-the-clock use; the battery lasts 24 hours and can be fully recharged in a few hours. Combining AI-powered real-time analytics and next-generation wearable sensors, the Nexkin T-shirt has potential uses in senior care, occupational health and safety, sports rehabilitation, military training, and performance management.

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“The Nexkin T-shirt makes accurate, unobtrusive continuous health monitoring both affordable and convenient across a wide range of industries and functionalities, from pharmaceutical testing to senior care,” said Laurent Vandebrouck, CEO of Chronolife. “By combining wearable electronics with advanced AI-powered analytics, we're delivering biometric monitoring capabilities that will revolutionize the way researchers and healthcare professionals will eventually interact with patients.”

The commercial launch of Nexkin will allow Chronolife’s clients and partners to explore ways to deploy and test the technology in clinical and other settings, including healthcare organizations, insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies.

Chronolife also received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval this summer, certifying that the Nexkin shirt's Bluetooth connectivity meets all U.S. regulatory requirements. Nexkin should receive medical certification in Europe beginning 2020 and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the U.S. by the end of 2020.

Related Myant Unveils Washable Blood Pressure Monitoring Smart Shirt

“AI and wearable technologies are dramatically changing the healthcare and research sectors, and Chronolife is at the very forefront of that movement,” said Bernard Gilly, executive chairman of iBionext. “This commercial launch is just the beginning: the potential applications for the Nexkin T-shirt are almost endless.”

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CommonSpirit Health, a Chicago-based nonprofit health giant, announced a partnership with Notable Health that will improve the patient and the provider experience by automating health information collection and making clinical record systems interoperable. The partnership will start with deployment at selected ambulatory primary care centers in California. And the end goal is to expand across the 21 states served by CommonSpirit.

Read more Ada Health-Sutter Health Collaboration Improved Patient Care by Providing On-Demand Healthcare Guidance

CommonSpirit will leverage Notable's platform, which uses robotic process automation (RPA) to understand data from electronic health records and deploys artificial intelligence (AI) models that anticipate and support providers' needs so they spend less time on administrative tasks and can devote their time to providing compassionate care, reports Notable in a press release.

“The Notable platform provides us with an exciting opportunity to rethink and personalize the way health care is delivered,” said Rich Roth, senior vice president and chief strategic innovation officer of CommonSpirit Health. “When we engage patients with Notable's digital experiences, the time they spend with their physician becomes more relevant.”

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Administrative costs are a major driver of increases in the cost of health care in the United States – with hospitals directing roughly 25 percent of their spending to this work. Advances in technology now make it possible for health systems to deploy innovative new platforms that ease the administrative burden on providers, allowing patients to have more engaging discussions about their health during the time with their physician.

Notable automates physician workflows through intelligent patient intake and leverages wearable voice-recognition documentation technology to save physicians time on medical charting. Prior to a medical appointment, Notable's mobile-optimized intake application – which is personalized for each patient – assists with registration, verifies insurance eligibility, and prompts patients to enter their symptoms and update histories and medications directly from their smartphones.

Read more Microsoft and Nuance Announce Collaboration to Transform the Doctor-Patient Experience

“We share CommonSpirit's commitment to providing the best experience possible for patients as well as physicians,” said Pranay Kapadia, CEO and co-founder of Notable Health. “With the abundance of administrative overhead in health care, it is more important than ever to help streamline processes for providers so they can direct their time and resources to patient care.”

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Current Health, a Scottish company that offers FDA-cleared patient management platform powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), raised $11.5 million in Series A funding that was led by MMC Ventures. Legal & General, the FTSE 100 life insurer and asset manager, is Current Health’s first corporate investor and the largest investor in the round.

Current Health said the money will be used to scale its patient management platform and enhance care delivery worldwide, with the goal of preventing illness for one million patients around the world by 2021. Par Equity and Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, also participated in this round, reports Business Wire.

Current Health’s wearable device uses AI to remotely track and analyze multiple vital signs while worn by patients at home, allowing clinicians to intervene earlier.

"Healthcare is undergoing a paradigm shift from reactive, in-hospital treatment, to proactive, community-based care,” said Bruce Macfarlane, Managing Partner at MMC Ventures. “Today’s healthcare systems must deliver improved patient outcomes while reducing costs. Current Health’s revolutionary solution offers unprecedented insight into patients’ health. Reliable, continuous patient monitoring enables earlier intervention in the event of patient deterioration, better patient experiences and fewer unnecessary hospital readmissions. With its world-class team and platform, Current Health has the right fundamentals to execute on a vast opportunity and become a global category leader in this important market.”

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In the last twelve months, Current Health has increased its revenue by more than 300%. The company also partnered with two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to extend the power of the Current Health platform to thousands of patients during the same period.

Read more Current Health Partners with VivaLNK and MIR to Improve Remote Patient Monitoring

“We’ve spent the last three years quietly and carefully building and testing our platform directly with healthcare providers,” said McCann. “Now, with our platform FDA-cleared and through partnerships with some of the biggest healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies in the world, we plan to scale our solution to better treat millions of lives over the next five years. By helping healthcare providers treat patients preventively and at the earliest point, we can play a key role in enabling sustainable, high-quality and universal healthcare delivery.”

As Current Health embarks on the next stage of its growth, it will open a U.S. headquarters in New York City. The company will continue to expand its team, particularly in the sales, clinical operations and marketing functions.

Dialog Semiconductor, a UK-based manufacturer of semiconductor-based system solutions formed a partnership with California-based Flex Logix Technologies. The partnership will allow Dialog to license Flex Logix's EFLXÒ Embedded Field-Programmable Gate Array (eFPGA) technology for use in high volume semiconductor Integrated Circuits (ICs), and the EFLX Compiler to program these embedded FPGAs.

Read more Dialog Semiconductor Takes Pride in Helping Astronauts with Wearables in Space

“Adding eFPGA functionality to our products will give our customers the flexibility to keep pace with rapidly changing market needs,” said Davin Lee, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Mixed Signal Business Group at Dialog Semiconductor. “By partnering with Flex Logix and leveraging its EFLX eFPGA, there is a massive opportunity to increase the configurability of future Dialog products within several of our target markets, such as IoT, computing, storage and mobile.”

EFLX is a low-power fully functional FPGA that is integrated into SoCs, microcontrollers and other standard or custom ICs, rather than serving as a standalone chip. EFLX cores can be used to upgrade I/O protocols, change encryption algorithms to improve security, enable elements of software-defined radio or accelerate data center algorithms. Additionally, EFLX can be leveraged by manufacturers or end-users to upgrade both new products and individual systems already installed in the field, reports Flex Logix in a press release.

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The EFLX arrays are programmed using Verilog or VHDL; and the EFLX Compiler takes the output of a synthesis tool such as Synopsys Synplify and handles packing, placement, routing, timing and bitstream generation. When loaded into the array, the bitstream programs it to implement the desired RTL function.

Read more Dialog Semiconductor Agrees to Strengthen Partnership with Apple Through Technology Licensing Agreement

“We are proud to partner with Dialog Semiconductor to deliver additional programmability and flexibility for their customers,” said Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix. “This is just the beginning of a long-term relationship and innovative product roadmap for Dialog and Flex Logix.”

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Apollo Neuroscience has introduced Apollo, the first ever clinically validated wearable that actively helps your body adapt to stress, facilitating focus, sleep, energy, and more. While other wearables track your body, Apollo is the first ever to empower you to change it by delivering gentle waves of vibration clinically shown to rapidly restore your body's natural equilibrium.

Read more NeoRhythm – Neurostimulation Headband that Hacks Your Brain to Remove Stress and Fatigue

“We’re delivering the first wearable experience that actively improves your body’s resilience to stress, so you can have more energy, feel more relaxed, and get more sleep. Apollo's mission is to democratize neuroscience discoveries to empower people to take control of their health,” said Kathryn Fantauzzi, chief executive officer and co-founder, Apollo Neuroscience.

Apollo was developed by physicians and neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh. The wearable device’s gentle waves of vibration signal safety to the body through your sense of touch and rapidly improve heart rate variability (HRV), a key metric of health and recovery. These safety signals help engage the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in improved heart rate variability (HRV), sleep, focus, calm, energy, and more, reports Business Wire.

“Chronic daily stress can have a profound, disruptive effect on our bodies and result in harmful symptoms including insomnia, anxiety-disorders, chronic pain, cognitive dysfunction, and cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. David Rabin, co-inventor of the Apollo technology and chief innovation officer and co-founder at Apollo Neuroscience. “Apollo is the only technology that actually improves HRV and accelerates your body’s recovery from stress so you can feel energized, focused, and sleep better.”

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Read more EmoGraphy Stress Management by Philips Can Monitor and Predict Stress

Apollo is compatible with iOS and Android devices. Users can choose from a variety of Apollo programs to target and achieve goals:

• Energy – Gives you a boost of energy when you’re feeling tired and sluggish.
• Focus – Filters out distraction and settles your nerves for clear, calm focus.
• Mindfulness – Prepares you for meditation by facilitating connection between mind and body.
• Relaxation – Rapidly relieves stress for deep relaxation.
• Sleep – Quiets your mind and eases you into restful sleep.
• Social - Elevates mood and energy for social situations, whether at work or play.
• Recover - Accelerates your body’s recovery after a workout.

The wearable has been evaluated clinically in university-led trials, and has undergone successful pilots to prevent burnout in the workplace. From over 2000 early users, more than 90% reported enhanced productivity, focus and sleep when using Apollo.

Apollo is now available for preorder for an all-inclusive price of $199 at apolloneuro.com.

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Sarcos Robotics, an American developer of robotics and microelectromechanical systems, has unveiled the Alpha version of its Guardian XO full-body, powered industrial exoskeleton. The Guardian XO is the world’s first battery-powered wearable robot which can safely lift up to 200 pounds for extended work sessions.

Read more How Exoskeletons are Changing Construction and Manufacturing Industries

“The Guardian XO is a great example of what can happen when private industry and government join forces with a small, innovative team to address a common challenge,” said Ben Wolff, chairman and CEO, Sarcos Robotics. “The Guardian XO Alpha units are the culmination of twenty years of effort by our team and represent a huge step forward as we prepare to ship our first commercial Guardian XO wearable robots to our customers in the latter part of 2020.”

Guardian XO combines human intelligence, instinct and judgment with the strength, endurance and precision of machines to address skilled labor shortages and occupational safety issues across many industries. Safe, intuitive and simple to use, the Guardian XO empowers teams to safely do more, enabling more people, whether young or old, big or small, to accomplish physically demanding tasks without stress or strain on their bodies, reports Business Wire.

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The first Guardian XO Alpha units will ship to members of Sarcos’ Industrial Exoskeleton Technical Advisory Group (X-TAG) and the U.S. military beginning in January 2020. Commercial production units of the Guardian XO will begin shipping to customers in late 2020.

The Guardian XO has been under development for 20 years, with the initial vision and funding for the effort coming from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and additional funding over the years coming from the U.S. Department of Defense, leading Fortune 500 industrial companies and private investors.

Read more ErgoJack, a Soft Robotic Upper-Body Orthosis Aimed at Reducing Workplace Injuries

“Full-body, powered exoskeletons have significant potential to transform the industrial workforce as we know it,” said Remy Glaisner, research director for intelligent operational systems and robotics, IDC. “From improving worker strength, efficiency and safety to reducing occupational injuries caused by repetitive heavy lifting, the Guardian XO is poised to be a game-changer for a wide variety of industries.”

Sarcos is now accepting orders for the Guardian XO and will deliver commercial production units in late 2020.

Seattle-based augmented reality (AR) startup Taqtile has raised $3 million in the company’s first equity round led by Broadmark Capital and its affiliated entities, along with additional investors.

Related RealWear Raises $80 million for Augmented Reality Headset for Connected Workers

Taqtile develops AR technology for industrial applications on headsets and mobile devices. The company’s provides AR, VR, and Mixed Reality (MR) solutions enable easy knowledge capture and collaborative data visualization to enable front-line worker productivity, efficiency, and safety.

The company also announced a new global partnership with Magic Leap to bring Taqtile's leading knowledge capture, digitization and codification software to Magic Leap's spatial computing platform. Taqtile's Manifest software solution for workforce enablement for their enterprise customers is now available on Magic Leap's spatial computing platform, the company said in a press release.

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“We here at Taqtile are thrilled and honored to be partnering with Magic Leap as they continue to focus and invest in the enterprise space,” said Dirck Schou, CEO at Taqtile. “Spatial computing is rapidly and profoundly changing the way industrial customers think about workforce enablement and knowledge capture -- Magic Leap empowers enterprise customers with a device that offers unique capabilities and performance like no other. From the outset, Magic Leap has been partner-centric, and we expect that their Enterprise Suite Launch announcement will help to drive awareness that will lead to greater industry adoption of spatial computing. Manifest on Magic Leap is a great step forward for enterprise innovation and digital transformation, and we are excited to see where this journey goes next.”

Related How Augmented Reality is Changing Workplaces

Magic Leap's announcement of their Enterprise Suite Launch will push the partnership forward in providing compelling applications and devices that are ushering in a new wave of digital transformation and productivity for front-line workers.

“We are very happy to be partnering with Taqtile to be able to offer their best-in-class solutions on the Magic Leap platform,” said Omar Khan, Magic Leap's Chief Product Officer.

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French fabless semiconductor startup GreenWaves announced its latest IoT application processor GAP9 – an ultra-low power embedded solution for AI processing in IoT devices. GAP9 combines architectural enhancements and an industry-leading Global Foundries 22nm FDX semiconductor process to deliver a peak cluster memory bandwidth of 41.6 GB/sec and up to 50 GOPS combined compute power at an overall power consumption of 50mW.

Read more Nordic Semiconductor Launches Bluetooth 5.1 SoC for Multi-Protocol Applications

Using GAP9, consumers can embed machine learning and signal processing capabilities into battery operated or energy harvesting devices such as IoT sensors in smart building, consumer and industrial markets and consumer and medical wearable devices. Compared to the company’s similar products, GAP9 reduces energy consumption by 5 times while enabling inference on neural networks 10 times larger, reports Business Wire.

“GAP9 enables a new level of capabilities for embedding combinations of sophisticated machine learning and signal processing capabilities into consumer, medical and industrial product applications,” said Loic Lietar, CEO of GreenWaves Technologies. “The GAP family provides product designers with a powerful, flexible solution for bringing the next generation of intelligent devices to market.”

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Built on the same GAP architectural attributes as its predecessor GAP8, GAP9 adds support for floating-point arithmetic across all cores based on an innovative transprecision floating-point unit capable of handling floating-point numbers in 8, 16, and 32-bit precision with support for vectorization. GAP9 also extends GAP8’s support for fixed-point arithmetic with support for vectorized 4-bit and 2-bit operations.

Incorporating bi-directional multichannel, synchronized digital audio interfaces GAP9 is a perfect fit for sophisticated wearable audio products. It also incorporates both CSI2 and parallel camera interfaces allowing the use of low resolution, low power camera for scene analysis and then extract a region of interest from high-resolution, higher power camera for analysis of scene details.

Read more Mobile Semiconductor Announces Ultra Low Power 22nm FDX Memory Compiler

The new processor also handles sophisticated neural networks such as MobileNet V1 with ease processing a 160 x 160 image with a channel scaling of 0.25 in just 12ms with a power consumption of 806μW/frame/second.

Additional security features in GAP9 protects device makers’ firmware and models while also protecting devices from tampering and a Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) unit that allows devices to be uniquely and securely identified.

French software company Dassault Systèmes announced new milestones for its 3DEXPERIENCE Lab open innovation laboratory and accelerator program. Furthering its mission to nurture disruptive innovations that positively impact society, Dassault Systèmes has extended the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab’s reach by welcoming new startups, incubator partners and fab lab partners into its global ecosystem. The announcement was made at the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab Rendez-vous event December 3 at the Atelier des Lumières digital art center in Paris.

Read more 3D Optical Biopsies Possible with Optical Fiber Technology, Say RMIT Researchers

Fifteen new disruptive projects and startups from Belgium, China, France, India, South Africa and the U.S. have joined the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab accelerator program. They will develop transformative projects that contribute to one or more of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to impact society, as well as benefit from mentoring and expertise, reports Business Wire.

“The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab is an example of the power of collective intelligence, open innovation, and digital cloud platforms to enable breakthrough innovations for the greater good that align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,” said Frédéric Vacher, Head of Innovation, Dassault Systèmes. “Dassault Systèmes is looking extensively to support these goals through early stage startup projects and communities, to further reinforce this mission and contribute from the bottom up to make a better world.”

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The startups are the latest additions to an accelerator program that has reviewed more than 500 ideas, many of which have significantly advanced in their development.

Since establishing the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in France in 2015, Dassault Systèmes has expanded it to the U.S. and India, and now counts more than 25 incubator, accelerator, educational, entrepreneurial, technology and fab lab partners worldwide. As an open collaborative accelerator, it has also teamed up with multinational companies to co-accelerate promising projects in specific industries. Its growing community of 1,200 mentors provides expertise in disciplines ranging from design and simulation to regulatory and marketing.

Read more Virginia Tech Researchers Develop 3D Printed Prostheses with Integrated Sensors for Improved Function

New partners in 2019 include startup incubators MIT Enterprise Forum CEE in Poland, Greentown Labs in the U.S., Centech in Canada, OuiCrea in China, and Tshimologong in South Africa; the business school HEC in France; and the Communautique FabLab in Canada.

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Boston based software development company PTC has formed a strategic alliance with Magic Leap that will allow enterprise and industrial customers to combine the augmented reality (AR) capabilities of its market-leading Vuforia® Engine with Magic Leap 1 headset.

Read more PTC’s AR/MR Solutions Offer Built-In Support for Microsoft HoloLens 2

Vuforia Engine gives users advanced computer vision and cross-platform reach, and supports the broadest range of devices on the market. Beginning this month, PTC will offer Vuforia Engine to Magic Leap 1 customers, who will have access to the latest AR innovations of Vuforia Engine, including its differentiated artificial intelligence (AI) -based Model Target technology. The combination of this software with Magic Leap’s robust hardware and leading spatial computing technology will offer customers a value-rich solution for the enterprise, reports Business Wire.

“Industry leaders today need to have the flexibility to select the best hardware and software to fit their needs,” said Michael Campbell, EVP and GM, augmented reality products, PTC. “This collaboration enables our many industrial customers to pair our powerful AR software with equally powerful hardware.”

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Augmented Reality offers companies an innovative and effective way to connect people to digital content where and when they need it, thereby increasing efficiency, providing more-impactful training, and achieving greater overall cost savings.

“We’re excited to announce our collaboration with PTC,” said Omar Khan, chief product officer, Magic Leap. “The opportunity for AR across the enterprise is enormous, and we want all businesses to be able to leverage industry-leading technology that can enhance productivity throughout the digital workplace.”

Read more SyncThink Partners with Magic Leap to Use AR for Brain Health Assessment

Leading global companies use the Vuforia Engine platform to deliver unique, engaging and interactive mobile experiences that bring people closer to brands and products. Over half a million developers have chosen the Vuforia Engine, making it the most popular AR on the planet, says PTC.

Magic Leap 1 is a mixed reality headset, and is priced at $2,995.

A total of 84.5 million units of wearable devices were shipped in the third quarter of 2019, a year-over-year increase of 94.6% and a new record for shipments in a single quarter, according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. Driving the growth in demand for wearables were new hearables, which alone accounted for almost half the market in 3Q19, followed by wristbands and smartwatches, reports Business Wire.

“Hearables have become the new go-to product for the wearables market,” pointed out Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC's Wearables Team. “This began with multiple vendors removing the headphone jack from their smartphones, driving the move toward wireless headphones. It continued with hearables incorporating additional features that either augment or expand the audio experience. Next, hearables have taken on multiple form factors – ranging from truly wireless to over-the-ear headphones – appealing to a broad base of earwear user preferences. Finally, prices have come down significantly, with some reaching below $20.”

Read more IDC Profiles Hearables Makers Bragi, Nuheara, and Waverly Labs as IDC Innovators

The top 5 companies in the IDC list are Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, Huawei and Fitbit.

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Growing popularity of Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats headphones helped Apple take the top spot.

Xiaomi shipped more than 10 million units of its popular Mi Band during 3Q19. The company also significantly expanded its global reach by targeting countries in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.

Samsung's new watches and hearables (both self-branded as well as JBL-branded) captured 9.8% of the market.

Despite political challenges, Huawei ranked fourth globally thanks to a strong performance in its home country of China. Within its borders, Huawei grew 188% year over year, making it one of the fastest growing companies in China.

Fitbit rounded out the top five and the company's latest wearables and watches have been well received though it still struggled to grow during the quarter. The latest news regarding its acquisition by Google fills the brand's future with uncertainty.

“The rise of smart assistants in the home and on the phone has led to an increased demand for wearables that have the ability to connect with these assistants,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “With multiple form factors and the inclusion of smart assistants, the wearables market is well on its way to becoming a mass market device category rather than one that primarily caters to health and fitness.”

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The increased use of digital technologies for improved health care is driving the need for soft sensors. Scientists have long been trying to develop such sensors, but none have made it to market because they cannot easily be integrated with electronic components, like the wires, computer chips and batteries needed to gather, process and send the data the sensor collects.

Read more Scientists Develop Stretchable Wireless Sensor to Monitor Healing of Cerebral Aneurysms

Now, researchers at Imperial College London have developed a way to create a tight bond between rubber and electrical components. They have developed a bond so strong that the stretchy rubber itself breaks before the bond between the two different materials does, reports Hayley Dunning at Imperial College London. The researchers say these soft sensors could be used for wireless, low-cost rehabilitation or health monitoring.

“We hope this method will allow us to make low-cost soft sensors that are reliable and portable, that can be used to monitor people’s health in their own homes,” said first author Michael Kasimatis, from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial.

“Such sensors could be coupled with a mobile device, such as a smartphone, so that the data they generate can be easily processed and stored on the cloud, which is important for applications in digital healthcare.”

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Previously, researchers attempted to bind rubber and plastic using adhesives or clamps, but either came apart under force, or damaged the soft material. The new method instead uses small pieces of metal-coated silicon, which create a chemical bond with the stretchy and squeezy rubber.

The researchers demonstrated how their bonding method can resist the strains of stretching and also tested it out in a few prototype sensors. For example, they used a squeezable ball to monitor progress in hand rehabilitation, and a stretchy band that goes around the chest and monitors breathing.

Read more Stanford Scientists Develop Fully Flexible Wireless Sensors for Tracking Health

“Having successfully demonstrated how this new bonding approach could work and be applied in laboratory prototypes, we now want to take this technology out of the lab and make it available to everyone,” said Dr. Firat Güder, another researcher involved in the study.

Canadian textile computing company Myant announced partnership with Osmotex, the Switzerland-based pioneer of electronically controlled moisture management technology, to integrate Osmotex’s HYDRO_BOT active membrane technology in textile-based applications. The integration of HYDRO_BOT with Myant’s existing portfolio of textile-based sensing and actuating capabilities opens up new possibilities across a wide range of domains including sweat/moisture management and thermal regulation.

“The creation of this joint venture between Myant and Osmotex reinforces our mission to develop textiles as bidirectional interfaces to the human body capable of optimizing health and performance across all spheres of life,” said Tony Chahine, founder and CEO of Myant. “Our team is excited to begin integrating HYDRO_BOT into our textiles and bringing this transformative technology to market.”

Read more KJUS Develops World’s First Sweatless Ski Jacket with HYDRO_BOT Technology

HYDRO_BOT technology is capable of moving 200 liters of fluid across a square meter of textile every hour via an electroosmotic process, providing a practically limitless ability to manage moisture in textile applications.

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Applied in conjunction with Myant’s existing capability to deliver heat via textile and to achieve effective passive moisture wicking via novel knitted structures, the combination of technologies is poised to dramatically improve the ability to regulate body temperature in applications such as personal protective equipment for workers in heavy industry, protective gear for workers in hot desert-like climates, performance wear like snow suits or skiing apparel in cold climates, footwear, motorcycling apparel, and more.

Besides apparel, HYDRO_BOT can be successfully used for moisture management in automotive industry and healthcare.

Read more Myant Unveils Washable Blood Pressure Monitoring Smart Shirt

“We are excited to be working together with Myant to realize the full potential of the HYDRO_BOT technology,” said Joacim Holter, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board for Osmotex AG. “Myant’s ability to integrate our technology and to produce at scale all under one roof made them an ideal partner to help make our vision a reality.”

G Medical Innovations, a Cayman Islands-based company that makes real-time vital signs monitoring tools, raised $20.5 million in investments over the course of three years from Luxembourg-based investment group GEM Global. The company said it will use the money to grow its sales force in the US and worldwide, reports MobiHealthNews.

“This is the funding catalyst that GMV has needed to significantly scale our sales function and fast track our market penetration,” CEO and Executive Director Dr. Yacov Geva said in a statement. “Based on our sales success to date achieved with a modest sized team in the United States, we can replicate this success with a larger and more experienced sales team, and as a result much more revenue will materialize. We have already identified a number of candidates and expansion is imminent.”

Read more AlacrityCare and Myia Partners with VivaLNK Developer Program for Remote Patient Monitoring of Cancer and Cardiovascular Patients

G Medical Innovations makes remote patient monitoring solutions for individuals, clinics, assisted living residences, hospitals and healthcare providers.

G Medical Prizma Smartphone Case

G Medical’s Smartphone Case turns your phone into your very own mobile medical monitor. This is the only solution in the market that offers comprehensive health profiling and monitoring, enabling both healthcare providers and individuals to monitor, manage and share a wide range of vital signs and biometric indicators.

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G Medical Patch

The G Medical Patch (VSMS/GMP) is a modular, easy-to-use clinical-grade solution for monitoring patients throughout the healthcare lifecycle.

Read more Remote Patient Monitoring with Wearables – Improving Healthcare at Home and at the Point of Care

Ideal for use by clinics, assisted living residences, hospitals and healthcare providers, the VSMS/GMP simplifies healthcare and patient monitoring by delivering continuous, real-time monitoring of a wide range of patient vital signs and biometrics such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, ECG, Body position and Location.

etectRx, a digital health company based in Florida, received U.S. FDA 501(k) clearance of its breakthrough patented ingestible event marker, the ID-Cap System.

The ID-Cap System the first ever ingestible event marker that potentially gives clinicians the ability to accurately monitor patients’ medication adherence on a per-dose basis. Each time an ID-Capsule is swallowed, the ID-Tag uses etectRx’s proprietary communications technology to transmit a very low power digital message from within the patient’s stomach.

Read more cue-Rx Medication Adherence System to Deliver Prescription in their Original Containers

“This is a historic event for etectRx and the larger digital health market,” said Harry J. Travis, president and CEO of etectRx. “It is the first product enabled by our proprietary in-vivo communication technology platform to gain clearance. We are very excited about the many opportunities that the ID-Cap System will provide patients and clinicians to improve therapeutic outcomes and deliver better care.”

Comprised of the ID-Capsule, ID-Tag, ID-Cap Reader, and related software, the ID-Cap System provides real-time, dose-level ingestion event verification. The ID-Capsule is a standard pharmaceutical capsule containing the ID-Tag, an ingestible sensor that emits a very low-power digital message from within the patient after it is ingested and activated by the patient’s stomach fluid. The ID-Cap Reader (worn on a lanyard) verifies the message as a valid ingestion event and forwards the data to a secure smartphone-based mobile application and to the healthcare provider in a secure web-based portal. etectRx’s advanced communication technology will allow for incorporation of the receiver into a variety of wearable and off-body devices in the future, reports etectRx.

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The company is building collaborations with key stakeholders, including healthcare providers, health systems, pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and clinical research organizations, to bring this innovative technology to digital medications of the future.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Fenway Health are evaluating the ID-Cap System in ongoing and planned clinical studies focusing on HIV medication when used for treatment and prevention.

Read more New Smart Pill Releases Insulin in the Stomach, Could Replace Injections for People with Type 1 Diabetes

“We look forward to continuing our work with etectRx to assess the potential impact of the ID-Cap System on the health of patients, clinical decisions of healthcare providers, and goals of health systems,” said Kenneth H. Mayer M.D., medical research director and co-chair of the Fenway Institute at Fenway Health. “We need innovative solutions, including cleared medical devices such as the ID-Cap System, to better evaluate the challenges of medication non-adherence, which have the potential to be part of tailored interventions.”

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Picosun Group, a Finnish company, well-known for its AGILE ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating technology for global industries, reported excellent results in using ALD in the manufacturing of lithium ion thin film battery materials.

Read more PolyU Researchers Develop Flexible High-Energy Textile Lithium Battery for Wearables

ALD is the leading thin film technology by Picosun. ALD is 100% conformal, 100% uniform, pinhole-free and repeatable. Picosun provides the most advanced ALD thin film coating technology to enable the industrial leap into the future.

Solid-state Li-ion thin film batteries (SSLIBs) are ideal power sources for wearable medical devices, laptops, smartphones and other technologies because they are small, safe and possess excellent energy storage capacity. Li-ion batteries have made such an impact on our daily lives that its developers, Dr. John B. Goodenough, Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham, and Dr. Akira Yoshino, earned the Nobel chemistry prize this year.

Picosun has successfully used its ALD technology to fabricate high-quality, high-performance thin film NiO anodes for SSLIBs. Compared to graphite, which is widely used to produce anodes of lithium-ion batteries, deposited NiO films had more than twice as large capacity and more than three times as high density. The surpassing characteristics of NiO potentially allow improvement of the energy density of SSLIBs, reports Picosun in a press release.

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“Battery applications are yet one example of ALD's flexibility as a method, and how new industries discover the possibilities of ALD day by day, said Dr. Jani Kivioja, CTO of Picosun Group. “Deep trenches with aspect ratios exceeding 1:2500 have been successfully coated with our ALD tools equipped with our patented Picoflow feature, which further advocates the use of our technology in 3D solid state Li-ion battery manufacturing. We are happy that our ALD solutions can be potentially utilized in future's energy storage solutions in conjunction with clean energy production, and to power more compact healthcare devices, to improve people's quality of life.”

Read more VARTA Microbattery Launches Three New Lithium-Ion Cells for Wearables at the ISPO Munich 2019

In addition to high quality and performance of the ALD NiO anodes, ALD's unmatched capability to produce conformal and uniform coatings with excellent purity and repeatability inside challenging microscale architectures such as high aspect ratio trenches make it an ideal method for 3D SSLIB materials manufacturing. Also, the ALD processes for several other anode materials such as SnO2, CoO, and MnO are well-known and thoroughly studied.

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Scientists at the University of Bath in the UK have developed artificial neurons on silicon chips that behave just like the real thing – a first-of-its-kind achievement with enormous scope for medical devices to cure chronic diseases, such as heart failure, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases of neuronal degeneration.

Read more Tiny Bluetooth-Driven Implant Deliver Drugs for Chronic Disease Management

The newly invented artificial neurons also need only one billionth the power of a microprocessor, making them ideally suited for use in medical implants and other bio-electronic devices, reports University of BATH.

The research team was led by the University of Bath and included researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Zurich and Auckland. The researches described their work in a study published in Nature Communications.

Researchers have been attempting to develop artificial neurons for a long time, as it opens up the possibility of curing conditions where neurons are not working properly, have had their processes severed as in spinal cord injury, or have died. For instance, in heart failure, neurons in the base of the brain do not respond properly to nervous system feedback, they in turn do not send the right signals to the heart, which then does not pump as hard as it should. Artificial neurons could repair diseased bio-circuits by replicating their healthy function and responding adequately to biological feedback to restore bodily function.

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The researchers accurately replicated the complete dynamics of hippocampal neurons and respiratory neurons from rats, under a wide range of stimuli.

“Until now neurons have been like black boxes, but we have managed to open the black box and peer inside. Our work is paradigm changing because it provides a robust method to reproduce the electrical properties of real neurons in minute detail,” said lead researcher Professor Alain Nogaret, from the University of Bath Department of Physics.

The new artificial neurons also require very low levels of power to operate. “Our neurons only need 140 nanoWatts of power. That’s a billionth the power requirement of a microprocessor, which other attempts to make synthetic neurons have used,” explained Nogaret. “This makes the neurons well suited for bio-electronic implants to treat chronic diseases.”

Read more Fighting Against NCDs – Wearables for Chronic Disease Management and Mobility Challenges

This new invention has enormous scope for medical devices. “We’re developing smart pacemakers that won’t just stimulate the heart to pump at a steady rate but use these neurons to respond in real time to demands placed on the heart – which is what happens naturally in a healthy heart. Other possible applications could be in the treatment of conditions like Alzheimer’s and neuronal degenerative diseases more generally,” said Nogaret.