Vuzix announced that Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry, via local Vuzix distributor Eva Bilişim, are using Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses to support remote student learning.

Read more: Pixee Medical Successfully Finishes its First Total Knee Replacement Surgery Guided Only by the Vuzix M400 AR Glasses

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical practice courses at the University must be held in accordance with pandemic conditions in the clinics under the Istanbul University Medical Society. The dentistry faculty determined that the dentistry educational model is one where theoretical and clinical knowledge requires support by intensive clinical experiences. With face-to-face training difficult due to the pandemic process, the Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry began using Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses to broadcast live applied courses and clinical applications to enhance the educational quality of its online learning effort, according to a press release.

“More and more healthcare practitioners and educators around the world are recognizing the value of using Vuzix Smart Glasses to provide remote support, live broadcasts of procedures and other vital telemedicine services to their patients, associates or students,” said Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix.  “There is high value in working together with students and teachers to adopt our technology as these students will become our doctors and dentists in the future. We are pleased to add the Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry to the growing list of schools in the medical space that are embracing our technology to provide safer and more effective clinical educational experiences.”

Read more: Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses Continue Their Expansion Into Remote Care For COVID-19 Patients

About Vuzix Corporation

Vuzix is a leading supplier of Smart-Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. The Company's products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and augmented reality. Vuzix holds 179 patents and patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the Video Eyewear field. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2020 and several wireless technology innovation awards among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company with offices in Rochester, NY, Oxford, UK, and Tokyo, Japan.

In a typical blood pressure measuring device, the scale of the pressure meter ranges from 0 to 300 mmHg. The pressure meter has a rubber pump on it for inflating the cuff and a button for letting the air out. To measure blood pressure, the cuff is placed around the bare and stretched out upper arm, and inflated until no blood can flow through the brachial artery. Then the air is slowly let out of the cuff.

Read more: ViTrack: Cuffless Wearable for Continuous, Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitoring

Silicon Valley startup Blumio is giving the century-old blood pressure monitors an overhaul. Through an innovative sensor that can detect arterial tissue movements, Blumio makes it possible to measure blood pressure noninvasively and continuously.

Cuffless BP monitoring can be made possible with a pressure-less sensing modality that can capture arterial pressure waveform with the same sensitivity as applanation tonometry.

Blumio has developed a radar-based sensor to measure blood pressure. Radar presents unique properties that are very distinct from existing technologies for vital sign detection: an imperviousness to skin color, variations in ambient light and other physiologic conditions provides an advantage over existing sensor technologies.

Radar has been used in the past to assess vital signs. By measuring electromagnetic waves reflected from a target area of the body, it is possible to capture and record signals corresponding to respiration and blood circulation.

Read more: OMRON Urging All U.S. Adults to Monitor Blood Pressure Regularly In Response To Surgeon General’s Call

The millimeter-wave radar device, positioned near the radial artery does not need to be in direct contact with the skin. It interrogates the pulse by transmitting a 60 Hz signal directed towards the skin surface, reports AZO Sensors.

With the advent of lower power radar chipsets with high sensitivity and faster processors, Blumio is the first to combine the high sensitivity of a millimeter-wave radar with a wearable concept to create a new system for measuring arterial pulses at the wrist.

In a study that appears today in Nature Medicine, scientists from the Scripps Research Translational Institute Research team reports that wearable devices like Fitbit are capable of identifying cases of COVID-19 by evaluating changes in heart rate, sleep and activity levels, along with self-reported symptom data -- and can identify cases with greater success than looking at symptoms alone.

Read more: The New Apple Watch Measures Blood Oxygen To Help Users Monitor The Effects Of COVID-19

In their report, the scientists examined data from the first six weeks of their landmark DETECT study. The DETECT study, launched on March 25, uses a mobile app to collect smartwatch and activity tracker data from consenting participants, and also gathers their self-reported symptoms and diagnostic test results. Any adult living in the United States is eligible to participate in the study by downloading the research app, MyDataHelps, reports Scripps Research Institute.

“What's exciting here is that we now have a validated digital signal for COVID-19. The next step is to use this to prevent emerging outbreaks from spreading," says Eric Topol, MD, director and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and executive vice president of Scripps Research. "Roughly 100 million Americans already have a wearable tracker or smartwatch and can help us; all we need is a tiny fraction of them -- just 1 percent or 2 percent -- to use the app.”

With data from the app, researchers can see when participants fall out of their normal range for sleep, activity level or resting heart rate; deviations from individual norms are a sign of viral illness or infection.

But how do they know if the illness-causing those changes is COVID-19? To answer that question, the team reviewed data from those who reported developing symptoms and were tested for the novel coronavirus. Knowing the test results enabled them to pinpoint specific changes indicative of COVID-19 versus other illnesses.

"One of the greatest challenges in stopping COVID-19 from spreading is the ability to quickly identify, trace and isolate infected individuals," says Giorgio Quer, PhD, director of artificial intelligence at Scripps Research Translational Institute and first author of the study. "Early identification of those who are pre-symptomatic or even asymptomatic would be especially valuable, as people may potentially be even more infectious during this period. That's the ultimate goal."

For the study, the team used health data from fitness wearables and other devices to identify -- with roughly 80% prediction accuracy -- whether a person who reported symptoms was likely to have COVID-19. This is a significant improvement from other models that only evaluated self-reported symptoms.

As of June 7, 30,529 individuals had enrolled in the study, with representation from every U.S. state. Of these, 3,811 reported symptoms, 54 tested positive for the coronavirus and 279 tested negative. More sleep and less activity than an individual's normal levels were significant factors in predicting coronavirus infection.

Read more: U.S. Military’s AI-Powered Wearable Can Detect COVID-19 Two Days Before You Get Sick

The predictive model under development in DETECT might someday help public health officials spot coronavirus hotspots early. It also may encourage people who are potentially infected to immediately seek diagnostic testing and, if necessary, quarantine themselves to avoid spreading the virus.

Things were looking bleak for wearable tech company StretchSense last July, as the Auckland, New Zealand-based startup was put into voluntary liquidation. The company laid off 140 staff when Japanese e-commerce giant Start Today terminated its takeover agreement.

Read more: StretchSense, Maker Of Stretch Sensor Motion Capture Glove Acquires US Company MocapNow

But soon after, New Zealand venture capital fund GD1 bought the company for several million.

Now, StretchSense has re-emerged, with its sights set on Hollywood and the gaming industry.

Co-founder Ben O’Brien said when looking at what to do next, Stretch Sense found a gap in the market for motion capture gloves for animators in the film and gaming industries, reports Stuff.

The company started out with a focus on developing tech to measure body movement, particularly valuable for tracking athletes' performance, coaching and rehabilitation.

“There is a significant need in the film, gaming and animation industries for motion capture gloves that accurately capture hands and fingers,” O’Brien told Stuff.

The company’s MoCap Pro motion capture gloves use unique stretch sensors and artificial intelligence to deliver very high-quality mocap with minimal clean up required.

Unaffected by shock, drift, occlusion, or magnetic interference: you can rely on a stable hand performance from our gloves on set.

The glove management software Hand Engine streams directly into MotionBuilder, Unity, and Unreal Engine.

Stretch Sense has about 35 employees, some of whom were previous employees of the company that were laid off. The company is now planning to hire 15 more employees, particularly software engineers, product developers and garment makers.

Read more: This Smart Glove Interprets Sign Language In Real Time

Looking past the pandemic, to grow New Zealand’s technology export sector, the country needs greater Government investment and simply, more businesses, O’Brien said.

Next year StretchSense plans to do a Series B investment round with the ambition to raise $20 million to grow and expand the business.

Apple is joining forces with researchers to conduct health studies that include using Apple Watch to explore how blood oxygen levels can be used in future health applications.

Last month, Apple collaborated with the University of California, Irvine, and Anthem to examine how longitudinal measurements of blood oxygen and other physiological signals can help manage and control asthma.

Read more: The New Apple Watch Measures Blood Oxygen To Help Users Monitor The Effects Of COVID-19

Now, Apple will work closely with investigators at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the University Health Network, one of the largest health research organizations in North America, to better understand how blood oxygen measurements and other Apple Watch metrics can help with management of heart failure. Finally, investigators with the Seattle Flu Study at the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine and faculty from the University of Washington School of Medicine will seek to learn how signals from apps on Apple Watch, such as Heart Rate and Blood Oxygen, could serve as early signs of respiratory conditions like influenza and COVID-19, reports Apple.

For the heart failure study, Apple has collaborated with researchers from the University of Toronto led by Dr. Heather Ross. The team will use Apple Watch sensors, including the new VO2 Max algorithm, along with traditional in-clinic assessments, to monitor patients through the course of their treatment. The goal of the study will be to see how much meaningful assessment of the patients can be accomplished with the signals from the Watch, according to MobiHealthNews.

“We’re working with the team at UHN to help understand which interventions are having the most impact on the physiological signals” Desai said. “This study is about measuring the cardiovascular and pulmonary signals that are important, but also how does it potentially change how you manage heart failure from a clinical management standpoint?”

Apple’s other study with the Seattle Flu Study and the University of Washington is along the same lines. In this study, participants will be monitored with the Watch, as well as with traditional respiratory panel tests, so researchers can start to understand how much power the Watch’s blood oxygenation sensor, for example, has to predict respiratory infections.

Read more: Notable’s Apple Watch App Helping Doctors Save Time On EHR

“The hope is that physiological signals from the Apple Watch will make it possible to identify people who are falling ill, and get them tested quickly so they can self-isolate and break the chain of transmission of the virus in the community,” Dr. Jay Shendure, professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Maxim Integrated's new health sensor platform 3.0 (HSP 3.0) reduces the development time of healthcare wearables by at least six months. Also known as MAXREFDES104#, this ready-to-wear wrist form factor reference design monitors blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate (HR), body temperature and motion. Included algorithms provide HR, heart-rate variability (HRV), respiration rate (RR), SpO2, body temperature, sleep quality and stress level information at clinical-grade levels. It allows wearable designers to start collecting data immediately, saving at least six months over building these devices from scratch. Designed for wrist-based form factors, HSP 3.0 can be adapted for other dry electrode form factors such as chest patches and smart rings.

Read more: Maxim’s MAXM86146 Is The Thinnest Optical Sensor Solution For Health and Fitness Wearables

MAXREFDES104# can enable end solutions to monitor cardiac heart and respiratory issues for management of ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), infectious diseases (e.g. COVID-19), sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation (AFib). Compared to its predecessor, the narrower form factor and enhanced optical architecture of HSP 3.0 improves signal acquisition quality and uses upgraded microcontroller, power, security and sensing ICs. The reference design includes complete optical and electrode designs, along with algorithms to meet clinical requirements, according to a press release.

HSP 3.0 includes the following sensor, power management, microcontroller and algorithm products:

• MAX86176: Lowest-noise optical photoplethysmography (PPG) and electrical ECG analog front end (AFE), which offers 110dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to add SpO2 saturation capability and over 110dB common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) for dry electrode ECG applications. The device enables synchronous acquisition of PPG and ECG measurements, even with independent sample rates, providing pulse transit time for cardiac health use cases.
• MAX20360: Highly integrated power and battery management power management IC (PMIC) optimized for advanced body-worn health sensing devices. It includes Maxim's high-accuracy ModelGauge m5 EZ fuel gauge, a sophisticated haptic driver, and a unique low-noise buck-boost converter that maximizes SNR and minimizes power used for optical bio-sensing.
• MAX32666: Bluetooth (BLE)-enabled, ultra-low-power microcontroller with two Arm Cortex-M4F cores and an additional SmartDMA which permits running the BLE stack independently, leaving the two main cores available for major tasks. Moreover, the microcontroller integrates an entire security suite and error-correcting code (ECC) on the memories to significantly increase the system's robustness.
• MAX32670: Ultra-low-power microcontroller dedicated to Maxim Integrated's world-class PPG algorithms of pulse rate, SpO2, HRV, RR, sleep quality monitoring and stress monitoring. It can be configured either as a sensor hub to support firmware and algorithms or as an algorithm hub to support multiple algorithms. The MAX32670 seamlessly enables customer-desired sensor functionality, including managing the MAX86176 PPG and ECG sensor AFE as well as delivering either raw or calculated data to the outside world.
• MAX30208: The low-power, high-accuracy digital temperature sensor comes in a small package size of 2mm x 2mm. It has 33 percent lower operating current compared to the closest competitive solution. It reads the temperature on the top of the package and can be mounted on a flex cable or PCB, making it easier to design into wearables. With an accuracy of 0.1-degrees Celsius, the MAX30208 meets clinical temperature requirements.‍

Read more: How to Enhance Reliability of PPG Data for Health Wearables, According To Maxim Integrated

Key Advantages Include

• Faster Time to Market: Saves at least six months in development time
• Clinical-Grade: Accuracy meets regulatory requirements for SpO2 and ambulatory ECG (IEC 60601-2-47)
• Covers Key Vital Signs: Addresses the needs of advanced health wearables with SpO2, ECG, HR, HRV, RR, body temperature and motion
• Complete Reference Design: Empowers designers to innovate with complete access to source code and design files

A bone stress injury (BSI) means that the bones cannot tolerate repeated mechanical loads, resulting in structural fatigue and local bone pain. A delay in BSI diagnosis can lead to more serious injuries, such as stress fractures that require longer treatment periods.

Read more: New Exosuit Built By Vanderbilt Engineers Could Change Work Habits of the Future

A team of researchers from Vanderbilt engineering, data science and clinical researchers has developed a novel approach for monitoring bone stress in recreational and professional athletes, with the goal of anticipating and preventing injury. Using machine learning and biomechanical modeling techniques, the researchers built multisensory algorithms that combine data from lightweight, low-profile wearable sensors in shoes to estimate forces on the tibia, or shin bone—a commonplace for runners’ stress fractures.

The algorithms have resulted in bone force data that is up to four times more accurate than available wearables, and the study found that traditional wearable metrics based on how hard the foot hits the ground may be no more accurate for monitoring tibial bone load than counting steps with a pedometer, reports Marissa Shapiro in Vanderbilt University.

Bones naturally heal themselves, but if the rate of microdamage from repeated bone loading outpaces the rate of tissue healing, there is an increased risk of a stress fracture that can put a runner out of commission for two to three months.

“Small changes in bone load equate to exponential differences in bone microdamage,” said Emily Matijevich, a graduate student and the director of the Center for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Motion Analysis Lab. “We have found that 10 percent errors in force estimates cause 100 percent errors in damage estimates. Largely over- or under-estimating the bone damage that results from running has severe consequences for athletes trying to understand their injury risk over time. This highlights why it is so important for us to develop more accurate techniques to monitor bone load and design next-generation wearables.”

The ultimate goal of this tech is to better understand overuse injury risk factors and then prompt runners to take rest days or modify training before an injury occurs.

Peter Volgyesi, a research scientist at the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems commented:

“The machine learning algorithm leverages the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator regression, using a small group of sensors to generate highly accurate bone load estimates, with average errors of less than three percent, while simultaneously identifying the most valuable sensor inputs,”

Read more: 3D-Printed Bioreactor Inside Body Grows Live Bones to Repair Injuries

This innovation is one of the first examples of a wearable technology that is both practical to wear in daily life and can accurately monitor forces on and microdamage to musculoskeletal tissues. The team has begun applying similar techniques to monitor low back loading and injury risks, designed for people in occupations that require repetitive lifting and bending. These wearables could track the efficacy of post-injury rehab or inform return-to-play or return-to-work decisions, the Vanderbilt University reports said.

The article was published online in the journal Human Movement Science.

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A Smartwatch is a popular device that helps improve its wearer’s health. Now University of Washington researchers have developed a smartwatch app for deaf and hard-of-hearing people who want to be aware of nearby sounds. Dubbed SoundWatch, the wearable device picks up a sound the user is interested in — examples include a siren, a microwave beeping or a bird chirping — SoundWatch will identify it and send the user a friendly buzz along with information about the sound.

The researchers presented their findings at the ACM conference on computing and accessibility.

Read more: This Smart Glove Interprets Sign Language In Real Time

“This technology provides people with a way to experience sounds that require an action — such as getting food from the microwave when it beeps. But these devices can also enhance people’s experiences and help them feel more connected to the world,” said lead author Dhruv Jain, a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “I use the watch prototype to notice birds chirping and waterfall sounds when I am hiking. It makes me feel present in nature. My hope is that other d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who are interested in sounds will also find SoundWatch helpful.”

The team started this project by designing a system for d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people who wanted to be able to know what was going on around their homes, reports UW News.

“I used to sleep through the fire alarm,” said Jain, who was born hard of hearing.

The first system, called HomeSound, uses Microsoft Surface tablets scattered throughout the home which act like a network of interconnected displays. Each display provides a basic floor plan of the house and alerts a user to a sound and its source. The displays also show the sound’s waveforms, to help users identify the sound, and store a history of all the sounds a user might have missed when they were not home.

Because smartwatches have limited storage and processing abilities, the team needed a system that didn’t eat the watch’s battery and was also fast and accurate. First the researchers compared a compressed version of the HomeSound classifier against three other available sound classifiers. The HomeSound variant was the most accurate, but also the slowest.

To speed up the system, the team has the watch send the sound to a device with more processing power — the user’s phone — for classification. Having a phone classify sounds and send the results back to the watch not only saves time but also maintains the user’s privacy because sounds are only transferred between the user’s own devices.

The team tested the SoundWatch app in March 2020 — before Washington’s stay-at-home order — with eight d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants in the Seattle area.

Read more: Buzz: A Wearable Wristband That Allows You to Sense Sound Through Your Skin

People found the app was useful for letting them know if there was something that they should pay attention to. For example: that they had left the faucet running or that a car was honking. On the other hand, it sometimes misclassified sounds (labeling a car driving as running water) or was slow to notify users.

The team is also developing HoloSound, which uses augmented reality to provide real-time captions and other sound information through HoloLens glasses.

Boston-based digital fitness startup Whoop has announced a $100 million Series E investment that spikes the valuation of the company at $1.2 billion, making it a business unicorn. The round was led by IVP with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Accomplice, Two Sigma Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Thursday Ventures, Nextview Ventures, Promus Ventures, Cavu Ventures, D20 capital, and LionTree Partners, as well as additional private investors.

Read more: Expo 2020 Dubai Uses Whoop Wearable Strap To Monitor Workers’ Health

WHOOP will primarily invest these new funds in product and software development, global expansion, and membership services.

“We will continue to make WHOOP the best product experience for measuring and improving health," said Will Ahmed, WHOOP Founder & CEO. "Human performance is a new category and WHOOP has emerged as both the pioneer and market leader. We're proud to partner with IVP and other prominent investors who share our vision.”

WHOOP is a wrist-worn wearable device with a monthly subscription that is designed to improve training, sleep, and lifestyle choices with real-time feedback on the body. Its effortless social media integration further augments the user experience with compelling graphic design and easy in-app capture for ultimate connectivity. The WHOOP membership includes free hardware (WHOOP Strap 3.0) and a coaching platform designed to optimize behavior. Studies show that after a year on WHOOP, members experience longer and more consistent sleep, improved physiology, enhanced physical performance, and meaningful lifestyle changes. The company has more than 330 employees, including over 200 new hires in 2020, and has raised more than $200 million to date. Visit whoop.com/locker to learn more about the Series E round and use of capital, according to a press release.

“WHOOP has built best-in-class wearable technology and an aspirational brand that have propelled the company to an impressive period of hypergrowth,” said Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP, who has joined the WHOOP Board of Directors. "We are excited to partner with a strong leadership team as WHOOP continues to revolutionize the market for human performance.”

Read more: WHOOP Partners with CQUniversity and Cleveland Clinic to Study Whether its Wearable Could Identify Hidden COVID-19 Cases

About IVP

With $7 billion of committed capital, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 400 companies with 115 IPOs. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 39-year IRR of 43.1%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments.

When Fitbit was founded in 2007, the company’s focus was to create small wearable devices that could help you become more fitness-focused. Now, after thirteen years, the company’s CEO James Park told investors he’s planning to transform the company from a consumer electronics company to a digital healthcare company.

Read more: How Fitbit is Trying to Transform Healthcare, While Transforming Itself

“We are a fitness social network that is coupled to hardware, and we are on the cusp of transitioning the mission and purpose of our company from a consumer electronics company to a digital healthcare company,” Park told “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer on Thursday.

Park reminded investors that Fitbit’s focus is very different from Apple. The company aims to encourage users to become healthier and more active, whether it is through the use of its devices, software or services. Park said the social aspect of the product drives Fitbit’s growth, reports CNBC.

In August, Fitbit announced its new product – Fitbit Sense – a smartwatch with a sensor that detects skin temperature and can alert users of a potential fever. Park called the new watch a “true health watch.” Besides detecting potential fever, the smartwatch, equipped with an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor, used in the field of psychology and general healthcare, could also detect stress level.

“I think more people are now seeing fitness and health as one thing,” Park told Forbes magazine, who initially co-founded Fitbit in 2007 because he felt out of shape. “There’s more of an awareness for benefits of holistic body health. And we want Fitbit to go from being just a fitness tracking company to a health company.”

Read more: Fitbit Launches Large-Scale Study To See If Its Wearables Can Detect Atrial Fibrillation

Google bought Fitbit for $2.1 billion last year, in an attempt to bolster its hardware business and breathe more life into Wear OS. Park is confident the transaction will be completed later this year, and noted that “Google has incredible resources. The combination of the two companies has the potential to have a profound impact on the course of health care.”

OMRON Healthcare is urging regular blood pressure monitoring for all U.S. adults in response to U.S. Surgeon General, VADM Jerome Adams' call-to-action for hypertension control. OMRON, the global leader in remote blood pressure monitoring and personal heart health technology, is promoting regular monitoring – at least weekly – as an essential self-care habit to detect and manage health risks. The U.S. Surgeon General recently raised hypertension as a national public health priority.

The American Heart Association estimates that 116 million Americans, nearly half of U.S. adults, have hypertension, and only 1 in 4 of those individuals has their hypertension under control, says a press release.

“Hypertension is the leading risk factor for heart attack and stroke and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) have identified high blood pressure as an underlying health condition that can increase risk of complications with COVID-19,” said OMRON Healthcare President and CEO Ranndy Kellogg. “Knowing your blood pressure, monitoring it regularly, and taking action to manage it, are crucial activities to lowering your risks, and it's easier than ever to do this at home.”

Read more: Omron and physIQ Collaborate to Improve Cardiovascular Patient Care

OMRON revealed four steps that all Americans can take to address hypertension as a national health priority:

1. Make monitoring your blood pressure a habit. New heart health technology, such as HeartGuide wearable blood pressure monitor from OMRON, and Complete, the first blood pressure monitor with EKG capability built-in, enables users to easily monitor their blood pressure at home with FDA-cleared medical accuracy.
2. See your doctor if you're in the hypertensive range. Ask your doctor if your blood pressure level requires a treatment plan. Heart-healthy habits including a well-balanced diet, exercise and stress reduction along with regular monitoring can all help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
3. Make treatment adherence a priority and maintain communication with your doctor. Take medications as prescribed by a doctor, maintain healthy lifestyle habits that support your treatment plan, and explore easy ways to share your blood pressure readings with your doctor.
4. If you're one of the 37 million Americans with uncontrolled stage 2 hypertension, ask your doctor about remote patient monitoring. OMRON recently introduced its first remote patient monitoring service, VitalSight; designed specifically for hypertension management.

OMRON recognizes that health disparities are contributing to an even higher risk in underserved communities, with statistics showing that among U.S. adults with hypertension, 80 percent of Hispanic and Black Americans have uncontrolled blood pressure.

“Long-standing health disparities are the center of these staggering statistics,” said Kellogg. “Our mission is Going for Zero -- the elimination of heart attack and stroke -- and we view health disparities as a top priority. Lack of access to tools, information and care has factored into crisis levels of cardiac events and fatalities in underserved communities. It's gone on for far too long and the risk and loss of life is even higher with COVID-19. Bridging these disparities must be part of this call to action.”

Read more: Omron Unveils Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor Designed for Obese Patients

OMRON Healthcare has partnered with the American Heart Association (AHA), hospital systems, and churches in under-resourced communities to host free blood pressure monitoring and heart health education events to bring resources to residents and listen to top needs to address resource gaps. The company has also donated blood pressure monitors which have been distributed to community health centers through the Target:BP program. Additionally, OMRON is collaborating with Walgreens to donate trusted OMRON blood pressure monitors to the University of Michigan for a hypertension program led by the STEER-HD initiative, which provides underserved communities in Michigan with the blood pressure monitoring and hypertension treatments they need.

Global consumer electronics company Coolpad announced that it has partnered with M2MD Technologies to co-develop a new proximity tracking device to aid in fostering proper social distancing for workers in a myriad of industries including, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, construction, retail, hospitality, and education. The Coolpad Bubble helps companies create a safe environment for their employees, many of whom are essential workers.

Related: Radiant RFID Deploying Return-To-Work Strategies For Companies Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Coolpad Bubble is set to be released in Fall 2020. It utilizes a proprietary Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology from TDK that enables range-finding, proximity, and position-tracking sensors to calculate distances and alert users to maintain safe distances, in combination with Bluetooth. This is a stand-alone solution with devices that work right out of the box, with no need for additional infrastructure or beacons. Users receive real-time visual, audio, and vibration alerts when another device is within a six-foot threshold. The device is designed with versatility in mind to be used in the office or in industrial environments such as warehouses, according to a press release.

"We understand how critical it is to get the economy growing again in a way that safeguards people against the spread of COVID-19," said Zach Chang, CEO of Coolpad USA. "With the Coolpad Bubble's accurate and precise proximity detection, we aim to provide a practical and safe way for companies to begin to grow again while protecting their employees and customers."

Takvaviya Analytics, which created the Coolpad Bubble Dashboard, collects anonymous data from the wearable device including its own device ID, neighboring device IDs, distance, timestamp, and event duration - enabling companies to effectively record, monitor, and analyze the effectiveness of their social-distancing policies. The AI driven dashboard provides a comprehensive view of contact interactions, contact tracing history, and allows for customized reporting and analytics that enable automated Safety Management through predictive AI models. No personally identifiable information (PII) is stored on the device or transmitted to the cloud-based dashboard.

Current U.S. social distancing guidelines recommend maintaining a distance of six feet in applicable situations. However, research has demonstrated a challenge due to how differently the virus spreads at various distances. The Coolpad Bubble provides an innovative and effective solution that takes the guesswork out of the equation, thereby enabling companies to proactively tackle the challenges of adapting to this new COVID-19 environment.

Related: Nymi Launches Wearable Wristband For Health and Safety of Workers

"We believe the use of non-obtrusive technology is the way to succeed in the pursuit of keeping people safe during a time of necessary social distancing," said Joseph Bousaba, president of Chirp Microsystems, a TDK group company. "The key to a non-obtrusive solution is accuracy in distance measurement, low power consumption, long battery life, and reliability in a small form factor. This has been achieved in the Coolpad Bubble solution."

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) affects the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movements such as walking and talking. As a result, ALS patients often lose the ability to speak, making it difficult to communicate with others.

Read more: ALS Patients with Locked-In Syndrome May Get a Voice with This New Wearable

Now, researchers at MIT have developed a wearable skin-like sensor that can detect small deformations of the skin, potentially serving as a way to help ALS patients to communicate through facial movements. Using this approach, patients could communicate a variety of sentiments, such as “I love you” or “I’m hungry,” with small movements that are measured and interpreted by the device, reports Anne Trafton at MIT News. The wearable sensor is thin and can be camouflaged with makeup to match any skin tone, making it unobtrusive.

“Not only are our devices malleable, soft, disposable, and light, they’re also visually invisible,” says Canan Dagdeviren, the LG Electronics Career Development Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and the leader of the research team. “You can camouflage it and nobody would think that you have something on your skin.”

The researchers tested the initial version of their device in two ALS patients (one female and one male, for gender balance) and showed that it could accurately distinguish three different facial expressions — smile, open mouth, and pursed lips.

The lead authors of the study are MIT graduate student Farita Tasnim and former research scientist Tao Sun. Other MIT authors are undergraduate Rachel McIntosh, postdoc Dana Solav, research scientist Lin Zhang, and senior lab manager David Sadat. Yuandong Gu of the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore and Nikta Amiri, Mostafa Tavakkoli Anbarani, and M. Amin Karami of the University of Buffalo are also authors. The study appears in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Dagdeviren’s lab, the Conformable Decoders group, specializes in developing conformable (flexible and stretchable) electronic devices that can adhere to the body for a variety of medical applications. She became interested in working on ways to help patients with neuromuscular disorders communicate after meeting Stephen Hawking in 2016, when the world-renowned physicist visited Harvard University and Dagdeviren was a junior fellow in Harvard’s Society of Fellows.

Read more: MIT Develops Smart Shirt That Can Monitor Heart Rate, Temperature and Other Vital Signs

Most ALS patients also eventually lose the ability to control their limbs. The MIT team created a wearable device that consists of four piezoelectric sensors embedded in a thin silicone film. The sensors, which are made of aluminum nitride, can detect mechanical deformation of the skin and convert it into an electric voltage that can be easily measured. All of these components are easy to mass-produce, so the researchers estimate that each device would cost around $10.

When you put on a virtual reality (VR) headset, the world around you disappears and you step into a world that’s unknown to you. VR applications are giving science a new dimension. Researchers can easily conduct exciting experiments and interact with data using VR headsets.

Read more: FundamentalVR Integrates Groundbreaking HaptX Gloves on its Fundamental Surgery Platform

There are three types of VR headsets: a headset that works with your phone, headsets that connect to your PC, and standalone devices.

The cheapest method to access 3D content is to get a Google Cardboard or Daydream and insert your Android phone. The drawback here is that you can only turn around with your head rather than move back and forth or sideways, reports Sage Ocean.

Oculus Go, at an affordable price of $200, is the most popular standalone VR headset. While the immersion experience is better than mobile phone-dependent gear, it is limited in processing power and graphics.

If you want PC connected VR headsets, then you should go for HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. These headsets will give you the full immersive experience.

Haptic gloves allow researchers to streamline studies about the way people interact with objects and environments in VR. These haptic gloves make it easy to collect psychological and physiological data.

Eye-tracking is big in neuroscience, psychology, and clinical trials. There are numerous applications of eye-tracking in these fields. Vive Pro offers excellent eye-tracking features. Although the retail price of $799 may be too high, it’s worth the money. There are also cheaper alternatives. Chinese company 7invensun’s announced add-on will enable HTC Vive headsets to have eye-tracking. Researchers can spend $149 to get a deeper insight into their research.

ConfocalVR is a tool developed at Benaroya research institute. It uses VR to visualize images from confocal microscopes, made what was really happening “jump out within seconds”, according to Adam Lacy-Hulbert, a principal investigator at Benaroya.

Read more: Cardiologists Use Augmented Reality to Plan and Perform Complex Procedures

Although, VR and AR tools are now widely available, only a few labs are taking advantage of this technology. While many experts predict VR to become standard lab tools in the future, it remains to be seen how many labs actually adopt it.

Researchers at Swiss Laboratory Empa and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) have developed a material that works like a luminescent solar concentrator and can even be applied to textiles. This opens up numerous possibilities for producing energy directly where it is needed, i.e. in the use of everyday electronics.

Read more: Energy Harvesting Nanogenerators Offer New Option For Monitoring Health

Materials capable of using indirect or ambient light for energy generation are already being used in the solar industry. These materials contain special luminescent materials and are called "Luminescent Solar Concentrators", or LSC for short. The luminescent materials in the LSC capture diffuse ambient light and transmit its energy to the actual solar cell, which then converts light into electrical energy, reports Stefanie Zeller at Empa.

However, currently available LSCs are rigid and aren’t permeable to air and water. Therefore, thye are not suitable for use in textiles.  The Empa team, led by Luciano Boesel from the Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles has now succeeded in incorporating several of these luminescent materials into a polymer that provides precisely this flexibility and air permeability.

This new material is based on Amphiphilic Polymer Co-Networks, or APCN for short, a polymer that has long been known in research and is already available on the market in the form of silicone-hydrogel contact lenses, the Empa report said.

"The reason we chose exactly this polymer is the fact that we are capable of incorporating two immiscible luminescent materials at the nanoscale and let them interact with each other. There are, of course, other polymers, in which these materials could be integrated; but this would lead to aggregation, and the production of energy would thus not be possible», explains Boesel.

Read more: Researchers Develop Stretchable Thermoelectric Coils for Energy Harvesting in Flexible Wearable Devices

“The luminescent materials capture a much wider spectrum of light than is possible with conventional photovoltaics. The novel solar concentrators can be applied to textile fibers without the textile becoming brittle and susceptible to cracking or accumulating water vapor in the form of sweat. Solar concentrators worn on the body offer an immense benefit for the ever-increasing demand for energy, especially for portable devices,” reports Empa.

Wearables have become a way of life. This technology is evolving very fast, and it looks like the next big thing in wearable tech is smart tattoos. Smart Tattoos lies at the intersection of fashion, sustainability, and personalized experiences. These are personalized circuits, adhesives, conductors, and microprocessors that can be glued onto the skin. Smart tattoos can send signals to your phone via touch, allowing you to interact with the world around you, or they can also be used to monitor health.

Read more Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop Ultra-Thin Electronic Tattoos that Can Power Wearables

Microsoft researchers demonstrated smart tattoos that can help you change channels on your TV. The researchers created smart decorative tattoos called Hack-a-Tatt that look like decorative body decoration but they also work as remote controls directly from the skin.

Google developed rub-on tattoos called SkinMarks that can transform your skin into a touchpad. The sensor-embedded tattoos are applied to a part of the body, like the ridge of a person’s knuckles or the side of a finger. Traditional touch or swipe gestures can trigger the sensors like you’d use on your phone. But there are also a few gestures that are more specific to working on the skin’s surface. You could squeeze the area around the tattoo or bend your fingers or limbs to activate the sensors.

Scientists have been developing wearable sensors that patients can use to keep track of their heart health over time. But many of these devices have been cumbersome or uncomfortable. Now, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have designed a lightweight wearable material that could make heart health monitoring easier and more accurate than the existing ECG machines. The research team was led by Nanshu Lu in the Cockrell School of Engineering.

Read more: Very Thin Tattoo-Like Wearable Patch Monitors and Diagnoses Health Problems from Sweat

The smart tattoo is graphene-based and can be placed on the skin to measure a variety of body responses, from electrical to biomechanical signals. The device is so lightweight and stretchable that it can be placed over the heart for extended periods with little or no discomfort. It also measures cardiac health in two ways, taking electrocardiograph and seismocardiograph readings simultaneously.

Disadvantages

It’s hard to make smart tattoos that are safe, strong and that can last for few years, reports The Pourquoi Pas. Biocompatibility is a big issue here. People are allergic to certain materials. Also, human skin experiences a lot of different forces throughout the day. When you put on a jacket, for example, if you’re not careful, you may unintentionally rub it against the tattoo and remove it.

When we talk about femtech, issues that come to mind are pregnancy and menstruation. But now, femtech encompasses other aspects of women's health. A report by data research company PitchBook reveals that the femtech industry generated US$820.6 million and is on the patch to reach at least US$3 billion by the end of 2030. The huge amount of health issues that affect women differently than men is astounding, and there is an enormous demand that needs to be filled.

Various startups from across the globe are seeking to tackle the taboos surrounding issues like orgasm, menopause and sexual wellbeing, reports HTWorld.

Research from the International Academy of Sex Research found that 95% of heterosexual men usually or always orgasm during sex, compared to only 65% of heterosexual women. Emjoy, a Barcelona, Spain-based wellness company wants to close that ‘orgasm gap.’ The company’s Emjoy is the intimate self-care app for women by women. It’s an audio-based wellbeing app enabling women to explore their bodies, learn about their sexuality, arouse their minds, and feel empowered throughout their sex life. The app was launched globally in 2020. The app has over 150 audio sessions and sensual stories, developed by sex therapists and sexual wellbeing experts.

Read more: Femtech Startup Bloomer Develops Smart Bra that Can Monitor Women’s Health

“This is a topic that many people are hesitant or embarrassed to discuss,” says CEO and co-founder of Emjoy, Andrea Oliver. “This becomes a problem when you consider the multitude of studies that have found that sexual satisfaction directly correlates with positive physical and mental wellbeing.”

For women who want more insight and control over their bodies, kegg by Lady Technologies is the personal fertility specialist that gives you the information and resources you need to make better decisions. kegg is the first fertility tracking kegel device to help pinpoint women’s fertile window and ovulation up to 7 days in advance. The company leverages advanced sensor technology, known as impedance spectroscopy, to detect changes in vaginal fluids including cervical fluid. kegg can predict a more accurate and precise ovulation window in comparison to probability-based solutions so women all over the world can conceive naturally, faster.

Kristina Cahojova, Founder and CEO of Lady Technologies says: “We have created the first, easy to use modern medical device to help women manage their fertility with actionable data. Cervical fluid is a standard for determining women’s conception probabilities on a daily basis and kegg is the most convenient way to measure it. In the future, we want to look at other use cases that include infections, fertility tracking during postpartum and perimenopause.

Astinno is a London-based femtech startup that developed a wearable to detect hot flashes. The wearable, dubbed Grace, has sensors that can detect the onset of a hot flush, which include sweating, a rise in heart rate, shortness of breath and a reddening of the skin. The device then cools a women’s wrist to fight the reaction. In May, the company received an Innovate UK grant worth $450 thousand to further test its wearable.

Read more: Femtech Hardware Elvie Partners with NHS to Tackle Stress Urinary Incontinence

Hot flashes are the most common symptom of menopause and perimenopause. More than two-thirds of North American women who are heading into menopause have hot flashes. If you lose too much body heat, you might feel chilled afterward. Night sweats are hot flashes that happen at night, and they may disrupt your sleep.

The Wearables in Consumer and Medical Applications 2020 report by Yole gives a detailed analysis of the wearable technologies and delivers an overview of emerging wearable functionalities and related sensors.

Read more: Global Medical Wearables Market Will Grow At A CAGR Of 21.4% During 2020-2027

Including market shares, trends and forecasts, this study points out global wearable system market trends, competitive forces and dynamics, and market drivers. This report also provides an overview of the main players at the system and sensor level of the supply chain, with market shares, according to Yole.

“The era of wearables is definitely here and confirmed by large consumer adoption," said Jérôme Mouly, senior Technology & Market analyst and business developer at Yole Développement (Yole). “Whether wrist-worn, head-worn and hearable, body-worn or smart clothing, we estimate the market to reach US$97.9 billion by 2025, with an 11.2% CAGR from 2019 to 2025”.

What are the economic and technological challenges of the wearables industry? What are the key drivers? Who are the suppliers to watch, and what innovative technologies are they working on?

As analyzed by Yole’s team in the new Wearables in Consumer and Medical Applications 2020 report, wearables are even considered the new wave of consumer electronics, seen as the growth driver for smartphone makers whose market has now reached a mature level and a low single-digit growth rate.

In parallel, the fundraising amount for wearables in the last 5 years has reached $2.6 billion, highlighting again the strong interest in wearables.

"Two main applications are the reason, namely fitness and health," Mouly said. "If athletes quickly adopted connected bracelets to track their performance, health applications quickly took over with a wider public using smartwatches as well as earbuds, the latter showing great interest.

"This success is explained by the need for quantified self, allowing people to monitor their health parameters in a preventive approach against the continued prevalence of chronic diseases and driven by a transformation of health systems to fight against cost pressure”.

As a result, adding functions to wearables has now become essential to meet the needs of the greatest number of users.

These functions can both be linked to the use of systems for greater comfort and interactivity, to capture vital parameters or even environmental data. With the addition of artificial intelligence, the goal is to merge all the information, aggregating it with the final goal of predicting and assisting in decision making.

Wearables have not only aroused the interest of consumer electronics players but also attracted the attention of medical device companies, especially in this period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, wearables with healthcare functions gain momentum with the pandemic to monitor vital signs. However, incorporating medical functions does not make a wearable medical device.

Consumer wearable companies mainly integrate functions such as fitness and wellness. Medical wearable companies, for their part, focus on patient monitoring and diagnosis.

The key criteria for these medical wearables will be the reliability of the systems and accuracy of the data they generate.

The use of medical wearables such as minimally invasive CGM sensors for people with diabetes replaces measurements via glucometers by providing ease of use and comfort to the patients.

In another example an increasing use of body patches allows hospitals to send patients home earlier and monitor them remotely. Today, medical wearables represent about 20% of wearable revenues.

However, the lines are becoming blurred between medical wearables recognized as approved medical devices and consumer wearables integrating health functions.

“Developments of biosensor platforms integrated into wearables are now achieving medical-grade performance and are integrated into smartwatches, as well as more recently into earbuds,” Mouly said. “But in this battle, consumer wearables offer affordable system prices and larger volume manufacturing opportunities that could benefit to large-scale clinical studies with mass data generation."

Greater permeability between the medical sector and consumer healthcare with the notion of over-the-counter sales intensifies the competition between consumer and medical players.

Read more: Worldwide Non-Optical Pressure Sensor Market Is Estimated To Grow At A Healthy CAGR During 2020-202

Manufacturers of consumer electronic systems have the largest market shares. The wearable report from Yole also analyzes the Top players.

With no surprise, these companies are smartphone manufacturers. At the top, Apple dominates the market.

Therefore, with 39% of the global wearable market shares, Apple is quite unreachable by competition far away. Samsung and Xiaomi are the challengers with respectively 7% and 6% market shares.

Microsoft’s research division is working on a new design of Virtual Reality that could make the haptics as realistic as having a motorized handle on your wrist.

Read more: Quectel, Qualcomm and Microsoft Partnership to Speed Up IoT Solutions

When you pick an apple from a tree, you experience various sensations: at first you feel the firmness of the apple, when you tug the apple you feel resistance, once you’ve plucked the apple you feel the weight of the apple on your palm and the smooth, round surface under your fingertips.

“In recent years, steady progress in haptic controllers from Microsoft Research has moved us toward a virtual reality (VR) experience in which those feelings will be on par with the awe-inspiring and realistic visual renderings being produced today by head-mounted displays. With previous devices such as NormalTouch, we can simulate a virtual object’s surface inclination and texture on the tip of an individual’s index finger,” reports Microsoft.

At the heart of the company’s new Haptic PIVOT controller is a motorized hinge and handle systems that sit on your wrist.

CLAW is a multifunctional handheld haptic controller for grasping, touching, and triggering in Virtual Reality. CLAW enables a person to feel they’ve grabbed an object between their fingers to explore its compliance and elasticity, and TORC allows a new level of dexterity, parallel to real life. TORC is a virtual reality controller for in-hand high-dexterity finger interaction. Using these prototypes, a person can feel the surface of a virtual apple, squeeze the virtual fruit, and move it around in their hands. However, to facilitate a complete interaction with that apple in its virtual surroundings, we also have to take into account the dynamics of the objects in the space. Now, with Haptic PIVOT, we bring the physics of forces to VR controllers. Worn on the wrist, PIVOT is a portable device with a haptic handle that moves in and out of the hand on demand.

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Natural Cycles, which claims to be the first and only FDA-cleared birth control app in the United States and CE-marked birth control app in Europe, announced that the company has submitted a 510(k) Premarket Notification to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Read more: Nuvo Awarded FDA Clearance for its Remote Pregnancy Monitoring System INVU

The purpose of the notification is to revise the labeling to expand the types of third-party thermometers, which include popular wearables already on the market, that can be used with its app.

Up until now, many women would wake up in the morning, stick a thermometer in their mouth and enter their temperature into the Natural Cycles app. The new wearable app from Natural Cycles will change all that.

The app is powered by an algorithm that is able to identify a woman’s daily fertility status based on her basal body temperature and other menstrual data. Currently, users use a basal thermometer to take their daily temperature and input that temperature manually into the app, reports BusinessWire.

New software has been developed and added to the Natural Cycles application that converts temperature data received from wearable devices that collect biometric temperature data to a format that can be interpreted by the Natural Cycles algorithm. This will remove the manual steps of measuring orally and entering temperature data for those users who wear an integrated device.

“For years we’ve been looking to create a more seamless measuring experience for our users, and we were thrilled with the results from using our new software with temperature data from popular wearables,” said Natural Cycles co-founder and CEO Elina Berglund Scherwitzl. “We know our users love having a hormone-free birth control option and we are excited to give them additional measuring options that many already have given a large number of our users own a wearable device.”

Since Natural Cycles was launched in 2013 by physicists Elina Berglund and Raoul Scherwitzl, the company has garnered over 1.8 million registered users worldwide.

Read more: Femtech Startup Lady Technologies Introduces 2-in-1 Device that Combines Fertility Tracking with Pelvic Floor Exercising

While waiting for the FDA’s clearance on the 501(k)submission, Natural Cycles has released a beta launch that will allow select Natural Cycles users to sync temperature data collected when wearing certain wearable devices, including the Oura Ring. While in beta, measurement functionality will only be available to users who are not using the app for birth control. Since 25% of Natural Cycles users use the app outside of preventing pregnancy - including to plan pregnancy or to monitor their cycle - those in the beta will use it solely as a fertility tracker, the company said.