Willow, the maker of all-in-one wearable breast pump system, added a new reusable Milk Container to its pump, giving moms more freedom in how they pump. The hands-free and untethered pump will now allow women to pump and pour with the Container, or pump and store with spill-proof Milk Bags.

Read more Elvie’s Silent Wearable Breast Pump Makes Life Easier for Nursing Mothers

According to the CDC, 60 percent of mothers do not breastfeed for as long as they intend to. Additionally, stress about pumping at work is reported as the second most common reason why women do not return to their job following maternity leave, according to Ovia Health. Willow aims to change that by relieving the stress of many mothers have around pumping and balancing their everyday lives.

According to an August 2019 survey of Willow users, 93% of mothers said Willow reduced the stress of pumping and improved their overall breastfeeding experience. Among them, 86% said they were confident that willow would meet their pumping goals, the company said in a press release.

“We reimagined the breast pump to help women pump longer and with less stress, and the Container is our latest—and most highly requested— innovation to help moms do that,” said Vickie Bond Mrva, mom to two and Willow President and CMO. “At Willow, our core mission is to improve the lives of moms, and we're so proud of the real impact we are having.”

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Over 45,000 women use the Willow Wearable Breast Pump. Developed by a female-led engineering team, both pumping options for the Willow Pump have just a few parts to assemble and clean, supporting Willow's commitment to design hassle-free products with the on-the-go mom in mind. The Milk Container comes in 24mm and 27mm, and a new 21mm size, based on requests from moms.

Read more Willow Adds New Features to its Breast Pump at CES 2019

Willow is a Mountain View, CA-based femtech company that designs solutions to make moms' lives easier and solve real-life problems. The Willow breast pump discreetly tucks into a bra, without cords, dangling bottles or loud sucking noises — freeing moms up to pump wherever life takes them.

The company said it has “many more innovative products to come in 2020, focused on improving the lives of women in early motherhood.”

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Koneksa Health, a New York-based healthcare company focused on making clinical trials safer for its participants, just published a peer-reviewed manuscript showing the benefits of wearable devices for monitoring clinical-trial participants for physiological changes and assessing their responses to the medicine.

Read more Oracle mHealth Platform is Revolutionizing Clinical Trials with Remote Monitoring Devices

The paper, authored by researchers from Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Koneksa Health, was published in the journal Clinical and Translational Sciences.

“This study demonstrated the importance of robust clinical assessment of wearable digital sensors so that their performance can be determined relative to the in-clinic 'gold standard' measures. Additionally, understanding the differing performance of sensors under a range of potential use conditions, such as were undertaken in this study, is equally as important,” said Anne Heatherington, Senior Vice President, Head of Data Sciences Institute at Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

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This publication reported on an exploratory component of a Phase I study of an investigational drug. The results showed the usefulness of wearable devices for vital-sign data collection and interpretation, and the advantages of collecting dense continuous data over extended periods of time, said Koneksa Health in a press release.

“This was a collaboration in a true sense of the word: all team members involved share a belief in the important potential of digital technologies in drug development,” said Elena Izmailova, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Koneksa (formerly Senior Director of Data Science, Takeda). “Few published studies to date have investigated the use of wearable devices in clinical trials with detailed data analysis. Our research is contributing to building that body of evidence.”

Read more MC10 Collaborates with AbbVie for Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Trials Using BioStamp nPoint system

Koneksa enables collection of real-world data from remote, wearable, and other technologies in order to speed up the time required to understand how a drug is working and helps clinicians understand how medicines can impact the daily lives of patients.

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Quantic Nanotech, a product division of Spanish DEMAC S.A. group, announced that it is starting free treatment sign-up registration for a new medical pre-launch pilot trial of its osteoarthritis treatment glove for patients in selected hospitals in Madrid. The company launched the home wearable osteoarthritis glove, dubbed “Qnano Glove,” at CES 2019 in Las Vegas.

Due to high demand, this offer will be available until October 15th, 2019, Quantic Nanotech said.

“This device attracted our attention because it allows home application in the affected hand of different therapies of evidence-based proven clinical efficacy, during rest or at night,” said Dr. Luis F. Villa, M.D., Rheumatology consultant at University Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda in Madrid.

“The treatment of hand osteoarthritis is cumbersome and resource consuming, relying on physical assisted therapy and topical and oral medications. We are interested in the results of the pilot studies, since a home-based device for multimodal physical therapy could make it easier and cheaper for the treatment of patients with this frequent condition.”

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people worldwide. It is a major cause of sick leave worldwide, with USD$ 304 Billion of total medical and earning losses just in the US alone.

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The smart glove integrates new technologies like shape memory alloys (SMA) and state-of-the-art materials for applications such as dry heat therapy, vibration, massage as well as stretching and extension of the fingers both active and passively. The glove can also be used to administer topical medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), liniments and neuromodulators, Quantich Nanotech said in a press release.

The company hopes to report the first results of a clinical trial in patients with hand osteoarthritis by Q4 2019 and Q1 2020.

The Qnano Glove is simple and has been designed for use at home, controlled by smartphones or internet and it also allows remote control by health professionals.

Read more MANOVIVO: Wearable Smart Glove Offering Custom Support for People with Rheumatoid Arthritis

The glove won international awards at various shows and recently it received Technology Innovator Award in August 2019 from AI Global Media, UK, 2019 CV-MAGAZINE.

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Preventice Solutions, a healthcare company focused on mobile health solutions and remote monitoring services, received a tender from the UK Biobank to provide its BodyGuardian MINI remote cardiac monitor for a cardiovascular monitoring study. The study, which involves up to 30,000 participants, is designed to capture data on arrhythmia, including atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common arrhythmia that can lead to stroke and dementia.

Read more Wearable Tech Can Safely Detect Atrial Fibrillation, Says Apple Heart Study

The British Heart Foundation funded study is led by Professor Barbara Casadei, a BHF Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, at the Cardiovascular Medicine Division of the Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said a press release.

“Atrial fibrillation is a common condition that can go unnoticed until it causes a stroke or cognitive decline.  We desperately need to know more about its causes and how it can be better treated,” said Professor Casadei.

“UK Biobank provides us with an ideal opportunity to integrate a large amount of health, genetics and lifestyle information with heart rhythm data on a huge number of people. Importantly these individuals will have also undergone an MRI heart, body and brain scan. It is not often that all these opportunities for discovery come together – because of this, we believe this study will provide important answers about the management and risk associated with asymptomatic AF and other clinically silent arrhythmias.”

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Image: Pixabay

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UK Biobank is a major national and international health resource, and a registered charity in its own right, with the aim of improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses.

The BodyGuardian® MINI is the smallest, reusable Holter monitor available. It records important physiological data such as heart rate, ECG and related activity. Unlike many other remote monitors, the BodyGuardian has a wearable patch that can be moved and reapplied to optimize comfort and wearability, without jeopardizing data collection or requiring the participant to return to the clinic. In addition, the device is fully waterproof, allowing participants the freedom to go about their daily life while wearing it.

Read more Alphabet and iRhythm Partner Up to Develop Health Management Solutions for Atrial Fibrillation Patients

“The BodyGuardian MINI was designed to enhance compliance through ease-of-use and comfort based on its small size and waterproof design allowing participants to go about their daily activities without interruption.  We look forward to helping researchers pursue this important research and are pleased to partner with the UK Biobank, British Heart Foundation and the Radcliffe ‎Department of Medicine at Oxford as they collaborate on important research efforts to further understand AF and its impact on stroke and cognitive decline,” said Jon Otterstatter, CEO of Preventice Solutions.

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Disc pump micropump manufacturer TTP Ventus has started working on a project to use disc pump in ambulatory blood pressure systems. The tiny, quiet and highly efficient disc pump could change the way ambulatory blood pressure is measured, claims TTP Ventus, who’s a former exhibitor of the WT | Wearable Technologies Show at MEDICA.

Micropumps are devices that can control and manipulate small fluid volumes. Such pumps are of special interest in microfluidic research, and have become available for industrial product integration in recent years.

Read more This Wearable Stick-On Ultrasound Patch Can Measure Blood Pressure Deep Inside Body

To monitor blood pressure at regular intervals 24 hours a day, currently available blood pressure monitors typically use motor-driven diaphragm pumps to inflate a cuff on the upper arm. The downside to this approach is that the cuff needs to be inflated well above systolic pressure, applying significant forces to the arm. “It can also take a little while to inflate the cuff meaning the arm is compressed for longer than you’d like. Both issues affect user comfort,” Tom Harrison, Business Development Manager of TTP Ventus, told MedGadget’s Conn Hastings in an interview. On the other hand, these bulky and noisy pumps affect airflow pulsation within the blood pressure monitor, so manufacturers tend to design the pump to be worn on the belt or around the neck on a lanyard.

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To solve these problems, TTP Ventus has proposed that the Disc Pump could be a better alternative to motor-drive diaphragm pumps. TTP Ventus’ Disc Pump platform is a silent micropump platform that delivers exceptional pressure and flow, millisecond-response time, precision controllability and pulsation-free flow. These features enable product designers to drive innovation, for example through the creation of discrete, wearable medical devices or through the miniaturization of measurement equipment.

Read more Deaths from Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure Slowing the Progress in Fight Against Heart Disease

Mr. Harrison told MedGadget that they have plans to integrate the disc pump into other applications such as from sleep apnea therapy to breath-based disease diagnostics, compression therapy, microfluidics for point-of-care diagnostics and elevated vacuum prosthetics. “Our plans for the pump are focused on continuing to build on its success in the market. We’re working hard to reach new OEM customers across the medical and life science sectors, whilst keeping an eye on the emerging applications of tomorrow where the Disc Pump often adds significant value over conventional pumps,” he said.

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A smart shirt, developed by Canadian startup Hexoskin, can accurately measure lung function when compared to traditional testing equipment, according to a research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress. The smart shirt measures lung function by sensing movements in the chest and abdomen. The researchers at the Radboud University Medical Centre in Netherlands used this shirt together with a mobile app, to reliably measure breathing in healthy people while carrying out a range of everyday activities.

Read more FC Barcelona and Allianz SE Partner with Hexoskin for Sleep Study

“COPD is a growing problem with around 64 million people suffering with the condition worldwide. When patients suffer an increase in their symptoms, such as coughing and breathlessness, they need to be monitored more closely,” said lead researcher Denise Mannée, a technical physician and PhD candidate at Radboud University Medical Centre in The Netherlands.

For their study, the researchers recruited 15 healthy volunteers and had them wear the shirt while doing everyday activities including lying down, sitting, standing, climbing stairs and vacuuming, reports European Lung Foundation.

At the same time, the participants also wore the equipment traditionally used to measure breathing that includes a face mask and bulky backpack. They repeated the tasks again wearing both pieces of equipment, to generate a second set of data.

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The team then compared the measurements recorded using the two techniques for each person doing each activity on the two occasions. In general, they found that the measurements were very similar.

“These results are important because they indicate that the smart shirt can be worn by patients while they go about their daily lives to accurately measure their lung function,” explained Mrs Mannee.

The participants found the smart shirts comfortable enough to be worn underneath their normal clothes.

Read more Astroskin Smart Shirt Will Monitor Astronauts’ Vital Signs in Space

The researchers now plan to repeat tests on the smart shirts with COPD patients, but they believe the technology might also help in other respiratory conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis or after transplantation.

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Current Health, an Edinburgh, Scotland-based wearable patient monitoring platform, partnered up with VivaLNK and MIR to add axillary temperature and spirometry measurement capabilities to its offering. VivaLNK provides medical wearable solutions for continuous patient monitoring and MIR (Medical International Research) makes spirometry devices, reports MobiHealthNews.

"We’re building out around our continuous wearable all [of] these other devices to capture other metrics, and that was what the FDA cleared,” Chris McCann, CEO and cofounder of Current Health, told MobiHealthNews. “In our view, both of those devices are best in class for monitoring of spirometry and axillary temperature.”

Current Health’s AI-powered remote patient monitoring device was cleared by the FDA in April. Patients using the platform are provided with a tracker and a tablet for taking part in a chatbot, medication reminders, educational content, and support for video or text conversations with a clinician. These clinicians, meanwhile, can follow their patients’ vitals through a provider-facing interface and intervene when necessary.

Current Health’s upper arm wearable device can continuously monitor skin temperature, pulse rate, oxygen saturation and movement, among other things. But the company’s ultimate goal is to provide clinical teams with a more detailed view of at-home patients, according to McCann.

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Read more VivaLNK Partners with Emory University to Provide Wearable ECG Sensors for Study

“What we are really trying to do is build as wide a physical picture of the patient’s health as possible, and then we also get them an application they can use to report symptoms, so we’re also capturing the behavioral side of their health, and we’re trying to use both that broad physical picture and that broad behavioral picture to identify who is at risk earlier. So, we’re going to keep building more and more and more of these integrations to keep giving us a better understanding of human health,” said McCann.

McCann also said that his company is getting closer to wrapping up deals that would add continuous glucose monitoring and International Normalized Ratio or INT, a measurement of blood coagulation, to the platform. Their goal is to add more than 50 integrations by the end of 2020, he said.

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Fitbit and Taiwan-based Health2Sync are collaborating to provide diabetics with a more holistic view of their health and help them make healthy lifestyle choices to better manage their condition. Through this partnership, Fitbit health, sleep and fitness data will be integrated with the Health2Sync app. For now, this integration will be available to 360,000 users in Taiwan and Japan.

Read more Fitbit and Solera Health Expand Collaboration to Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk

“We are excited to integrate Fitbit’s expertise in using technology and data to empower people to make meaningful behavior change that can drive positive health outcomes with the Health2Sync platform, said Steve Morley, Fitbit’s vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, in a statement. “The integration will help Health2Sync users in Taiwan and Japan better see the impact of things like activity level on blood sugar levels, and provide them with support to make healthy lifestyle choices, like increased activity, shown to help manage type 2 diabetes.”

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Users with a Fitbit account can access an in-app dashboard that now includes data from their Fitbit devices, including heart rate, sleep and physical activity, alongside recent blood glucose readings depicting if levels fall within, above or below the healthy range, reports MobiHealthNews.

The Health2Sync Mobile App enables you to take full control of your health status by keeping a full record of your blood glucose data and daily activities. It gives reminders and tips based on your records, to assist you in making timely adjustments.

Read more Senseonics & Glooko Partner Up for Integrated Diabetes Management

Ed Deng, CEO at Health2Sync, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Fitbit as a leading wearables brand to extend the benefits of our health management app to users. We understand that the key to successfully controlling diabetes is to ensure proactive management and continuous monitoring. We’re confident our comprehensive integrated health platforms for both patients and healthcare professionals, coupled with Fitbit’s easy to use, innovative devices and software features will help users to achieve both aims.”

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Flow, a Malmo, Sweden-based medical therapy startup, released a chatbot therapist to treat people suffering from depression. In June, the company launched its brain stimulation headset for treating depression – a first ever medically approved at-home treatment of its kind in the UK and EU.

The new technology was designed to engage users with daily chat conversations and offer self-help techniques, mood tracking, curated videos, meditation and mental exercises, the company said. It also analyzes user’s data to give personalized behavioral therapy, reports MobiHealthNews. The chatbot therapist is based on the latest psychology and neuroscience research, and was developed by clinical psychologists and machine learning experts.

Read more Feel: A Digital Therapeutic Solution for Mental Health

In the UK, mental illness affects nearly one in four adults. Suicide is the most common cause of death for men aged 20-49 years in England and Wales. One in four adults – approximately 57.7 million Americans – experience a mental health disorder in a given year.

“Accessibility and early intervention in depression is crucial. The ‘always-on’ source of therapy provided by Flow ensures people get the help they need as quickly as possible. Flow can provide anonymity without the fear of being judged by others. This is great as some people feel anxious when it comes to talking about their depression to another human,” said Daniel Mansson, Clinical Psychologist, CEO and Co-Founder of Flow.

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Flow combines brain stimulation and behavior therapy to treat depression at home. Brain stimulation is delivered through a wireless headset, controlled by the app Flow – Depression. In addition, the free app includes a complete treatment program with focus on lifestyle changes that significantly reduce symptoms of depression.

Depression is associated with lowered activity in an area in the front of the brain. The Flow headset delivers gentle electrical signals to this area and rebalances the activity. As a result, your symptoms decrease, the company said.

Read more Wearable Devices and Mobile Apps Exploring Users’ States of Mind to Tackle Anxiety and Depression

Flow is suitable for people over 18 years of age who have been diagnosed with depression (major depressive disorder).

The chatbot therapist can be downloaded for free on iOS. An Android version will be available in October 2019.

Flow was founded in 2016 by Daniel Mansson and Erik Rehn.

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Abbott won FDA approval for its Proclaim XR recharge-free neurostimulation system for people living with chronic pain. The neurostimulator can treat chronic pain for up to ten years without requiring a recharge.

Read more Neurolief’s Relivion Provides Significant Pain Reduction in Migraine Patients, Clinical Trial Finds

The Proclaim XR platform offers a low dose of Abbott's proprietary BurstDR™ stimulation waveform, which was created based on scientific insights from doctors and research to mimic natural patterns found in the brain. It works by using low doses of mild electrical pulses to change pain signals as they travel from the spinal cord to the brain, reports Abbott.

The neurostimulation system was developed based on positive results from Abbott's BurstDR micrOdosing stimuLation in De-novo patients (BOLD) study. The study showed that all 24 enrolled patients on a low-energy BurstDR dosing program experienced pain relief with less than six hours of battery use per day, while approximately 50% of those patients achieved pain relief with the lowest effective dose (less than two hours of battery use per day).

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An estimated 50 million people in the United States suffer from chronic pain. Chronic pain affects more American than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined.

Read more Abbott to Ramp Up Production of its FreeStyle Libre Continuous Glucose Monitor

“For the 50 million people living with chronic pain in the United States this is a new and exciting treatment that is supported with evidence validated by the BOLD study, an established protocol for titrated intermittent dosing to give patients individualized pain relief while using therapy for 6 hours or less per day,” said Timothy Deer, M.D., DABPM, president and chief executive officer of The Spine and Nerve Center of the Virginias in Charleston, W.Va. “Proclaim XR is a major advancement in spinal cord stimulation, and is an evidence-based therapy that is mobile app-based and features upgradeable software. This means patients won't need surgery to benefit from future advances in this technology.”

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Scientists at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created a soft artificial skin that can sense touch while providing real-time haptic feedback. Because of its sophisticated self-sensing mechanism, the new skin has the potential to instantaneously adapt to a wearer’s movements. Scientists believe the new technology can be applied to numerous fields such as from medical rehabilitation to virtual reality (VR).

Read more NUS Scientists Develop Electronic Skin with Exceptional Sense of Touch for Prosthetics

Our sense of touch, similar to our senses of hearing and vision, plays a crucial role in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Haptic feedback – a technology capable of replicating our sense of touch – can greatly improve human-computer and human-robot interfaces for applications such as medical rehabilitation and virtual reality, reports EPFL.

A range of soft sensors and actuators in the artificial skin enable it to conform to the exact shape of a wearer’s wrist, for example, and provide haptic feedback in the form of pressure and vibration. Strain sensors continuously measure the skin’s deformation so that the haptic feedback can be adjusted in real time to produce a sense of touch that’s as realistic as possible.

“This is the first time we have developed an entirely soft artificial skin where both sensors and actuators are integrated,” says Harshal Sonar, the study’s lead author. “This gives us closed-loop control, which means we can accurately and reliably modulate the vibratory stimulation felt by the user. This is ideal for wearable applications, such as for testing a patient’s proprioception in medical applications.”

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Soft pneumatic actuators in the artificial skin form a membrane that can be inflated by pumping air into it. A chamber, created by the membrane, can be inflated and deflated using a tiny pump up to 100 times per second, generating vibrations that will feel different to the user.

The artificial skin can be stretched up to four times its original length for up to a million cycles. That makes it particularly attractive for a number of real-world applications. For now the scientists have tested it on users’ fingers and are still making improvements to the technology.

Read more Scientists Develop Flexible Artificial Tactile Nerve Using Flexible Organic Materials

“The next step will be to develop a fully wearable prototype for applications in rehabilitation and virtual and augmented reality,” says Sonar. “The prototype will also be tested in neuroscientific studies, where it can be used to stimulate the human body while researchers study dynamic brain activity in magnetic resonance experiments.”

This work was published in Soft Robotics.

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Google’s touch-sensitive fabric technology Project Jacquard is back with a new product – the Cit-E smart backpack – a touch-sensitive shoulder strap for controlling a connected smartphone. Built in collaboration with fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, the Cit-E backpack allows the user to control things using four gestures on the touch-sensitive area on the front of the left shoulder strap: swipe up, swipe down, double tap, and covering it up.

Read more Artificial Intelligence and Google’s Radar Technologies to Noninvasively Measure Glucose Levels

Google first debuted Project Jacquard, a smart fabric initiative to create gesture and tap-connected wearables without screens, back in 2015, reports CNet.

In 2017, Commuter X jacket debuted. It’s a Google-powered smart denim jacket that lets users control music and phone functions just by touching the fabric.

Now, the search engine giant is planning to build a bigger wave of Jacquard products, starting with this smart backpack. The discreet Jacquard Tag connects your physical things to digital services and information. It’s connected via Bluetooth and communicates with the Jacquard app.

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You can personalize your things by selecting the Abilities you want to use. The more Jacquard services are added, the more your things become uniquely yours.

“Our ambition is simple: to make life easier. By staying connected to your digital world, your things can do so much more. Skip a song by swiping your sleeve. Take a picture by tapping on a shoulder strap. Get reminded about the phone you left behind with a blink of light or a haptic buzz on your cuff,” says Google.

Read more Cognoa Licenses Google Glass-based AI Technology for Children with Autism

Google’s Soli – a new sensing technology that uses miniature radar to detect touchless gesture interactions – hasn't debuted in any product yet. But the two platforms could eventually fit together down the road. “It's in the realm of possibilities, we're thinking about it all the time,” Ivan Poupyrev, Google’s technical projects lead told CNet’s Scott Stein. “I don't know how much speculation I'm allowed.”

The Cit-E backpack is available to preorder from Yves Saint Laurent’s website for US $877.

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Charging your smartwatch can be a headache. With a feature-packed smartwatch, you may need to recharge it every few hours. But when you’re away and don’t have your charger with you, what do you do? Now, a new project funded by the European Union has announced it is working on a solution that it calls an “autonomous energy supply platform.” If it succeeds, the project dubbed Smart2Go, has the potential to kick-start the development of a new generation of wearable devices that never need charging, reports Digital Trends.

German company Fraunhofer FEP is leading the project, which will involve the development of a flexible power supply for wearable devices under the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The company envisions the platform being using in everything from smartwatches, fitness tracking devices, and personal safety trackers, to exciting future tech including skin patches and smart labels.

Read more Innovative Charging Solutions for Your Cellphone and Other Electronics

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“The aim of the project is the creation of an autonomous energy-supply platform. Based on the results of the project it will be possible to use a wearable without caring about recharging over its entire lifetime. This aim will be achieved by the combination of a powerful battery with appropriate energy harvesting technologies. The performance of the energy supply platform will be demonstrated in two application cases,” said CORDIS European Commission.

Smart2Go’s special feature is the standardization of the interfaces within the platform. This will enable manufacturers to easily adapt it to various different application after the end of the project.

Read more Matrix PowerWatch: A Smartwatch Powered Only by Your Body Heat

The project has already started in January with the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Center working with eight other EU innovation partners. But it’s worth noting that Smart2Go is a research project, and any resulting technology will not be ready for mainstream use for some time, if at all. However, projects like this can prompt development of new technology that will go on to transform our lives.

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A patent application filed by Microsoft has shown the company has looked into the possibility of wearable technology being used to help manage the symptoms of involuntary movements commonly suffered by people with Parkinson’s or a host of other disorders, reports Digital Trends. The wearable band would wrap around limbs or joints and use haptic feedback for therapeutic stimulation.

The device would have many haptic actuators scattered across a band that can be adjusted in response to sensor data, according to the patent. That data could come from sensors on the wearable itself or a nearby tablet or phone that communicates with it over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Read more Flytta Smartwatch: A New Approach to Parkinson’s Care

The patent titled “WEARABLE DEVICE” was filed by Microsoft and was published by USPTO.

“Haptic stimulation systems apply forces or vibrations to stimulate a user’s sense of touch. Touch-screen devices may use haptic feedback to indicate key presses to a user; games controllers may use haptic feedback to increase video game immersion (e.g. by vibrating in response to a collision or explosion within a video game) and smart watches may use haptic feedback to provide silent alerts to the wearer,” says Microsoft in the patent.

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The embedded sensors could include heart-rate sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and electromyography sensors for detecting muscle activity. On the other hand, sensors outside the wearable could include a touchscreen or imaging system that detects motion, or motion detectors in a stylus, reports ZDNet.

The patent application further notes, “Described herein is a wearable device which uses haptic actuation for therapeutic stimulation and in various examples, the wearable device may be word close to a joint and used to affect (eg reduce or stabilize) involuntary movement of the joint or limb. The wearable device described herein may be used to alleviate some symptoms of a condition which affects motion or control of the limbs and one example is Parkinson’s disease.”

Read more IBM Develops Fingernail Sensor That Uses Artificial Intelligence to Monitor Parkinson’s, Other Diseases

When a company files for a patent, it has no idea whether it's actually going to use the invention. Many of these patents see the light of day. Therefore, it can’t be said with certainty that Microsoft will launch this wearable.

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Garmin’s latest smartwatch, Fenix 6S Pro, is small in size but offers a host of features. This rugged GPS watch has wrist-band navigation, pulse oximeter, data-tracking, new PacePro metric, music, and battery-saving features.

Related Garmin Unveils Four New Smartwatches, Including the New Venu

This feature-packed $700 watch has a 42mm frame. It has a 1.2” sunlight-readable display with bezels in stainless steel, titanium or diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating. The biggest improvement on the Fenix 6 Series is the revamped interface, which still maintains Garmin’s characteristic look and feel, reports Digital Trends.

The important metrics like temperature, altimeter, barometer, heart rate and battery, are all arranged right on the screen of the watch’s new and improved clock face. The data displayed is large enough to see but compact enough so that it doesn’t get in the way of the time and date.

The fenix 6 series introduces a first-of-its-kind PacePro feature, which keeps a runner’s pacing strategy on track with grade-adjusted guidance as they run a course. Runners can create plans directly from the watch or ahead of time on Garmin Connect™ or Garmin Connect Mobile. While running the course, users will be able to see their target split pace, the actual split pace, distance to the next split, and how much time they are ahead/behind on their target, right on the watch face.

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If you’re climbing, you can turn on ClimbPro to check how many feet you have to left to ascend.

The new battery manager lets you manage your battery efficiently. For example, if you need your batter to last longer, simply choose the Expedition Mode. This mode for extended GPS tracking will disable Bluetooth, turn off the screen, and ping GPS every hour.

Related Garmin Adds Menstrual Cycle Tracking to its Wearables and Smartwatches

This is a real outdoors watch that makes your navigation easier with its preloaded TOPO maps, ski maps for over 2,000 worldwide ski resorts, multiple global navigation satellite system (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) support and built-in sensors for 3-axis compass, gyroscope and barometric altimeter.

Fenix 6S Pro also has fall detection that detects when you fall and notify others.

The watch also comes with Garmin Pay contactless payments, music storage with premium streaming service (may require subscription with third-party music provider) support, smart notifications and more.

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Wrist-worn wearables shipment went up 28.8% in Q2 2019, according to a new report by International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. During this period 34.2 million units of these devices, which include smartwatches, basic watches and wrist bands, were shipped, said the report. The top 5 companies – Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Fitbit, and Samsung – continued to push forward with new products and promotional campaigns during the quarter, collectively capturing 65.7% of the market, an almost 12-point gain from last year.

Read more Fitbit Faces A Tough Road Ahead in India’s Growing Wearables Market

"Health is now at the forefront for these devices since companies have started providing actionable insights and prescriptive measures for end users," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "Beyond health, mobile payment is also starting to become a mainstay as roughly two out of five wrist-worn wearables now include NFC, and many more simply use QR codes to complete transactions."

Xiaomi, known for its MI Band series, maintained the top position thanks to its latest Mi Band 4. The company, which focuses almost exclusively on wrist bands, lured new customers with its low-cost fitness trackers. While China is its biggest market, Xiaomi is still prioritizing to expand beyond China, the IDC report states.

Apple came in second in terms of units sold, but the company outpaces all others in terms of dollar value as the average selling price (ASP) for an Apple Watch was $448 during the quarter. The company’s newly announced Apple Watch 5 should help it maintain its leadership in the smartwatch market. IDC anticipates shipments of the Apple Watch to grow by 10.8% by the end of 2019 and capture 38.9% of all smartwatches shipped during the year.

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In the third place was Huawei, a company aimed at capturing the mass market with the Huawei brand and a younger audience with the Honor brand. The new report shows Huawei focused on the Chinese market during the quarter, growing its share, rather than prioritizing international expansion as it had in past quarters.

Wristband market pioneer Fitbit ranked fourth place in the report. Although sale of its smartwatches declined, Fitbit was able to manage overall growth due to the popularity of the newly launched Inspire wristbands.

Read more Rising Popularity of Female Health Tech Will Take A Big Bite Out of Wearables Market

Samsung rounded out the top 5 and achieved the highest growth rate amongst the top 5 due to the introduction of its low-cost wrist bands, the Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit e, and the popularity of the Galaxy Watch.

“Glancing at data – like notifications, fitness stats, and even checking the time – remain the popular use case, but to be able to interact with the device via smart assistants, scroll easily through data with the rotating bezel like Samsung’s smartwatches, or connecting to smart home applications and devices raises wrist-worn wearables’ utility. Layer on top of this the growing market for applications on smartwatches, and the value of these device increase further,” said Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Wearables.

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The growing smart fabrics industry has diverse applications in wearable devices for the consumer, health care and defense sectors - from monitoring vital signs of patients, to tracking the location and health status of soldiers in the field, and monitoring pilots or drivers for fatigue.

Related Medical Smart Fabric Market Shows Noteworthy Growth by Strong CAGR Up To 2027

Researchers from Melbourne's RMIT University envision a future where waterproof smart fabrics will be laser printed and manufactured in minutes. They have developed a rapid, cost-efficient, and scalable method for printing textiles with embedded energy storage devices.

In just three minutes, this new technology can produce a 10x10cm smart textile patch that’s waterproof, stretchable and readily integrated with energy harvesting technologies, reports RMIT.

To create these smart textiles, the RMIT team used laser printing to embed the graphene supercapacitors directly into the fabric. The researchers believe their new smart textiles could be applied to various markets including consumer, healthcare, and defense.

In a proof-of-concept, the researchers connected the supercapacitor with a solar cell, delivering an efficient, washable and self-powering smart fabric that overcomes the key drawbacks of existing e-textile energy storage technologies.

Dr Litty Thekkakara, a researcher in RMIT’s School of Science, said smart textiles with built-in sensing, wireless communication or health monitoring technology called for robust and reliable energy solutions.

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“Current approaches to smart textile energy storage, like stitching batteries into garments or using e-fibers, can be cumbersome and heavy, and can also have capacity issues,” Thekkakara said.

“These electronic components can also suffer short-circuits and mechanical failure when they come into contact with sweat or with moisture from the environment.

“Our graphene-based supercapacitor is not only fully washable, it can store the energy needed to power an intelligent garment – and it can be made in minutes at large scale.

“By solving the energy storage-related challenges of e-textiles, we hope to power the next generation of wearable technology and intelligent clothing.”

Related Smart Fabric Helps Athletes and Physical Therapy Patients Reduce Injury and Accelerate Recovery

RMIT Honorary Professor and Distinguished Professor at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Min Gu, said the technology could enable real-time storage of renewable energies for e-textiles.

“It also opens the possibility for faster roll-to-roll fabrication, with the use of advanced laser printing based on multifocal fabrication and machine learning techniques,” Gu said.

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Senseg, a leading manufacturer of electrostatic sensors based in Finland, announced that it has created a new category of flexible electronics by launching a family of roll-to-roll manufactured actuators for use in traditional flat actuator applications as well as for new applications, such as wearables, soft robotics, VR/AR devices, and interior integrated sensors. The new product, called Senseg ELFIAC (Elastomeric Film Actuator), will deliver large-scale manufacturable actuators that are far less expensive to produce than comparable traditional actuators and use cheaper, non-toxic materials, says Senseg. The inherent flexibility of the low-power Elfiac technology, enables new applications, form factors and geometries.

Read more AR/VR Can Enable Smart Factories to Reduce Cost and Delays and Boost Production

“ELFIAC is a robust technology. Its flexible membrane-like structure enables taking haptics to where it was previously impossible,” said Ville Mäkinen, founder and General Manager of Senseg. “We have proven the mass manufacturability of ELFIAC and gone through rigorous product testing. We can see that ELFIAC’s potential expands far beyond our initial scope of consumer electronics products.”

Senseg ELFIAC is completed by the simultaneous introduction of an advanced, ultra-compact, and low-power high-voltage driver circuit for ELFIAC. This circuit is powered by a proprietary system-in-package (SiP) S220 chip, which Senseg has jointly developed with ST Microelectronics. ELFIAC and the S220-based high voltage driver are now available as user-friendly demo kits including software, reports Globe News Wire.

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The actuator market, currently pegged at $50 billion globally and expanding to $75 billion by 2025, according to MarketsandMarkets, includes consumer, automotive, healthcare, industrial automation, hydraulic, and other vertical market segments.

Senseg is a pioneer in the electrostatic haptic field since 2008, and an innovator in multiple fields of human-machine interfaces, with more than 40 granted patents. Senseg developed the first solid state haptics solution, the TIXEL, for touch screen devices in 2011, enabling users to feel dynamic surface sensations such as moving a hand through grains of sand or dragging a weighty object on the screen of a tablet device.

Read more Bioservo Introduces Improved Version of its Ironhand Soft Robotic Muscle Strengthening System

“With ELFIAC, Senseg is solving the problems of cost and materials usage in actuators, without degrading the experience,” says Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC’s Mobile Devices and AR/VR team. “This is a key component to the next wave of smart compute devices that are expected to perform rigorous functions while still delivering the types of experiences resident on other, more traditional, hardware."

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Amazon is reportedly trying to enter the wearable market with a device that can detect human emotions.

First reported by Bloomberg, the wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by the media. It’s a partnership between Lab126, the hardware development group behind Amazon’s Fire phone and Echo smart speaker, and the Alexa voice software team.

Read more This Wristband Could Help You Manage Your Emotions and Tell Your Friends How You’re Feeling

The wrist-worn device is “designed to work with a smartphone app. It has microphones paired with software that can discern the wearer’s emotional state from the sound of his or her voice, according to the documents and a person familiar with the program. Eventually the technology could be able to advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others, the documents show,” Bloomberg reports.

Amazon didn’t provide any details on the progress of the project, or if it will be available commercially. The online retail giant code-named the project ‘Dylan.’ According to documents and Bloomberg’s source, the project is ongoing and a beta testing is underway.

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The idea of making devices that can understand human emotions first appeared in science fiction novels and Star Trek. With the advancement in artificial intelligence, image and voice recognition is now a reality. Big tech companies like Apple, IBM and Google are developing technologies that can derive emotional states of people from audio data, images and other inputs. Amazon has publicly said it wants to build a more lifelike voice assistant.

Read more This Gadget Can Communicate Human Emotions Through Touch

While this device may be the first wearable device from Amazon, if it becomes successful in tracking human emotions, it might roll out to other Amazon products, especially the ones that rely on microphone. Then again, Amazon’s wearable may never see the light of day. The company regularly experiments with new products.

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In 2018, more than 115 people died from opioid overdose each day in the United States. This horrid statistic demonstrates the devastating public health crisis that has gripped much of the nation. Researchers at the Carnegie Melon University (CMU) have found one possible way to save lives from this deadly epidemic. They developed a simple wearable device that can detect signs of opioid overdose and automatically call for help. In December, 2018 WT | Wearable Technologies reported that the students behind this wearable opioid detector won national awards.

“The problem with opioid overdose deaths is that there is a narrow window of time to save them, and the users will not be in a state to call for help themselves,” Puneetha Ramachandra, a CMU student who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “Our device solves this by continuously monitoring the user’s health, and if an overdose is detected, it calls for immediate help by sounding an alarm and also contacting the user’s emergency contact.”

The device, resembling a smartwatch, is still in prototype. It functions by using pulse oximetry, a noninvasive way of monitoring oxygen levels in blood by shining light from LEDs through the skin and detecting changes in light absorption. During an opioid overdose, the oxygen levels in the person’s blood drops. The device monitors the situation for 10 seconds before sounding the alarm.

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The team plans to create blueprints for mass production, and get the device certified. “Once this is done, the initial goal is to sell the device in a small scale, and also distribute it through needle exchange programs by subsidizing it. Based on the feedback from the end users, we plan to upgrade the device and increase production scale,” Ramachandra said.

Read more Wearable Sensor Administers Narcan to Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths

“Our solution, at the moment, only focuses on preventing overdose deaths. “We do plan to incorporate more helpful features into our device in the future to aid in the addiction aspects of the problem.”

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