Dr. Chris Castel is an expert in MedTech and the CEO of CareWear® Corp Wearable Therapeutics. CareWear® has developed an advanced wearable photobiomodulation therapy system that helps athletes to perform better and recover faster. We had a chance to chat with Chris, learn more about the success of CareWear® and their experiences in Innovation World Cup®.

1. WHAT IS THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND CAREWEAR®?
CareWear® applies photobiomodulation therapy (PBMt) using flexible micro-printed LEDs for pain management and tissue recovery. The light is evenly distributed on the skin and enhances blood flow, reduces muscle soreness, and treats pain from injuries. Additionally, CareWear® can assist in killing bacteria and reducing inflammation for the treatment of acne.

2. WHAT MAKES CAREWEAR® AN ADVANCE IN THE MARKET?
Conventional light treatment requires bulky equipment and clinical visits that take significant time and money. Patients are often confused regarding correct dosage and treatment time. With CareWear®, it simply becomes Stick, Click and Go! Because the CareWear® light patch is wearable, and its controller is pre-programmed for accurate dosage, it becomes a mobile, convenient, and effective treatment for patients.

3. HOW DO PATIENTS KNOW THE CORRECT DOSE?
Each patch has a memory that helps to determine what kind of patch it is, the treatment type, the light power and the necessary treatment time. CareWear® meets the safety requirement to be certified as a FDA class II over-the-counter medical device. It is thus available for both professional and non-professional use without a prescription.

4. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOUR COMPANY TO FULLY DEVELOP THIS PRODUCT?
Approximately 2 years – we have a very good team with a high level of expertise.

5. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
We started selling the CareWear® Wearable Light system in September 2018. So far, we have sold a significant number of units in the US market and received positive responses from our users. The next step is to implement more marketing campaigns and establish more e-commerce channels to effectively penetrate the market.

6. WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THE WT/IOT INNOVATION WORLD CUP® JOURNEY?
The IOT/WT Innovation World Cup® has done a good job in stimulating an interactive environment to meet and to talk. It provides a roadmap for start-ups and entrepreneurs, a useful platform for B2B and strategic partnership. The IOT/WT Innovation World Cup® is a vehicle for companies to come and see how the market is developing. It creates opportunities for start-ups that lack the experience level to learn and improve their business models and product offerings. CareWear® participates in wearable technologies events, but we are selective about the events we attend. The option for the IOT/WT Innovation World Cup® meets our objectives, as we can network and expose our image with professional partners from multiple countries.

7. WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE FOR OTHER COMPANIES BEFORE ENTERING THE WT/IOT World Cup®?
Companies should determine their reason for attendance, especially for networking and strategic partnership development. Entrepreneurs should be aware of the complexity in developing medical devices. The standard is high and so is the investment. A good piece of advice is to work with experienced partners, manufacturers, and R&D institutes. Proper preparation prior to the product launch is the key to success.

Explore further:

Visit CareWear® homepage for further insight into their reusable light patch, which is so useful in pre-training, post-training or post-injury. Anytime and anywhere, in the training room, while traveling or at home!

Dr. Chris Castel will be attending the next WT | Wearable Technologies conference USA as a speaker. Meet him and learn about Carewear® this summer in San Francisco.

Dharma Teja Nukarapu is the CEO & Founder of SharkDreams. SharkDreams has ambitious plans for bringing affordable healthcare available for everyone regardless of their background and environment. In the interview, Dharma shared with us his thoughts about helping lower-income communities with technology.

Tell us a little bit about your participation in the WT | Wearable Technologies Conference in Munich.

Though SharkDreams has participated in a number of WT events over the past year, Munich’s showcase stood out because it was a culmination of insights we gathered from traveling the globe. Rather than demo one product or facet of LIVIT as we have in the past, we offered Munich’s crowd a peek into the many-armed solution that LIVIT’s ecosystem has become and will continue to augment into with our upcoming collaborations, releases, and appearances worldwide.

What is the one thing you want people to know about SharkDreams?

SharkDreams is mainly focused on bringing care to patients in different environments. We are unique because we are an end-to-end solution, providing the software and hardware, to various healthcare companies—business to business—to then supply advanced technology to their patients through our advanced ecosystem.

Talk to us a little about the major health concerns affecting the Indian population and how you plan to address them.

70% of the Indian population lives in rural areas, meaning they don’t even have access to basic care, and all of the specialty healthcare providers are at least 15 miles away from these rural communities. More often than not, the rural populations suffer from a lower quality of life, meaning they have a greater susceptibility to disease—especially if left untreated. Affordability is another huge problem; this means that if 70% of the population doesn’t have access to quality care, then they are not likely to have the funds necessary for basic care. It’s very important to take advanced technology at an affordable level to these communities—not just through basic care but through connecting these communities to our virtual care systems in a wider healthcare network.

How do you want to improve the Indian healthcare market, which is the largest in the world?

By starting from the ground up. We want to start with the basics of care and promote awareness and coaching to make advanced technology part of their routine. This is the first milestone for improving the market that can then be built upon later.

How can your software—and wearables in general—help lower-income communities and afford their residents more connection?

Our devices are made with affordability and accessibility in mind. The intent is to not just serve those of higher income communities, but to establish an ecosystem capable of addressing people from all backgrounds. In the market of highly depreciable electronics, building disposable, recyclable devices with the required accurate data was important to make the technology available for the mass market. This efficient combination of technology and implementation provides the meticulous tracking necessary for improving patient care outcomes.

What hurdles do you have to overcome to realize your vision—especially in terms of governmental regulations?

It’s always a challenge to convey the vision to decision-makers in different countries—whether due to technology exposure, budgets, priorities, or other governmental preferences. India has very solid regulations in place, which are world-standard, and these are comparable to the standards we’ve seen in European countries and within the US.

Will SharkDreams/LIVIT improve healthcare in Europe, as well?

SharkDreams/LIVIT have already started their global spread, so we are well on our way to implementing our advanced healthcare solutions in Europe and other areas across the globe. Our solutions are not region-specific; we focus on healthcare around the world and cater to providers regardless of location. Our universal approach makes us what we are—an ecosystem capable of being applied to any situation in any geographical area.

What’s next for SharkDreams? Where do you see SharkDreams in three years?

In three years, we want to be helping pharmaceutical companies develop DNA-based drug formulation. We’re constantly monitoring our patients so we can help them customize their drugs for better outcomes, better affordability, and better accessibility.

Dharma Teja Nukarapu will be speaking at WT | Wearable Technologies Conference in San Francisco July 9-10. WT | Wearable Technologies events give excellent opportunities to network and connect with wearable tech professionals and to promote your products and projects. The conference in San Francisco will bring together experts of the industry for already the 34th time!

Semiconductor maker Semtech and innovative hearing care solutions provider Sonova Holding AG announced they jointly developed advanced radio system intended for use in Sonova’s hearing aids. This ultra-small integrated circuit (IC) is a main component for a new generation of hearing aids, enabling support for multiple radio protocols in the 2.4GHz band, as well as effective operation on very low power.

Read more Eargo Launches Eargo Neo Invisible Hearing Aids at CES 2019

“This chip allows Sonova to move in a new direction with our hearing aids,” said Marc Secall, Director Research & Development Wireless at Sonova, said in a press release. “The breakthrough radio technology and power management are the game changers for hearing aids. It allows them to support a number of applications that have previously not been possible in a hearing aid, all at low power consumption and low supply voltage. Possible applications span from connectivity to any Bluetooth® enabled audio device (e.g. a smartphone or television) to full duplex audio streaming between hearing aids and connectivity to wireless microphones.”

Jean-Paul Bardyn, Vice President of Research and Development of Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group said his company continues to create flexible and reliable solutions for the best radio frequency connectivity at the lowest power and 0.8V supply voltage. “Sonova has long been a leader for hearing devices. By implementing Semtech’s technology and enabling access to the Cloud, we believe that these devices will enrich the IoT-connected solutions which Semtech is serving with LoRa Technologt,” he said.

Read more Starkey’s New Livio AI Hearing Aid Doubles As a Fitness Tracker

Stafa, Switzerland-based Sonova is the leading provider of innovative hearing care solutions. The group operates through its core business brands Phonak, Unitron, Hansaton, Advanced Bionics, and AudioNova.

Semtech Corporation is a California-based leading supplier of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms for high-end consumer, enterprise computing, communications, and industrial equipment.

Caesarea, Israel-based Itamar Medical launched WatchPAT 300, the next generation WatchPAT system for home sleep apnea testing.  New developments in the WatchPAT 300 are designed to enhance both patients’ experience as well as provide physicians with a trusted and cost-effective method for rapid, scalable and effective diagnosis of sleep apnea.

Read more Alphabet’s Verily Partners Up With ResMed to Study Sleep Apnea

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave clearance to WatchPAT 300 on August 17, 2018 and the system will gradually replace the current WatchPAT 200 platform, reports press release.

“Sleep apnea has reached epidemic levels and is estimated to affect 25 percent of adults worldwide,” said Gilad Glick, President and CEO of Itamar Medical. “This has significant health and economic implications, as half of all patients with cardiovascular disease are believed to suffer from sleep apnea and the total cost of unmanaged obstructive sleep apnea is $150 billion each year in the United States alone. Addressing the challenge of efficiently and cost-effectively diagnosing the millions of patients with undiagnosed sleep apnea requires a simple, accurate and scalable modality. We believe that WatchPAT 300 – which demonstrates Itamar Medical’s continued commitment to innovation focused on meeting the needs of patients, health systems, payers and physicians – can play a critical role in solving this challenge.”

The intuitively designed WatchPAT system is easy to use and removes the need for cumbersome nasal canula or chest belts. It is based on the peripheral arterial tone signal (PAT) and uses its advanced actigraphy to differentiate between wake and sleep periods to calculate true sleep time. PAT amplitude and pulse rate is used to differentiate between non-rapid eye movement (REM) and REM sleep. It also provides clinically validated sleep architecture, based on sleep stages, including sleep efficiency, sleep latency and REM latency. Its total sleep time reduces the risk of misdiagnosis and misclassification that has been reported to be 20 percent in studies using total recording time.

The WatchPAT 300 will be showcased at SLEEP 2019 on June 8-12 in San Antonio, Texas.

Read more The Improved Withings Sleep Now Offers Sleep Apnea Tracking

Itamar Medical develops, manufactures and markets non-invasive diagnostic medical devices for sleep apnea with a focus on the cardiology market. The company’s EndoPAT™ system is an FDA-approved device to test endothelial dysfunction and to evaluate the risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases.

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It has been rumored for some time now that Apple is trying to get into Augmented Reality space. Now, reports have surfaced that Apple is working on a pair of augmented reality smartglasses, and it may rely on iPhone to work.

Read more Apple Watch Could Have Sleep Tracking by 2020, Say Rumors

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple patent for a “Method for representing points of interest in a view of a real environment on a mobile device and mobile device therefore” effectively describes how an AR system could point out important areas in a landscape for a user.

The headset could go into mass production as soon as the fourth quarter of 2019 and as late as the second quarter of 2020, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, whose projections about new Apple products have been accurate in the past, reports Business Insider.

The heavy lifting on the headsets will be handled by the iPhone which will perform the computing, rendering, and internet connectivity, while the headset itself will serve as a display for integrating digital imagery into the real world, according to the report.

The closest we can to when comparing Apple’s new project is probably Magic Leap’s first AR headset, which employs a similar setup. The wearable system created by Magic Leap consists of a circular computer and a battery pack meant to be worn on the body, while a cable connects those components to pair of smart goggles.

Apple reportedly started putting a team together to build virtual and augmented reality headsets shortly after the launch of the Apple Watch. Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed interest in augmented reality just before the company released ARKit in 2017.

Read more Google Glass Lives! It’s Back Now with Artificial Intelligence

“AR is going to take a while, because there are some really hard technology challenges there,” Cook said during a talk with former Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch in 2016. “But it will happen, it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today.”

HP’s latest VR headset, the Reverb is intended for the commercial market, but it could find a place in the consumer space as well. According to report, Reverb, featuring an astonishingly sharp resolution of 2,160 by 2,160 pixels per eye, is ready to take on HTC Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey, reports End Gadget.

“As the commercial VR segment is expected to grow to $34 billion by 2022, customers are seeking lifelike VR viewing to help open doors to new business opportunities in product design, training, and engineering,” said Spike Huang, vice president and global lead of VR of HP Inc, in press release. “The time for commercial VR is now and adding HP Reverb to our broader virtual reality portfolio is an important step in addressing this growing market.”

Read more HP’s New Gaming Headset Cools You Down

The new headset was revealed on March 19 during the company’s global partner conference, HP Reinvent. It delivers the most powerful Windows Mixed Reality experience yet. A horde of upgrades puts it face to face with not only enterprise devices but consumer-focused headsets as well.

The head mounted display (HMD) comes with a built-in inside-out 6-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) positional tracking, eliminating the need for any external sensors. It also has its own spatial audio headset. There are two front-facing cameras for augmented reality applications. The device also comes with Bluetooth connected motion controllers that’s simple to setup.

The ultra-light (1.1 pounds), ultra-immersive HP Reverb VR Headset features redesigned optics to increase the visual “sweet spot.” HP Reverb also features smart assistant compatible dual microphones for a greater immersive experience and collaboration in multi-user VR environments.

“With more than 2,500 VR experiences available and counting, Windows Mixed Reality continues to serve as the home for cutting-edge innovations that are fundamentally changing the way we work and play,” said Alex Kipman, Technical Fellow, Microsoft. “The HP Reverb headset is an amazing example of the type of innovation we are seeing take place as we push forward and bring the next era of computing – the era of mixed reality – to the masses.”

Read more Acer Introduces OJO 500 Detachable Windows Mixed Reality Headset

The consumer version of the Reverb will cost $599, when it lands in late April. There’s also a $649 professional version coming.

The long-awaited second-generation Airpods are finally here, and Apple promises faster connect with more talk time and hands-free Siri in the new wireless earbuds.

The “Hey Siri” functionality allows users to control volume and swap songs through voice commands. There’s no longer a need to tap on the AirPods to activate Siri in this version.

Read more Apple Watch Could Have Sleep Tracking by 2020, Say Rumors

“AirPods delivered a magical wireless experience and have become one of the most beloved products we’ve ever made. They connect easily with all of your devices, and provide crystal clear sound and intuitive, innovative control of your music and audio,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The world’s best wireless headphones just got even better with the new AirPods. They are powered by the new Apple-designed H1 chip which brings an extra hour of talk time, faster connections, hands-free ‘Hey Siri’ and the convenience of a new wireless battery case.”

The updated Airpods are powered by Apple’s new chip, the H1. The Airpods will have better battery life and include the option of a new wireless charging case, Apple said in a statement.

The new chip features custom audio architecture to create a revolutionary audio experience and improved synchronization. H1 allows AirPods to deliver up to 50 percent more talk time compared to first generation AirPods. The two times faster connect times makes it more seamless to switch between devices while listening to music on iPhone, Apple Watch or iPad.

The new AirPods come with either the standard charging case or the new Wireless Charging Case.

Read more Nanusens Technology Can Increase Battery Life of Earbuds by up to 20 Percent

Price and Availability

The new AirPods with a standard charging case are priced at $159, while those with wireless charging case run you $199.

The second generation Airpods will be available in Apple Stores next week, between March 25 and March 30.

If you ever wished you had a personal place; a stunning, realistic world where you could totally immerse yourself, then LUCI is your answer. LUCI lets you enter an amazing world based on any movie you select. With LUCI, you become an action hero, adventurer or a traveler in the Lord of the Rings Middle Earth. The Hong Kong-based company just launched a revolutionary new lightweight wearable headset called LUCI immers, which delivers an incredible visual experience for movies, games and more on Indiegogo.

Related MovieMask Portable Cinema Lets You Enjoy Movies Anytime, Anywhere

These portable Micro-OLED glasses are truly lightweight entertainment headset with a high-resolution display that provides a super-giant screen effect for video and multimedia when connected to a smartphone, tablet or laptop. The smartglasses feature 3840×1080 HD display delivers a screen size of 1023” at a 20 m viewing distance, similar to sitting in a theater, says a press release.

Native 3D effects and 3DoF (three degrees of freedom) motion, eliminates ghosting and screen door effects, giving movies, games and streaming content an impressively immersive experience.

LUCI immers is ergonomically designed with a curved shaped and nanotech cotton cushions. They are very lightweight at 180g and are comfortable to wear for longer viewing sessions.

“Our goal was to make the most lightweight and comfortable wearable on the market that would allow users to enjoy their multimedia with an incredible visual experience. LUCI immers combines high tech materials for comfort and a high definition display for a big-screen experience that users can take with them anywhere,” says Kirin Li, CEO of LUCI.

Related Alaska Airlines Adds Virtual Reality to In-Flight Entertainment to Make Long Flights More Bearable

You can wear LUCI over eyeglasses as well. The smartglass can be connected to mobile devices, smartphones, tablets and Playstations via USB-C or HDMI cable.

This portable headset delivers an unparalleled big-screen experience anytime and anywhere.

LUCI immers is available on Indiegogo for $649. Early bird gives you additional discount.

Shenzhen, China-based Remo Tech Makes AI-Powered Cameras that track Humans as well as their pets. The company just announced pre-order for the cameras, dubbed OBSBOT Tail, via Indiegogo.

Read more FITT360: A Wearable Camcorder that Records 360-degree video from your point of view

The cameras are designed to capture active moments in life without the help of a cameraman. They are compact, but sports a powerful HiSilicon Hi3559A processor that tracks, automatically zooms and captures action in up to 4k/60 fps, even when in dim lighting, says a press release.

To track your cat or the dog, simply activate the new filming mode called “Pet Pal.” Next, you’ll have to select your pets through the accompanying obsbot studio app, and it will record and keep them in the center of the picture. Pet owners can finally free their hands and enjoy the moment with pets, whether when they are playing with their cat at home or playing fetch with their dog outside.

“Launching OBSBOT Tail on Indiegogo will bring our proprietary AI camera technology to new communities that share our vision of pushing the boundaries of accessible creative filmmaking,” said Bo Liu, CEO and Founder of Remo Technology, “And in conjunction with the announcement of Pet Pal, we’re introducing even more ways so that our backers can use OBSBOT Tail to film those once-in-a-lifetime moments with their entire family, including their cats and dogs.”

First debuted at CES 2019, the OBSBOT Tail has received distinctions including Variety’s “The Innovation that Stole the Show,” The Verge’s “Best Creator Tool,” and “Best/Coolest of CES” by USA TODAY, CNET, and SlashGear.

The camera is now available for pre-order on Indiegogo with an “early bird” price of $489 USD.

Read more UHWK: Wearable Sports Camera System Made by Athletes, for Athletes

Remo was founded in 2016. “Remo Technology is a camera company dedicated to pushing the boundaries of the camera industry with new ideas and technologies, including AI,” according to the company.

The latest IDC forecast paints a positive picture of the wearables market in 2019. The worldwide market for wearable devices, now inclusive of wireless headphones with smart assistants, is forecast to grow 15.3% over the previous year to 198.5 million units by the end of 2019, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker.

“Two major drivers for the wearables market are healthcare and enterprise adoption,” said Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC’s Wearables team. “Wearables stand to play an important role in digital health, constantly collecting important patient data while also giving patients the ability to self-monitor. “

Read more Healthcare Wearables Market to Reach $60 Billion by 2023, Says Juniper Research

Continued proliferation of smartwatches, smart earbuds, and wrist-worn devices as well as further adoption in the healthcare will be propelling the growth. Looking ahead, the market is expected to reach 279 million units by the end of 2023 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9%, according to IDC.

“The rise of smart assistants on wearables, both wrist-worn and ear-worn, is a trend worth watching,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers. “Though still in its infancy, the integration of these assistants with wearables opens up new use cases, from allowing these devices to tie into the smart home to making the devices more proactive at urging users to live healthier or more productive lives.”

Here Are the Highlighted Categories

Smartwatches

In 2018, smartwatches accounted for 44.2% of the wearables market, and it is anticipated to grow, reaching 47.1% in 2023. Apple will lead the way with its smartwatches and Apple’s own WatchOS will account for 27.5% of all watches in 2023. Hybrid smartwatches and kids’ watches will also continue to grow, according to IDC.

Smart Earbuds

Smart earbuds, also known as hearables will be the second largest category of wearables in 2023 with 31% share. The inclusion of biometric sensors and the adoption of smart assistants will help drive this category forward throughout the forecast.

Read more Children are Becoming Major Driving Force Behind the Wearable Market Growth in China

Smart Wristbands

Smart wristbands will experience flat growth with a CAGR of 0.7%. Meanwhile, growth in terms of dollar value is expected to decline with a -4.1% CAGR during the same period as average selling prices drop from $51 in 2019 to $42 in 2023. The market is already dominated by Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, and IDC expects this to continue.

Smart Clothes

The smart clothes category will be led by smart shoes and similar devices. To date these types of products have mainly been popular in China but that is slowly changing as brands such as Nike and Under Armour make headway in other markets, the IDC forecast says.

Dopamine is a chemical that is believed to play a role in various diseases such as Parkinson’s, depression and some cancers. When Parkinson’ disease develops, the cells in the substantia nigra part of the brain begin to die. These cells produce dopamine and the loss of dopamine in the brain leads to issues with movement. Scientists at the University of South Florida (UCF) have developed the first rapid detector for dopamine, using nanotechnology.

Read more BioRobotics for Parkinson’s Disease Laboratory Focuses on Prevention, Monitoring and Management of Parkinson’s Disease

While too much dopamine could be associated with some cancers, low levels of dopamine could be associated with Parkinson’s disease and depression.  

Currently, the method to detect dopamine require specialized laboratory equipment, meticulous sample preparation, and takes long.

The new method developed at UCF requires only a few drops of blood, and results are available in minutes instead of hours because no separate lab is necessary to process the sample, reports UCF.

“A neurotransmitter like dopamine is an important chemical to monitor for our overall well-being so we can help screen out neural disorders like Parkinson’s disease, various brain cancers, and monitor mental health,” says Debashis Chanda, an associate professor in UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center and the study’s principle investigator. “We need to monitor dopamine so that we can adjust our medical doses to help address those problems.”

Plasma is separated from the blood within the chip. The sensor surface, coated with cerium oxide nanoparticles, selectively capture dopamine at microscopic levels from the plasma. This process subsequently changes how light is reflected from the sensor and creates an optical readout indicating the level of dopamine.

Read more Researchers Develop MRI Implant to Detect Light and Electric Fields Inside Brain

Sudipta Seal, an engineering professor and chair of UCF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, says the use of cerium oxide nanoparticles was an important part of the sensor’s success.

“Getting the sensor to be sensitive to dopamine had been quite the challenge for researchers for a while, but using altered cerium oxide nanostructures on the sensing platform was key in making the sensor work,” Seal says.

The new technology was described in a recent study in the journal Nano Letters.

Doctors in the emergency rooms do not have much time to determine which patients need blood transfusion. At the same time, they have no method to assess platelet health. Platelets are an important part of the blood and they play a big role in helping blood clot after an injury. Now researchers at the University of Washington have developed a microfluidic device that can directly assess how well the platelets are doing.

Read more HemaShock: Emergency Auto-Transfusion Tourniquet Can Save Lives from Heart Attacks and Bleeding

“Our system requires a tiny amount of blood to look at how healthy platelets are in real time,” said co-corresponding author Nathan Sniadecki, an associate professor in the UW Department of Mechanical Engineering. “We found that platelet function is a far better measure of platelet health and whether a trauma patient will need a blood transfusion than current methods.”

When there’s any sort of damage to blood vessels, platelets become the first responders.

“They act as a sort of instant patch,” Sniadecki said. “They become activated and stick to the damage, and then they rapidly change their shape to stretch and reach out for more of the wound surface or other platelets. Then they begin to come back together to compact and add strength to a clot.”

However, in patients with trauma injury, platelets often lose their ability to do the job properly, and they also become less able to apply forces to stop bleeding, reports UW News.

When ER doctors receive a trauma patient, they use various methods to estimate their risk of bleeding but these methods do not tell them about platelet strength, according to Nathan White, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the UW School of Medicine.

The new microfluidic device, designed by UW researchers measures platelet forces in real time. First, they inject a blood sample into the device. As the blood flows through it, the cells hit an obstacle course: tiny blocks and posts jutting up from the base of the device. This activates the platelets. They feel a massive force when they flow over the blocks, and then the surface of both the blocks and the posts are coated with a platelet-activating molecule.

The researchers tested the new device on 93 trauma patients and 10 healthy participants at Harborview Medical Center. After sampling their blood, the researchers found a significant difference between the healthy participants’ blood and that of the trauma patients. Trauma patients’ platelets had decreased forces compared to healthy participants’ platelets.

Read more How Wearables and IoT Can Help First Responders During an Emergency

The team hopes their new device will be useful for measuring platelet strength in other areas of medicine, such as measuring how blood-thinning medications like aspirin or Plavix affect different patients or helping neurosurgeons monitor patients for bleeding complications during surgery.

The results of the study were published in Nature Communications.

In People with Parkinson’s disease, falls are a common event but pose serious health risks. Falls are frequently caused by gait impairments, postural instability and freezing-of-gait, a brief absence of forward momentum of the feet despite the intention to walk.

Read more Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Collaboration with Verily Aims to Deepen Understanding of Parkinson’s

The Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Shake It Up Australia Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has given grants to a team of researchers from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) to test eHealth and smart garment technologies to prevent falls in people with Parkinson’s disease, reports Neura.

The neuro-rehabilitation program, known as StandingTall-PD, uses visual, audio and sensory cues to help rewire the parts of the brain that control walking in people with Parkinson’s. The program aims to prevent freezing-of-gait and falls, and enhance participants’ independence.

Sensoria, who has won the Innovation World Cup® Special Prize in Smart Clothing in 2014/15, invested in the program to develop textile sensor infused Smart Socks with haptic feedback and core microelectronics for the study.

Dr Matthew Brodie and study leader Kim Delbaere, an Associate Professor, both from Neura, are working with Sensoria Health to make StandingTall-PD the leading eHealth solution for maximizing mobility and preventing falls in people with Parkinson’s disease.

“Existing dopamine therapies offer benefit in treating motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s but may not alleviate gait and balance challenges,” says Jamie L. Hamilton, PhD, MJFF Associate Director. “This project has the potential to become an affordable option to address gait and balance issues and improve overall quality-of-life for people with Parkinson’s.”

Each participant will receive a NeuRA training mat with color-coded stepping targets, a pair of Sensoria Smart Socks, an iPad and a phone. The participants will be encouraged daily to step on colored stepping targets that match a series of colors displayed on their iPad. They will also listen to rhythmic auditory cues like music and a metronome beat that are synchronized with the vibrating Smart Socks.

Read more Sensoria Partners with MJFF for Clinical Trial to Investigate Benefits of Smart Socks for Parkinson’s Disease Patients

The combination of visual, audio and sensory elements helps to form new connections in less affected parts of the brain, leading to improved walking ability.

“At Sensoria Health, we are honored to partner with NeuRA and The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Shake It Up Australia Foundation and look forward to working together to improve the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s disease,” says Davide Vigano, CEO of Sensoria Health Inc.

Type 1 diabetes patients have to go through painful procedure of injecting themselves with insulin because their beta cells in pancreas no longer produces insulin. But for the 200,000 youths living with Type 1 diabetes in the United States, these insulin shots, along with insulin pens and pumps fail to perfectly manage blood sugar, which may lead to long-term complications.

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

“The absence of this natural ability — minute-to-minute regulation of glucose levels — can result in long-term complications, such as blindness, amputation and kidney failure,” says Klearchos Papas, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Dr. Papas and his colleagues at the University of Arizona, in collaboration with researchers at Novo Nordisk and University of Alberta, are in the process of developing a new device that can generate insulin from within the body, reports University of Arizona College of Medicine.

In a process known as islet transplantation, islets from donors are placed in the pancreas of patients with type 1 diabetes. But the patient must take lifelong immunosuppressive drugs in order for their body to accept the transplanted cells, and therefore this procedure isn’t recommended in children.

In this new method donor islets are placed inside of the implantable, tea bag-like device, which has a special exterior that shields the islets from any attacks from the immune system.

“It’s like a tea bag,” Dr. Papas says. “The tea leaves stay inside but tea, or insulin, comes out. And the tea bag keeps out the immune cells that would normally attack the islets.”

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

Dr. Papas also has developed a technology to feed oxygen to the islet cells in the tea bag for optimal health and insulin production.

Working closely with Tech Launch Arizona, the UA commercialization arm, Dr. Papas wants to protect the intellectual property and strategize pathways to turn his innovation into reality. As part of the two-year study, Novo Nordisk has donated human stem cell-derived islets to test in the tea bags. If successful, stem cell-derived islets would make it easier to help treat the millions of people with diabetes.

For the manufacturing industry, technology such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) can bring huge opportunities for cutting cost and delays in product development and manufacturing. Virtual Prototyping pioneer ESI and Digital-Field software solutions provider Diota have joined forces to showcase their immersive technologies at the 21^st Laval Virtual in Laval, France on March 20-24.

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The two companies will address challenges related to factory assembly and in-service maintenance through an end-to-end solution that efficiently leverages digital data to achieve improved productivity, quality and traceability while decreasing operational risk, said a press release.

Virtual Reality now helps engineers identify design risks very early in the product or process lifecycles. ESI IC.IDO is the leading VR solution for industrial applications and is being used by Boeing, Bombardier, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford and Safran amongst other leading OEMs. At Laval Virtual, ESI will showcase several use cases with specific focus on human-centric assembly process validation ─ a critical aspect of Industry 4.0 where ergonomics and workflows need to be completely rethought for operators to deliver optimum efficiency whilst interacting with layers of new technologies.

Augmented Reality also hugely benefits the manufacturing industry. Diota’s solutions help factory operators to better understand and carry out complex operations through step by step digital work instructions and contextualized contents visualized in their workspace.

The combined AR/VR utilization can help companies with validation and distribution of manufacturing and maintenance procedures.

ESI and Diota will demonstrate how their joint solutions can help factory operators access optimized and up-to-date product design information and work instructions whenever they need it, on-the-job or during training.

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Based in France, ESI Group is a leading innovator in Virtual Prototyping software and services. ESI solutions help manufacturers replace physical prototypes by virtual prototypes, allowing them to virtually manufacture, assemble, test and pre-certify their future products. With 1200 employees, ESI operates in more than 40 countries worldwide.

In case of injuries, doctors sometimes put orthopedic implants and native bone grafts in place where natural bone is. Now, bioengineers at Rice University have developed a technique which grows live bone to repair injuries to the bones of the skull and face by attaching a 3D-printed bioreactor – basically, a mold – to a rib. Once implanted, it can support stem cells and the formation of blood vasculature. Keeping in mind the varied needs of different patients, the mold can be custom-made to the patient’s own needs. When the bone grows for few months, the bioreactor can be explanted and the bone is transplanted to another part of the body.

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The study was led by researchers at Rice, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and Baylor College of Medicine. The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The technique is being developed to replace current reconstruction techniques that use bone graft tissues harvested from different areas in a patient, such as the lower leg, hip and shoulder, reports Rice University.

“A major innovation of this work is leveraging a 3D-printed bioreactor to form bone grown in another part of the body while we prime the defect to accept the newly generated tissue,” said lead researcher Antonios Mikos, the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

The researchers already tried their innovation in sheep and the bones transferred successfully to treat a large injury in the mandible of the animals. The therapy successfully worked in five of the six animals studied and points the way for similar attempts in humans.

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“Earlier studies established a technique for creating bone grafts with or without their own blood supply from real bone implanted into the chest cavity,” said co-author Mark Wong, a professor, chair and program director of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery with the School of Dentistry at UTHealth. “This study demonstrated that we could create viable bone grafts from artificial bone substitute materials.”

Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is a very popular fitness tracker due to its ease of use and low price. Now, Xiaomi is planning to introduce its next Mi Band – the Mi Band 4 – later this year.

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During its quarterly earning call, the company announced the latest upgrade to its Mi Band series of fitness trackers. Huami’s Chief Financial Officer David Cui didn’t give any specific date for the Mi Band 4 release, but he did affirm that a successor to the Mi Band 3 will be coming this year itself, reports xda developers.

“For Mi Band 4, it’s going to be in this year. It will be in 2019. But I’m not sure, [if] it’s going to be in March and April. But it is going to be in this year. Each generation we learn something, we always do better. And [for] Mi Band 3 — you can take a look at 2018’s volume, right. So it’s really much better as compared to previous version. So we expect Mi Band 4 will have similar trend. So once we launch Mi Band 4, we expect that product will sell well,” Mr. Cui said.

The quarter earning call also revealed that the Xiaomi Mi Band line and Amazfit products (both made by Huami) are doing exceptionally well. According to the call, Huami grew revenues by 78% in 2018, which was primarily achieved by sales of Amazfit’s smartwatches and the Mi Band 3.

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“Right now, Mi Band 3 is still hot sale — is still [selling] really, really well. The margin is not shrinking, the shipments are not shrinking. So we will work with Xiaomi to pick the right time to launch Mi Band 4 in the year,” Mr. Cui said.

When we feel agitated, fearful, or calm, our state of mind can significantly affect our ability to make decisions, judgments, and actions. For example, when walking across a beam, your odds of making across the beam without falling off is dramatically better if the beam is only six inches off the ground. But at 60 feet off the ground you are terror stricken and you’re not sure whether you can make it to the other end.

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For the first time, researcher at Columbia Engineering have shown that by using online neurofeedback it is possible to modify a person’s arousal state to improve performance in a demanding sensory motor task, such as flying a plane or driving in suboptimal conditions. The researchers monitored the arousal states of the participants by using a brain computer interface (BCI) through EEG in real time, when they were engaged in a virtual reality aerial navigation task, reports Columbia Engineering.

The system generated a neurofeedback signal that helped participants to decrease their arousal in particularly difficult flight situations, which in turn improved participants’ performance. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The 20 participants in the study were wearing VR headsets and were given a task to navigate a simulated airplane through rectangular boundaries. This task created cognitive stresses when the boxes were made narrower every 30 seconds. This escalated arousal and quickly resulted in failure like, missing or crashing into the boundary. But when the researchers used neurofeedback, the participants performed better, and were able to fly longer while performing the difficult tasks that required high levels of visual and motor coordination. The researchers found a 20% improvement in performance among the participants.

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“Our work shows that we can use feedback generated from our own brain activity to shift our arousal state in ways that significantly improve our performance in difficult tasks—so we can hit that home run or land on a carrier deck without crashing,” says study leader Paul Sajda, professor of biomedical engineering (BME), electrical engineering, and radiology.

Qualcomm’s new wireless VR headset, called ‘Boundless XR’, will be one of the first to work as a standalone mobile headset and also connect to PCs wirelessly. The company showcase the new VR headsets at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 in San Francisco, according to the latest rumors.

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The new headset uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor combined with a wireless 802.11ad chip that will allow high-bandwidth 60GHz connections to a PC or console that’s ready to communicate with it.

As of now, portable VR headsets don’t let users connect their headset to a PC, but Qualcomm plans to change all that.

The basis for this new VR reference design is to eliminate VR headsets’ dependence on cables and make the desktop VR headsets less bulky.

You will, however, need an 802.11ad-compliant Wi-Fi router to use headsets made with this design. The games should be able to support the new headset without any changes, according to CNET.

The headset is also designed to process VR technology while connected to a PC.

The six degrees of freedom enables you to enjoy complete, all-round movement and accessibility in VR content without needing additional tethering.

Latency is kept at a low 16ms, according to Qualcomm. So, in theory, it could help free up some processing power in your PC, although it isn’t clear how much.

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This isn’t the first time Qualcomm has worked on a VR reference design. Others adopting Qualcomm’s design are HTC, Lenovo, and Facebook. The headsets with the new reference design will be called Pico Neo2 VR headset, and they will be made by a Chinese company called Pico VR.

FundamentalVR, pioneers of immersive training technology for the medical community, has integrated groundbreaking HaptX Gloves on its Fundamental Surgery platform.

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Named as one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine, the Fundamental Surgery platform gives us a glimpse of the near future where surgeons can use their entire hand and fingers as part of a virtual simulation educational experience.

It combines virtual reality (VR) with state-of-the-art haptics to create a scalable ‘flight simulator’ experience for trainee and qualified surgeons, allowing them to experience and navigate the same visuals, sounds and feelings they would during a real surgical procedure, reports Fundamental Surgery.

Fundamental surgery is designed to be compatible with any laptop, VR headset or haptic device. At the heart of the platform is the unique Surgical Haptic Intelligence Engine (SHIE), which is calibrated to mimic real life sensations of numerous medical tools and tissues with great accuracy. Thus, the HaptX Gloves make each finger and the entire hand into a virtual reality, haptic controller.

“When it comes to surgical training simulations, a sense of touch is a game changer, but has traditionally only been possible with immobile equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Richard Vincent, CEO, FundamentalVR. “The Fundamental Surgery platform delivers highly sophisticated tactile feedback at a fraction of the cost through a software approach that can work with a range of haptic devices. Our platform currently works with haptic arms, but is designed to evolve as hardware innovations allow new products such as HaptX Gloves to come to market. We are proud to work with industry leaders such as HaptX and are excited to demonstrate how HaptX Gloves integrated into our Surgical Haptics Intelligence Engine takes the sensation of surgery to an exciting new and natural level.”

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Today, numerous medical institutions including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the US, UCLH in the UK and Sana in Germany deploy Fundamental Surgery with initial training packages focused on the orthopedic surgery. The procedures it currently supports include Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior), Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty.