Aloe Care Health, the worlds' most advanced voice-activated medical alert system and caregiver support platform, has partnered with BioIntelliSense to provide elderly adults with better remote patient monitoring services. Aloe Care is the developer of an in-home voice-activated Smart Hub medical alert system, while BioIntelliSense is best known for its FDA-cleared single-use BioSticker and medical-grade BioButton wearable devices.

Read more BioButton Provides Affordable COVID-19 Symptom Monitoring For Patients At Home, Enabling Safe Return to Work

The new partnership will integrate those devices with the Aloe Care Smart Hub platform to help track the health of patients in real-time. The BioIntelliSense wearables will monitor vital signs like heart rate, respiratory rate, skin temperature in addition to lifestyle indicators like activity level, body position, and sleep status. The data will then be sent to the Smart Hub through a Bluetooth connection to let medical professionals (and emergency responders) know about any adverse changes in a patient’s condition, says a press release.

"This combination is truly the next generation of remote patient monitoring," said Ray Spoljaric, CEO and co-Founder of Aloe Care Health. "Telemedicine and remote care are here to stay, and the advances made by the team at BioIntelliSense are playing a critical role in the speed and efficacy with which care is delivered. They were an obvious choice to become the first RPM devices certified on the Aloe Care Health platform."

James Mault, MD, Founder and CEO of BioIntelliSense added, "Our companies share a common vision of advancing and scaling remote care that provides an added layer of safety and reliability for older adults to age with grace and dignity. The combination of our devices and data insights enables medical-grade monitoring and alerting at home. The collaboration with Aloe Care extends our reach and simplifies deployments where connectivity exists in the home via the Aloe Care hub."

Read more Oura, WHOOP, BioStrap and BioIntelliSense Invading Health Monitoring Space With Biometric Wearables

The BioSticker and BioButton wearable devices are designed to be discreetly worn on the upper left chest for effortless remote data capture and a simple "stick it on and forget it" patient experience. The flagship BioSticker is the first single-use medical device for up to 30 days of continuous vital sign monitoring and the BioButton is configurable for up to 60 days on a single-use disposable capturing:

• Respiratory rate, heart rate at rest, and skin temperature
• Body position, activity levels, steps, sleep status
• High-resolution gait analysis

Aloe Care's additional smart sensors provide fall detection, motion, air quality, and temperature. It also features a private, secure family app for real-time status-checks, voice calls directly into the Smart Hub, and care collaboration with family and professional caregivers.

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Along with many other businesses, gyms and fitness clubs across the globe were forced to close amid the Covid-19 pandemic. As the lockdown continued and people were urged to maintain social distancing, people started moving outdoors for their workouts.

The increasing number of outdoor workouts like cycling and running spiked the demand for wearables. By tracking heart rates and sleep schedules, wearables allow users to create evolving fitness regimens without the need to go inside a gym, reports ProspectSConsultation.

In October 2020, Boston-based digital fitness startup Whoop has announced a $100 million Series E investment that spiked the valuation of the company at $1.2 billion, making it a business unicorn. Other wearable device manufacturers also saw their sales double during the pandemic.

Now, with the increase in vaccinations, gyms are slowly reopening. But it raises new questions like ‘Will the fitness lovers who built up outdoor workout habits return to gyms? Or ‘Will companies start offering wearables’ subscriptions as perks, the same way they offered gym memberships in the past?

Read more With The Next Gen Of Wearables, Athletes Will Alter The Way They Fuel For Sport

While studying a group of Navy SEALs, the Whoop team discovered the users were just as competitive about who could get a better night’s sleep as they were about who could train the hardest.

“Meditation is one way to really dial in your sleep.” Whoop founder Will Ahmed points out that meditation is “virtually good for everything,” especially sleep and heart rate variability.

The popularity of wearables isn’t only due to the fact that they can measure your heart rate and other health metrics; wearables have shown to be effective in detecting Covid-19 early.

Pro golfer Nick Watney was the first player on the PGA Tour to be diagnosed with COVID-19. Nick said that on the morning of the second round of the RBC Heritage tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina, he checked his Whoop data to find that his respiratory rate had suddenly spiked to over 18.

However, Watney was tested negative for COVID-19 three days earlier and was cleared to play. Based on WHOOP data, he requested to be tested again. The new test result showed him to be positive of carrying the coronavirus. Later that day, he withdrew from the tournament.

“You can’t really fool [WHOOP]. If my kids had a rough night and I slept 4.5 hours, I don’t get a lot of green recoveries when that happens. There haven’t been many days when it gives me 90 [percent recovery] and I feel rundown. It’s like an all-telling thing in certain ways. It’s tough to fool this little thing,” Nick said on the Whoop podcast.

WHOOP has been named “Official Fitness Wearable of the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions” and a “Sponsor of PGA TOUR Active.”

Over 1,000 WHOOP Straps were distributed for players, caddies, and other essential personnel at PGA TOUR, Korn Ferry Tour, and PGA TOUR Champions events, with accompanying membership for health monitoring.

Read more US Army Outfits Paratroopers With WHOOP Strap To Assess Level of Stress

“I've been a WHOOP member for a number of years and having the ability to monitor my recovery on a daily basis is helpful for my overall performance. WHOOP has been everywhere on TOUR in 2020 and this new partnership will unlock the future of athletic performance and professional golf,” said Rory McIlroy, WHOOP Investor, and PGA TOUR member. “And now fans will have access to player data that will change the way they experience and engage with the game.”

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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 6700 newborns die every day across the world. Developing regions like India and Africa account for more than 99% of mother and newborn deaths. Statistics show that around 80% of deliveries happen in low-resource healthcare settings. Fetal heart rate and uterine contraction are the important parameters to monitor the status of both mother and fetus during the intrapartum period. But, because of lack of manpower and easy-to-use monitoring devices these are monitored inaccurately or ignored more than 85% of the time, hence leads to mortality/morbidity in case of complications.

Read more First Ever Wearable For Real-Time Monitoring of Neonatal Jaundice and Vital Signs

Janitri, a Bengaluru, India-based startup with a vision to stop newborn and mother deaths during pregnancy and delivery, has developed KEYAR, a portable & wireless intrapartum continuous and intermittent Fetal heart rate, Maternal heart rate, and Uterine contraction monitor. The device also communicates with DAKSH intrapartum monitoring mobile application for intelligent alerts and remote monitoring. The product is for the staff nurses/midwives/doctors which help them in monitoring the mother and fetus during labor phase. The intelligent alerts also help them in taking an early decision which eventually save lives during labor phase.

Janitri is a winner of the 12th IoT/WT Innovation World Cup® - the world’s leading open innovation platform that supports breakthrough innovations to become reality and connects techpreneurs with international tech corporations. Janitri was awarded in the wearable healthcare category at the 39^th WT|Wearable Technologies Conference EUROPE.

Before starting Janitri (Sanskrit word for ‘mother’), Arun Agarwal, the founder of Janitri, visited 100+ hospitals, met 200+ healthcare professionals for the problem identification and validation in maternal and child healthcare. Mr. Agarwal has spent a lot of time with the different stakeholders like doctors, OBGYN, mothers, families, staff nurses, midwives, government, NGO to understand the grass root level problems and to understand why there are mothers and babies are still dying. He witnessed live deliveries and c-section and spent a lot of time in the labor ward to explore and understand the existing process, methodology, technology, protocol, etc. He found that Fetal heart rate and Uterine contraction are important parameters to get to know the status of fetus and labor progress but unfortunately monitored inaccurately and ignored more than 85% of the time and hence leads to mortality/morbidity in case of complications.

Key milestones reached by Janitri:

• Janitri raised grants/funding from prestigious organizations like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, BIRAC (Govt. of Canada), Startup Karnataka, Villgro, IKP & Pureland Global Venture.
• Partnered with esteemed organizations in India like St. Johns Medical College & Hospital, Naraya Health, Rangadore Memorial Hospital, WISH Foundation, AIIMS Delhi for clinical validation/usability study.
• Janitri’s products have been deployed in 150+ hospitals and more than 30,000+ pregnancies have been monitored during labor period.
• It has achieved ISO 13485 certification.
• Pilot starting soon in Brazil, Kenya, South Africa & Ethiopia.

Biggest Challenges

Finding the technical expertise relevant to their technology was the biggest challenge. “If I would start the journey again, then I will first find the relevant technology expert as a co-founder. Another challenge is performing the clinical validation as per the global standard because of the unavailability of experts.”

Read more Wearable Motion Sensors Monitor Fetal Heartbeat, Could Save Unborn Babies

Future developments

Commercial pilot deployment of AI-based intelligent alerts. Country-wide product scale-up (India).

Advice for upcoming startups

1. Be clear on the problem statement and market size
2. Good understanding of the market segment
3. Unique solution

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Tired of not being able to find your misplaced activity tracker? You can now use Tile’s finding technology to keep track of it via an easy-to-use app on your phone or tablet.

Tile and Fitbit are teaming up to make sure you never lose your Fitbit Inspire 2. Rolling out over the next week, Tile’s Bluetooth-finding technology is coming to Inspire 2.

Read more Fitbit Launches ‘Sense’, Its Most Advanced Health Smartwatch with ECG And Stress Management For $329

“We’ve partnered with Fitbit to integrate our powerful finding technology directly into the Inspire 2 you know and love. Starting March 22nd, both new and existing Fitbit Inspire 2 users will be able to track their device with Tile, in the free Tile app,” Tile said on its website.

How to Find Your Fitbit Inspire 2 with Tile

If you lose your Inspire 2 somewhere nearby, like at your house, just open the Tile mobile app and tap the “Find” button to make your device vibrate so you can easily find it. Or, try using the Proximity Meter in the Tile app to guide you to it visually. And if your Inspire 2 is lost and far away, like maybe you left it at the gym, then you can use the map in your Tile mobile app to see the location of the last place you had it with you.

If you return to the last place you had it and it’s still not there, you can take advantage of Tile’s global network of users to help you track it down. The Tile Network spans 195 countries and locates up to six million misplaced items every single day, reports Tile.

Lost Your Phone? Find it with Your Fitbit Inspire 2

If it’s your phone--not your Inspire 2 that you’ve misplaced, it’s easy to use the Tile feature on your Fitbit device to make your phone ring loudly from wherever it’s hiding. Simply open the Tile app from your Fitbit Inspire 2 and tap “Find my phone.” If your phone is connected and within Bluetooth range, it will start to vibrate and ring, even if it’s been set to silent!

Read more Fitbit OS Update Improves Heart Rate Tracking, Sleep Tools, On-Device Watch Face Adjustments

Fitbit Inspire 2 users can also sign up for Tile Premium to get smart alerts and other premium content at a price of $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

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Industrial wearables manufacturer ProGlove has expanded its analysis platform “ProGlove Insight” to include new functions in the area of ​​“Process Analytics” for optimizing work processes and protecting employees.

ProGlove Insight is an API-first platform offering services to improve Device Lifecycle Management, process understanding and let you easily act on dynamic events. By leveraging state-of-the-art sensors deeply embedded in ProGlove devices, you’re able to understand your processes like never before through completely new data points.

Related ProGlove, StayLinked Team Up to Help Improve Mobility and Process Automation For Logistics and Supply Chain Firms

Capitalizing on Data Improving the Warehouse Process

ProGlove Insight draws on the unique capability of ProGlove's MARK barcode scanners to not only capture barcode data but also seize metadata and information collected via the numerous sensors the devices feature. This data contextualizes barcode symbologies, device configurations, time stamps, temperature readings, battery health and other raw data to pave the way for actionable insights. ProGlove Insight eliminates the restrictions of workstation silos because it picks up data from the shop floor and drives it bottom up to the management level. This allows for an overview of a business's entire warehouse process and thus supports data-driven decision-making, according to a press release.

"Parcel logistics is a low-margin game that comes with a lot of manual work," said Ville Heimgartner, Smart Urban Logistics Consultant at DPD. "Therefore, efficiency and worker well-being is key, especially since the workload in our business is volatile. We need to make sure we have the right amount of people available at the right time and at the right spots in our depots. The number of scans, where we make them, and how fast they can be processed are key indicators that determine our business efficiency and productivity. ProGlove Insight gives us the means to best support our workers, make arrangements accordingly, and allow for sustainable growth."

Some of ProGlove Insight's key functionalities include:

• Safeguarding frontline workers: Allow for time-motion studies and measure the effort to complete assigned jobs. The number of scans can be correlated with a worker's step count to determine the workload on each worker. This way, organizations can assess whether the number of assigned workers per workstation needs adjustments to respond to peaks. Determine the time needed to process scans and identify recurring errors because of poor barcode quality to reduce the stress level for workers on site. Additionally, push audio, visual and haptic alerts on the deployed devices to provide guidance with all senses and help shop floor staff avoid accidents and injuries. At the same time, it enacts non-intrusive social distancing.
• Comprehensive Layout & Levels capabilities: Visualize shop floor activities and drill down to individual workstations and devices to compare processes. This lets businesses redesign workstations or other infrastructure components when necessary.
• Superior Insight Analytics: Monitor all scans and refine the collected information with relevant metadata to understand jobs, processes, and workloads to compare them to previous jobs and tailor your setup accordingly. This puts a magnifying glass on running jobs, allowing you to precisely measure ROI on new initiatives.
• Effortless device management with the ability to deploy zero-touch updates: Push firmware and configuration updates from one central point to your entire device fleet and know when to swap devices before they run out of charge to allow for undisrupted operations.

Related Gartner Names ProGlove Cool Vendor In May 2020 Manufacturing Industry Solutions Report

The value of the shop floor

"It is safe to assume that 70 percent of the added value on the shop floor is created by the hands of human frontline workers," said Andreas Koenig, CEO at ProGlove. "That's why we need means to optimize processes while strengthening the role of the human worker. ProGlove Insight is an amalgam of device management, advanced analytics, and the Human Digital Twin that strikes the right balance between business needs and worker wellbeing. We look upon this as a responsibility we have to pioneer a pathway to a future that comes with opportunities for everyone. ProGlove Insight is our contribution in that regard."

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More and more companies are focusing on improving the health and wellness of their employees and they’re turning to wearables to do just that.

Read more How Companies Are Using Wearable Tech To Bring Employees Back To Work

Wearables for employees come in different forms. Just as smartwatches and fitness trackers track their heart rate and stress, other wearables such as smart patches can track their blood pressure and blood oxygen levels while smart goggles augment workers’ vision with information overlays that aid decision-making, reports JLL.

“We invest so much in the healthy, productive workplace – such as sensors measuring occupancy, air quality and movement – yet the most important metric is its impact on individuals,” says Andrew O’Donnell, UK Real Estate and Workplace Director at JLL. “Employers are recognizing this and seeing wearables as a way to understand whether and how they can improve employee wellness.”

A growing market

A new report from Gartner finds worldwide end-user spending on wearable devices to total $81.5 billion in 2021, an 18.1% increase from $69 billion in 2020.

The rise in remote work and increased interest in health monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant factor driving market growth.

“The introduction of health measures to self-track COVID-19 symptoms, along with increasing interest from consumers in their personal health and wellness during global lockdowns, presented a significant opportunity for the wearables market,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at Gartner. “Ear-worn devices and smartwatches are seeing particularly robust growth as consumers rely on these devices for remote work, fitness activities, health tracking, and more.”

Strategy shift

Moodbeam is a smart wristband that tells your boss if you’re unhappy at work. (Photo: )[/caption]

Mental health in the workplace has long been a concern for employers. Covid-19 lockdowns and remote working have worsened the issue.

Moodbeam is a wristband that allows employers to track their workers’ emotional health. Developed by a UK startup, the device allows its wearer to log how they feel at the click of a button.

While passive wearables like smartwatches monitor environmental factors, active wearables enhance a worker’s ability to complete a particular task. For example, exoskeletons allow workers to lift heavy objects without straining their backs.

Challenges

Wearables for employees are still in its infancy. One challenge is adoption, which is still far from widespread, says O’Donnell.

Smart workplaces

In the future, workplaces will benefit greatly from using wearables, predicts Anna Szlagor, from the Research and Consulting team at JLL.

Big companies might incorporate medical-grade devices like blood glucose-detecting rings or ECG patches into occupational health programs.

Read more LUBA Workers’ Comp Using Oura Ring To Explore The Use of Wearables in Workplace

Instead of using smartphones, employees could use smartwatches to access smart buildings and log into hot desks or customize temperature and lighting preferences, the JLL report said.

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Atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, is a common skin condition affecting about 10 million children in the U.S. It can cause sufferers to itch so badly that they can lose a full night’s sleep each week. Eczema sufferers are often asked by their doctor ‘How much does it itch?’ The answer to this question is, however, subjective and hard to quantify. It’s like asking somebody to rate their levels of pain. The researchers at Northwestern University decided to do something about this problem, so they developed a soft skin patch that can measure how often its wearer scratches themselves.

Read more L’Oreal My Skin Track pH Breaks Cover

“Itch torments so many patients across so many conditions. It can be as debilitating as chronic pain,” said lead author Shuai “Steve” Xu, MD, MSc, assistant professor of Dermatology, and of Pediatrics in the Division of Dermatology. “If we’re able to quantify scratching accurately, then we have the ability to objectively quantify itching. This is really important in patients — like children — who can’t always verbalize or quantify their suffering.”

The researchers reported their invention in Science Advances. Worn on the back of the hand, the wearable device uses both motion and vibration sensing to sense the hand’s activity. A machine-learning algorithm then identifies the motion as either scratching or some other non-scratching hand motion reports Northwestern University.

“Patients with atopic dermatitis are 44% more likely to report suicidal thoughts as a result of the itch compared to controls. Thus, the ability to quantify their symptoms is really important to help new drugs get approved, but also support their day-to-day lives,” Xu said. “In some ways, it’s like measuring glucose for diabetes…measuring itching in an atopic dermatitis patient may be just as important.”

“Nothing is more important to measure a medication’s effectiveness for eczema than an itch, the symptom that both defines eczema and has the greatest impact on quality of life. This sensor could play a critical role in this regard, especially for children,” said Amy Paller, MD, chair and Walter J. Hamlin Professor of Dermatology.

Read more OMRON launches WheezeScan, the World’s First Wheeze Detection Device for Children with Asthma

In addition, clinicians and parents have the ability to track how well itch is being controlled in patients at home to monitor for treatment response, as well as early signs of worsening disease, Xu said.

The sensor was accepted into the Food and Drug Administration’s Drug Discovery Tool program. This program allows novel devices like this sensor to be qualified to aid in the approval of new drugs.

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Haptics technology specialist Boreas has introduced the Boréas Piezo Haptic Engine (Boréas PHE) reference design for wearable designers. The fitness tracker module design helps designers leverage the performance benefits of piezo actuators to deliver high-definition (HD) haptic feedback in low-power, space-constrained wearables.

The demand and market for higher-quality haptics capabilities in numerous applications are growing exponentially, a recent report from IDTechEx suggested.

Read more Microsoft Studies Haptic Controller that Simulates Momentum and Gravity

HD haptic technology is all about delivering a better user experience, ranging from communicating information without requiring the user’s sight or hearing and easy differentiation of haptic effects to creating immersive experiences when used with audio and video.

Boreas claims its HPE is a major advancement over both legacy technologies that have dominated haptics in wearables and other small devices: linear resonant actuators (LRA) and eccentric rotating mass (ERM) motors. The quality of the haptic performance of both LRAs and ERMs is linked directly to their own mass and volume. This architectural approach makes these platforms too large to achieve a satisfying user experience in wearables. In contrast, the Boréas PHE uses a small off-the-shelf piezo actuator and the mass of other internal components to generate exceptional haptic performance, eliminating the size-power-performance trade-off typical of LRAs and ERMs.

“The quality of haptic effects in smartwatches and fitness bands is vital to the user experience. This makes choosing a high-quality haptic engine essential to customer satisfaction,” said Simon Chaput, founder and CEO, Boréas Technologies. “But the dominant actuators generally used in wearables, LRAs and ERMs, generate inferior haptic effects at the small size needed for wearables.

“Piezo actuators, on the other hand, don’t have this problem. Used with our Boréas PHE, they produce stronger, more realistic, and more responsive haptic experiences that are sure to delight users with the premium feel that they’ve come to expect. Plus, their small size and ultra-low power consumption tick all the boxes for devices in which every millimeter and microamp are critical.”

Outperforming LRAs in Wearables

The advantages of the BPHE over the LRA—the haptic technology most commonly used in wearables—is measurable.

• Larger Bandwidth—the BPHE creates stronger haptic effects within a larger bandwidth, from frequencies between 30-300 Hz, while small LRAs offer a narrow bandwidth at high frequencies (>200 Hz)
• Faster Rise and Fall Times—with rise times of 2.25 cycles vs. LRA’s 11 cycles, and fall times <10 ms vs. LRA’s 80 ms, the Boréas PHE’s faster response times enable sharper, more realistic haptic effects in wearables
• Low Power Consumption—the Boréas PHE is up to 10x more power-efficient than LRAs, extending battery lifetime
• Small Footprint—with a 12x4x1.8mm piezo actuator, the BPHE is small enough for volume-constrained devices

Read more Valkyrie Developing Haptic VR Suit for Commercial Use

About Boréas Technologies

Boréas Technologies Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company commercializing product-differentiating piezo IC platforms in consumer and industrial markets. With origins in research conducted at Harvard University, Boréas was founded in 2016 in Bromont, Québec. Its proprietary CapDrive™ technology platform—on which the company’s ICs are based—is ideal for resource-constrained devices such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, smartphones, game controllers, and the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

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Athletes will alter the way they fuel for sport by using real-time data to understand the impact of nutrition on performance.

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are being used by elite athletes and fitness enthusiasts to better understand the impact of blood sugar on performance. A recent study on blood sugar shows diet and exercise must be considered together to improve performance and health, and that chronic high blood sugar negates the impact of exercise.

Read more How Wearables are Helping Athletes Enhance Their Performance

Rethinking How To Fuel for Exercise

CGMs are exposing the weaknesses of fast-acting sugary sports nutrition products, which can send an athlete's blood sugar soaring above, then crashing below, the ideal range.

An athlete training for a marathon or triathlon typically consumes between 100-200g of sugar during a multi-hour training session when following product usage recommendations from popular sports nutrition companies. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 24g of added sugar per day for adult women and 36g of added sugar per day for adult men, says a press release.

"We've always thought of energy as needing sugar rapidly, but that can actually disrupt your metabolism and your ability to burn fat," says Dr. Cathy Yeckel, human metabolism researcher at Yale University. "What you actually want is little bits of energy over time to keep blood sugar stable."

"The bottom line is that traditional sports fuels are not the most effective way to enhance performance and promote health," says Dr. Jeff Volek, leading nutrition researcher and Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at Ohio State University. "A more optimal carbohydrate would provide a slower release and use of carbohydrate as fuel while simultaneously permitting increased breakdown and utilization of fat."

CGMs Showcase The Relationship Between Blood Sugar Control and Peak Performance

• There are many advantages in keeping blood sugar stable and avoiding excess glucose in the body:
• Steady energy throughout the day
• Sustained exercise endurance
• Sharp focus and cognition
• Improved fat-burning ability and better body composition
• Better hunger control & reduced cravings
• Lowered risk for metabolic diseases

"It doesn't matter the age, athlete or sport - regulating your blood sugar is critical for any athletic or health-conscious individual," says Bob Seebohar, registered dietitian and former sports dietitian for the U.S. Olympic Team.

A Game-Changing Innovation in Sports Nutrition

The UCAN Company stands apart from traditional sports nutrition products with an extraordinary innovation in sports fueling with UCAN Edge, the first and only energy source designed to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

SuperStarch®, the unique underlying ingredient in UCAN's products, was originally created to provide energy for a child with a rare condition that prohibits the body from producing its own blood sugar, resulting in frequent and dangerous episodes of hypoglycemia. Out of this need came a one-of-a-kind, slow-releasing complex carbohydrate that delivers steady, long-lasting energy without causing spikes and crashes in blood sugar.

"Despite the creation of a multi-billion-dollar sports nutrition market, there's been little innovation with respect to formulation until SuperStarch." says Dr. Volek. "SuperStarch represents a major advancement and is legitimately the most exciting development in sports nutrition this century,"

Elite and recreational athletes alike have been taking their performances to the next level by fueling with UCAN, including the 2nd fastest women marathoner in U.S. history Sara Hall, Olympic triathlete Katie Zaferes, CrossFit star Scott Panchik, 4x Olympian Meb Keflezighi, top American pro triathlete Tim O'Donnell, Olympic water polo player Maggie Steffens, and hundreds of pro and college teams.

Read more Sam Wearable Ultrasound Helps Accelerate Natural Healing In Injured Athletes

"I love that UCAN can provide fuel without spiking blood sugar & insulin," says Sara Hall. "As a human biology major and someone always looking to optimize my nutrition for performance, I really appreciate, at a cellular level, how this product works."

As the way we evaluate performance changes, the understanding of performance enhancement through nutrition will also evolve. UCAN is uniquely positioned as an innovator in sports nutrition with a patented, breakthrough ingredient that is trusted by elite athletes and scientifically proven to maintain blood sugar levels.

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Life360, a popular family tracking app, is acquiring Jiobit, a Chicago-based provider of wearable location devices for young children, pets, and seniors, for $37 million. The deal could be worth up to $54.5 million if Jiobit hits certain performance metrics. The deal is expected to close in the coming months, Jiobit CEO John Renaldi said.

Read more Peloton Expands Portfolio, Buys Wearables, AI, Hardware Startups

Jiobit’s wearable devices would be incorporated into Life360’s family safety membership, which provides holistic protection for driving, physical, and digital safety. Premium Life360 members would get discounted access to Jiobit devices, and post-integration, family members and pets wearing Jiobit devices would appear on a single unified family map interface, reports BusinessWire.

“We’ve long wanted to expand beyond the smartphone into wearable devices, and Jiobit offers the market-leading device for pets, younger children, and seniors,” said Chris Hulls, CEO and co-founder of Life360. “With Jiobit, Life360 would be the market leader in both hardware and software products for families once the deal closes. We will continue to seek out additional opportunities that could further cement our position as the leading digital safety brand for families.”

“Life360, as the leading smartphone platform for families, is the natural home for Jiobit. We have the same shared long-term vision around the future of the digitally native family, and this rollup is a natural accelerator,” said John Renaldi, CEO and co-founder of Jiobit. “We’re excited to gain access to Life360’s large user base and have access to new resources that will let us ramp up our growth, new product development, and expansion into additional verticals.”

The final transaction is subject to the approval of the Board of Directors of both Life360 and Jio, Inc., as well as the stockholders of Jio, Inc. The Life360 app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

About Life360

Life360 operates a platform for today’s busy families, bringing them closer together by helping them better know, communicate with, and protect the people they care about most. The Company’s core offering, the Life360 mobile app, is a market-leading app for families, with features that range from communications to driving safety and location sharing. Life360 is based in San Francisco and had more than 26 million monthly active users (MAU) as at December 2020, located in 195 countries.

Read more Best Smartwatches And Fitness Trackers For Kids

About Jiobit

Jiobit was founded in 2015 by Renaldi, a former Motorola executive who created the device after briefly losing track of his own child in Maggie Daley Park. The company’s primary product is a tracking device that attaches to a child's clothes and sends alerts to a parent's smartphone when they've left their side. It uses a combination of GPS and beacon technology to track where the child is, and it can also measure heights — like if the child is on the top of a slide or on the third floor of a shopping mall.

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Buying habits of shoppers across the globe have triggered an evolution in the watch industry, and as a result, demand for smartwatches is growing by the day. Smartwatches offer the convenience of customization, health tracking, movement tracking, and a horde of other benefits.

E. Gluck Corporation, a New York City-based watch manufacturer is venturing into the wearable technology market. The company announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with WITHit, a Las Vegas-based wearable technology accessories designer and manufacturer.

Read more Biogen Partnering with Apple for Cognitive Health Study Using Apple Watch and iPhone

“In WITHit, E. Gluck Corporation has found a younger version of itself. A company driven and guided by its core values and a relentless dedication to customer satisfaction,” said Bobbie Weichselbaum, CEO of E. Gluck Corporation. “We are excited on a corporate level to be joining forces and even more so, to having these incredible individuals joining our EGC family.”

“On the surface, this deal is simply about two companies forging a bond to build a great business together,” said Adam Gelnick, CFO E. Gluck Corporation. “In actuality, it is a group of incredible individuals with complementary expertise, joining together to create a sum that is greater than its individual parts. This is an ideal that both groups aspire to and together we will hopefully achieve.”

Founded in 2004, WITHit has amassed a loyal following of consumers attracted to the brand’s style, comfort, performance, and durability — particularly when it comes to wearable technology device bands and protection. WITHit has become one of the largest wearable tech accessory manufacturers in the U.S.  WITHit is also a leading supplier of reading accessories, with a complete line of reading lights and magnifiers.  Its products are sold in over 8,500 U.S. retail stores, E. Gluck said in a press release.

With over 500 million wearable devices in use globally, the acquisition provides international and domestic growth opportunities for both E. Gluck and WITHit and will enable E. Gluck to expand its addressable market, offering both traditional timepieces and fashionable wearable tech accessories.

Anticipating tremendous future growth in the global smartwatch market, E. Gluck’s acquisition positions the WITHit brand for expansion by providing access to untapped distribution channels, international expansion opportunities, as well as operational synergies, scale, and marketing.

“We are extremely excited to have this opportunity to continue our growth trajectory with E. Gluck,” said David Nelson, CEO of WITHit.  “Not only are our companies complementary from a pure business perspective, but E. Gluck and WITHit share core values and culture that make this combination special.”

“We could not have imagined a better strategic partner than E. Gluck,” said Phil Grandinetti, CCO of WITHit. “Together, we are in an even stronger position to provide our customers around the world with innovative products.”

WITHit’s COO Bill Devaney echoed these sentiments: “Bobbie, Adam Gelnick and the entire team at E. Gluck have been amazing throughout this process and we are thrilled to become part of the family.”

Abot E. Gluck Corporation

Founded over 65 years ago, E. Gluck Corporation is a major force in the watch industry — manufacturing, bringing to market and shipping timepieces worldwide. Brands include Armitron, Anne Klein, Torgoen, Badgley Mischka, Juicy Couture, Nine West and Vince Camuto. E.Gluck’s design and production acumen, global distribution capabilities and strategic retail experience allow for ultimate efficiency in a fluid marketplace.

Read more Wahoo Enters Wearables Market with the Launch of Elemnt Rival Multi-Sport GPS Smartwatch

About WITHit

WITHit designs, manufactures, and curates accessories that make wearable tech and reading experiences better. WITHit specializes in the rapid development of creative product designs using a wide variety of techniques and materials allowing it to keep pace with quickly evolving technological advancements and customer trends.  WITHit currently holds more than 30 patents and makes products under license for Star Wars, Disney, French Bull, Dabney Lee, and Peanuts.

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With the Luxe, Fitbit has introduced a new wearable that looks like a piece of jewelry. The $150 wearable combines health-and-wellness features of traditional Fitbit devices with stylized finishes. Fitbit Luxe comes with a focus on relaxation and stress management and offers a range of bracelet options.

This focus away from purely sporting use towards coping with everyday life is also reflected in the design of the Luxe. The tracker is made of stainless steel and is available in black, silver, and gold. In addition to the usual silicone straps, there are also a number of bracelets that make the device look more like a piece of jewelry than a fitness tracker.

Read more Fitbit Wearables May Soon Start Measuring Your Blood Pressure

In addition to matching metal mesh bracelets, double-wrapped leather bracelets from Horween are also available. There is also a chain bracelet in silver or gold, with which the Luxe actually hardly looks like a conventional fitness tracker.

Through a partnership with the Laguna Beach-based jewelry brand gorjana, users can switch out their Luxe band for a chain-link bracelet inspired by gorjana’s Parker collection.

Unlike other trackers, fitness is not the main purpose of the Luxe. Instead, Fitbit is positioning it more as a holistic wellness tracker than a dedicated fitness band. The two main factors that it's looking at are stress and sleep.

The wearable has an OLED screen. A heart rate monitor and sensors for measuring blood oxygen are installed on the back. This is not yet available for the planned start of the wearable in May 2021 and should be submitted later via an update.

With the purchase of the Luxe, users can start a free six-month trial subscription for Fitbit's premium account. This enables you to carry out more detailed sleep and stress analyses. A number of relaxation exercises are then also available to them.

According to Fitbit, Luxe provides five days of battery life, which includes a sleep record. The heart rate is measured every five seconds by default, and every second for sports recordings. In the Fitbit app, values ​​such as heart and breathing rate, resting heart rate, and skin temperature are combined into a health value.

The Fitbit Luxe with a silicone bracelet costs 150 euros in Germany. With the chain bracelet, the wearable costs 200 euros. The Horween leather bracelet costs an additional 50 euros, the mesh bracelet 90 euros. The fabric bracelet can be ordered for 40 euros. Like the Luxe itself, the accessories are to be delivered from May 2021.

Read more Fitbit to Equip NASA Employees with Wearables to Protect Them from COVID-19

So, why should you wear a fitness tracker that looks like a piece of jewelry?

A study suggests that clothes systematically influence wearers' psychological processes. Researchers of the study coined the term “enclothed cognition” to demonstrate the cognitive influences that fashion has on its wearers, reports MobiHealthNews. Their study examined how wearing a white lab coat influenced the participants’ performance on attention-related tasks – a characteristic that is often associated with lab coats. Those who were outfitted in lab coats demonstrated significantly better results than those wearing plain clothes.

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NeoRhythm, a wellness wearable that hacks your brain, has made it to the finals for the World Healthcare Innovation Award as part of the 12th annual IoT/WT Innovation World Cup. To reach there, NeoRhythm beat out more than 600 top competitors.

Read more Interview with NeoRhythm: Next-gen brain stimulation headband to sleep better, relieve stress and boost your energy

Launched by one of the most successful campaigns in the history of Indiegogo, and with over 8000 happy users and counting, this wellness wearable is making quite a stir in the wearables space.

NeoRhythm was developed by MDCN technology Inc. It’s a neurostimulation headband that will help you to de-stress, focus, sleep & meditate better, and more. The headband uses a safe magnetic method of neuromodulation to target specific areas of the brain with the purpose of helping the user reach a desired state of mind such as relaxation, focus, or sleep.

NeoRhythm's Quantum Leap Forward

NeoRhythm is already a fully functioning platform, so advanced and engaged that it is the focus of the world's largest laboratory study of the effects of PEMF home therapy, providing data from over 7000 volunteers. But NeoRhythm is in the process of upgrading from wellness wearable to medical device, developing advanced protocols for the treatment of pain, depression, Parkinson's disease, some types of cancer and more.

Leaning from Wellness to Medical

Although NeoRhythm's initial goal was to become an affordable wellness tool, combining the all-around benefits of PEMF therapy with the effectiveness of brainwave entrainment, the company quickly expanded their scientific research and began to develop their further plans for the device. The scientific work, undertaken alongside leading independent European experts on depression, seeks to constantly optimize NeoRhythm's programs to allow the PEMF wearable to help treatments of pain, depression, Parkinson's disease, and even cancer, in addition to its basic, proven functions of easing moderate pain, assisting with sleep, promoting concentration and encouraging deeper meditation.

Read more OmniPEMF Announces Worldwide Availability Of Its NeoRhythm Neurostimulation Headband

From Wellness Wearable to Medical Device

Now, thanks to the success of NeoRhythm and independent research projects supporting and expanding its efficacy, the future looks bright. NeoRhythm plans to register in the near future as an official medical device. It will remain just as safe, non-invasive and affordable. But it will become even more effective.

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Researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Freiburg have proposed that wearable devices could be used to develop a network of health data about a patient, allowing for early diagnosis of COVID-19, even when the patient is asymptomatic.

Read more Imperial College London: New Silicon-Based Lab-On-Chip Could Deliver Accurate Results Within Minutes

An increasing number of people are using wearable devices to better understand their health, also known as “quantified self-movement”. There are a variety of exciting new devices being developed, including tattoos, contact lenses, and clothing, which can monitor a range of different health signals and provide us with real-time data about our bodies. Now, researchers have suggested that this data could help to diagnose and treat COVID-19. The article has been published in Nature Electronics.

Positive correlation

Smartphones, fitness trackers, and smartwatches have drastically changed the way we understand our personal health and fitness. These devices allow us to monitor our wellbeing through measurements of heart rate, movement, and even blood oxygen levels, reports Lily Shepherd in Imperial College London.

“The key advantage of wearables is that they are able to collect real-time information. This could transform the way we collect medical data by allowing measurements of trends and abrupt metabolic changes between check-ups,” says Dr Ali Yetisen from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.

Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Freiburg have reviewed the literature on wearable devices and argue that their potential has become increasingly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They note that previous studies in this field have shown promising data but were limited for several reasons. They were unable to distinguish between COVID-19 and other, similar viral infections, and the data was likely to show bias as smartwatches are generally more accessible to higher-income communities. There was also a need for large amounts of data in order to carry out accurate analysis, which would make the diagnosis of novel pathogens difficult.

In their article, the researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Freiburg proposed that the use of wearable devices to detect COVID-19 could be significantly increased by employing a network of devices.

Smart network

"The use of intelligent facemasks could allow us to continuously access medically relevant physiological data in a non-invasive way."

Dr Firat Güder Department of Bioengineering

There are a wide range of new low-cost wearables that measure various physical quantities currently in development. These include clothing that can detect when certain molecules or “biomarkers” are present in sweat; face masks that can analyze breath and detect airborne diseases; and contact lenses that can measure the pressure of fluid inside the eye.

Using several of these devices together would help to build a clearer picture of a patient’s health, without requiring large amounts of data.

Dr. Ali Yetisen from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London said: “By using a combination of different wearable devices, we could collect data on various patient signals, such as movement, respiratory rate or concentration of biomarkers in sweat. These could be used for pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic diagnosis, monitoring of the health of COVID-19 patients, or assessment of treatments.”

Intelligent face masks, in particular, would be very useful for detecting COVID-19. Face masks have already become a part of our everyday life, so it would not be challenging to encourage large numbers of people to wear them.

Dr Firat Güder from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London said: “The use of intelligent facemasks could allow us to continuously access medically relevant physiological data in a non-invasive way. In the past, this data would have only been accessible if a patient was assessed at a clinic by healthcare professionals.”

The face masks could also monitor the air around the wearer, perhaps even alerting them to the presence of harmful airborne molecules. Spyras LTD, a start-up from the laboratory of Dr Güder, is already in the final phase of releasing their intelligent face mask for analyzing respiration in real-time.

Wearables of the future

This research does not stop at COVID-19. In collaboration with researchers from the University of California Davis, Dr. Ali Yetisen’s research group has developed tattoos that change color in the presence of certain biomarkers. These tattoos could keep a diabetic person informed about glucose levels in their blood or tell a person with a hormonal or metabolic disease if the pH of their body has changed.

Researchers have developed tattoos that change color when there is a certain amount of glucose or albumin in the blood, or when the pH level of the blood changes to a certain level. (Source: Dr Ali Kemal Yetisen)

This is just one example of an exciting new wearable device. There are a seemingly infinite number of uses for wearable technologies in medicine, which could really transform the way we assess and treat our health.

Read more New Zealand Border Officials Begin Trialing of App to Detect COVID-19 Early

Dr Yetisen explained: “The key advantage of wearables is that they are able to collect real-time information. This could transform the way we collect medical data by allowing measurements of trends and abrupt metabolic changes between check-ups."

As these devices get smaller and cheaper, they will become more accessible to the average person. It may not be too long before we can all monitor every aspect of our health through our clothing, tattoos, and face masks.

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Researchers at the ETH spin-off Mithras Technology have developed wearable thermoelectric generator (TEG) sensors that can harvest energy from the wearer’s own body.

Wearable devices like hearing aids are extremely practical. But elderly wearers, who have to replace the tiny little batteries every two weeks, often find them quite fiddly to handle. Not only does changing the batteries make demands on their fine motor skills, but it’s also a task that tends to get forgotten every now and then. The two founders of ETH spin-off Mithras Technology decided to change all that. Franco Membrini and Moritz Thielen, want devices to run on environmentally friendly, decentralized power. Their approach is simple – use the human body as an energy source, writes Angelika Bühler in ETHZ.

On average, human bodies continuously radiate about 100 watts of thermal energy, most of which gets absorbed by the immediate environment. It is precisely this “wasted” energy that Mithras now proposes to harness. The company wants to convert heat into electricity via thermoelectric generators, or TEGs. One side of the TEG is in contact with the body, the other with the environment. The device converts the temperature difference between its two sides into electricity that can be stored in a battery. TEGs can produce emission-free electricity even when the temperature difference is as small as one degree.

Read more Energy Harvesting Nanogenerators Offer New Option For Monitoring Health

Harvesting energy from body heat

Currently, the founders of Mithras Technology are still in the prototyping phase. Their work builds on Thielen’s doctoral thesis; he earned a doctorate in micro-and nanosystems at ETH Zurich and is one of only a handful of specialists in this field.

The Mithras team has developed two concepts for how to wear TEG sensors on the body: as a standalone wearable worn like a wristwatch, or as a solution integrated into a mobile device. The only prerequisite for electricity generation is that the device is worn directly on the body. One possible application of their technology in the consumer sector is in fitness trackers that function completely autonomously with an integrated TEG system. “It doesn’t matter if you’re drinking coffee, exercising, or sleeping – as long as the TEGs can ‘tap into your body heat, the battery will charge on its own,” Membrini explains.

The ties between Mithras Technology and ETH

Working entirely alone, however, Membrini and Thielen were unable to commercialize the technology, so they turned to various coaches and advisory boards for support. Without the advice they received, they could never have implemented the Mithras vision. They also brought Michele Magno, a research associate at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, onboard as a third partner. “Gaining the label of ‘ETH spin-off’ from ETH Transfer was a technological accolade for us,” Membrini says. ETH certification led investors to take the project seriously; the founders gained access to important infrastructure and were able to tap into a large network. “A project like ours would be hard to undertake without the support of ETH,” Membrini says.

The Mithras team had to overcome many technical hurdles during the development phase. The devices need to be not only as compact as possible and easy to use, but also waterproof so that they work even when people sweat. Only TEGs that meet all these criteria can be installed in smaller devices such as a biosensor without any problems.

From history to technology

Thermoelectric effects were first described by Thomas Johann Seebeck in 1822. He found that a compass needle will move as soon as it is placed close to two metal compounds at different temperatures. The conversion of heat into electricity later became known as the “Seebeck effect” and describes one aspect of the physical processes we know today as the thermoelectric effect.

The question is, how does a historian like Membrini end up founding a tech startup and developing new ways to harness energy? “It’s the result of a long-drawn-out process of development. You don’t just get up one morning and think: today I’ll found a startup,” Membrini says. Even as a child in Graubünden, he wanted to start his own business someday. His curiosity served him well when one day while searching around for a business idea, he came across the topic of human body energy harvesting. “From the beginning, I saw a lot of potential in this form of decentralized power generation,” Membrini says.

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

Gazing into a crystal ball

After successfully concluding their seed investor round, the Mithras team is now ready to really get down to business. They aim to launch their first product in the fourth quarter of 2021. Their sights are on the medtech sector: in the future, they want to incorporate Mithras technology into hearing aids, insulin pumps, and other medical devices. “Our technology has dozens of possible applications,” Membrini says. The team’s initial focus is on biosensors for monitoring bodily functions. This will work via what are known as smart patches, which are applied to the body. “They would be the first devices of their kind to run purely on body heat,” Membrini explains.

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GPS smartwatches with fitness trackers are becoming more and more popular with those who do sports, as the targeted training can be better coordinated and understood using the practical wearables and their functions. One of the big players in this segment is the Chinese manufacturer Amazfit, which has currently not only launched the new "T-Rex Pro", an extremely robust and potent device, but also elegant models such as the "GTR 2e" in leads his portfolio. We took a closer look at the two smartwatches.

Related Amazfit Plans to Launch Smartwatches with ECG and Blood Pressure Monitoring in the U.S.

T-Rex Pro

After the popularity of its previous version, Amazfit is pushing the second generation of its outdoor series with the “T-Rex Pro” smartwatch, primarily expanding the functional scope.

T-Rex Pro proudly roars to the world “Let's get out into nature” and in this respect also keeps what it promises.

Like the first T-Rex, the Pro version with the metal-sprayed plastic outer bezel makes a comparatively bulky impression, but it also conveys the robustness that one expects from an outdoor smartwatch. Despite its low weight of just 600 grams, the T-Rex Pro has passed a total of 15 endurance tests according to military standards. That’s three more than the previous model.

According to Amazfit, the T-Rex Pro can withstand extreme temperatures of +70 to -40 degrees Celsius, ice, and freezing rain. Even 240 hours in moisture or 96 hours in salt fog cannot harm the watch. Thanks to the 10 ATM water resistance, you can even dive 100 meters deep with it and it is shockproof anyway. In short: You can take the T-Rex Pro with you into the jungle, the desert, the sea or on climbing tours with a clear conscience.

The high-contrast 1.3-inch HD AMOLED screen is able to regulate the brightness using a sensor, which works quite well in practice. If you activate the always-on function, dials or the time in numbers (depending on the dial design selected) always remain darkened until you activate the display by lifting your arm or pressing one of the four buttons. Tapping the screen is not enough, reports MANN.tv.

Other functions include a step counter, calculation of calorie consumption, regular heart tracking, sleep monitoring, stress measurement, the company's own PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence), which summarizes your sports activities and the daily measured data in a numerical value, and of course sports tracking.

Amazfit has properly upgraded the T-Rex Pro. While the old T-Rex had only 14 sports to be recorded, the Pro now has over 100. The Pro is able to automatically recognize eight of the sport modes based on your activity. However, this function significantly reduces battery consumption and is therefore initially deactivated at the factory.

The T-Rex Pro now uses four, instead of just two, global navigation satellite systems, which enables a high level of accuracy in terms of positioning in any terrain. In addition, there is the new barometric altitude sensor, from which you can read air pressure and altitude, as well as a SpO2 sensor, which measures the oxygen saturation in your blood but is expressly not to be understood as medical expertise.

The compass, the pleasantly vibrating alarm clock, and the extremely useful "phone search function" should not go unmentioned, with which your misplaced smartphone makes a sound that can hardly be ignored.

Now, the battery life. According to the company, the battery gives you "18 days of activities and progress with typical use or up to 9 days with heavy use". In practice, we actually just barely reached the 18 days, but only when it was not used for several days. From a purely mathematical point of view, nine days under constant stress seem somewhat utopian to us.

The Amazfit T-Rex Pro is available in the colors Meteorite Black, Desert Gray, and Steel Blue either under this link from the manufacturer itself or from Amazon at a price of 169.90 euros.

GTR 2e

GTR 2e is for those who prefer a more discreet watch. This is a slightly slimmed-down version of the GTR 2, which is also a bit slimmer in terms of price and promises a considerable battery life.

At first glance, the slim and elegant design is convincing, which dispenses with a border around the 1.39-inch AMOLED HD screen and ends with curved glass. In terms of quality, the display leaves a similarly valuable impression as the T-Rex, but even comes with a better resolution and significantly more dials to choose from. It is even possible to include your own images as a background.

The battery should last up to 24 days and with intensive use, it’ll last 12 days. If you only use the clock to check the time from time to time, it should even last a full 45 days. As with the T-Rex Pro, it is charged via a USB cable with a magnetic end that you simply attach to the back of the watch.

The watch has a 24-hour heart rate monitoring with an optional warning in the event of deviations, blood oxygen, and stress level measurement, sleep analysis, and the PAI health assessment system. It also has an alarm clock, stopwatch, step and calorie counter, and a relatively pointless temperature sensor. In connection with the smartphone, you can also check the weather and incoming messages, control the music, and display all the data collected in the Zepp app.

All in all, the range of functions is, as expected, less than with the T-Rex Pro, the water resistance is only half of 5 ATM (which is still as tough as the first T-Rex) and the GTR also has to be used in terms of operation 2E can manage with two fewer buttons, which, however, has not shown any significant disadvantage in practice. The still high, but still slightly smaller selection of sport modes, which we personally missed rowing, for example, weighs a little more heavily.

According to Amazfit, the operating repertoire also includes an offline voice control function that works even without a connection to the smartphone, but currently only works in English. The integration of Alexa should follow via update.

Related Huami Amazfit Ranked No. 1 by Shipments in Spain, Indonesia and India

Nevertheless, the GTR 2e presents itself as a high-quality and stylish smartwatch, which, in contrast to the GTR 2, looks amazingly good on the diet. The advantages in terms of battery life and price make up for the lower range of functions. At a comparatively moderate price, the GTR 2e is definitely a reliable and extremely durable companion.

The Amazfit GTR 2e is available in the colors Obsidian Black, Slate Gray, and Matcha Green either under this link from the manufacturer itself or on Amazon for 129.90 euros.

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Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) affect the muscles, nerves, tendons, joints, cartilage, and spinal discs. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) are conditions in which the work environment and performance of work contribute significantly to the condition; and/or the condition is made worse or persists longer due to work conditions.

Read more PepsiCo’s Use of Kinetic Reflex Wearable Bolstering Worker Safety

KINETIC, a New York-based wearable technology company that fosters safe environments for the industrial workforce, is addressing how ergonomic risks can impact both worker safety and the bottom line in a new white paper. The paper, titled “Good to Great: Enhancing Workplace Safety with Wearables,” examines how the deployment of wearable technology can help organizations safeguard their employees from the damaging effects of musculoskeletal injuries.

Every move essential workers make while on the job is critical to their safety, and high-risk postures - like bending, overreaching, and twisting - can lead to costly injuries. The KINETIC Reflex device can maximize a safety program and fortify an organization’s safety culture by mitigating costly ergonomic risks, reports Globe Newswire.

The KINETIC white paper explains how its Reflex wearable delivers the following benefits:

• Insights and Improvements -- Through data analytics, organizations gain the ability to know who is performing high-risk postures and to uncover why. Accumulated data can be leveraged for actionable insights and behavior-changing technology for continuous improvement that reduces injuries and maximizes operational efficiencies.
• Worker-Driven Change -- Employee participation is key to improving workplace ergonomics. With an unobtrusive form, a state-of-the-art algorithm, and unique gamification features, the KINETIC Reflex is a wearable solution that workers want to wear.
• Proven Results -- The direct and indirect costs of workplace injuries are substantial. Companies that invest in their workforce now, augmenting them with wearable tech, gain a competitive advantage with a 50-60% reduction in injury frequency and a 72% reduction in lost workdays.

“Companies that invest in innovative technologies, like wearables, will rise to the top with a safer, more productive, and more engaged workforce,” said KINETIC CEO and Cofounder Haytham Elhawary.

The KINETIC Reflex is a discrete smart wearable that is worn on belts or waistbands of industrial workers. It automatically detects unsafe work postures and provides users with real-time feedback to reduce injuries and create better work habits. The technology was recently updated with features to enhance the contact tracing process and help keep essential employees safe during the pandemic. To learn more about KINETIC or to deploy the Reflex in your facility, please visit wearkinetic.com.

Read more KINETIC-JLG Partnership To Deploy COVID-19 Safety Wearables For Industrial Workers

KINETIC was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in New York. The company provides wearable technology and a software analytics platform that helps reduce workplace injuries and protects workers from COVID-19. To date, tens of thousands of workers have worn KINETIC’s Reflex product at hundreds of facilities around the world, with a 50-60% reduction in injury frequency. Customers include companies in the retail, logistics, and manufacturing industries, including 6 of the Fortune 50.

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No matter where you work, there is a chance that you will get injured on the job. In the United States, workplace accidents are a huge problem. A total of 5,333 workers died from a work-related injury in the U.S. in 2019, up 2 percent from 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Costs from these injuries, illnesses, and fatalities have exceeded $250 billion annually.

Read more Intel Develops Neuromorphic Chip that Can Sniff Out Hazardous Chemicals

Technology can play a vital role in reducing workplace injuries. Flexible sensors that alert workers and managers to danger at the earliest opportunity, may become a useful weapon in the fight against workplace accidents.

The U.S. military performed a trial run of this technology. Aptima, a Woburn, MA-based company whose mission has been to optimize and improve human performance in mission-critical, technology-intensive settings, developed an IoT approach to worker wearable technology by fusing a combination of environmental, human, and locational data from the worker, analyzing it in the cloud, and providing real-time detection and alerting through its SafeGuard software platform, reports ZDNet. Aptima developed this technology through partnerships with NextFlex, the U.S. Air Force, and Lockheed Martin.

SafeGuard fuses a combination of environmental, human, and locational data from a worker’s sensors, analyzing it in the cloud and at the edge to provide real-time detection and alerting.  For a mechanic welding inside a ship compartment, for example, algorithms assess their physiological, atmospheric, and other indicators, including heart rate, breathing, air quality, and motion, detecting risks such as dangerous levels of fuel vapors or low oxygen, and their health status.

Unlike current safety protocols that rely on one-to-one observers to check in with confined space workers at intervals, SafeGuard’s cloud-based monitoring enables a single safety manager to oversee the real-time health and safety of 15-20 workers simultaneously, even tracking their precise locations in GPS denied environments, Aptima said in a blog post.

Predictive alerts and intuitive at-a-glance “green-yellow-red status indicators provide continuous, comprehensive monitoring for proactive injury prevention. In the case of high-risk or man-down situations, SafeGuard’s built-in decision support capabilities facilitate the appropriate intervention, including emergency or medical response when seconds and minutes are crucial.

For lone and remote workers, such as utility and power grid personnel at risk from falls or electrical shock while far from others, SafeGuard’s motion- and fall-detection, and man-down alerts are uniquely suited to providing these vital monitoring and response needs.

The SafeGuard platform is sensor agnostic. The patented fusion engine technology and big data modeling can integrate and correlate nearly any sensor and data type to provide monitoring and predictive alerting for specific jobs and occupational safety requirements.

Because SafeGuard’s underlying technology was initially developed for stringent military application, its algorithms have been validated to prevent false positives. The Safety-as-a-Service platform employs encryption and other data security measures for transmission, cloud storage, and privacy requirements.

Read more Vuzix-Eaton Partnership to Develop Smartglasses for Hazardous Workplaces

In January, President Biden signed an executive order protecting worker health and safety and pushing for additional resources to help employers protect employees. Technological advancements like this may save millions of workers’ lives.

With over $10M in investments from the Department of Defense, and private sectors, Aptima is applying its solution to any multi-domain organizations requiring personnel to operate in risk-laden environments.

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A team of researchers at Stanford University has found that the Apple Watch in combination with an iPhone can be used to monitor frailty in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. As the heart becomes unable to keep with increased demands, people with CVD often lose physical abilities.

Read more Apple Joins Forces with Researchers to Conduct Health Studies Using Apple Watch

The study showed that data generated passively through the VascTrac app on an iPhone and Apple Watch predicted patient performance on a 6-minute walk test as accurately as a home-based 6-minute walk test, according to a longitudinal observational study. Generally conducted in a clinical setting, the 6-minute walk test is used as a standard means of assessing the health of CVD patients.

For their study, Neil Rens, a medical student at Stanford University, and Oliver O. Aalami, MD, a clinical associate professor of surgery-vascular surgery at the university, and colleagues, enrolled 110 participants who were scheduled for vascular or cardiac procedures at a Veterans Affairs hospital. Among the participants, 99% were men and their average age was 68.9. Also, 11% of the participants never smoked.

Each participant was supplied with an iPhone and an Apple Watch running the VascTrac research app and was followed for 6 months. Supervised 6MWTs were performed during clinic visits at scheduled intervals. Weekly at-home 6MWTs were performed via the VascTrac app. The app passively collected activity data such as daily step counts. Logistic regression with forward feature selection was used to assess at-home 6MWT and passive data as predictors for "frailty" as measured by the gold-standard supervised 6MWT. Frailty was defined as walking <300m on an in-clinic 6MWT.

The researchers found that in a supervised in-clinic setting, the smartphone and Apple Watch with the VascTrac app were able to accurately assess 'frailty' with a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 85%. Outside the clinic in an unsupervised setting, the home-based 6MWT is 83% sensitive and 60% specific in assessing "frailty." Passive data collected at home were nearly as accurate at predicting frailty on a clinic-based 6MWT as was a home-based 6MWT, with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.643 and 0.704, respectively.

Read more Apple Watch’s New Health Feature Monitors and Notifies You About Your Cardio Fitness

“The VascTrac app uses smartphones and wearables to collect activity data. These data include passive steps walked, distance walked, cadence, pace, heart rate and stairs climbed. During a 6MWT, the app also collects accelerometer data. Importantly, in our study we had study coordinators physically count the steps and distance walked during a 6MWT to establish ground truth, Rens and Aalami told Healio Primary Care.”

“These data provide physicians with similar information to an in-clinic 6MWT. This means that some aspects of cardiovascular fitness can be tracked without the patient needing to come into the clinic. The VascTrac app was able to assess a patient’s frailty using remote data, which could serve as an indicator for when the patients need to come into the clinic.”

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Border officials in New Zealand have begun to trial an app, called ëlarm, designed to detect Covid-19 before the first symptoms of the disease arise. The platform has been developed by artificial intelligence (AI) company Datamine, and links with smartwatches and other wearable devices to measure metrics like heart rate, temperature, or oxygen saturation.

Related Stanford University Study Shows Wearable Devices Could Detect COVID-19 Earlier

The Ministry of Health has organized a month-long trial of the ëlarm app, which connects to wearable devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, and other smartwatches or fitness trackers. The app uses artificial intelligence technology to inform users of early physiological changes that might indicate they are becoming unwell, several days before they experience symptoms.

Up to 500 border workers can volunteer to take part in the trial, which runs until early May. After installing the app on a smart device, they will receive regular email reminders, and alerts throughout the day and can securely view their own health information on the app or by going online to view a dashboard.

The app establishes a personalized health baseline for each user, based on their wearable data history. All data used by the app is entirely private to the individual participants, which is a fundamental part of ëlarm’s privacy-by-design principles, the New Zealand Ministry of Health said in a Media Release.

“Contact tracing is at the heart of our COVID-19 response and it’s essential we find and treat people who might have been exposed to this difficult virus before it has a chance to take hold in our communities,” says Shayne Hunter.

[caption id="attachment_40327" align="alignnone" width="800"]

“There’s no single fix for COVID-19 so it’s important we use the tools and technologies at our disposal to give contact tracers and health workers a good head start. We already have good tools such as the NZ COVID Tracer app and QR code posters, and the Ministry of Health is investigating other technologies that might provide further support for our contact tracing.

“If the ëlarm app lives up to its potential, it might provide early notification to our critical border workforce if they’re becoming unwell. That means they can take appropriate action such as self-isolating and being tested for COVID-19.

Related Innovosens’ Diabetes Monitoring Technology May Help In Early Detection Of COVID-19

“Even though our border workers are vaccinated, the reality is that some people will still feel unsure about the increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 from working on the border. We want to really support this essential work by giving people good tools to monitor their own health to keep themselves, their whānau and all of New Zealand safe and healthy.”

Early research of similar technology supports the use of wearable devices to detect COVID-19 and other transmissible diseases, including studies undertaken by Stanford University, Scripps Institute and UCSF.

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