NextMind, a fast-growing neurotechnology startup, announced it has started shipping its much-anticipated Development Kit for the world’s first real-time brain-sensing wearable, which allows users to take control of their digital world just by using their thoughts. This groundbreaking technology opens new possibilities for gaming and human-computer interaction by instantly translating brain signals from the user’s visual cortex into digital commands for any device.

Read more: Elon Musk Demonstrates Neuralink Brain-Computer Interface with Live Pigs

“This is a huge milestone for NextMind and a tribute to all our scientists, investors and partners who have helped us bring a truly transformational experience to the developer community,” said Sid Kouider, founder and CEO of NextMind. “We believe this technology will change the gaming industry in massive ways due to how fully immersive and exciting the NextMind experience is. Our product will truly make you feel like a Jedi, and we cannot wait to see what NextMind can bring to the global developer community as well as to the future of brain-computer interfaces.”

NextMind’s device is a small, lightweight wearable that captures electrical brain signals from the user’s visual cortex as it sits inside a cap or on a band on the back of the user’s head. It creates a deeper, more immersive experience between humans and computers. By using machine-learning algorithms, NextMind translates that output into direct digital commands for devices in real-time, all while being hands-free, reports BusinessWire.

The opportunity for developers to create amazing human-computer interactions using NextMind is only limited by their imagination. The unique brain-computer interface has the power to give users control over their computers and any device in the internet of things, such as lights, TVs, music, games and more. NextMind can be used alone, with an augmented- or virtual-reality headset, or in combination with other controllers such as a gamepad.

Read more: Brain Computer Interface with Neurofeedback Can Improve Your Performance, Says Columbia Study

NextMind’s DevKit is compatible with a wide range of digital platforms, including Microsoft Windows 10, Apple’s macOS, Oculus, HTC Vive and HoloLens.

The DevKit includes:

NextMind Sensor: Brain-sensing wearable with an adjustable headband.

NextMind Engine: Real-time machine-learning algorithms transforming neural signals into commands.

NextMind SDK: Ready-to-use Unity resources such as tutorials, demo apps and games, and code building blocks.

Arjo, a global medical device company, announced it has entered into a distributor agreement with Vitalacy, a Los Angeles health and hygiene technology company, to offer its IoT enabled sensors and wearables to customers. The solution aims at improving quality of care and patient safety with automated monitoring of hand hygiene, workflow efficiency and contact tracing.

Read more: Samsung’s New ‘Hand Wash’ App Reminds You To Wash Your Hands During COVID-19

“We are excited to partner with Vitalacy in order to continue driving healthier outcomes within healthcare. An infection control solution such as Vitalacy, can have a positive impact in healthcare. We are looking forward to adding infection control to our portfolio,” said Anne Sigoun, North American President at Arjo. “This agreement with Vitalacy enables our team to provide top solutions that help prevent injuries and infections as well as optimize care for people facing mobility challenges.”

1 in 25 patients will suffer from a healthcare-acquired infection (HAI) – 70% of which are caused by poor hand hygiene. The WHO states, “hand hygiene is one of the most effective actions you can take to reduce the spread of pathogens and prevent infections, including the COVID-19 virus.”

Hospital staff wear Vitalacy Smartbands to monitor hand hygiene behavior such as compliance and wash duration. The wearable Bluetooth device reminds staff to wash at point-of-care if they forget and to wash longer if the wash is too short. The CDC recommends that everyone wash hands often with soap and water or sanitizer of at least 60% alcohol if soap is not available for at least 20 seconds, says a press release.

In addition, the platform monitors workflow in near real-time allowing healthcare enterprises to monitor rounding, caregiver fatigue and contact tracing. These innovative measures decrease infection risk and improve patient experience.

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

“Adding Vitalacy's automated solution to Arjo's current medical device portfolio empowers our mutual mission to improve the lives of patients,” says Janel Nour-Omid, CEO and Cofounder of Vitalacy. Nour-Omid was recently named in Forbes' 2020 List of 30 Under 30 in Healthcare and has lost several family members to HAIs. “We see Arjo not just as a growth partner but an advisor in healthcare safety and efficiency. Already we have seen a 30% reduction in client installation time. No other company has the expertise in process, procedures and equipment to ensure healthcare staff can deliver the best care to their patients.”

OMRON Healthcare, a global leader in innovative medical equipment for health monitoring and therapy, has created the world’s first clinically-validated medical device that accurately detects the presence of wheezing in young children.

Read more: CPI, ItoM Medical and Blumorpho Working on Next Gen Smart Vest for Children with Asthma

Wheezing is a whistling or rattling sound on the breath and is the most common symptom of asthma in children under the age of 51. Despite this, at least 44% of parents struggle to clearly identify wheezing sounds before the onset of an asthma attack2. This can be for a number of reasons, including:

• The prospect of a looming asthma attack causes anxiety and hesitation
• Wheezes don’t always sound the same
• Children are too young to articulate what they’re experiencing

Research has shown that about 55% of parents do not detect wheezing in the same way as clinicians due to anxiety, doubt and miscommunication.

WheezeScan provides an objective assessment of the presence of wheezing, removing the guesswork, doubt and indecision enabling parents of children with asthmatic symptoms to confidently follow the doctor’s treatment plan, reports OMRON.

WheezeScan has been intuitively designed for straight forward, accurate detection. Parents simply hold it below their child’s right collarbone for 30 seconds and wait for a “Wheeze” or “No Wheeze” identification. In addition, WheezeScan’s design is sleek and ergonomic, light and portable, allowing parents to have it with them at all times and remove any uncertainty in moments of breathing distress.

OMRON Healthcare’s WheezeScan advanced listening technology was designed to identify sounds in a child’s wheezing that parents may not be able to hear. A diaphragm of micron-width material detects low-volume wheezing. This, combined with an HD quality microphone, a built-in noise-canceling system, and a specialized on-board computer allows the device to provide a clear “wheeze” or “no wheeze” reading. In addition, a protective internal case ensures durability and long-term accuracy.

The companion app, AsthmaDiary, keeps track of wheeze episodes, enabling parents to log data of potential trigger factors and response to medication, as well as identifying trends.

WheezeScan has already obtained European CE Mark and will be available online in the UK and Germany for GBP 149.99 and EUR 169.99, respectively.

Read more: Apple Buys Asthma-Monitoring Startup Tueo Health

According to Lucía Prada, Marketing Director of OMRON Healthcare Europe, “as a mother of two, I know how stressful it is having a sick child, and how powerless this can make you feel when you cannot figure out how to help them. WheezeScan was designed to give parents confidence in the adequate management of their children’s asthmatic condition. As the first step towards our Zero Asthma attacks vision, it brings into concrete action our vision to do everything we can to minimize the impact that asthma has on patients, and particularly children”.

Vodafone and Disney have announced the Neo, a smartwatch for kids that gives them independence as they take their first steps into the digital world, but which also helps parents stay connected.

Read more: Nreal Launches High-Fidelity Hand Tracking, Announces Partnership with Deutsche Telekom

Kids can personalize their Neo by choosing a theme based on ‘sidekicks’ – familiar characters such as Minnie Mouse, Elsa, Buzz Lightyear and Darth Vader. They can switch themes whenever they like and additional characters will be added over time. They can also take photos using the forward-facing camera.

Parents can use the Neo to stay connected with their children through calls, chat and video messages. Using the Vodafone Smart App, parents can manage screen time through Quiet Mode, view the Neo’s location, and approve a list of trusted contact, reports Vodafone.

The Neo costs £99 upfront with a £7 a month subscription on a 24-month plan, or a £12 a month subscription on a 12-month plan.

In a separate press release, Vodafone also announced plans to sell mixed reality glasses, made by device maker Nreal, to 5G customers in Spain in Germany next spring. Other markets are due to follow suit throughout 2021.

Nreal Light are cutting-edge, lightweight and comfortable mixed reality glasses that sport an industry-leading widescreen, equivalent to viewing a portable IMAX screen.  Nreal Light glasses are designed to be worn daily.  Via a wired USB-C connection, they tap into the power of a modern Android phone, which aids in the processing and running control functions.

“Nreal Light is a breakthrough product and we are excited to announce that Vodafone is bringing Nreal’s cutting-edge glasses to Europe.  Nreal Light combined with Vodafone’s high speed, ultra-low latency Gigabit 5G network will give consumers and businesses an affordable, accessible way of experiencing the latest augmented and mixed reality experiences and brings the future a little closer for everyone,” said Phil Patel, Vodafone Group Director Products & Services.

Read more: Best Smartwatches And Fitness Trackers For Kids 2020

Nreal Light is compatible with most existing Android smartphone applications, bringing an AR experience to many familiar apps. When connected via a compatible Android handset, users can use Nreal Light glasses to browse the web or shop, watch video, TV and sport, enjoy AAA gaming experiences or catch up on social media – all in augmented reality on a large ‘virtual’ screen, while multitasking up to three applications simultaneously.

PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is a molecular diagnostic testing technique and is a gold standard diagnostic test for a variety of infectious pathogens, including bacteria and viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2. However, this type of test requires bulky and expensive lab equipment. Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a tiny lab-on-a-chip that is only 1 cm in diameter and can perform PCR diagnostics in just a few minutes.

Read more: South Korean Researchers Develop Smart Contact Lens for Diagnosis And Treatment Of Diabetes

Known as TriSilix, the chip is made from silicon, the same material that is used to make electronic chips. Silicon itself is cheap, however, it is expensive to process into chips as this requires massive, extremely clean factories known as cleanrooms, reports Imperial College London.

Each TriSilix contains a DNA sensor, temperature detector, and heater to automate the testing process. A typical smartphone battery could power up to 35 tests on a single charge.

To make the new lab-on-chip, the researchers developed a series of methods to produce the chips in a standard laboratory, cutting the costs and time they take to fabricate, potentially allowing them to be produced anywhere in the world.

Lead researcher Dr. Firat Güder of Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering said: “Rather than sending swabs to the lab or going to a clinic, the lab could come to you on a fingernail-sized chip. You would use the test much like how people with diabetes use blood sugar tests, by providing a sample and waiting for results – except this time it’s for infectious diseases.”

The researchers have so far used TriSilix to diagnose a bacterial infection mainly present in animals as well as a synthetic version of the genetic material from SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19.

The researchers say the system could in the future be mounted onto handheld blood sugar test-style devices. This would let people test themselves and receive results at home for colds, flu, recurrent infections like those of the urinary tract (UTIs), and COVID-19.

If validated on human samples, this new test could provide results outside a clinic, at home or on-the-go within minutes.

Cutting costs

The researchers said a highly portable test could accelerate diagnosis of infections and reduce costs by eliminating the transportation of samples. Such tests could be performed by citizens in the absence of highly trained medical professionals – hence, if they need to self-isolate, they can start immediately without potentially infecting others.

Making testing more accessible and cheaper is especially important for people in rural areas of low-income countries, where clinics can be far away and expensive to travel to. If made available to patients, it could also be used to diagnose and monitor infections like UTIs, which often recur despite antibiotics.

Read more: Graphene Biosensor Could Provide Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

“Monitoring infections at home could even help patients, with the help of their doctor, to personalize and tailor their antibiotic use to help reduce the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, said first author Dr. Estefania Nunez-Bajo, also of the Department of Bioengineering.

Next, the researchers plan to validate their chip with clinical samples, automate the preparation of samples and advance their handheld electronics. They are looking for partners and funders to help accelerate the translation of the technology and deliver testing at resource-limited settings at homes, farms or remote locations in the developing world.

The paper is published in Nature Communications.

Flexible displays have been discussed for years, but product designers couldn’t bring them to the market due to limitations in TFT manufacturing on non-glass substrates. Now, E Ink and Plastic Logic have unveiled a new flexible color E Ink display that can be used for wearables or other applications where a rigid screen may not be the best option. The two companies are partnering to provide the world’s first flexible color displays based around E Ink’s Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP) technology.

Related: Nubia Launches Futuristic Flexible Display Smartwatch

“E Ink is excited to partner with Plastic Logic to offer the world’s first flexible color display technology to customers,” said Johnson Lee, CEO, E Ink. “Plastic Logic's advanced oTFT displays are more robust than traditional amorphous silicon transistors on plastic substrate, which are more suitable for wearable applications.”

“Our new range of Legio flexible color displays will enable customers to bring new color applications to market faster and, we believe, more cost-effectively. Evaluation Kits will be available later this year so that designers can try out the displays in ‘real world’ applications,” Lee added.

Plastic Logic’s advanced oTFT (organic Thin Film Transistor) displays are high-resolution, lightweight and ultra-low-power. They are more rugged than standard glass-based TFTs and are thinner and lighter, making them ideal for applications such as wearables, reports BusinessWire.

E Ink ACeP is a high quality, color reflective electronic paper that can produce full color at every pixel without the use of a color filter array (CFA). Currently, E Ink’s ACeP display has been used in signage applications that do not require flexible form factors. The addition of Plastic Logic’s technology allows for expansion into applications that can require thinner and lighter weight displays.

Related: Royole’s Ultra-Thin Flexible Display Shows Promise for Foldable Smartphones of the Future

“We are very excited to collaborate with E Ink to provide the market with the world’s first plastic displays using ACeP film,” said Tim Burne, CEO, Plastic Logic. “Our flexible, glass-free displays are a perfect addition to any wearable technology designer’s toolkit – they are extremely lightweight, making them well suited for integration into a host of wearables, including smart jewelry and smart clothing.”

The global wearables market grew 35.1% year over year during the third quarter of 2020 (3Q20) with total shipments reaching 125 million units according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker.

Read more: Wearables shipments in India Jump 165%; Earwear and Watches Lead to a Record Quarter for Wearables

The surge was driven by seasonality, new product launches, and the global pandemic. New products from the likes of Apple, Samsung, and others helped renew interest in popular categories such as smartwatches and hearables. Meanwhile, consumer spend on electronics also increased during recent months as spending on travel, dining out, and other leisure activities decreased. This shift in spending was another catalyst for the wearables market, reports BusinessWire.

“Many countries began easing restrictions and opening up their economies during the third quarter, which helped bolster outdoor activity as well as demand for wearables," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "Meanwhile, a broader range of price points from numerous vendors meant that there was something for everyone.”

“The double-digit growth not only indicates strong demand, but also suggests that many people got a wearable device for the first time in both emerging and developed markets," said Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Mobile Devices and AR/VR. “As some wearers own multiple devices – like earwear and wristwear – the wearables market will enjoy sustained demand.”

Company Highlights

Apple led the market with 33.1% share during the quarter. AirPods along with Apple Watches were hugely popular due to pandemic driven demand. Apple's expanding Watch lineup also ensured that devices were available at multiple price points including new mid-level products such as the Watch SE.

Xiaomi followed in second place with 17 million units shipped, 12.8 million of which were basic wristbands. The low price point along with international expansion combined to move the company forward with 26.4% year-over-year growth.

Huawei ranked third with unit shipments totaling 13.7 million. Despite facing US sanctions, the company was able to drive growth across multiple markets although its shipments were concentrated in China. Nonetheless, by not relying on Google for its watches and with many components coming from non-US vendors, the negative impact to Huawei's wearables business has been less than in other tech categories.

Samsung's strategy to attack the earwear market with multiple brands continues to pay off as the company ranked fourth in the wearables market. Hearable shipments reached 8.4 million during quarter along with 2.6 million smartwatches. Bundling of wearables with smartphones continues for the South Korean electronics maker and, at least in smartwatches, the company continues to invest in the commercial segment, a strategy employed by very few smartwatch brands.

Read more Apple Beats Samsung and Fitbit As North American Wearables Shipments Grow 10% Amid Pandemic

Fitbit and BoAt tied for fifth place, each holding 2.6% of the wearables market. Fitbit's new devices launched near the end of the quarter were relatively well received and a price drop on older models has helped the company stay within the Top 5. Meanwhile, BoAt focuses solely on the Indian market (a rapidly growing market for wearables) and primarily sells hearables. Post-lockdown in India, the company has benefitted from to a strong marketing campaign and tie-ins with local cricket teams. While ambitions remain strong for the company, it lacks the global presence and supply chain of its many competitors.

Exactech, a developer and producer of innovative implants, instrumentation and smart technologies for joint replacement surgery, announced the acquisition of Muvr Labs Inc, a pioneer in intelligent patient wearables and digital communication tools. The latest addition to Exactech’s Active Intelligence platform of technologies, the Muvr portfolio is designed to help surgeons engage with their joint replacement patients throughout the journey of care.

Read more: Signify Health Acquires Blockchain Company PatientBlox to Accelerate Provider Payment Capabilities

“We are incredibly excited to join efforts with the team at Muvr to transform the relationship between patients and surgeons through this comprehensive care management platform,” said Darin Johnson, Exactech Chief Executive Officer. “This acquisition demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering personalized, data-driven solutions to improve patient outcomes.”

The Muvr platform includes patient wearables, mobile device applications and chatbot texting, which allow surgeons to remotely monitor patient recovery. The wearable device continuously provides the healthcare team with real-time data on each patient’s experience and recovery. Wireless sensors worn by the patient measure the individual’s range of motion, not simply steps taken. The patent-protected, self-calibrating design allows the patient to manage the wearable independently without additional in-person office visits and requires minimal intervention by the healthcare team, reports BusinessWire.

Muvr’s corresponding tablet application provides surgeons a dashboard to easily identify at-risk patients and connect remotely for follow-up. The surgeon/patient chatbot is a customizable software application that automatically conducts text conversations to provide patient reminders and respond to patients’ most common questions. The Muvr technology is designed to reduce the surgical team’s workload while collecting pain scores, exercise adherence, mobility metrics and survey information.

Orthopedic surgeon Alexander Sah, MD, in Fremont, Calif. has seen the positive impact of Muvr technology on his practice. “Patients are attracted to the technology because they know our team is monitoring their progress; remarkably, this has caused my patients to take more ownership of their recovery,” he said. “We have already observed an increase in exercise time, patient satisfaction and a reduction in office calls. It’s also very simple to use because it doesn’t require in-office calibration, which allows patients to use the sensors, at home, unsupervised.

Read more: Sensoria Announces Total End-to-End Knee Replacement Surgery

Pilot launch of the Muvr technology is slated for early 2021 with a full release by year-end. The company plans to further develop the technology to support shoulder and ankle replacement surgery.

ams announced the launch of the AS6221, a digital temperature sensor, which the company claims to be the world’s most accurate temperature sensor.

Read more: This Wearable Sensor Helps Your Body Maintain Optimal Levels Of Vitamin C By Detecting It In Your Sweat

The AS6221 achieves measurement accuracy of ±0.09°C, over a temperature range from 20°C to 42°C, making it ideal for the measurement of the human body or skin temperature. No competing digital temperature sensor on the market today can achieve accuracy better than ±0.10°C.

Housed in a WLCSP package, the AS6221 has a footprint of just 1.5mm x 1mm, and draws 6µA at an output data rate of 4Hz. Stand-by current is just 0.1µA.

This compact and low-power sensor is well suited to battery-powered portable and wearable devices, such as premium lifestyle or fitness monitoring wristbands, and smartwatches. In high-end computing systems and servers, it also enables the precise regulation of the operation of the processor to maximize system throughput while avoiding overheating, reports BusinessWire.

The introduction of the AS6221 extends ams’ position in the market for health monitoring technology, alongside existing products such as the AS7038RB blood oxygen monitoring device, AS7030B biosensor, devices for medical imaging systems, and the NanEye family of image sensors for endoscopy.

Alexander Rensink, Business Segment Manager Position Sensors at ams, said: “In high-end consumer products such as smartwatches and lifestyle monitoring wristbands, skin temperature is a critical metric, and so design engineers devote an enormous amount of time and effort to achieving and then validating high temperature measurement accuracy across all operating conditions. The introduction today of the AS6221 makes that task easier, providing more accurate measurement outputs, easing the integration of temperature sensing into the system, and giving the flexibility to support a range of operating voltages.”

The high accuracy of the AS6221 is specified across the device’s entire supply voltage range of 1.7V to 3.6V. By contrast, the most accurate competing sensors can only achieve their highest accuracy at a single voltage point, producing less accurate outputs across the rest of their operating voltage range.

The sensor offers a short measurement conversion time of 35ms. Its full operating temperature range is -40°C to 125°C.

Read more: Noninvasive Wearable Sensors to Advance Chronic Respiratory Disease Management In Patients Around the World

A complete digital temperature sensor system, the AS6221 requires no calibration or linearization. It provides its measurement outputs via a standard I2C interface and includes eight I2C addresses.

The AS6221 also offers an alarm function, to alert the user when a temperature threshold is crossed. The temperature value for the alarm function may be set by a host processor via the device’s register instruction set.

The AS6221 temperature sensor is available for sampling on the company’s website.

After an incredibly successful Indiegogo campaign earlier this year, Hapbee Technologies announced the e-commerce launch of its consumer wellness product the Hapbee wearable band.

Read more´: Circular launches a wellness smart ring that tracks your activity, heart rate and monitors your sleep

Hapbee's proactive wearable lets you choose how you feel using proprietary ultra-low frequency technology backed by 15 years of research and development with partner EMulate Therapeutics. The Hapbee band delivers signals to the body that the brain recognizes - without depending on substance ingestion.

Members wear Hapbee (pronounced: Happy) around their head or neck, sync it with the supported app (IOS and Android accessible) and hit play for the desired sensation (signal) of their choice, says a press release.

Hapbee currently offers six unique signals, including:

• Alert - Like a cup of coffee in the morning, get an energy boost to your day
• Happy - Instead of pouring a drink, get your buzz on, feel loose and let go
• Calm - Manage stress and find that perfect Zen mode
• Relax - Take it easy, settle back, and let the tension ease away
• Focus - Keeps you tuned in while accomplishing your goals and "to-do's"
• Sleepy - An alternative way to put your mind to rest and wind down after the day

The Company implemented blinded studies with closed-beta testers (individuals who experienced 3 or more plays of each signal for 30 minutes or more) with a 100 percent identification success rate between Hapbee signals and a no-signal sham. Studies also showed new users could feel Hapbee’s signals 75 percent of the time, while onboarded users felt them 100 percent of the time, the learning curve to recognizing sensations.

“The feedback from our early adopters and supporters demonstrated the extensive need for this technology in the consumer marketplace,” states Hapbee CEO Scott Donnell. “Our ultimate goal is to create more awareness around the importance of mental fitness for everyone. We are thrilled that we can now share the Hapbee experience with more people and lead the way in this revolutionary wearable wellness space.”

Hapbee is available for purchase at hapbee.com. The Company is currently in the research and development phases of creating future signals and plans to roll these out in 2021.

Read more: Moodbeam: The World’s First Wearable that Helps You Understand Your Mood

Hapbee Technologies is a wellness technology company specializing in ultra-low frequencies with proprietary patented technology that records small magnetic fields from solvent substances. The wearable Hapbee band delivers safe, comfortable, sensation 'signals' to the body at the click of a button, enabling you to 'choose how you feel'. At its initial launch, Hapbee provides the signals: Alert, Calm, Happy, Relaxed, Sleepy or Focused.

Researchers have developed artificial intelligence technology that brings together imaging, processing, machine learning and memory in one electronic chip, powered by light.

Read more: Will Combined Power of 5G and Artificial Intelligence Change Tech Innovations of Tomorrow?

The prototype shrinks artificial intelligence technology by imitating the way that the human brain processes visual information.

The nanoscale advance combines the core software needed to drive artificial intelligence with image-capturing hardware in a single electronic device, reports RMIT.

With further development, the light-driven prototype could enable smarter and smaller autonomous technologies like drones and robotics, plus smart wearables and bionic implants like artificial retinas.

The study, from an international team of Australian, American and Chinese researchers led by RMIT University, is published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Sumeet Walia, from RMIT, said the prototype delivered brain-like functionality in one powerful device.

“Our new technology radically boosts efficiency and accuracy by bringing multiple components and functionalities into a single platform,” Walia said.

“It’s getting us closer to an all-in-one AI device inspired by nature’s greatest computing innovation – the human brain.

“Our aim is to replicate a core feature of how the brain learns, through imprinting vision as memory.

“The prototype we’ve developed is a major leap forward towards neurorobotics, better technologies for human-machine interaction and scalable bionic systems.”

Total package: advancing AI

Typically, artificial intelligence relies heavily on software and off-site data processing.

The new prototype aims to integrate electronic hardware and intelligence together, for fast on-site decisions.

“Imagine a dashcam in a car that’s integrated with our neuro-inspired hardware – this means it can recognize lights, signs, objects and make instant decisions, without having to connect to the internet,” Walia, who co-leads the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT, said.

“By bringing it all together into one chip, we can deliver unprecedented levels of efficiency and speed in autonomous and AI-driven decision-making.”

The technology builds on an earlier prototype chip from the RMIT team, which used light to create and modify memories.

New built-in features mean the chip can now capture and automatically enhance images, classify numbers, and be trained to recognize patterns and images with an accuracy rate of over 90%.

The device is also readily compatible with existing electronics and silicon technologies, for effortless future integration.

Seeing the light: how the tech works

The prototype is inspired by optogenetics, an emerging tool in biotechnology that allows scientists to delve into the body’s electrical system with great precision and use light to manipulate neurons.

The AI chip is based on an ultra-thin material – black phosphorous - that changes electrical resistance in response to different wavelengths of light.

The different functionalities such as imaging or memory storage are achieved by shining different colors of light on the chip.

Study lead author Dr. Taimur Ahmed, from RMIT, said light-based computing was faster, more accurate and required far less energy than existing technologies.

Read more: How FDA is Backing the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Telemedicine

“By packing so much core functionality into one compact nanoscale device, we can broaden the horizons for machine learning and AI to be integrated into smaller applications,” Ahmed said.

“Using our chip with artificial retinas, for example, would enable scientists to miniaturize that emerging technology and improve accuracy of the bionic eye.

“Our prototype is a significant advance towards the ultimate in electronics: a brain-on-a-chip that can learn from its environment just like we do.”

Signify Health, a leading provider of technology-enabled healthcare solutions designed to keep people healthy and happy at home, has acquired PatientBlox, a technology company with deep expertise in applying distributed ledger technology in healthcare. The acquisition accelerates Signify's prospective provider payment capabilities for episodes of care, supporting the company's commitment to advance value-based care through novel payment and risk arrangements.

Read more: Medtronic Buys Smart Insulin Pen Company Companion Medical

“We are excited to enhance our leading value-based payment platform with this first-of-its-kind prospective capability and the greater predictability and accountability that come with it,” said Signify CEO Kyle Armbrester. “We are already powering the nation's most innovative payment programs, and this capability opens up significant opportunities to create and support new programs and market entrants.”

As part of the acquisition, Signify will integrate the PatientBlox technology into its already robust and scalable value-based care platform, which supports $6B in health care spend annually associated with the federal government's bundled payment program, BPCI-A, and episodes of care payment programs by health plans and employers, says a press release.

“We combined our team's healthcare, fintech, and supply chain experience with machine-learning and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to build the PatientBlox platform for administration and management of prospective bundles,” said PatientBlox Co-Founder and CEO Rahul Sharma. “Our DLT based platform enables collaboration between Healthcare Payers and Providers and provides real time data synchronization across entities thus enabling rapid scaling of prospective bundled payment programs.  We are excited to work with Kyle and the Signify team and are proud to have the novel technology developed by the PatientBlox team be part of Signify's leading platform, which is already driving real change in the healthcare industry.”

The addition of blockchain technology enables a further shift away from traditional fee-for-service models. By making payments to providers at the start of the episode, providers are incentivized to drive care redesign because there is shared measurement and accountability at every step of the process, which results in improved care coordination, outcomes and cost savings.

Read more: Garmin Acquires Finnish Company Firstbeat Analytics

An episode of care is a health care event -- a condition or a treatment -- that is marked by a sequence of interactions between a patient and providers. The blockchain can capture each of those interactions and the patient's care milestones that trigger payments. The PatientBlox platform is designed to manage these transactions without relying on fee-for-service claims.

Wearables represent a new horizon for the IoT. These devices not only keep us fit by tracking our activity levels and nutrient intake, they also monitor our sleep and track our every step through GPS. This means huge amounts of data are being collected and shared via wearables. An IBM research revealed that “The average person is likely to generate more than 1 million gigabytes of health-related data in their lifetime.”

Read more: How Secured is Blockchain for Healthcare Data Security?

Healthcare professionals are excited about wearable devices because medical research can now be conducted through crowdfunding. Apple’s ResearchKit open-source framework, for instance, allows organizations to develop apps that work with the iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple Watch users can send their health data to various apps such as SleepHealth and EpiWatch.

In personal medicine, wearable sensors can collect customized data about a person’s routine, habits, heart rate, diet, exercise levels, and many more variables, “which in turn helps healthcare professionals move away from speculative prescriptions and towards medication tailored for better outcomes,” reports tdwi. Furthermore, the same data could be used in preventive medicine, to predict diseases much earlier than before.

However, it is becoming difficult to connect these constantly growing pools of data with more traditional sources such as manually created medical records and clinical research. Experts believe a secure global information platform is needed to help people and providers to make evidence-based decisions about health-related issues.

“All this data can be overwhelming for providers and patients alike, but it also presents an unprecedented opportunity to transform the ways in which we manage our health,” says John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, solutions portfolio and research. “We need better ways to tap into and analyze all of this information in real-time to benefit patients and to improve wellness globally.”

Read more: COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps In Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway Among Most Dangerous for Privacy

While wearables may help improve lives, it also has drawbacks such as misuse by cybercriminals, unethical organizations, and even dictatorial regimes. Wearable technology is here to stay. In the future, wearable sensors will become more sophisticated so as to provide reliable health data while keeping privacy at the same time.

The year 2020 saw an unprecedented acceleration of digital health, marked with record-breaking funding ($4.6 billion in Q3 2020) and mega-mergers.

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing governments everywhere to rethink the role of digital technology in healthcare.

Read more: COVID-19 Impact: Wearables Gaining Popularity During the Pandemic

For example, to keep people away from hospitals, the US and Australian governments have both approved reimbursement for telemedicine consultations, allowing patients to speak to doctors via video-link.

“The flywheel of remote care is beginning to turn,” says Pravene Nath, Global Head for Digital Health Strategy in Personalized Healthcare at Roche. “It’s like a call to action that allows us to launch more disruptive models of care. It won’t work for us only to build digital tools and expect that they will be adopted into existing clinical practices. We need to redesign the ecosystem.”

The pandemic’s impact on the company’s acceleration depended on how it applied this technology, reports MobiHealthNews.

“When we look across our portfolio, we have companies that were immediately applicable and felt the wind at their back because of the pandemic,” said Katya Hancock, the investor network director at StartUp Health, said during an Accelerate Health panel. “So those were really companies that hit the ground running and who are doing really well.”

Among the Asian countries, the Philippines put a huge emphasis on corporate health. The country built primary care clinics within large corporations to facilitate employees’ visits to the clinics. This was done to help them detect and effectively manage chronic diseases at an early stage which would in turn help to greatly reduce medical insurance costs that will be borne by employers eventually.

Malaysia was able to quickly put together a COVID-19 digital response. The country focused on areas such as, community engaging, risk and communication, operational efficiency, research and clinical trials and more.

Read more: IDTechEx Reports Describe COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact On Global Healthcare Technology

Across the globe, the pandemic has been a lightning bolt for digital transformation in healthcare, bringing scientists, healthcare professionals, and IT experts together to turn necessity into invention.

Running wearables are becoming a must-have item for the athletes these days. Wearables for athletes come in different forms such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and smart shoes. They provide information like steps taken, distance traveled, heart rate, the route taken and many more. In this list, we have selected the best running wearables for you to improve your performance.

Read more: Runners At This Year’s London Marathon Will Wear Social Distancing Wearables

Garmin Forerunner 745

This is Garmin’s latest smartwatch designed especially for runners and triathletes. The watch is an update to the Forerunner 735XT and contains training data, on-device workouts, and smartwatch features. The watch also provides recovery time recommendations based on the difficulty of a workout. The Forerunner 745 lets users know how long to rest before another training session and accounts for factors like stress, sleep, and daily activities that impact recovery. The Garmin Forerunner 745 is priced at $499.99.

Sensoria Smart Socks

Sensoria’s smart socks have won numerous awards including “Best New Wearable Technology Device” by IDTechEX and Cool Vendors in Wearable Electronics, 2014 by Gartner, reports Sensoria. These socks let you improve speed, pace, cadence and foot landing as well as compare your shoes. The AI-powered virtual coach Mara provides audio and video real-time feedback when you pair your Bluetooth enabled Sensoria Core with the Sensoria Run app which may also help to prevent injuries. The price for Sensoria socks starts at $199.

Coros Pace 2

At just 29g with the COROS nylon band, COROS PACE 2 is the lightest GPS watch in the world at its launch. One would think that the company made serious battery life compromises for the watch to be this lightweight, but Coros advertises 30 hours of GPS tracking with the new PACE 2 watch. That’s a 20% increase from the original COROS PACE. If you need a little extra life, you’ll need to switch to UltraMax mode when the watch has low battery remaining. With a new design, featuring the COROS Digital Dial, COROS PACE 2 creates an even simpler user experience. It allows you to get your splits, check your HR or plan your next workout all using just one finger. Coros Pace 2 retails for $199.

Fitbit Inspire

The feature-packed Fitbit inspire provides different fitness regimens like running, swimming, walking, cardio workout and so on. The step counter and continuous heart rate tracker comes in handy for the athletes. Via the Fitbit app, your smartphone displays your comprehensive workout route. The app also provides you information on burnt calories, time taken during the run, and other information to make your running more efficient. Fitbit is offering a special price of $70 (€58.32) when you buy it directly through their website.

Read more: New Technology Used by NFL Athletes Gives Teams and Trainers Edge in Injury Assessment

Garmin Running Dynamics Pod

Garmin’s Running Dynamics Pod easily clips onto your waistband to measure the running dynamics you need to beat yesterday. It gives you the option to run without a heart rate monitor chest strap. Once paired with your compatible smartwatch, just clip it to the back and center of your waistband and start your run. The Running Dynamics Pod has an accelerometer in the module that measures torso movement to calculate these six running metrics: Cadence, Ground contact time balance, Stride length, Vertical oscillation, Vertical ratio, and Ground contact time. The pod is priced at $69.99.

Growing demand for smartwatches, fitness trackers and earwears on the back of rising health awareness, remote working and learning requirements led to record shipment of wearable devices in India during the September quarter (Q3 CY20), according to the recent data from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. The India wearables market posted a record quarter with 11.8 million units shipped during the period, the report said.

Read more: Huami Amazfit Ranked No. 1 by Shipments in Spain, Indonesia and India

In the last few quarters, wearable devices have become more affordable with the average selling price of watches coming down to $111 in 3Q20 compared to $175 in 3Q19. This is enticing consumers to upgrade from wristbands to watches. Similarly, the average price of true wireless stereo (TWS) has dropped by 48.6% YoY in 3Q20 to $57. TWS now contributes to 39.7% of the overall earwear category, as close to 4 million TWS devices were shipped during the quarter, recording a four-digit annual growth of 1156.3% in 3Q20, the IDC report said.

“The pandemic has created a new norm of learning and working from home. Virtual meetings, online classes, and increased time spent on entertainment have led to an intensified demand for earwear devices,” says Anisha Dumbre, Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India. “Vendors are capitalizing on this rising trend, addressing the growing consumer demand and launching affordable devices, making the overall earwear category more accessible”, adds Dumbre.

Product Category Highlights

Wristbands

Shipments of wristbands grew 83.3% quarter-over-quarter in 3Q20 after seeing a sequential decline in the first half of the year. However, it declined by 20.3% YoY as users started upgrading to watches. Xiaomi maintained its lead, accounting for more than half of the category shipments with a 52.4% share in the quarter. Realme stood second with a 14.6% share in the category.

Watches

Shipments of smartwatches grew by 119.9% YoY in 3Q20 with 778 thousand units shipped in the country, making it the biggest quarter since the launch of the category in India. Homegrown Indian lifestyle technology brand, Noise led the segment with a 28.5% category share in 3Q20. Realme replaced Huami for the second position with a 24.2% share of the category.

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

Increased demand for wireless devices supported the earwear category to hit its all-time high shipments in the country, witnessing a 260.5% YoY growth in 3Q20. BoAt with multiple launches during the quarter, led the category with a 32.4% share, followed by Samsung that includes devices from Samsung, Infinity, Harman Kardon, and JBL with a 15.0% share. BoAt also led the overall TWS category with a 26.1% share, followed by Realme who expanded the truly wireless portfolio and secured the second position with a 15.5% market share in the TWS category.

With the rise of COVID-19 cases across the globe, healthcare professionals and employers are turning to wearable technology to do everything from monitoring blood oxygen levels to devices that are used for contact tracing.

Read more: The Global Medical Sensors Market Is Poised To Grow Strong During 2018 – 2028 Period

New deployments and studies during the pandemic will boost the healthcare wearables market (which includes connected blood pressure monitors, continuous glucose monitors, pulse oximeters, and electrocardiogram monitors) to 30 million shipments in 2020, increasing to 104 million shipments in 2025, at a CAGR of 28.5%, states global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research, according to a press release.

"Wearables have often been used in medical trials and to aid healthcare professionals to monitor the vitals of many patients simultaneously, both in and out of the hospital, with a focus on specific healthcare issues and the onset of COVID-19 is no exception," says Stephanie Tomsett, Wearables Analyst at ABI Research.

A new report by IDTechEx studies the wearable sensors market, describing the technology, market trends, and competitive landscape for sensors used in wearable electronic products. The report states that globally, the wearable sensors market will reach $3.1 billion in 2021 and then soar to $5.3 billion in 2025. These electronics includes sensors for inertial measurement, including accelerometers, and gyro and compass sensors.

IDTechEx predicts that in 2022, the wearable sensors revenue will grow to $3.8 billion globally. According to the market research firm, chemical and gas sensors will be the largest segment (about 30%), followed by cameras, optical, microphones, IMU (inertial measurement), electrodes, and GPS. A small portion of revenues will come from temperature sensors and force, pressure and stretch sensors.

Read more: Wearables Market Will Reach $97.9 Billion by 2025, Reveals Yole Report

“The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has brought additional focus to sensors, including tracking early onset of conditions, facilitation of wearables for contact tracing, and remote patient monitoring for patients in isolation. Parallel trends see smartwatches driving towards medical metrics, hearables adding more sophisticated sensor options, skin patches successfully commercializing in new applications and many industrial, military and security applications maturing. As such, wearable sensors remain a fundamental enabling component for the entire wearable technology industry, and obtaining a clear understanding of their capabilities and potential is essential for any player within the entire value chain,” IDTechEx said.

Wahoo Fitness has entered the smartwatch market with the launch of a new multi-sport watch called Elemnt Rival. The smartwatch which retails for £379.99, brings the same performance and ease of use as its cycling computers in watch form for multisport athletes.

Related: Austrian Startup Motobit Unveils Wearable That Sends Bikers Alerts Through Vibrations

“The real magic of Rival is that we were able to take everything we did with the Elemnt bike computer and create a perfect parallel, giving triathletes and runners the same ease of use that cyclists have had access to since 2016,” said Chip Hawkins, founder of Wahoo.

“A key design concern was making a watch with looks to match its performance. This is a stylish, high-performance multi-sport watch that should be the choice of any athlete looking for a lightweight GPS watch with unbelievable battery life to track the longest races.”

According to the Atlanta, GA-based fitness technology company, the Elemnt Rival offers unique multisport features like Touchless Transition, Multisport Handover and Perfect View Zoom create a seamless performance advantage whether training or competing. Touchless Transitions use data from motion sensors and Wahoo's algorithms to shift between modes with no extra input from the user.

The addition of an optical heart rate sensor, pedometer, smart notifications, ambient light sensor, and broadcast heart rate make this a viable option for cyclists and multi-sport athletes alike. Race data can also be transferred to Wahoo's Elemnt GPS bike computers automatically during events so you can always see your stats at a glance, reports TechRadar.

Using the intuitive ELEMNT operating system, RIVAL delivers a simple user experience. Designed with a 64-color screen, ceramic bezel and gorilla glass lens, ELEMNT RIVAL not only looks great for everyday use but will also withstand your hardest workouts.

The Elemnt Rival offers a generous battery run-time that’s said to be good for 14 days in watch mode and 24 hours in GPS mode.

As for design, the Rival is distinguished by its ceramic bezel and an autonomous ambient illumination function, adjusting the watch’s backlighting to the environmental ambience.

Related: Garmin Launches Feature-Packed Forerunner 745 Smartwatch For Elite Athletes

Rival is already being used by triathletes including Ironman World Champion Jan Frodeno, American Ironman World Record holder Heather Jackson, and two-time Olympians Alistair and Jonny Brownlee.

IDTechEx has revealed the findings of COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on technology on several reports. In a press release, IDTechEx described its findings of the reports titled: "COVID-19 Diagnostics", "Molecular Diagnostics 2020-2030", "AI in Medical Diagnostics 2020-2030: Image Recognition, Players, Clinical Applications, Forecasts", "Digital Health & Artificial Intelligence 2020: Trends, Opportunities, and Outlook", "Remote Patient Monitoring 2019-2029", "Electronic Skin Patches 2020-2030", "Wearable Sensors 2021-2031", and "Synthetic Biology 2018"

Read more: Wearables Playing Crucial Role In Patient Monitoring During COVID-19 Pandemic

Scientists made efforts to develop diagnostic tests to detect the virus in order to correctly diagnose patients, enact measures such as isolation and quarantine, and manage their treatment accordingly. These early tests worked by recognizing specific sequences in the viral DNA and amplifying them to a level sufficient for detection, says a press release.

With results needed at an unprecedented scale in a limited time, other diagnostic approaches were explored to quickly diagnose COVID-19 patients. The lungs of patients with COVID-19 have certain visual hallmarks such as ground-glass opacities and areas of increased density, both of which can be detected using CT and x-ray imaging. To further speed up this process, companies developing artificial intelligence solutions for the detection of respiratory diseases quickly tailored their software to differentiate COVID-19 from other respiratory infections, decreasing image analysis time to a matter of seconds, a report said.

In order to prepare for the oncoming surge in COVID-19 patients and to prevent the spread of COVID-19 between patients in healthcare settings, healthcare systems around the world halted provision of "non-urgent" doctor visits, which extends to everything from cardiac patients to cancer treatments. This, combined with the public's concern and confusion around COVID-19 diagnosis, caused a huge increase in demand for digital health services. Doctors around the world quickly switched to delivering care through digital channels such as video links and apps.

Remote patient monitoring devices were deployed to monitor patient vital signs from a distance, allowing for a significant reduction in close contact between patients and healthcare workers. Solutions for this have been developed over the past 5-10 years and many were far from widespread use, but saw a level of uptake in just a few months that would require several years of work and tens of millions of dollars in investment.

Wearables have also been explored by countries as a means of contact tracing and safe reopening. Of course, maintaining good cardiovascular health remains one of the best ways to mitigate the worst of COVID-19 symptoms, and whilst this is not an acute solution in the short term, there has been a clear movement towards general health and wellness, including the personal electronic devices which help to promote this.

Over 2020, scientists have been working at breakneck speed to develop a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and have made significant progress by the end of the year. Several of the leading candidates leverage a new vaccine technology, based on synthetically produced mRNA. This has been a revolutionary technology that has accelerated vaccine development, and the ongoing clinical trials in COVID-19 suggest they will have a large role to play in the future beyond the current pandemic.

Read more: COVID-19 Pandemic Will Propel US Telehealth Market To Grow At A CAGR of Over 29% During 2019-25

2020 has been a historic year for many reasons, but throughout the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, technology solutions have time and again come to the fore as critical parts of the global response. Looking into the future, the progress of these technologies over time will be vital to moving on from the disruption, and in improving the ways in which our societies and systems deal with similar challenges in the future. The team of analysts at IDTechEx is working to characterize and evaluate technology developments today to understand the impact they will have in the future.

Zepp, a professional-grade wearable brand, has worked with Swedish creative masterminds to launch a digital Lullaby Generator. Today, the company released a Global Sleep Study featuring commentary from the World Sleep Society, an international authority in sleep health. In October 2020, Zepp commissioned an independent poll of 12,000 respondents across 6 countries to understand the concerns, perceptions and attitudes around sleep quality in these unprecedented times.

Read more: ‘Cove’ Wearable Reduces Stress And Improves Sleep By Silently Applying Gentle Vibrations Behind Your Ears

Study results

The results show that feelings of sleep deprivation are more prevalent than most believe and that there is a general yearning for more shut-eye time. The day's worries are deemed to carry on into the night, resulting in less-than-optimal sleep, and it appears to be a vicious cycle, impacting well-being the next day. With changing lifestyle habits due to the stay-at-home economy brought about by the pandemic, naturally, sleep habits have changed too. Music and meditative habits seem to resonate with respondents of this poll, Zepp said in a press release.

Pandemic and Other Anxieties  strong

Thailand was revealed as the nation that was most sleep-deprived, with half of the respondents (50%) claiming they were definitely sleep-deprived, followed by Germany (38%), USA (37.8%), UK (37.4%) Italy (18.5%) and Spain (18.2%). 43% of respondents attributed the problem to work woes, 40% to money worries, and 23% to pandemic-related concerns.

COVID-19 lockdowns were also deemed to have changed people's sleeping patterns, with more than a third (33.6%) of respondents saying they go to bed later than usual, and 20% saying they find it harder to sleep. Respondents believe they are losing an average of 2.7 hours of sleep per night due to pandemic-induced worries, with respondents in Thailand clocking the highest average loss of 4.5 hours per night.

Almost half of the respondents in the US (46%) and Spain (47%) feel that they live in a sleep-deprived nation due to technology and social media. Thailand respondents (52%) believe it results from having too much to think about and Italians agree (48%). Respondents in Germany (46%) think it is because they work too hard and are burnt out and those in the UK (46%) say it is because the world is a worrying place right now.

Coping in a Post-Pandemic World  strong

People are also actively taking measures to help themselves sleep better in this time. Top measures include listening to relaxing music, avoiding caffeine in the evening, reading before bed and meditation. 60% of respondents who have worn wearables to bed say it makes them aware of their lack of sleep.

Music as a Bedside Aid strong

89% of respondents agreed that listening to calming music can help with sleep. Poll results show Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was the most popular track for all nations to listen to at bedtime, with the exception of Italy, with respondents favoring Chopin's Nocturne No.2. Respondents in Germany and Thailand said their favorite music genre to listen to was pop, whereas respondents in the US, UK, Spain and Italy said it was classical music.

Personalized Lullabies for an Enhanced Night's Rest

Recognizing music's role in helping people fall asleep, Zepp has worked with Swedish creative masterminds to launch a digital Lullaby Generator.

Read more: EverSleep Helps You Sleep Better by Monitoring Your Sleep, Snoring and Oxygen Saturation

The free-to-use Lullaby Generator will help users create tailor-made music based on their very own sleep patterns for an enhanced night's rest. Existing Zepp users can login to share their sleep metrics and automatically produce a unique and personalized lullaby. Non-Zepp users can also participate by answering a series of questions about their sleep habits.