Nanowear, a leading connected-care and remote diagnostic platform, announced it has received FDA Class II 510(k) clearance for a first-of-its-kind cloth-based diagnostic platform, SimpleSENSE. SimpleSENSE is a multi-parameter remote diagnostic undergarment and machine learning digital platform, which simultaneously and synchronously monitors and assesses the heart, lungs, and upper vascular system.

Read more: Abbott Receives FDA Approval for Gallant Heart Rhythm Implants Featuring Continuous Remote Monitoring

Gender-neutral and size adjustable, the SimpleSENSE platform effectively replaces the digital stethoscope, multi-channel Holter monitor, Capnogram respiration machine, and blood pressure cuff by providing a diagnostic quality monitoring system that remotely captures more than 100 million data points per patient per day across cardiac, pulmonary, and circulatory biomarkers. With the increased need for telemedicine and remote diagnostic monitoring, SimpleSENSE provides a digital tool to assess medical data and trends between these biomarkers in a way that has not been previously available, empowering clinicians to treat patients earlier and more effectively, Nanowear said in a press release.

“SimpleSENSE marks the company's second FDA 510(k) clearance and follows Nanowear's strategy of continued data-driven differentiation in the connected-care and remote diagnostic market,” said Venk Varadan, co-founder and CEO of Nanowear. “In the face of the unexpected and unprecedented COVID-19 public health emergency, Nanowear began working collaboratively with FDA to evaluate a broadened indication for use for SimpleSENSE. Our platform can now efficiently serve the new need for remote diagnostics across primary care, acute illness and procedure, and chronic disease cases.”

In addition to near-term commercialization of SimpleSENSE with select channel partners, Nanowear plans to continue its SimpleSENSE clinical trials in diagnosing worsening Heart Failure and COVID-19, maintaining a robust product and clinical R&D pipeline.

“Nanowear is transforming the virtual care continuum as physicians and hospitals can now safely monitor patients' multiple biomarkers and assess the associated medical trends indicative of clinical deterioration,” said Spero Theodorou MD, Chief Medical Officer of InMode. “The pandemic is transforming the way healthcare services are accessed and delivered today and for years to come. We are excited about the role that Nanowear will play in the field of remote diagnostics and how it will provide patients around the world access to better outcomes and improved quality of life, regardless of whether they are being cared for in the clinic or in the comfort of their homes.”

Read more: PhysIQ Partners with DoD and Henry M. Jackson Foundation To Use Continuous Remote Monitoring For COVID-19 Study

Nanowear is a leading developer of patented, cloth-based nanosensor technology with applications in the cardiac, neurological, industrial safety/government and sports medicine/performance diagnostics monitoring markets. The company's proprietary technology enables continuous and synchronous electrophysiological, hemodynamic, acoustic, metabolic and activity monitoring that empowers medical professionals with accurate diagnostic data through a cost-effective and gender-neutral, size adjustable undergarment.

Italian IT and communications firm Partitalia is known for producing smart cards, RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and other forms of ID tags, but earlier this year it started making wearable devices that track social distancing in response to Covid-19.

Read more: Coolpad Partners With M2MD To Develop Innovative Social Distancing and Contact Tracing Solutions For Workplace

The “Close-to-me” wearable device is small and unobtrusive, designed to be worn around the wrist or the neck all day long without becoming uncomfortable, reports Healthcare.

When worn by two or more people present in the same room, it monitors "social distancing" based on a variable distance that can be set according to directives and regulations.

This is how "Close-to-me" works:

Using radiofrequency technology, it creates a non-invasive, low-frequency radio bubble around the person.

A sound and vibration warn wearers when the set distance is not respected.

Moreover, through simple adaptations, the device can be used to control accesses, detect presences and pay the company canteen.

Alfredo Salvatore, CEO of Sensor ID, an engineering company that designed the technology for Partitalia, describes the new product which is already in demand in view of the imminent re-opening of businesses: "Close-to-me can be personalized and purchased either as a wristband or key-ring: it is non-invasive, designed above all to simplify procedures involved in re-opening businesses and can be implemented easily and rapidly."

S.I.BE.G. srl, one of Coca Cola’s bottling companies, purchased 550 of the devices to track social distancing between employees at its plants in Catania, Sicily, and Tirana, capital of Albania.

Read more: How Technology Is Helping Employers Reopen Their Businesses After COVID-19 Lockdown

“In March, at the peak of the Covid-19 emergency, the company set up a task force to define and implement appropriate safety measures, including the indispensable adoption of a system that would help us observe social distancing rules” explains Gaetano Russo, S.I.BE.G. srl Procurement Manager.

“We needed a simple but effective device, something that would remind employees and everyone present in the plant to keep a distance of one and a half to two meters from each other. We needed something that was light to wear, an acoustically non-invasive device, but that performed this function.

The term "shin splints" refers to pain along the shin bone, also known as the tibia. It is the large bone in the front of your lower leg. Shin splints are common in runners, dancers, and military recruits. The strained tissue usually heals after two weeks of rest, but if exacerbated, shin splints can result in more serious stress fractures.

Read more: Vanderbilt Researchers Develop Next-Gen Wearable Sensor Algorithms To Prevent Injury in Athletes

Nurvv, a London-based wearable device maker, launched smart insoles that will help runners understand their gait and run injury-free. While there are similar products in the market, Nurvv Run is a little different. The device uses 32 high-precision sensors fitted inside lightweight insoles to accurately capture data from the feet at 1,000 times per second, per sensor. In February, the company raised $9 Million Venture Round Led by Hiro Capital.

Features include:

• 16 high-precision sensors for each foot capture data at the point of action
• Multi-sensor trackers record your run with world-leading accuracy
• Real-time monitoring generates metrics with live audio and visual cues
• Running Health helps you to manage and improve injury risk
• Daily Run recommendation to maintain your optimal fitness
• Lightweight trackers (22g each) with IP67 rating, giving full protection against dust, mud, sweat and water
• Long-lasting innersoles built to last over the duration of 3 pairs of running shoes
• Soft, light and breathable. Designed to fit comfortably in any running shoe and with any custom insole
• Supports four ways to run: Garmin, Apple Watch, phone or in standalone mode with NURVV Run only
• Connects to Bluetooth Heart Rate monitor to provide live HR zone cues during your run and a comprehensive report on your heart rate after
• 5+ hours of operation on a single charge

Over the past three years, Nurvv Run has been tested by hundreds of athletes, universities and leading institutions including SATRA Technology and the National Physical Laboratory.

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

The captured data, which includes unique running metrics such as cadence, step length, footstrike, pronation and balance, is fed into the NURVV Run coaching app to show a complete picture of the wearer’s running technique. It uses advanced biomechanics to deliver simple, actionable insights as well as personalized coaching that gives guidance on how to improve before, during and after each run.

Researchers at Penn State have developed a highly sensitive flexible gas sensor that can be implanted in the body — and, after it’s no longer needed, safely biodegrade into materials that are absorbed by the body.

Read more: Penn State Engineers Print Sensors Directly On Human Skin Without Using Heat

The team reported their findings in NPG Asia Materials.

Monitoring various forms of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas is important because these gases can significantly impact human health. However, exposure to NO2 from the environment is linked to the progression of conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, reports Matt Swayne in Penn State News. The conventional method uses devices outside of the body to monitor gas levels, but they aren’t as accurate and the patients have to go through another surgery to remove these implantable devices.

All the components in the new sensor are biodegradable in water or in bodily fluids, but remain functional enough to capture the information on the gas levels. The researchers made the device’s conductors out of magnesium, and for the functional materials, they used silicon, which is also highly sensitive to nitric oxide. The body can safely absorb all of the materials used in the device.

“Silicon is unique — it’s the building block for modern electronics and people consider it to be super-stable,” said Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics and an affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. “Silicon has been shown to be biodegradable, as well. It can dissolve in a really slow manner, at about one to two nanometers a day, depending on the environment.”

The researchers tested their sensor in humid conditions and aqueous solutions to see if it could stably perform in the harsh conditions of the body.

The team used computational resources of ICDS’s Roar supercomputer to create the computer simulations that can calculate extremely small changes caused by slight changes of shape, or deformations, of the material.

“We base the measurement on resistance, which can change based on the gas absorption, but it can also be changed due to the deformation,” said Cheng. “So, if we deform the sensor on the skin surface, that will cause a large force and a large change in resistance and we would have no idea whether the gas’ performance is from the deformation or the exposed environment.”

Read more: This Wearable Gas Sensor is Meant for Monitoring Health and Environment

In the future, the team plans to design integrated systems that could monitor other bodily functions for healthy aging and various disease applications.

Kinetic, a New York-based wearables startup that provides safety wearables for industrial workers, raised $11.25 million in series A funding. The funding round was led by existing investor Crosslink Capital. The company said the money will help it grow and scale its engineering, sales, and marketing teams and support R&D.

Read more: Kinetic raises $4.5M for its Wearable REFLEX Aimed at Reducing Workplace Injuries

A total of 5,250 workers died from a work-related injury in the U.S. in 2018, up 2 percent from the 2017 total of 5,147. The fatal injury rate was unchanged in 2018 at 3.5 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.

Kinetic cofounder and CEO Haytham Elhawary says during his childhood in London, his mother worked as an elderly care nurse, a job that severely strained her back, reports VentureBeat. In 2014, he partnered with cofounder Aditya Bansal to start developing a wearable device that could reduce workplace injuries.

KINETIC’s wearable device is aimed at reducing workplace injuries. The company’s Reflex is a Bluetooth-enabled, battery-powered, and fully rechargeable wearable device that fastens to belts or pant 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 proximity alert features to enable workers to practice proper social distancing and to help keep them safe during this pandemic. With this feature, workers are notified of potential risk via a gentle vibration if they are too close to one another.

“We created the KINETIC Reflex to reduce workplace injuries for the industrial workforce. Once COVID-19 spread, customers started reaching out asking if we could use the devices to help with social distancing and contact tracing,” said KINETIC co-founder and CEO, Haytham Elhawary. “That really inspired us to enhance the technology with new COVID-19 safety features, and we’re excited to deploy it to JLG and their workforce, who have been a partner.”

Read more: Nymi Launches Wearable Wristband For Health and Safety of Workers

Tens of thousands of workers have worn Reflex devices in hundreds of facilities around the world, according to Kinetic. The company says its customers range from companies in retail, logistics, and manufacturing industries, including six of the Fortune 50.

Lumen, the world's first hand-held metabolic tracking device, together with Garmin, have launched a Connect IQ Lumen App and Garmin Health API integration, allowing users to better understand the impact of fitness and nutrition decisions on their body in real-time.

Read more: Lumen Introduces at Home Metabolism Tracking Device, Available Worldwide Now

“We are thrilled to work with Garmin on this crucial integration. We know how important it is for our users to get valuable insights into their fitness and this will allow them to make more informed decisions about their nutrition and improve their metabolic health,” said Lumen CEO, Daniel Tal.

Through the CO2 concentration in a single breath, Lumen measures your metabolic health and provides daily personalized nutrition plans and insights into what your body is burning - fats or carbs. Lumen supports fat burn and improves your metabolic flexibility, which is your body's ability to efficiently switch between using carbs and fats as a fuel source, says a press release.

Garmin activity trackers and smartwatches help you track and share your activities.  Thanks to Lumen data and the Garmin Health API integration, Garmin users can now seamlessly integrate their health and activity data such as heart rate, sleep, steps and calories burned, into the Lumen app and instantly optimize their fitness journey.

By combining Garmin and Lumen data, users will be able to monitor their carb fuel consumption through notifications that guide them on when to breathe into Lumen and unlock their day or take a post-workout breath. Users can now see how their workout affects their metabolism through recovery macros and a comprehensive Garmin workout summary.

“Lumen is an innovative organization pushing the boundaries on metabolic health and performance optimization.  Garmin's Connect IQ platform will enable users to act in real-time to make the right fitness and nutrition decisions at every moment,” said Sean McNamara, Garmin Health Senior Manager Sales and Marketing.

Read more: Garmin Joins Forces with Children’s Mercy Kansas City to Keep Kids Active During COVID-19 Pandemic

For continual metabolic tracking, Garmin users with compatible devices will also have access to crucial Lumen data such as morning insights, daily and weekly Lumen levels and the Lumen Flex Score which indicates the degree of metabolic flexibility. The goal is to make sure that nutrition and metabolic health remain top of mind.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge used 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, techniques to create electronic fibers that are a hundred times thinner than a human hair.

Read more: Face Masks Made Of Electroceutical Fabric Kills Coronavirus On Contact

The transparent conducting fibers, described Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, could be used to create a variety of biomedical devices, including moisture flow sensors and portable respiratory sensors. The researchers said their highly sensitive, low-cost sensors can be attached to a mobile phone to collect breath pattern information, sound and images at the same time.

For respiratory conditions such as rapid breathing, normal breathing, simulated coughing, the amount of breath moisture leaked through face covering was tested using the fiber sensor by a Ph.D. student from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, Andy Wang, the first author of the study.

While the fiber sensor has not been designed to detect viral particles, since scientific evidence increasingly points to the fact that viral particles such as coronavirus can be transmitted through respiratory droplets and aerosols, measuring the amount and direction of breath moisture that leaks through different types of face coverings could act an indicator in the protection 'weak' points, reports University of Cambridge.

The team found that most leakage from fabric or surgical masks comes from the front, especially during coughing, while most leakage from N95 masks comes from the top and sides with tight fittings. Nonetheless, both types of face masks, when worn properly, help to weaken the flow of exhaled breath.

"Sensors made from small conducting fibers are especially useful for volumetric sensing of fluid and gas in 3D, compared to conventional thin film techniques, but so far, it has been challenging to print and incorporate them into devices, and to manufacture them at scale," said Dr Yan Yan Shery Huang from Cambridge's Department of Engineering, who led the research.

Made from semiconducting and/or silver polymers, Huang and her colleagues 3D printed the composite fibers. This fiber printing technique creates a core-shell fiber structure, with a high-purity conducting fiber core wrapped by a thin protective polymer sheath, similar to the structure of common electrical wires, but at a scale of a few micrometers in diameter.

In addition to the respiratory sensors, the printing technique can also be used to make biocompatible fibers of a similar dimension to biological cells, which enables them to guide cell movements and 'feel' this dynamic process as electrical signals. Also, the fibers are so tiny that they are invisible to the naked eye, so when they are used to connect small electronic elements in 3D, it would seem that the electronics are 'floating' in mid-air.

Read more: Graphene Facemask Kills Bacteria and Showed Potential In Deactivating Coronavirus

"Our fiber sensors are lightweight, cheap, small and easy to use, so they could potentially be turned into home-test devices to allow the general public to perform self-administered tests to get information about their environments," said Huang.

The researchers are currently looking to develop the IFP method for a number of multi-functional sensors.

Researchers at the University of Houston and colleagues from other institutions have developed a patch made from fully rubbery electronics that can be placed directly on the heart to collect electrophysiological activity, temperature, heartbeat and other indicators, all at the same time. The device can harvest power directly from the movement of the beating heart and its flexibility means that it conforms well with the epicardial surface. That allows it to not just track data for diagnostics and monitoring but to also offer therapeutic benefits such as electrical pacing and thermal ablation, the researchers reported in Nature Electronics.

Read more: University of Houston Researchers Develop Super Thin Wearable That’s Barely Noticeable to the Wearer

Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UH and corresponding author for the paper, said the device marks the first time bioelectronics have been developed based on fully rubbery electronic materials that are compatible with heart tissue, allowing the device to solve the limitations of previous cardiac implants, which are mainly made out of rigid electronic materials, reports University of Houston.

“For people who have heart arrhythmia or a heart attack, you need to quickly identify the problem,” Yu said. “This device can do that.” Yu is also a principle investigator with the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH.

Yu is a leader in the development of fully rubbery electronics with sensing and other biological capabilities, including for use in robotic hands, skins and other devices. The epicardial bioelectronics patch builds upon that with a material with mechanical properties that mimic cardiac tissue, allowing for a closer interface and reducing the risk that the implant could damage the heart muscle.

“Unlike bioelectronics primarily based on rigid materials with mechanical structures that are stretchable on the macroscopic level, constructing bioelectronics out of materials with moduli matching those of the biological tissues suggests a promising route towards next-generational bioelectronics and biosensors that do not have a hard–soft interface for the heart and other organs,” the researchers wrote. “Our rubbery epicardial patch is capable of multiplexed ECG mapping, strain and temperature sensing, electrical pacing, thermal ablation and energy harvesting functions.”

Read more: This Wearable Patch May Provide Painless, More Effective Chemotherapy For Melanoma

In addition to Yu, researchers from UH, the Texas Heart Institute and the University of Chicago were involved.

U-blox, a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies, has launched a new highly integrated global navigation satellite system (GNSS) platform designed for ultra-low power high-performance positioning applications. The U‑blox M10 delivers precise positioning performance in a wide range of applications such as sport watches or asset and livestock trackers, all in an extremely compact format and with very long battery life.

Read more: MarketsandMarkets Report: IoT Chip Market Will Be Worth $525.4 Billion by 2025

Tailored to the needs of wearable and industrial applications, the u‑blox M10 platform can track up to four GNSS constellations at once to deliver positioning data even in challenging environments such as deep urban canyons. It delivers ultra-low power positioning in an ultra-compact form factor without sacrificing accuracy and availability.

With 12 mW power consumption in continuous tracking mode and high RF sensitivity that cuts the time required to establish a position fix, the u‑blox M10 platform is ideal for small battery-powered applications. The platform features advanced jamming, spoofing, and RF interference mitigation, as well as Super-S technology to boost performance in weak signal environments or when used with small antennas, making it ideal for compact product designs, reports U-blox.

This new GNSS platform will be supported by AssistNow, u‑blox’s well established assisted GNSS service, to accelerate positioning and improve accuracy. Depending on the required level of assistance, the service is available free of charge or for a recurring fee.

The u‑blox M10 platform benefits from u‑blox’s experience in building robust GNSS receivers, incorporating proven techniques for detecting spoofed signals through the analysis of raw GNSS data, jamming-detection strategies, and embedded filters to mitigate the effects of in-band RF interference.

“u‑blox can be proud of over 20 years of experience with GNSS technology, and with u‑blox M10 we are setting a new benchmark in ultra-low power high-performance positioning applications,” says Bernd Heidtmann, Product Manager, Product Center Positioning, u‑blox. “We have increased concurrent reception of satellite signals by a GNSS platform from three to four constellations and improved the power consumption level five-fold compared to previous generations while shrinking the chip size by 35 percent.”

Read more: Coros Pace 2 Is the World’s Lightest GPS Watch Especially Designed for Competitive Runners

The first products based on the u‑blox M10 positioning platform are the MAX- M10S GNSS module and the UBX-M10050 GNSS chipset, which are both available now.

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The market for ultraviolet (UV) sensors is expected to grow by USD 2.69 billion during 2020-2024, as the use of these sensors in wearables and the internet of things (IoT) accelerates, according to a new report from Technavio. The market is expected to progress at a CAGR of almost 23% during the forecast period.

A majority of demand for UV sensors came from the industrial segment in 2019. UV sensors are extensively used in industrial applications to detect heat and provide alerts and ensure the safety of the employees.

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

The Technavio report provides a detailed analysis of the market by end-user (industrial, automotive, consumer electronics, medical, and others) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and MEA). Also, the report analyzes the market’s competitive landscape and offers information on several market vendors, including Broadcom Inc., Davis Instruments Corp., LAPIS Semiconductor Co. Ltd., Panasonic Corp., Silicon Laboratories Inc., Skye Instruments Ltd., Solar Light Co. Inc., STMicroelectronics NV, Vernier Software & Technology LLC, and Vishay Intertechnology Inc.

Internet of Things (IoT) helps electronic devices connect to the Internet, which in turn, reduces the need for human intervention. To ensure the efficient performance of this technology and to aid in mobile sensing, devices connected to an IoT network use a number of sensors and actuators. In the coming years, IoT will find significance in several applications including wearable devices, smart homes, industrial automation, and automated cars. With the growth of the IoT industry, the demand for sensors will subsequently increase, fueling the growth of the UV sensor market, the Technavio report said.

The use of UV sensors in wearables will be one of the major trends that will gain traction in the UV sensor market during the next few years. UV sensors integrated into wearables is accelerating as consumers adopt these devices to monitor daily activities and health, and to enable connected communication. The integration of UV sensors in wearables devices will help in preventing sunburns and skin blemishes by alerting individuals when the UV levels go beyond danger limits. In addition to wearable devices, these sensors are also used in smartphones. One of the major smartphone manufacturer Samsung has already equipped its Galaxy Note 4 UV sensor. Incorporated with Samsung's S Health app, the sensor measures UV radiation and prevents users from damaging their skin, which helps in reducing the risk of skin cancer. The UV sensor market will register a CAGR of almost 23% by 2024.

According to the Technavio report, Asia Pacific or APAC was the largest UV sensor market in 2019, and the region will offer several growth opportunities to market vendors during the forecast period.

Read more: Researchers Develop Wearable Paper-Based UV Sensors that Warn You When it’s Time to Get Out of the Sun

Factors for growth in the APAC region include expansion of manufacturing facilities and the investment in process automation and smart production techniques such as productivity and product tracking.

During the forecast period, 38% of the market’s growth will originate from APAC. China and Japan are the key markets for UV sensors in APAC. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions.

CardieX, a global health technology company focused on hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and vascular health disorders, today announced the launch of ATCOR·X, a new division focused on developing and licensing clinically meaningful health data algorithms for consumer wearables and connected fitness devices.

ATCOR·X wearable features are based on the company’s FDA-cleared and patented SphygmoCor technology for measuring arterial waveforms and central blood pressure, reports PRWeb.

“The seismic shift to remote care driven by COVID-19 has created an unprecedented opportunity to create a healthcare ecosystem integrated into people’s homes and daily lives using innovative home devices and wearables,” said Craig Cooper, CEO and Managing Director of CardieX. “We’re launching ATCOR·X to accelerate development and drive adoption of our SphygmoCor technology – the global gold-standard for non-invasive measurement of central blood pressure waveforms and arterial stiffness – and to improve the health of millions of Americans with hypertension as well as those who have lasting cardiovascular damage as a result of COVID-19.”

Read more: Blumio: Wearable Contactless Blood Pressure Monitor Uses Radar Sensor

Under the ATCOR·X brand, CardieX will develop and license its Arty platform consisting of a unique feature set of enhanced biometric heart and arterial health measurements that can be tailored for risk assessment and to manage cardiovascular and renal diseases, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, arterial stiffness and vascular aging, diabetes, maternal health, and other chronic diseases.

These include:

• Heart Stress (HS) – Measures the level of stress on the heart due to the hardening of arteries, which can be a sign of cardiovascular risk.
• Exercise Capacity (eCap) – Measures the heart’s ability to provide oxygenated blood to cells based on the body’s performance demands. Unlike VO2 max, eCap indicates potential exercise endurance based on cardiovascular health.
• Heart Rate (HR+) – Provides accurate, medical-grade, beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) measurement equivalent to standard ECG-based methods with greater accuracy than HR measurements common in other wearables.
• Arterial Age – Compares an individual’s heart health with healthy people their age to indicate the biological age of their heart compared to chronological age.
• Arterial Stiffness Factor (ASF) – Measures the flexibility of an individual’s arterial and vascular system to indicate risk for cardiovascular events tied to arterial stiffness, such as heart attack, stroke, and dementia.‍
• Irregular Heartbeat – Helps an individual identify if they are experiencing an abnormal heartbeat without the use of an ECG, which may be a sign of atrial fibrillation.‍
• HRV+ – Heart Rate Variability Plus provides beat-to-beat HR measurement of a user’s autonomic nervous system (ANS), parasympathetic (rest and relax) and sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous systems to indicate biological stress.‍
• Vitals Risk – Identifies the risk of heart, brain, and other organ damage from cardiovascular disease based on the user’s own data.‍
• BP Variability (BPV+) – Shows the variability of brachial blood pressure, representing how stable one’s blood pressure is over time.‍
• Heart Performance Index (HPX) – Measures how efficiently an individual’s heart works to meet the body’s demand for oxygen and blood flow indicating how healthy an individual is. Research has shown exercise and a healthy lifestyle can help improve your HPX score and improve your day-to-day performance.‍
• Arty Score – Combines Heart Stress, Exercise capacity (eCAP), Heart Rate (HR+), and Arterial Age to quantify an individual’s unique heart and arterial health risk profile.

The above measures can be combined into comprehensive cardiovascular dashboards and also can be used to develop personalized fitness, diet and lifestyle coaching services to help individuals improve their health through nutrition and exercise.

Read more: Total Brain Joins AMA to Study Uses of Heart Rate Variability Data to Reduce Stress and Cardiovascular Incidents

ATCOR·X builds on the Company’s recently announced commercial partnerships and integrations with both Mobvoi, one of the world’s largest smartwatch and AI companies, and Andon, one of Chinas largest manufacturers of home medical devices.

Testing for malaria could become as simple as putting on a bandage. That’s the idea behind a platform developed by Rice University engineers who introduced a microneedle patch for rapid diagnostic testing that does not require extracting blood.

Read more: Rice University Researchers Develop Tiny Neural Stimulator That’s Wireless and Battery-Free

The device detailed in the Nature journal Microsystems and Nanoengineering draws upon protein biomarkers contained in dermal interstitial fluid, what people generally recognize as the fluid inside blisters but surrounds all of the cells in skin. This fluid contains a multitude of biomarkers for various diseases, such as malaria, which can be used for rapid testing. The disposable patches could be programmed to detect other diseases, potentially including COVID-19, said mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj of Rice’s Brown School of Engineering, reports Rice University.

“In this paper, we focus on malaria detection because this project was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it’s a big priority for them,” said Lillehoj, who joined Rice in January as an associate professor of mechanical engineering. “But we can adapt this technology to detect other diseases for which biomarkers appear in interstitial fluid.”

The self-contained test developed by Lillehoj and lead author Xue Jiang, a Rice postdoctoral researcher, delivers a result in about 20 minutes and does not require medical expertise or any equipment.

The sticky patch has 16 hollow microneedles in a 4-by-4 array on one side, coupled with an antibody-based lateral-flow test strip on the other. The antibodies react when they sense protein biomarkers for malaria and turn two readout lines on the strip’s exposed surface red. If the test is negative, only one line turns red.

The needles are treated to be hydrophilic — that is, attracted to water — so the fluid is drawn in and flows through to the test strip. Once the test is complete, the device can be removed like any bandage.

While both microneedles and antibody test strips have been extensively studied, Lillehoj said his lab is the first to combine them into a simple, inexpensive package that will be easy to deploy at the point of need, especially in developing regions where finger-prick blood sampling and the availability of trained medical personnel to diagnose samples may be challenging.

The hollow needles are 375 microns wide and 750 microns long, enough to reach the fluid within skin that is typically between 800 to 1,000 microns thick. The needles are sharp enough to overcome the mechanical stress of entering the skin.

“Xue and I have applied the patch to our skin, and it doesn’t feel painful at all compared to a finger prick or a blood draw,” Lillehoj said. “It’s less painful than getting a splinter. I would say it feels like putting tape on your skin and then peeling it off.”

They think the familiar form factor may provide some comfort, especially to children.

Read more: Rice University Researchers Develop Magnet-Controlled Brain Implant

“We didn’t intend for it to look like a bandage,” he said. “We started with a rectangular shape and then just rounded the edges to make it a little more presentable. We didn’t plan for that, but perhaps it makes the patch more relatable to the general public.”

Lillehoj estimated individual patches could cost about $1 if and when they are produced in bulk.

Fitness trackers, smartwatches and wearables are robust health trackers. They’re now a vital part of the technology space and their popularity is rising. With so many things to choose from, finding the perfect gift this holiday season is certainly daunting. This list of smart wearables could inspire you.

Read more: The 5 Best Smartwatches And Fitness Trackers For Women In 2020

Snap Spectacles 3 AR Glasses

Spectacles 3 by Snap are a pair of augmented reality glasses with a sleek new design and an added HD camera. The higher priced glasses feature two cameras for the first time, and it’s all designed to allow you to create 3D video that can interpret the depth of your environment. Photos captured using Spectacles 3 seamlessly transfer in HD to Memories within Snapchat to add new lighting, landscapes, and other magical effects to an entire scene with a swipe. Snaps can also export to Camera Roll as circular, horizontal, square and virtual reality formats for saving, editing, sharing, and reliving, anywhere. Spectacles 3 feature a strong, lightweight steel frame with circular lenses and adjustable acetate tips. The AR glasses retail for $380 and it includes a charging case, charging cable and a 3D viewer.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is an excellent smartwatch that comes in 3 watch faces: Mystic Black, Mystic Silver, and Mystic Bronze. The elegant watchface is outlined by a unique rotating bezel for a look that works around the clock. With a subtle rotating bezel and big screen, it's easier to focus on what matters. Featuring a slimmed-down frame and a sophisticated look, Galaxy Watch3 is thinner, smaller and lighter than traditional watch designs. For health monitoring, Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 monitors blood oxygen levels, detect atrial fibrillation and helps you improve your physical activity. Prices start from $139.99.

Apple Watch SE

Heavy on features, light on price, Apple Watch SE is an excellent choice for gift. The watch has an expansive Retina display so you can see more at a glance. Advanced sensors to track all the ways you move. Powerful features to keep you healthy and safe. Apple Watch SE is a lot of watch for a lot less than you expected. Apple recently introduced a new tool called Family Setup. With this tool parents or children don’t even have to own an iPhone to be able to use the Watch SE -- just use your own iPhone once to set it up for them, reports EndGadget. The price starts at $280.

Konnect-i Backpack

Google collaborated with Samsonite to make a smart backpack, called the Konnect-I, that controls your phone. Konnect-I controls various functions on your phone that you would normally touch the screen or use your voice to interact with. This backpack implements the use of Google’s Jacquard technology, which adds touch sensitivity to fabrics. The heart of Jacquard is the Jacquard Tag, a tiny computer that makes everyday things more helpful. If you want to control music, you need to brush up and down the strap. You double tap on the strap to take a selfie, or open Google Assistant to hear the latest news. An LED on the strap is also set to light up according to the alerts set by the user. The backpack comes in handy for hikers. They can configure it to receive turn-by-turn directions while on the go, without needing to look at their phone’s navigation. The Konnect-I backpack comes in two styles: Slim ($199) and Standard ($219).

Read more: Best Smartwatches And Fitness Trackers For Kids 2020

Fitbit Ace 2

Fitbit Ace 2 is designed to help kids build healthy habits and encourage them to spend more active time with family and friends. Fitbit Ace 2 helps parents and their children understand how physical activity impacts overall well-being and health. Kids see stats, goal celebrations, parent-approved friends, and call notifications. Ace 2 is water-resistant to 50M and the helpful bumper around the screen protects it during kid-related activities all day long. Fitbit Ace 2 comes in a selection of fun and bold kid-friendly colors. With colorful avatars, kids can personalize their profiles. Animated clock faces motivate challenges to keep children moving.

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

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

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

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

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

About Vuzix Corporation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key Advantages Include

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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