Would you wear a little AI wearable that regularly observes you and analyzes your surroundings? Lingverse, a smart hardware and AI business based in Singapore, is betting that people might be prepared for that degree of attention. Lingverse has secured $29 million to create iKairos, an AI wearable. According to the company, it is a personal AI guardian that can assist you before you ask for it.

The device may turn to face you or your surroundings. According to Lingverse, this two-way view may provide its AI with additional context regarding your life's events. AI might be more practical in day-to-day living with that additional viewpoint. It also results in a highly personal trade-off, though. Before it can determine what you need, the device might need to watch you closely.

Most AI assistants wait for an order. The software reacts when you ask a question or press a button. Because wearable AI gadgets go with you, they can collect additional context. To detect items or describe what is nearby, many use cameras that face outward, reports Fox News.

Lingverse wants iKairos to collect further context. The device has the ability to aim its camera at the wearer. According to Lingverse, iKairos may be better able to comprehend you and your surroundings thanks to this dual-perspective design. As a result, the device might be able to select a more advantageous time to provide support.

How It Works

iKairos is a modular device, according to Lingverse. You can put it on a desk or wear it. It has the ability to move its eyes between you and the surroundings. This enables it to get context in both directions.

According to Lingverse, iKairos does not record any video. Rather, its camera occasionally captures static images. According to the company, no browsable library of raw photographs remains on the device or in the cloud because each image is promptly erased when the AI analyzes it. According to Lingverse, the gadget only records audio when it detects a human speech. According to the company, it won't record everything around you all the time. However, Lingverse hasn't yet disclosed how long voice-triggered audio is accessible during or following processing.

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Although the device records data locally, its artificial intelligence processing takes place in the cloud. According to Lingverse, no data leaves the device without your express permission. Lingverse aims for a battery life of 12 to 16 hours. The device's real runtime will differ depending on the environment in which it is used, how frequently it syncs, and how frequently it takes data, Lingverse says.

The primary concern with iKairos will probably be privacy due to an inward-facing camera. According to Lingverse, a real camera shutter is part of the hardware. When you close it, the camera is blocked and you have a visible privacy control.

Additionally, you will be able to put iKairos in silent mode by pressing and holding a control. According to Lingverse, this prevents the gadget from listening, and the screen and an indicator light verify that silent mode is in effect.

Pricing and Release date

Preorders for iKairos will start in the third quarter of 2026, through the company’s website. According to the Lingverse, each device will be shipped within ninety days after the preorder.

The precise cost will be disclosed closer to the debut. According to Lingverse, more sophisticated functions will need a subscription, while basic services will function thru a free tier. The pricing of the subscription and the features that need payment have not yet been disclosed by the company.

Next year, Meta's early lead in the global AI smart glasses market will be challenged by Apple and Samsung Electronics, paving the way for a three-way struggle between major tech firms over the next generation of AI-powered gadgets.

Apple intends to present its first smart glasses at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2027, with a commercial debut anticipated later that year, according to industry insiders on Sunday.

The device was supposed to be released by the end of this year by the Apple, but it was reportedly postponed as it addressed privacy issues with wearable AI technology, reports The Investor.

It is anticipated that Apple would adopt a similar approach to the introduction of the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. The hardware and software platform will probably be shown by the Apple at WWDC, giving developers time to design apps before the product is released to consumers months later.

It is anticipated that Apple's strategy will prioritize privacy.

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According to reports, the company, which has made privacy a core principle for over ten years, is creating the glasses to restrict the gathering and processing of personal information by third parties.

Apple is expected to focus on-device AI capabilities for data processing and visual recognition rather than significantly depending on cloud-based processing. Industry sources say it is unlikely to involve facial recognition.

Apple is also anticipated to steer clear of Meta's "supersensing" strategy, which continuously scans the wearer's environment. As part of its larger privacy-focused strategy, the corporation is unlikely to train its AI models using user-captured photographs.

Additionally, the company is debating whether to introduce a camera-free model. Another alternative under consideration is a camera-equipped version that limits standard photo and video capabilities while using the sensor mostly for AI tasks like object and location identification.

As a result of its collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, a major player in the eyewear industry, Meta presently dominates the market by providing AI-powered capabilities in its Ray-Ban smart glasses. Last year, Meta had 85.2 percent of the global market for AI smart glasses, according to market research firm Omdia.

Samsung is joining the competition with its own AI-driven wearable platform.

Samsung unveiled its smart eyewear, created in collaboration with Google, Gentle Monster, and Warby Parker, at its Galaxy Unpacked presentation in London on July 22. This fall is when the product is expected to launch.

Northwestern University engineers have developed a small, wireless polygraph system you can wear.

Unlike polygraphs used in television crime dramas, this wearable version isn’t optimized to detect lies. Instead, engineers and physicians designed it to sense underlying stress hidden deep within the body –  no interrogation room required.

The lightweight, bandage-like device gently adheres to the chest, where it simultaneously measures heart activity, breathing patterns, sweat response, blood flow and temperature. Together, these signals capture a real-time, whole-body view of stress, reports Amanda Morris in Northwestern

By continuously tracking multiple physiological signals at once, the device could help clinicians detect stress and potential discomfort in patients — including infants or the elderly — who may be unable to communicate, diagnose sleep disorders without cumbersome in-laboratory equipment, monitor mental health over time and even sense early warning signs of medical complications. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

“Sometimes, the body manifests signs of stress before a person is consciously aware of it,” said Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, who led the device development. “Even if people don’t realize how much pressure they are under, stress is quietly affecting their health. Prolonged stress can have adverse consequences, especially for pregnant mothers, children and critically ill patients. An ability to track stress based on quantitative measurements could empower people to take stress-relieving actions with direct benefits to their health. Importantly, we aimed to design a device, conceptually like a polygraph system, that operates on the basis of biophysical body responses, without requiring access to chemical biomarkers found in body fluids.”

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A world-renowned bioelectronics pioneer, Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern, where he has appointments in the McCormick School of Engineering and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He also directs the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics and the Querrey Simpson Institute for Translational Engineering and Advanced Medical Systems. Rogers is co-corresponding author of the study along with Dr. Debra E. Weese-Mayer, the Beatrice Cummings Mayer Professor of Pediatric Autonomic Medicine and professor of pediatrics (neurology) at Feinberg and Jae-Young Yoo of Sungkyunkwan University in Korea.

A voice for the vulnerable

The project started as a request from pediatricians at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Over the years, Rogers’ team has developed a suite of wireless, wearable electronics for infants and children — to track vital signs, monitor illness, treat congenital conditions and diagnose disease. Now, pediatricians asked Rogers to create a soft, non-invasive device to detect and continuously track stress levels in babies throughout hospital stays, without measuring stress’ biochemical signatures in saliva and blood.

Currently, detecting babies’ stress often depends on what caregivers can see and hear — crying, facial expressions and movement — along with basic vital signs. But these signals can be subtle, inconsistent or even entirely absent.

“Stress is often scored using survey sheets and nursing assessments,” Rogers said. “The entries include things like tonality and volume of crying. Infants obviously cannot describe their own pain levels. So, unlike with adults, determining stress in babies can be incredibly challenging. We wanted to take subjectivity out of these assessments.”

“This new device tracks the body’s stress signals around the clock, helping quantify how long someone is stressed each day and how intense that stress is,” said Weese-Mayer, Rogers’ long-time collaborator. “The beauty of the device is that both individuals and healthcare providers can now identify stress and objectively monitor the effectiveness of interventions to decrease stress and restore a healthy balance, in a completely non-invasive manner.”

All-in-one stress sensing

To do that, Rogers and his team found inspiration in a surprising place: polygraphs. Although they are colloquially called “lie detectors,” polygraphs actually don’t detect lies. They measure the body’s response to stress, which can be triggered by many factors besides deception. Rogers saw an opportunity to build on that core idea. But, while traditional polygraph machines rely on a patchwork of bulky, wired sensors, Rogers aimed to capture those same physiological signals — and then some — in a more comprehensive, fully integrated, accurate and wearable form.

The system wirelessly transmits these synchronized data streams to a smartphone, smart watch or tablet, where machine learning algorithms analyze patterns associated with stress in real time. Weighing less than 8 grams (equivalent to eight paperclips) and designed to move naturally with the skin, the device can operate continuously for more than 24 hours.

Proven across realistic scenarios

After developing the system, Rogers’ team validated it across a wide range of scenarios, including controlled experiments and real-world environments. During simulated lie-detector tests, the wearable device accurately captured stress responses triggered by sensitive questions and closely matched measurements from commercial polygraph systems.

What’s next

Next, the team aims to move its technology beyond validation studies and into broader clinical use. Next steps will include testing the device in larger patient groups, refining its ability to personalize stress detection and integrating it into hospital and at-home monitoring systems to provide continuous, real-time insight into patient health.

Hydrogels are biocompatible, pliable materials composed primarily of water and a small amount of polymer. The Jell-O-like material can be applied to the skin or implanted in the body to treat wounds, attach implants, and encapsulate and release medication gradually. It is accessible as medical patches, sprays, and glues.

Despite all of their protective, elastic, and sticky qualities, hydrogels lack one essential characteristic: breathability. Wearing a bandage or patch for an extended period of time can trap perspiration and moisture, irritating tissues and decreasing the efficacy of any device that a hydrogel clings to.

Now MIT engineers have come up with a recipe for a hydrogel that is both hydrated and aerated, or permeable to air. The new material is just as soft, stretchy, and robust as conventional hydrogels, but a network of tiny tunnels running through the gel allows air to pass through, reports Jennifer Chu in MIT News.

Compared to traditional hydrogels, the aerated hydrogel can be worn for extended periods of time without irritating the skin. Even when exercising, it can lessen perspiration accumulation. The new breathable hydrogel was used to affix wireless cardiac monitors to the chests of experiment participants. The volunteers did not exhibit any signs of skin irritation after engaging in regular exercise for ten days, and the heart monitors continued to read well.

The results, which are reported in the journal Nature, may enable longer-lasting hydrogel products, such as breathable bandages and dressings, cosmetic face masks, and contact lenses, along with better-performing health monitors and implants.

“Water and oxygen are both essential for life,” says Xuanhe Zhao, the Uncas (1923) and Helen Whitaker Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and medical engineering and science. “Now that we’ve added air to hydrogels, people can find broad applications.”

Breathing through Jello

Water makes up about 90 percent of a typical hydrogel. The rest of the material consists of polymers. When mixed with water in a chemical process known as “cross-linking,” the polymers settle into a sort of scaffold that holds the water in place, forming a gel that’s both squishy and stretchy. But because hydrogel’s composition is mainly water, it’s inherently challenging for any air to make its way through the material effectively.

Read more AI Wearable Patch Detects Heart Rhythm with 99.6% Accuracy

“In general, water is not breathable,” co-lead author Xiao-Yun Yan says. “Hydrogel is 80 to 90 percent water, similar to Jell-O. And you cannot breathe through Jell-O.”

Other groups have tried to design air-permeable hydrogels, mainly taking one of two approaches. The first has been to essentially puncture microscopic holes throughout the gel. Such designs are breathable, but only in air. When they are placed in liquid, the holes quickly clog up.

Zhao and his colleagues took advantage of viscoelastic phase separation in concocting a breathable hydrogel. For their new design, they mixed their conventional hydrogel recipe with a very small amount of silica aerogel particles, which are essentially “solid-form” air bubbles.

“They are like boba beads,” Yan offers. “The particles are made of silica, which is hydrophobic, meaning that water does not want to leak through them, so they are very stable in water.”

And as it turns out, the particles are similar to oil when mixed with water. The researchers found that when they mixed just a small amount of the particles with a solution of the water-heavy hydrogel, the water molecules glommed together, essentially finding each other faster than the less abundant silica particles.

Zhao says the new study provides a novel approach for others to fabricate breathable and multifunctional hydrogels, using the concept of visoelastic phase separation as a guide.

“We’ve discovered that this process can create these air-permeable hydrogels, and we demonstrate one application,” he says. “But we think there can be very broad applications. This is a technology platform.”

It is a single-chip device that can gather all types of hybrid indoor/outdoor photovoltaic cells. The power output range of these hybrid PV cells is broad, ranging from several watts in direct sunshine to microwatts under indoor lights. Multi-PMIC systems were previously required to control this range, which increased the cost and complexity of the overall system designs. The device maximizes harvested power across a wide range of input conditions thanks to its Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) module and low- and high-power boost converters. It can operate in open-circuit ratio or constant-voltage modes. Operating from input voltages as low as 275mV (1.5µW minimum) is made possible via a dedicated cold-start circuit.

Sports or trekking laptops, self-charging headphones, PV-charged earphone covers, and e-readers are just a few of the many uses for the AEM15820. Power banks, smart backpack power modules, smart glasses, and remote security cameras are additional markets, reports Electropages.

What is the e-peas AEM15820 PMIC used for?

An extremely effective power management integrated circuit (PMIC) called the e-peas AEM15820 was created to capture energy from hybrid indoor and outdoor photovoltaic (PV) cells. By effectively transforming captured solar energy into usable electricity for wearables, Internet of Things devices, smart sensors, and portable consumer electronics, it makes self-powered electronic gadgets possible.

What is energy harvesting and why is it important?

In order to power electrical devices, energy harvesting collects energy from external sources including light, heat, vibration, or radio frequency signals. It lessens or does away with the need for disposable batteries, prolongs battery life, requires less maintenance, and encourages the creation of more environmentally friendly, maintenance-free product designs.

Read more Sound-Powered Sensors Could Eliminate Battery Usage

What advantages might hybrid indoor/outdoor photovoltaic cells offer?

From dim interior lighting to direct sunlight, hybrid photovoltaic cells can produce electricity in a variety of lighting scenarios. This makes linked devices perfect for portable gadgets, Internet of Things devices, and always-on smart products since it enables them to continue charging and functioning in various conditions.

How does the AEM15820 optimize PV cell energy harvesting?

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) and low- and high-power boost converters are combined in the AEM15820. These characteristics enable devices gather the most energy possible while maintaining efficient operation by continuously optimizing power extraction from solar cells under varying light conditions.

Which applications work well with the e-peas AEM15820?

Wearable technology, wireless headphones, earbud charging cases, smart glasses, e-readers, sports and trekking laptops, remote security cameras, IoT sensors, power banks, and smart backpacks with built-in solar charging are just a few of the self-powered and energy-efficient items that the AEM15820 is perfect for.

How is the design of an energy harvesting system made simpler by the AEM15820?

The AEM15820 removes the need for several PMICs by combining low- and high-power boost converters, MPPT capabilities, and cold-start capability into a single chip. This lowers the number of components, simplifies the design, lowers the total cost of the system, and speeds up the development of solar-powered electronics.

Most people who own a smartwatch or ring can tell you their heart rate variability score. Few can tell you what to do about it. Vilo's Signal OS is built for that gap.

Vilo, an AI wearable company backed by HSG (formerly Sequoia Capital China), introduced Signal OS, an AI-native operating system for its upcoming ring-first wearable platform. Designed to move wearables beyond static dashboards and retrospective scores, Signal OS continuously interprets body signals in context, surfacing timely, readable guidance without requiring users to open an app and dig through charts, according to Business Wire.

As wearable hardware has improved, the industry has largely converged around a familiar model: collect sensor data, display charts, assign scores and use AI to explain results after the fact. Signal OS flips the model by filling that missing interaction layer, moving the category from measurement to meaning.

“Wearables have gotten good at measuring. What’s still missing is meaning,” said Gee Gu, founder and CEO of Vilo. "Signal OS is built to move the category beyond dashboards and scores toward a more contextual, quietly proactive operating system for the body — one that helps people understand what has changed, prioritize what matters and turn body signals into support."

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Vilo is led by Gee Gu and Andy Xu, who previously built HEXA Robot and MindOS, an early robotics operating system that included SDKs, control systems and interaction logic. That experience building software that translates machine inputs into meaningful, real-time outputs maps directly to the problem Signal OS is designed to solve. They are joined by Ben Zhang, co-founder of a multi-billion-dollar consumer technology company, as a partner and advisor on consumer hardware.

"From building one of the world's most widely used consumer hardware brands, I learned early that the products people keep are the ones they develop habits around — not the ones with the most features," said Zhang. "What Gee and Andy are building with Signal OS is exactly that kind of product. I'm excited to be part of it."

Unlike traditional wearable platforms built around dashboards and retrospective data, Signal OS interprets signals in context, prioritizing what matters and surfacing timely next steps. It continuously identifies patterns in the background and translates body signals into meaningful, readable guidance — delivered proactively, without requiring users to constantly check an app. Signal OS is designed for wellness guidance and self-understanding, not diagnosis or treatment.

Key features

• Signals: Context-aware cards that surface important changes and guidance without requiring users to dig through charts.
• Kits: Adaptive tools that form around a user's recurring needs, habits and rhythms.
• Pulse: A dashboard layer for users who want to review historical metrics and trends.
• Chat with Vibes: A conversational layer that lets users explore their data in different tones or perspectives.
• Women’s Health Context: A context layer designed to help interpret how hormonal patterns and life stages may relate to sleep, recovery, temperature, energy, activity and mood.

Signal OS will be available through Vilo’s upcoming ring-first wearable platform and companion mobile app. More details on availability and access will be announced in the coming weeks.

About Vilo

Founded by Gee Gu and Andy Xu, pioneers behind HEXA Robot and MindOS, Vilo is building AI-native wearables that help people better understand their health, hormonal patterns and daily rhythms.

Signal OS is designed for wellness guidance and self-understanding, not diagnosis or treatment.

Samsung Electronics introduced its intelligent eyewear at Galaxy Unpacked in London. Building on the concepts announced at the latest Google I/O, the new designs were developed with global eyewear brands, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. The intelligent eyewear shows how the Galaxy ecosystem can move beyond the mobile phone and into eyewear that supports daily routines, work, travel and hands-free moments, Samsung said in a press release.

What’s New

• Designed for everyday use, the eyewear pairs a lightweight frame and slim profile with the durability and comfort needed for daily wear.
• Developed in collaboration with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, the eyewear reflects each brand’s expertise in design, offering a range of frame styles, colors and lens options to suit different preferences and lifestyles.

“As agentic AI reshapes mobile experiences, the next step is to make those experiences more intuitive and responsive to each user’s context,” said Won-Joon Choi, Chief Operating Officer of the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics. “Intelligent eyewear creates a new point of interaction, bringing more personalized AI assistance naturally into the moments that make up everyday life.”

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Building on the concepts announced at the latest Google I/O, the new designs were developed with global eyewear brands, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

Why It Matters

As AI enters an agentic era, the question is no longer only how intelligent it becomes, but where and how that intelligence meets people. Mobile phones remain at the center of connected experiences, while devices across the Galaxy ecosystem add context to different moments of daily life. Intelligent eyewear represents that next step, bringing AI closer to people as they move, work, communicate and explore, without requiring every interaction to begin with a screen.
Built for these moments, intelligent eyewear brings AI directly into the user’s line of sight, providing timely information and assistance while allowing them to stay engaged with the people, places and tasks around them.

New Intelligent Eyewear Experience

Designed for everyday wear, the eyewear combines a lightweight frame, slim profile and battery performance, offering up to nine hours on a single charge with up to seven additional full charges from the charging case. A built-in camera brings visual context into the AI experience, while Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 Platform supports the AI performance designed for real-time assistance, with touch interaction, connectivity, power efficiency and thermal management optimized within the eyewear’s compact frame.

Key experiences include:

• Staying in the moment: The device can help summarize long messages, read key information aloud, support live translation and allow users to control the experience with simple voice or gesture interactions through connected devices.
• Capturing context: When prompted, the eyewear can capture what the user is seeing, such as a whiteboard or meeting discussion, organize key information in Notes and make it easier to review, share and follow-up on later.
• Real-time interaction: Users can ask for guidance based on their location, such as finding a route, setting a destination or understanding what is around them, while live translation can support communication in another language.
• Context-aware assistance: The device can support more useful follow-up interactions by understanding the user’s current context and connecting relevant information across tasks, helping users continue where they left off with less repetition.
• Live visual sharing: Users can share what they are seeing during a call or record their own point of view, making communication more immediate while keeping their hands free.

At the Unpacked, Samsung introduced two distinct designs by: Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.

The Gentle Monster edition features a slim frame in black, pairing a straight upper rim with softly rounded lower edges to create a refined and fashion-forward silhouette. The Warby Parker style features a subtly upswept brow line in a rich brown hue, creating a refined, versatile shape perfect for everyday settings.

Throughout the design process, Samsung worked closely with the eyewear partners to refine key fit points such as the forehead and ears. These insights helped shape the final designs with enhanced comfort and everyday wearability. Fit considerations were tailored to each model, alongside durability and reliable performance.

Aurenar, a Washington University startup received FDA Breakthrough Device designation for its V-Link System, a wearable device designed to improve stroke outcomes after ruptured brain aneurysm.
Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs when a ruptured brain aneurysm causes bleeding around the brain.

“Stroke is not only the second leading cause of death, but a significant contributor to long-term disability,” said Eric Leuthardt, MD, the Shi Hui Huang Professor of Neurological Surgery at WashU Medicine and founder and CEO of Aurenar. “The non-invasive device shows promise in reducing complications and improving outcomes in critically ill patients. Furthermore, we have promising evidence that the intervention reduces intensive care unit costs.”

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FDA Breakthrough Device Designation provides an expedited review process for market approval of promising medical technologies. Devices that earn the designation have shown clinical promise in improving the treatment or diagnosis of severe, life-threatening conditions.

In order to help control the body's inflammatory response, which can lead to additional brain damage following hemorrhagic stroke and other serious illnesses, V-Link applies low-energy electrical stimulation to a branch of the vagus nerve via the outer ear.

"Cerebral vasospasm remains a leading cause of disability and death after a subarachnoid hemorrhage, yet the standard of care has changed little in decades and is largely supportive," Dr. Leuthardt, told MobiHealthNews.

Oral nimodipine, the only medication that has been demonstrated to improve outcomes, hemodynamic support in the neuro-ICU to maintain brain perfusion, and invasive endovascular rescue using catheter-delivered vasodilators or balloon angioplasty for refractory cases are the standard treatments for cerebral vasospasm.

"Even with these measures, patients remain at high risk – a substantial proportion still develop vasospasm and go on to suffer permanent disability or death," Leuthardt said.

Single-mechanism medications have rarely worked because it is now recognized that the underlying damage is complex rather than merely large-vessel spasm.

V-Link was developed to fulfill "a profound unmet need for a therapy that is non-invasive, addresses the underlying biology and can be deployed early at the bedside," Leuthardt said.

You probably weren't all that impressed if you've ever tried on an item of "smart" apparel. Usually, it's just an ordinary shirt with a lot of stiff wires stitched into the seams or a plastic puck fastened to the chest. It looks strange, is unpleasant, and typically requires you to remove the electronics in order to wash them. However, this is changing due to a new wave of textile manufacture. This technology, known as fiber-integrated electronics, essentially makes your clothing act as a second skin.

The major change here is that engineers are no longer attempting to affix devices to fabric. Rather, they are using the devices to make the cloth. They may include sensors right into the knit of a garment by covering individual strands with conductive elements like carbon nanotubes or silver, reports Tomorrow’s World Today.

It appears to be a typical workout shirt to the unaided eye. However, the threads function as electrodes when viewed under a microscope. These fibers are able to detect the moisture content of your perspiration as well as the minute electrical signals from your heart. The data is far more accurate than with a loose-fitting smartwatch since the sensors are incorporated in the fabric itself and do not move.

Hospital-grade information is being picked up by these textiles. By monitoring the electrical activity in a professional athlete's quadriceps during a sprint, it can monitor muscle exhaustion. Without the patient ever leaving their home, it can demonstrate to a physician how their range of motion is improving.

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Additionally, it monitors breathing patterns and body temperature in real time. However, you don't feel like you're wearing a medical device because there are no wires or large battery packs. All it feels like is a cozy t-shirt.

We're still ways off from having these available in every department stores. Some problems still need to be resolved. First of all, it is difficult to make these conductive threads endure a hot dryer. The thin coatings employed to make the threads "smart" can be severely harmed by the chemicals in laundry detergent. Furthermore, the cost of mass-producing electronics is still higher than that of a simple cotton blend.

However, there is enormous potential for safety and health. Consider construction workers or firefighters. If a worker's core temperature rises too high or their heart rate jumps dangerously, a "second skin" jacket might notify a supervisor. It eliminates uncertainty about safety.

Jorjin Technologies Inc. and MultiSet AI Inc. announced a strategic collaboration to develop wide-area spatial computing applications for ultra-lightweight AR glasses. The collaboration brings together Jorjin's AR glasses and wearable system integration capabilities with MultiSet's visual positioning system (VPS) and spatial mapping platform, with the goal of enabling more practical hands-free guidance, indoor positioning, and future Physical AI workflows in real-world enterprise environments.

The initial focus will be on facility-scale and large indoor spaces where GPS is unavailable and where workers, visitors, service robots, or AI agents need to share a consistent understanding of location and context. Target scenarios include manufacturing sites, logistics facilities, hospitals, museums, smart restaurants, and other enterprise environments that require reliable spatial awareness without adding heavy infrastructure, according to a press release.

A Practical Wearable Interface for Spatial Computing

Jorjin's ultra-light AR glasses series is designed for application development and enterprise integration. Its recent J9 Eye-Tracking AR Glasses are positioned around a sub-50g form factor, optional full-color near-eye display, compact eye-tracking module, camera, wireless connectivity, and SDK support. These capabilities make the glasses a practical interface for frontline users who need to keep their hands free while receiving contextual information in the field.

By integrating a spatial positioning layer, ultra-light AR glasses can move beyond static information display. The device can understand where the wearer is, what asset or zone the wearer is facing, and when location-specific guidance should be delivered through visual, audio, or gaze-based interaction.

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MultiSet's Spatial Mapping Layer

MultiSet AI provides an enterprise VPS and spatial mapping platform for building and operating spatial applications across devices. Recent MultiSet releases have expanded wearable VPS support, MapSet management, map versioning, Android on-device VPS, VPS Gen2, and pipelines that connect 360-degree capture or 3D Gaussian Splatting data to VPS maps. These capabilities are relevant for enterprises that need to create, maintain, and reuse spatial maps as operational infrastructure.

Collaboration Focus

• Wide-area AR guidance: validate hands-free indoor navigation, asset-level work guidance, and location-aware service workflows on Jorjin ultra-light AR glasses.
• Spatial map interoperability: explore how facility scans, digital twin data, 360 capture, and 3D Gaussian Splatting assets can support reusable VPS maps for enterprise sites.
• Physical AI readiness: evaluate how AR glasses, AI agents, robots, and spatial maps can share a common coordinate layer for human-machine collaboration in future pilots.
• Enterprise deployment fit: assess privacy, network, edge, and on-premise deployment options for sensitive industrial, healthcare, and public-space applications.

Executive Perspectives

"Ultra-lightweight AR glasses can become a practical frontline interface only when they are connected to the physical space around the user," said Tom Liang, Chairman of Jorjin. "Working with MultiSet allows us to explore a spatial layer that can support wide-area guidance, contextual AR information, and future Physical AI collaboration in enterprise environments."

"VPS and spatial maps become more valuable when they reach devices that people can wear naturally throughout the workday," said Shadnam Khan, Co-Founder & COO of MultiSet AI. "Jorjin's AR glasses provide an important hardware platform for validating how spatial intelligence can support real operations, from navigation and work instructions to human-robot coordination."

About Jorjin Technologies

Jorjin Technologies Inc. is a Taiwan-based AR/XR smart glasses and wearable platform solution provider. The company develops ultra-light AR glasses, eye-tracking smart glasses, rugged industrial AR headsets, SDKs, and related wireless modules for enterprise and application-development markets.

About MultiSet AI

MultiSet AI Inc. is an enterprise visual positioning and spatial mapping company. Its platform supports VPS, 3D mapping, object tracking, MapSet workflows, and cross-device spatial applications for AR, robotics, and physical-world AI use cases.

Although doctors support wearable technology and believe it can enhance patient care, there are still major obstacles in the way of its inclusion into clinical practice.

A survey of over 2,000 doctors in six nations (the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Spain) revealed that the majority of doctors (97%) reported reviewing wearable data in some capacity and that wearable data offer at least some clinical advantage for patient treatment. Just 3% of doctors claim to never examine this kind of information.

The most commonly reviewed data categories are broadly similar across countries: heart physiology, activity and function, biometric/physical events and alerts, and sleep.

The survey indicates that 74% of doctors outside of the United States and 77% of doctors in the United States believe wearable data has some clinical benefit.

According to a survey by Medscape and the American Medical Association's Center for Digital Health and AI, 82% of doctors really utilize wearables.

According to the study results, clinicians generally recognize the importance of data from activity trackers, smartwatches, and biosensors; nevertheless, structural obstacles more than a lack of motivation prevent extensive clinical integration, reports Heather Landi in Fierce Healthcare.

The study looked at how doctors use patient-generated wearable data, reimbursement, workflow issues, adoption factors, and faith in the validity of the data.

"What surprised me is that the technology is ahead of the healthcare system, not ahead of physicians," American Medical Association CEO John Whyte, M.D., told Fierce Healthcare. "The systems are not set up to maximize that data for clinical impact."

The data needs to be actionable and not just available, Whyte noted.

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The survey found that when patients ask their doctors to review wearable data, physicians typically act, with consistent responses across countries.

Although it differs by nation, wearable data integration into standard clinical practice is still somewhat limited. Less than 6% of doctors in all the nations under study already incorporate wearable data into their workflows.

Germany and Spain have the largest reported near-term pipelines of physicians ready to integrate these data, whereas fewer than one in five physicians in Canada or the United Kingdom indicated a high likelihood of integration in the next 12 months.

According to the paper, health tech businesses and manufacturers of medical devices must establish clinical credibility through proof. Specialty-stratified algorithm accuracy reports that compare each type of detection data to specified medical-grade standards should be published by medical device manufacturers.

For consumer wearable data, health IT businesses must adopt and support Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based standards to facilitate consistent ingestion, according to AMA. In order to seamlessly integrate wearable data into physician workflows, health tech and EHR firms must develop features like auto-uploading confirmed data into the EHR in a structured format in place of "phone-based" review.

Additionally, bias checks should be incorporated into data standards by health tech vendors. For example, they should make it obvious where algorithms have been verified and where performance is unknown.

Every day, thousands of women going through IVF treatment have blood drawn to monitor their hormone levels. It happens every two to three days, throughout the entire cycle — not because the science demands it to be invasive, but simply because no better tool has existed. Level Zero Health is changing that.

The London-based startup has developed a wearable biosensor patch that reads hormone levels directly from interstitial fluid — the fluid surrounding cells just beneath the skin — delivering results with 98% accuracy across the full clinical range. No blood draw. No urine test. No 12-hour delay waiting for results. Just a patch worn on the upper arm, measuring in the background.

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The Technology Behind It

What makes Level Zero Health's approach distinctive is its use of proprietary DNA-based biosensors — a departure from the electrochemical sensing methods most competitors rely on. These biosensors are engineered to detect trace concentrations of hormones — progesterone, estrogen, cortisol, and testosterone — at the sensitivity levels required for clinical decision-making. The company achieved 98% accuracy across the human clinical range within their first year of development, a milestone that typically takes far longer in medical device R&D.

The technology draws a deliberate parallel to continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), which transformed diabetes care by making blood sugar data continuous, accessible, and actionable. Hormones have remained a generation behind — until now.

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From Clinic to Consumer

The company's go-to-market strategy is deliberately clinical first. Their near-term device — a single-use intermittent patch — targets IVF monitoring and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), two use cases where frequent hormone data directly influences treatment decisions. They have already secured $3 million in letters of intent from major IVF clinics, signalling strong institutional demand ahead of launch.

A continuous monitoring version is in development for 2028 — the longer-term vision being a device that tracks hormonal patterns across the full cycle, with implications for fertility, perimenopause, athletic performance, and beyond.

In February 2025, Level Zero Health closed a $6.9 million pre-seed round — the largest pre-seed ever raised by a female-founded company in Europe — led by Swiss VC Redalpine, with participation from HAX (SOSV) and Entrepreneur First.

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About Level Zero Health

Level Zero Health is a London-based femtech medical device startup developing non-invasive hormone monitoring technology. Founded in 2023 by Ula Rustamova (CEO) and Irene Jia (CTO), the company is pursuing FDA clearance and CE marking for its first clinical device.

Swiss healthtech brand Hilo, developed by Aktiia has closed a $19 million Series B extension, bringing its total funding to more than $119 million. The company also announced U.S. launch of Hilo Core, a wearable system designed to help consumers observe blood pressure patterns over time.

The round includes new investment from Dell Family Office, alongside continued backing from existing investors, as Hilo expands its presence in the U.S. following the launch of Hilo Core, its next-generation blood pressure monitoring system designed to provide continuous, long-term health insights.

Hilo Core consists of a connected upper-arm cuff, a smartphone app, and a lightweight wristband. Customers use the FDA-approved cuff to collect standard blood pressure measurements in order to calibrate the wristband, according to MobiHealth News.

The wristband then estimates blood pressure without repeatedly inflating an arm cuff by using photoplethysmographic signals (optical sensors to detect changes in blood flow under the skin) and algorithms.

According to Hilo, it gathers 30 to 35 readings every day, including overnight, and shows trends in addition to heart rate, sleep, and step count information.

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"For too long, blood pressure has been measured in isolated moments, leaving critical gaps in understanding," Stefan Petzinger, CEO of Hilo by Aktiia, said in a statement.

According to Hilo, customers may use the system to track how their blood pressure-related patterns vary throughout the day and how they connect to things like activity and sleep.

These trends may encourage a user to consult a healthcare provider or take a traditional reading using the arm cuff.

However, the estimates produced by the bracelet shouldn't be used to replace readings from an FDA-approved medical device, diagnose hypertension, or modify medicine.

The FDA has not authorized Hilo Core.

Instead of presenting it as a tool for detecting or treating a medical ailment, the business is marketing it as a general wellness product meant to increase awareness and guide lifestyle choices.

In the future, Hilo intends to develop its product into a regulated medical platform.

Designed for lifelogging hobbyists, VibeLens' new MusicCam Pro offers a wearable action camera that performs all the regular duties of a wearable bone conduction music player.

In October of 2025, VibeLens launched the MusicCam, a bone-conduction open-ear music headset with a 2K camera with a six-axis stabilized lens and waterproofing up to 20 meters (65 feet). This was the company's first and most relevant Kickstarter campaign. Designed for bicycling, hiking, and diving, the MusicCam swiftly garnered over 2,300 backers and US$500,000 in funding, eventually surpassing its initial Kickstarter target by a factor of 100, reports Mike Hanlon in New Atlas.

VibeLens has developed the MusicCam Pro, a major improvement over the original MusicCam that goes beyond simply quadrupling the video resolution from 2K to 4K, after learning from the experiences and feedback of those first-generation backers.

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VibeLens uses a lens module that allows the lens to slide out by up to half a centimeter (to reduce obstructions) and gives it a ±15° vertical adjustment so you can align it with your line of sight and check it out on your phone before starting your adventure. This helps bring the framing of the MusicCam V2.0 much closer to the ideal.

One of the most important claims about the new MusicCam Pro is that its built-in AI editing helps transform the raw footage into better and faster shareable content.

With a 600-mAh battery that can be charged to 80% in 35 minutes, the MusicCam Pro can record voices for 8 hours, shoot videos for 96 minutes, or play music for 15 hours.

Having seen a very similar setup with the Zygo, the optional 9,500-mAh charging case makes a lot of sense, especially when combined with a spare MusicCam Pro. It protects, recharges, and organizes everything in one case, which is comforting when you're traveling between adventures and have a place for all the bits.

The MusicCam Pro is now priced at US$229 including shipping on Kickstarter. Delivery is anticipated in September, at which point the MSRP will be $399. For $299 with delivery, another Kickstarter launch special offers the MusicCam Pro, Charging Case, and a one-year Creator Membership—a $309 discount above the final retail price of $608.

The next generation of battery-operated wearable technology, assistive devices, robotics, and drones may include a novel 3D camera modeled like the eyes of jumping spiders. The technology utilized less energy than a nightlight.

SpiderCam, a prototype developed by Northwestern University engineers mimics how spiders use their sight to measure distances before making an unexpected sideways leap at an unsuspecting victim going about its daily activity, reports Shiri Leigh in New Atlas.

“Jumping spiders jump to catch prey, to avoid predators and to get around, and that requires excellent vision,” says Northwestern’s Asst. Prof. Emma Alexander, the study’s corresponding author and expert in bio-inspired computer vision.

The majority of common 3D cameras take pictures from different angles in order to determine depth, either by measuring and projecting light or by comparing each image. These techniques require a large amount of processing power, costly gear, and energy.

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While jumping spiders have numerous layers of retinas in each eye that may independently concentrate at slightly varying distances—one layer may see an object in focus while another layer sees the identical thing slightly out of focus—human eyes are only able to focus on one retina.

“They see multiple levels of focus at all times,” Alexander says. “So, they are always collecting pairs of images. Then, their brains could compare these differences in sharpness to judge distance.”

“But their brains are very small – the size of a poppy seed – so they have to compute these distances in a highly efficient way. We wanted to understand whether we could borrow some of the same principles to create an extremely energy-efficient depth sensor that could be used in resource-constrained situations where users don’t have unlimited access to power.”

Similar functionality is provided by the SpiderCam, which uses a specially designed camera to simultaneously capture two photos with slightly different focus settings. The researchers developed a unique algorithm straight onto a specially programmed computer chip optimized for energy-efficient processing, rather than executing resource-intensive software on a traditional processor.

According to the team, the SpiderCam is the first 3D camera to run on less than one watt. The chip prototype can process depth maps at 32.5 frames per second while consuming just 624 milliwatts of power. The data is then transformed into real-time depth measurements by the unique algorithm, which analyzes how the two images' edges and textures differ in sharpness.

Sky Labs, a medical device firm best known for its blood pressure monitoring ring, has filed for a KOSDAQ listing with South Korea's Financial Services Commission and is now getting ready for an IPO.

According to reports, the business intends to offer 2 million shares with the goal of raising up to 32 billion won ($21.5 million) to fund its expansion into pharmaceutical clinical trials and transition into a medical data platform company.

The IPO filing comes after the introduction of what Sky Labs claims to be the first BP ring for ward use in history, as well as regulatory clearances in Europe and the UK earlier this year. After verifying that Sky Labs' ring functioned similarly to traditional BP monitoring techniques, the Korean Society of Hypertension (KSH) has offered what may be the first formal recommendation of ring-type cuffless BP devices in history.

We believe now is the right time for an IPO because, with our unrivalled technology, we have successfully established ourselves within the regulated medical market while demonstrating strong financial growth. Our product, CART BP pro, is the first wearable cuffless BP monitor to obtain both medical device approval and health insurance reimbursement coverage, and is now used in about 2,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide. We have moved beyond technological validation to a business model in which recurring clinical use generates revenue, Sky Labs CEO Jack Byunghwan Lee told MobiHealth News.

The company said its revenue had grown more than 13-fold in just two years, rising from approximately 600 million won ($405,000) in 2023 to 4.1 billion won ($2.8 million) in 2024 and 7.9 billion won ($5.3 million) in 2025. It added that first-quarter revenue this year reached 2.1 billion won ($1.4 million), representing a 354% increase compared with the same period last year. The company also reported that its gross profit turned positive, reaching approximately 3.9 billion won ($2.6 million) in 2025.

He also said Sky Labs’ planned KOSDAQ listing would mark a significant milestone in its transformation from a ring-type wearable technology company focused on blood pressure monitoring into a platform enterprise that continuously generates vital-sign data. It said the credibility and capital raised through the listing would enable it to diversify its technology portfolio to monitor additional vital signs while expanding its clinical data platform business.

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Byunghwan Lee also noted that its CART BP Pro device has already been adopted in a large-scale cohort study led by the National Institute of Health under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. According to the company, the adoption represents an important first step in its transition into a clinical data platform business, demonstrating that the strategy is already being implemented rather than remaining a future plan.

He said his company expects to raise between 26 billion won ($17.5 million) and 32 billion won ($21.5 million) through the offering. They plan to use these proceeds primarily in three key areas.

First, the company will improve its ring-type BP monitors, which it currently sell to both hospitals and consumers, by reducing their weight and increasing their durability.

Second, the company will expand its product lineup and develop an AI medical data platform.

Third, it will secure clinical evidence and accelerate the process of obtaining overseas regulatory approvals.

While conventional medical AI companies have focused on analyzing data accumulated within hospitals, Sky Labs differentiate itself by having established a structure to generate valuable medical data directly through wearable devices, according to Byunghwan Lee.

“For hospitals and clinicians, we provide vital sign data from patients 24 hours a day outside the office, supporting more precise and multifaceted diagnoses. Patients can measure their vital signs comfortably during their daily lives,” Byunghwan Lee said.

Furthermore, for pharmaceutical partners, we plan to provide real-world vital sign data for clinical trials, opening up a new avenue for collaboration to evaluate drug performance and expand indications.”

Penn State engineers are fusing science and art to produce cute, paint-on tattoos that have the potential to power robotic limbs, monitor brain waves, and detect heart attacks early. The system is colorful, personalized, and readily washable.

The team has created a conductive ink that can power sensors and be applied straight to a person's skin in whatever design they can think of, and they have filed a provisional patent for it. They are not only more fashionable than existing wearable sensor designs, but they are also more sensitive, robust, and accurate since the ink, which can be colored with any desired color, employs materials that connect better with the skin. The findings were described in a report that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to Larry Cheng, corresponding author on the paper and James L. Henderson Jr. Memorial Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, wearable healthcare systems are powered by electrode contacts affixed to the body.

Conventional electrode designs use stiff, metal-based materials that provide stability but have trouble adhering to the body during exercise or movement. Hydrogel, a soft, jelly-like substance that can absorb and swell with water to stretch and better mimic the body's movement, is used in many experimental designs, such as the ones Cheng has been studying for more than ten years. However, over time, this substance may dry, which would result in the electrodes losing their stretchiness and adherence, reports Ty Tkacik in Penn State.

Wanqing Zhang, an engineering science and mechanics doctoral candidate and first author on the paper, explained that it’s not just the electrodes peeling off that contributes to less accurate sensor readings, but the actual act of applying them. Many commercial sensors have trouble accurately recording what is happening inside a patient's body, especially when applied to hairy or sweaty skin.

The team mixed several different types of polymers, or plastics, and acidic additives into a water-based solution to create the ink. It has the consistency of glue when wet but can dry onto the skin in less than 10 minutes, Zhang said. Drying can be accelerated with the help of a hair dryer.

“The ink itself almost behaves like face paint,” Cheng explained. “It starts out almost transparent, but you can use food dye to pigment the ink into whatever colors you need to paint whatever design you have in mind — like a cartoon or Superman. This allows us to completely personalize the wearable to a person’s preference."

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The team revealed that its electrode-powered sensors are highly responsive and adjustable. According to Zhang, applying the material directly to the skin improves measurements since it better adapts to the texture of the skin. A connecting area of the electrodes is painted onto a porous, silver cloth that resembles metal fabric and is applied to the skin in order to improve the stability between the electrodes and the sensors they inform. Before solidifying and adhering to the skin's surface, the wet ink seeps into the fabric. The larger electric module, which is glued to the wearer's skin beneath their clothing, has the connected part hooked into a port. This larger module uses Bluetooth to wirelessly send the electrical impulses that the ink has collected to a computer.

In addition to more evenly adhering to the texture of the skin and efficiently recording electrical signals, the electrodes may expand to more than 150% of their original size without breaking because to the textile's porosity composition.

In one experiment, the team demonstrated that the painted electrodes could successfully track a co-author's ECG readings over a 12-hour period of daily activities. In another test, a different co-author tracked their readings during an exercise routine, demonstrating that the electrodes maintain adhesion and accuracy even during physical activity. In a different test, the scientists monitored a co-author's forearm EMG signals and sent them to a robotic prosthetic, allowing the person to operate the robotic hand without coming into contact with it.

This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The X1 bone conduction headset from New York-based Auriview is now available on Kickstarter. It records everything you see and hear, has an integrated AI assistant that allows voice commands for interaction, and lets you ask questions and stay in touch without continuously reaching for your phone.

Cyclists, runners, hikers, commuters, and those who frequently engage in the age-old practice of using their hands when outdoors make up the most obvious audience. You can listen to audio while still hearing traffic, trail talk, suspicious branches, or the precise instant your companion remarks, "This shortcut is probably fine," since bone conduction keeps the ear canal open. Additionally, the headset's low profile allows it to fit under many cycle helmets and possibly some ski helmets. This is the kind of useful feature that distinguishes wearable technology from "cool in a render, doomed in a drawer,” reports odditymall.

The majority of headsets are designed for listening. X1 is designed to see, hear, comprehend, record, translate, navigate, and maintain connectivity while moving. It is a wearable AI device that has an HD point-of-view camera, AI visual recognition, open-ear bone conduction audio, real-time translation, smart recording, live streaming, app media management, Wi-Fi 6, BLE 5.4, dual-mic noise reduction, IPX8 waterproofing, IP6X dust protection, and a lightweight 48g body.

The integrated camera uses a 130-degree wide-angle lens to capture 4K footage at 30 frames per second. Because the camera is stationary rather than rotating like a tiny robot periscope, that field of view is important. Though anyone hoping for GoPro-level control should keep in mind that this is still a little headset rather than a chest-mounted documentary crew, Auriview claims that the broad lens helps cover the view in front of you.

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Voice recording and translation are also supported by the X1. English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic are among the languages in which face-to-face interactions can be translated.

Those who choose lightweight, open-ear audio with sporadic camera and AI features will find the X1 more appealing than those who prioritize the highest level of video quality. The helmet-friendly design and open-ear awareness may appeal to commuters and cyclists. The hands-free camera and object recognition might be appealing to hikers. Voice notes and translation could be very helpful to travelers. Owning headphones that seem like they've swallowed a tour guide will just be fun for techies.

Millions of people around the world live with cardiac arrhythmia—a condition where the heart's rhythm goes too fast, too slow, or falls out of sync entirely. The standard fix has long been a surgically implanted pacemaker, complete with leads threaded into the heart itself. Effective, yes, but not without risk: infection and tissue damage are real possibilities whenever you're cutting someone open. Now, a joint team from MIT and USC has come up with something that skips the scalpel altogether—a wearable patch, applied like a sticker to the chest, that regulates heartbeat using nothing but ultrasound.

"Ultrasound offers a unique combination of deep tissue penetration, spatial focusing and non-invasive delivery," says Chen Gong, the study's first author and a researcher at USC. Earlier attempts at ultrasound-based pacing had stumbled—either the results weren't consistent, or the method depended on injected microbubbles to work at all. Gong's team took a different route, borrowing from a field called sonogenetics. The idea: genetically tweak heart cells so they become responsive to sound waves. Once those modified cells pick up an ultrasound pulse, ion channels swing open, calcium rushes in, and the cell contracts—essentially giving researchers a remote switch for heartbeat, reports Physics World.

"Our central motivation was to address the limitations of conventional pacemakers, while preserving precise control of cardiac rhythm," Gong explains.

Testing It Out

Before building any hardware, the team checked whether the concept even held up in a dish. Using human heart muscle cells that had been sonogenetically altered, they found that ultrasound pulses got roughly 75% of the engineered cells beating in lockstep with the sound waves. Cells that hadn't been modified simply ignored the signal. Just as important, the ultrasound exposure didn't trigger any red flags in the cells—no spike in inflammation markers, no signs of injury or oxidative stress—suggesting the approach is safe, at least at this stage.

Introducing the Device

Building on those results, the researchers engineered what they call a non-invasive ultrasound pacemaker, or NUP—detailed in a paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. It's roughly the size of a postage stamp, adheres to skin using a bioadhesive layer, and packs in a 64-channel phased-array transducer alongside modules for data collection, wireless transmission, and power.

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To see whether it actually worked in a living animal, they tested it on sonogenetically modified rats, sticking the device onto each rat's chest and firing ultrasound through the chest wall toward the heart. At 2 MPa of acoustic pressure with 40-millisecond pulses, the device pushed heart rates up from a baseline of 240 bpm to somewhere between 360 and 540 bpm—and cranking up the pulse repetition frequency pushed rates even higher. The moment the ultrasound stopped, hearts reverted to their normal rhythm on their own. Rats without the genetic modification, by contrast, showed no response to the device at all.

The team also showed off the NUP's precision: it can electrically steer its ultrasound beam to hit targets less than a millimeter apart, meaning it can selectively pace different chambers of the heart. When they induced arrhythmias in the modified rats, the device successfully restored normal rhythm—something that didn't happen in unmodified control animals exposed to the same stimulation.

"A major objective of this work was to move beyond proof-of-concept stimulation and demonstrate a wearable system that could realistically support daily use," notes Qifa Zhou, who leads a research group at USC. "The current prototype integrates imaging, stimulation, wireless communication and battery-powered operation into a wearable format."

Looking Toward the Clinic

A real-world version of this device would need to handle a lot on its own—tracking heart rate, pinpointing the heart's chambers, and delivering stimulation, all without a technician manually steering things. To move toward that, the team built a cloud-based AI system that reads heart rate and calculates targeting coordinates, then adjusts the ultrasound beam accordingly.

They also had to answer a harder question: would this actually work on a human-sized chest? Using simulations plus experiments on a pig heart buried under multiple layers of tissue, they found that even after the ultrasound weakened passing through tissue, it still arrived at roughly 2 MPa—enough to stimulate the heart at clinically meaningful pacing sites.

Safety checks turned up encouraging results too. The ultrasound energy delivered stayed under approved exposure limits, generated barely any heat, and the genetic modification itself didn't cause unwanted immune reactions, off-target effects, or tissue damage in the rats.

"In the long term, we are optimistic about applying sonogenetics in humans," says Gengxi Lu, a co-author from MIT. He's careful to draw a distinction here: sonogenetics isn't gene editing in the sense of permanently altering DNA. Instead, it gets cells to temporarily produce proteins that respond to ultrasound. Still, he cautions, plenty of clinical testing lies ahead before anyone can call it safe or effective long-term in people.

Next on the agenda: refining how the genetic material gets delivered, running trials in larger animals, and building closed-loop systems that pair real-time sensing with adaptive stimulation. There's also the unglamorous engineering side—shrinking the device further, stretching battery life, and making sure it stays put and functions well even as a person moves around.

"For cardiac pacing, we envisage that the final goal of NUP technology is to be a permanent alternative to a long-term implanted pacemaker," Xuanhe Zhao of MIT told Physics World. "More broadly, we are interested in expanding ultrasound-enabled bioelectronic medicine beyond cardiac pacing toward other organs and therapeutic applications where non-invasive, spatially precise modulation could have clinical impact."

In an effort to better understand their health, millions of people worldwide wear fitness trackers and smart rings to monitor their heart rate, body temperature, sleep patterns, and exercise. However, that same technology is being advanced to a higher level during the World Cup.

Players are using physiological data to control tiredness, improve recovery, and unlock even the slightest performance gains in a tournament where the difference between winning and losing can be extremely small, reports Jacqueline Howard and Andrew Quimby in CNN.

Commercial devices like sweat patches, WHOOPs, Oura Rings, and performance vests have been seen being used by athletes to train and compete, demonstrating how consumer wearables are still changing the science of professional sports and, consequently, how athletes of all levels practice.

Sweat patches

Long before the World Cup began, several professional soccer players began wearing commercial wearables.

A sophisticated "sticker" that tracks perspiration was crucial to the Brazilian team's training and preparation in the run-up to the competition.

Smart rings

Oura Ring is another fitness tracker making an appearance at the World Cup. According to Doug Sweeny, chief marketing officer of Oura, the wearable tech company's cooperation with US Soccer allowed the US Men's team to acquire Oura Rings.

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These measures could assist determine when players' bodies might be ready for more strenuous workouts and when they might benefit from more rest before or after training.

Fitness bands

The WHOOP fitness bracelet is one wearable that some players have been using during World Cup games. Sleep, strain, stress, and heart rate are among the health indicators it tracks when worn snugly against the skin on the wrist, bicep, or other WHOOP Body places.

Any athlete's performance can be significantly impacted by travel and sleep disturbances. According to Greg Grosicki, WHOOP’s data scientist, WHOOP data—which was gathered from research studies rather than players—indicates that on days when users record travel or jet lag, heart rate variability can decrease by roughly 9%, sleep performance can drop by up to 6 points, and sleep consistency can decrease by up to 19%.

Performance vests

Sports tech company STATSSports’ GPS tracking systems is being used by twelve nations throughout the World Cup. It is being used mainly in a performance vest that tracks real-time physical metrics including heart rate, speed, and distance.

For the first time, England is offering live in-game GPS performance statistics during a World Cup utilizing STATSports technology. Throughout the competition, coaches and sports scientists can keep an eye on player workloads and physical performance thanks to the technology.

For example, the staff may choose to replace a player with a substitute in order to preserve them if their real-time metrics show that they are overworked, at risk of injury, or exhausted. This option is made because this year's World Cup has more matches than ever before.

The metrics that you can use

The same insights that enable great athletes are increasingly helping regular people better understand their own bodies, whether the objective is to compete on the biggest stage in the world or just feel healthier and more energized every day.

Hydration

One crucial indicator for athletes is hydration since it affects endurance, body temperature regulation, and even cognitive performance.

Sleep

In professional sports, sleep is now one of the performance factors that is monitored the most. Lack of sleep can hinder muscle repair, decrease cognitive function, slow down reaction times, and increase the risk of injury, according to research.

Body temperature

For every athlete, maintaining a healthy body temperature and drinking plenty of water are still essential. much while it was always anticipated that this summer's weather would be difficult, the US heat wave has made keeping an eye on World Cup players' temperatures much more crucial.

Heart rate variability

Heart rate variability, another key metric, provides insight into how well the body’s nervous system is adapting to physical and mental stress, helping athletes balance training intensity with recovery.

Final thoughts

Users should keep in mind that no algorithm is ideal for everyone while utilizing wearable technology, so if you feel like something is wrong, you are the best person to know your own body, according to Benjamin Smarr, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Halicioglu Data Sciences Institute at UC San Diego, who has used the Oura Ring to study health outcomes.

Additionally, you still need to make changes to your regular workout routine, sleep schedule, and other habits in order to take advantage of wearable health data.