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

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

T-Rex Pro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GTR 2e

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The rising popularity of wearables is making these devices evolve into different forms. From fitness trackers, smartwatches, and smart glasses, a new form of wearables is emerging, and it is called IoT fabrics or smart fabrics. These fabrics can be used to create clothing to monitor our vital signs.

As the Internet of Things, or IoT, continues to expand exponentially, wearables have emerged as the latest IoT frontier because of their enticing potential applications, reports EET India.

Benefits of IoT fabrics

Sensor-embedded smart fabrics make wearables least intrusive. These smart fabrics can be used to make shirts, jackets, pants, socks, or even shoes. These smart clothes can be folded and stretched to fit the body. Data collected from the wearer’s body include heart rate, blood oxygen level, blood glucose level, blood pressure, body temperature, and activity.

Read more Hexoskin Smart Shirt Accurately Measures Breathing, Could be Useful for Monitoring COPD

Smart fabrics can also be used to track the elderly, hospital patients, and kids. People suffering from dementia can wear sensor-embedded clothes, where a GPS tracker can send an alert to their loved ones when the patient has wandered off. The same technology can be used by teens to have their parents monitor their moves. Wearables like these can also be used in high-risk settings, such as construction sites or mountaineering expeditions, where everyone’s whereabouts must be accounted for.

Shunt system to monitor Hydrocephalus

Medtech startup Rhaeos has made developed a wearable for noninvasive monitoring of patients suffering from an accumulation of brain fluids, known as hydrocephalus. Arising from a collaboration between materials scientists and neurological surgeons at Northwestern University, the company has developed a noninvasive thermal sensor for use in the monitoring of ventricular shunt function. The Band-Aid-like sensor measures a characteristic heat signature if the shunt is working and the excess cerebral spinal fluid is draining properly. On the other hand, if the shunt malfunctions and there’s no flow, the sensor is able to quickly indicate that via heat flow measurements.

The Nanit Plus camera sees everything happening in and around the crib, with stunning clarity. And with Breathing Wear, that same camera can monitor your baby's breathing motion, simply by reading the customized paterns on the fabric. (Image: )[/caption]

Preventing sudden infant death syndrome

Sudden infant death syndrome is a new parent’s nightmare. The CDC reported 3,600 sudden unexpected infant deaths in 2017. It’s helpful to learn about newborn breathing to keep you informed and take the best care of your little one.

Nanit, an American tech start-up that develops baby monitor devices connected through its mobile app, released new infant clothing that do not need sensors or other forms of embedded electronics. Dubbed Breathing Wear, the infant outfit works with Nanit’s smart camera to monitor the baby’s breathing. The system provides insights into the baby’s breathing by allowing the camera to read the clothing’s patterns. An unobtrusive camera, placed above the crib, interprets the customized pattern on the baby’s clothing item and translates that into a breathing pattern. This information is then sent to the parent's smartphone or tablet.

Designing challenges

In addition to being flexible and easy-to-use, smart fabrics need to be hardy, accurate, and self-sufficient.

• To endure everyday wear and tear experienced by the user, the smart fabric needs to be toughened to stay intact and functional as well as machine-washable.
• As the wear and tear may affect the accuracy of the data collected, installing different types of sensors or multiple sensors will help ensure data accuracy.
• Small and unobtrusive sensors. Sensors must be small and unobtrusive so that they do not affect the fabric’s texture. However, the sensors must be able to collect and transfer data continuously.
• Energy harvesting. The continuous power supply is crucial for smart clothes to perform properly. Flexible batteries used in smart clothes need constant charging. To eliminate the need for charging, much research is going into energy harvesting from body heat and motion or vibration.

Read more Smart Clothes to Contribute Over $11 Bn to Fitness Wearable Revenue by 2025, Says Juniper Research

The future of wearables

The future of smart fabrics is brighter than ever. Smart clothes are headed to the forefront of wearable technology. Smart clothes will continue to evolve and eliminate the need for smartwatches, smart rings, and other types of health-monitoring wearables.

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Wearables for pets are here. Now, your dog or cat can be fitted up with GPS collars and even fancy fitness tracking collars.

The Pet Wearable Market is expected to reach USD 1,718 million by 2024 from USD 703 million in 2019 at a 19.6% CAGR. The growth of the market is attributed to the increasing concerns toward pet health and wellbeing, rising pet population & pet humanization, surging demand for IoT in pet tracking devices, and growing expenditure on pets due to high disposal income, according to Markets and Markets.

Read more These Wearables for Animals Will Keep Your Pets Happy and Engaged in Social Media

Whistle, a San Francisco-based pet device maker, has become a leader in the fast-growing pet wearables industry by rapidly improving its pet monitoring technology. The company’s flagship product line of Whistle Go devices used to simply report a pet's location and number of miles walked per day. Now, that data gets crunched in real-time to notify you through a smartphone app when subtle changes, like decreased activity or increased scratching, could indicate a health problem.

Whistle FIT serves as a preventative healthcare tool and utilizes its wellness program for dogs. It provides customers with a simple and fully personalized experience to manage pet care through monitoring of a pet's key health behaviors, food intake management, and activity. A service company at its core, Whistle Labs provides users with valuable insights that enable them to better care for their dogs.

For health and fitness monitoring, Whistle GO Explore and Whistle FIT are pet wearables that clip or attach to your dog’s collar.

Whistle Go Explore is smart pet device that monitors your pet’s location, health and fitness, which you can clip or attach on any collar.  Built for the outdoors and every adventure, this GPS-enabled smart tracker is packed with health and fitness monitoring features that give you the best pet parent peace of mind possible. Great for dogs 20 lbs and up.

Whistle trackers help owners stay on top of their dog's fitness with recommended daily activity goals based on breed, age, and weight. See calories burned, distance traveled, minutes active & more. Whistle trackers help owners get ahead of potential health problems with alerts, notifications and weekly wellness reports that monitor behaviors like licking, scratching, and sleeping. Owners can also get a 30-day view of health behavior that can easily be shared with a veterinarian.

"Our mission is to improve the lives of pets by empowering the people who love them," said Collette Bunton, CEO of Whistle Labs. "Introducing Whistle FIT to our product portfolio is a direct response to our customers' needs for insights into their pet's health and fitness. Through our Pet Insight Project, where we've enlisted over 50,000 citizen scientists and collected data from 60,000 dogs across 900 breeds and mixes, we're able to provide an in-depth look into pet behavior and provide Whistle FIT users with actionable solutions. These insights help give our pets a voice and enable pet parents to deliver the right care when they need it — leading to happier and healthier pets."

A recent survey conducted by Whistle of 1,000 U.S. pet owners revealed their biggest concern is understanding and managing their pets' behavior, as well as providing them with proper nutrition and healthcare.

"Whistle FIT collects over 50 samples of your pet's movements every second, enabling our research team to look for hidden insights and discover never-before-seen patterns," said Jordan Meyer, Whistle's VP of Product. "As we uncover new connections between pet behavior, health and nutrition, we'll update the Whistle app to provide new capabilities and features, and offer greater insight into your pet's well-being."

Read more Wearable Pet Technology Company Link AKC Acquired by Smart Tracking Technologies

Whistle is the only brand in pet wearables to offer personalized nutrition recommendations. With over 3,000 types of dog food, across all major brands, in its database, Whistle calculates the total daily amount an owner should be feeding their dog based on age, breed, weight, activity level/calories burned, and type of dog food. Activity levels are pulled directly from the Whistle tracker to make it easy to calculate precise average calories burned per day as input into portion recommendations. Once a pet owner enters their dog food, the Whistle app evaluates activity levels to determine the portion of food suggested specifically for that dog. Similar to humans, fitness in dogs is based not only on activity but also the amount of calories consumed.

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Drones have become a fixture of our modern lives. From taking pictures and delivering packages to monitoring crops and spraying pesticides, drones can perform various tasks. However, there’s one space where drones haven’t yet made their marks yet and that is healthcare.

Read more How Fitness Wearables Will Evolve In The Future

Researchers say that the recreational drone market — valued at $2.33 billion in 2020, according to data from Research and Markets — could come together with the $30 billion wearables market to produce what may one day be a fixture in personal health and wellness: fitness drones, reports Washington Post.

Jaggobot

In 2012, Jaggobot, created by the Exertion Games Laboratory at RMIT University in Melbourne, became one of the earliest examples of the potential application of a drone in the fitness industry. The Joggobot was designed to fly about 10 feet from a visual marker located on a jogger’s T-shirt.

Traverse Drone concept

In a recent development, students at Hongik University in South Korea, unveiled their Traverse drone concept in 2020. The project which hasn’t yet been built, is intended to serve as a personal trainer for recreational runners.

A wearable, called Pod, accompanies the Traverse drone. The drone uses the Pod, which sits around your neck, as a tracking tag, while the Pod itself works as your personal coach, giving you audio feedback to improve your form and performance.

The Traverse drone is accompanied by the Pod, a wearable that sits around your neck. The drone uses the wearable as a tracking tag, while the Pod itself works as your personal coach, giving you audio feedback to improve your form and performance. A simple button-based interface on the Pod lets you toggle between various functions without having to look at your smartphone screen. After you are finished with your workout, the drone sends detailed stats to the companion app on your smartphone.

Drone Chi

The Exertion Games Lab believes it has come up with a prime example: meditative drones that can be used for “Drone Chi,” a 21st-century answer to the ancient Chinese martial art of tai chi, the Washington Post report said.

Researchers used a small micro-drone, complete with a faux flower. Using motion capture technology, they were able to tie the movements of the drone to hand movement, allowing participants to practice the slow and smooth hand movements that characterize tai chi. The lab has already created prototypes of these micro-drones and used them successfully in experiments.

Read more Walmart Begins Testing Drone Deliveries For Groceries, Household Items

“We found that it has something meditative about it,” said Florian “Floyd” Mueller, director of the Exertion Games Lab, now at Monash University in Melbourne. “There’s this rubber band relationship. If I move one way, it moves a bit further, or if I move back, it speeds up. You can’t be abrupt. You need to be smooth. There’s a value to that.”

“It could be a complementary companion in the future,” he said. “If you don’t have a sibling or dog to go jogging with, maybe a quadcopter is the next best thing.”

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Plastic Logic, a leader in the design and manufacture of flexible, glass-free electrophoretic displays (EPDs), has announced a new flexible 5.4in color display that is set to revolutionize smart wearable devices.

Read more Flexible Color E Ink Displays for Wearables Could Soon Become a Reality

Smart wearables, such as jewelry, have become increasingly popular among consumers over the last decade. The problem is most wearable displays are black and white - Plastic Logic is changing all that with its new full-color display technology. For further information see the IDTechEx report on Wearable Sensors 2021-2031.

"Wearable device designers can now source innovative flexible color display technology to incorporate into applications including smart jewelry, smart clothing, and even smart health-tracking devices," said Tim Burne, CEO, Plastic Logic. "Color really enhances the functionality and look-and-feel of any smart wearable - in fact, it makes smart wearables even smarter."

As well as flexibility, which is key to wearables' design, Plastic Logic's displays are extremely robust as well as ultrathin, lightweight and flexible, making them ideally suited for integration into wearables that need to withstand the wear-and-tear of daily usage, Plastic Logic said in a press release.

"When it comes to wearable products, we've proved that you don't have to trade visual appeal for functionality," added Tim Burne. "We have already worked with several smart jewelry manufacturers, developing wearable display solutions for their innovative products. There are many more wearable applications that this technology is perfect for."

Plastic Logic's displays are available as engineering samples as well as in volume and can be ordered on request.

Read more Nubia Launches Futuristic Flexible Display Smartwatch at Kickstarter

About Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic designed the world's first truly flexible, glass-free electrophoretic displays (EPDs)—Lectum. Originally made in Dresden, Germany, production is today carried out in industry-leading manufacturing facilities globally. Founded in 2000, the company is supported by major investors including the Rusnano Corporation, the EINK Corporation, and DKE Displays, underlining its market and technology leadership position.

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Biometric wearables like Whoop bracelets, Oura rings, BioStrap and BioStickers, are all showing promise for health and fitness monitoring. These wearables can track heart rate, sleep, detect transmissible diseases early, track cancer patient recovery, and more.

Related Cyberlink, Tevano, Tiger Tech Implement Biometric Wearables to Prevent COVID-19 Spread

Oura Rings provide health monitoring for firefighters

The Duxbury Fire Department became the first fire department in the country to offer biometric rings to all of its firefighters and staff. Firefighters will sport Oura biometric rings, which will track their vital signs, including pulse, temperature, and sleep cycles, in order to indicate when they are run down or susceptible to illness.

“I wanted to give the men and women another tool to keep them healthy,” said Duxbury Fire Chief Kevin Nord.

The Oura rings can track the wearer’s temperature, which means that they will be able to tell whether or not a firefighter has a fever and could be infected with COVID-19. However, the rings also measure other vital signs like pulse and sleep cycles, giving them ongoing utility as a general health tracker once the coronavirus has passed.

WHOOP the official wearable of Crossfit

WHOOP and CrossFit announced a multi-year partnership naming WHOOP the Official Wearable of CrossFit. The partnership will help CrossFit athletes at all levels benefit from WHOOP data around training, sleep, and recovery. CrossFit also plans to share data from the world’s fittest athletes via integrations into its broadcast programming and other digital and on-site channels.

“CrossFit athletes were some of the earliest WHOOP adopters and have continued to be an integral part of our growing global membership,” said Will Ahmed, WHOOP Founder and CEO. “WHOOP is the ideal partner for CrossFit training as it provides the information that athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike need to understand their bodies, prioritize recovery, and ultimately optimize performance. We are incredibly excited to become an official partner of CrossFit and bring our communities even closer together.”

BioIntelliSense Partners with Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

BioIntelliSense, Inc., a continuous health monitoring and clinical intelligence company has entered into a strategic partnership with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to incorporate the use of the BioSticker™ medical wearable device and data services in clinical trials of hematological cancer patients.

The BioSticker is the first FDA-cleared single-use medical device that enables 30 days of continuous vital signs monitoring. The BioIntelliSense medical-grade Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform and FDA 510(k) Class II medical wearable device provide a new standard for Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), by combining an effortless patient experience with medical-grade clinical accuracy, for cost-effective virtual trials, the company said.

Related Xyntek, Nymi Partner Up to Add Wearable Biometric Devices to their Platform

BioStrap detected COVID-19 of its CEO

BioStrap CEO Sameer Sontakey was alerted by his BioStrap wearable that he may have COVID-19, prompting him to schedule a test, which confirmed the early diagnosis.

People with even asymptomatic COVID-19 show significant biometric changes, including their resting heart rate, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation, respiration rate and arterial properties. A risk assessment system developed by BioStrap with a modified Early Warning Score (EWS) can detect potential respiratory infections based on these signals, the company says. The biometric monitoring showed Sontakey’s sleep quality declined, with disruptions and their durations increasing, and his heart rate variability plummeted. After recovery, the BioStrap-EWS detected his return to normal values and reclassified him as low-risk. The same pattern was also noted in other users who tested positive for COVID-19 during the company’s internal testing in 2020, reports Biometric Update.

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Huawei is launching two new wearables in Austria. In addition to a new fitness band, there is an elegant, but an inexpensive smartwatch.

Read more Huawei Now Allows Third-Party Apps On Its Wearables

The Chinese tech giant will be releasing the sixth generation of its fitness bracelet – Huawei Band 6 – in Austria at the end of April. The Band 6 comes in two colors: Black and Pink and the price is 59 Euros.

“With a local increase in deliveries of 214 percent in Austria and 36 percent on a global level, the success and popularity of smart wearables is also evident on the market," said Huawei. Tracking one's own fitness is still very much in vogue, reports Heute.

With a 1.47-inch AMOLED Full View display, the Huawei Band 6 offers a display area that is 148 percent larger. The display has a resolution of 194 x 368 pixels. Compared to its predecessor, the display was more colorful, and the screen now shows more information such as larger photos, more in-depth training statistics, and continuous heart rate measurements. Four intuitive touchscreen controls are also new.

Huawei Watch Fit Elegant

The Huawei Watch Fit Elegant is an elegant-looking smartwatch with an affordable price tag. It is already available in white and black for 109 Euros. The Huawei Watch Fit Elegant is a design upgrade of the already sold Huawei Watch Fit with a polished stainless-steel case and plastic band. The Elegant has a 1.64-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 280 x 456 pixels. The watch automatically adjusts the brightness based on the ambient conditions. The battery should last around ten days.

The watch can track your blood oxygen with the simple touch of a finger. There are twelve animated workouts and 44 standard movement demonstrations. Heart rate, calories burned and the duration of exercise are also measured. There are also 96 different training modes. Also included: GPS sensor, waterproof housing, and quick charge. Only five minutes of charging time should take the watch over a whole day.

Read more Huawei Focuses On Health Care Wearables As It Pushes Into New Growth Areas

Huawei presented in Austria recently alongside the new wearables also the first monitor of the company (Huawei Display 28.3 "), and the headphones Huawei FreeBuds 4i and the new notebooks Huawei Mate Book X Pro 2021 and Huawei Mate Book D14.

Huawei also confirmed that it will Open a Huawei Experience Store on Kärntner Strasse in Vienna in summer 2021.

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During the COVID-19 lockdown, people remained home and the streets emptied of cars. But the streets didn’t remain empty for long, they got filled up with bicycles. Across the world, the quarantine brought about a dramatic increase in bicycle sales in response to the pandemic.

Whether you’re an athlete with cycling at the core of your fitness journey, or you are just an amateur who enjoys cycling, it’s important to have a smartwatch with all the tracking features.

Below is our pick of the best cycling smartwatches in 2021.

Read more Hit the Road with these 5 High-Tech Wearables for Motorcyclists

Garmin Fenix 6

Garmin Fenix 6 has some of the best sports features. The heart rate sensor is so precise it can double up as a triathlon watch or running watch. One of the reasons this watch is ideal for cycling is that it has long battery life. This is really great if you are a long-distance cyclist, touring cyclist, or just someone who doesn’t like charging your watch every day. The other reason why this is my pick for cycling watch is its offline maps. When you’re commuting on a bike, it’s really nice to have a map on your wrist.

Apple Watch Series 6

The Apple Watch Series is a fantastic cross between having a healthy lifestyle and keeping your cycling act in check! The most significant advantage of using the Apple Watch over anything else for cycling is the software options. Apple Watch Series 6 offers a hardware pulse oximeter and altimeter, which means the native fitness tracker from Apple will have more information on your oxygen absorption level and accurate elevation tracking. The Series 6 also offers GPS tracking, optical heart rate monitoring, and an ECG app. To be safe and extremely accurate, Apple Maps Cycling Mode is being built from the ground up. Apple is releasing it city by city so the company can get it right the first time without endangering the lives of cyclists. The interchangeable bands come in different colors and sizes.

Polar M430

Europe’s top-selling running watch, the Polar M430 is for those who prefer a fuss-free yet affordable cycling watch. The Polar M430 combines all the best bits for cycling, running, and any goal-oriented outdoor activity. It provides a better GPS, has powerful wrist-based heart rate tracking, sleep tracking, and smartphone notifications. The M430 is particularly designed as a sports watch, where it retained its monochrome style similar to that of M400. This design allows bicyclists to glance at the screen easily while biking. When the surroundings become dark, it has an option to invert the display and tap on a backlight. The softer silicone strap with holes makes it more breathable and ergonomic to better fit the wrist.

Suunto 9 Baro

Suunto 9’s massive 320 x 320px touch screen is easy to use while cycling. The watch doesn’t have a bum on the strap-like other watches, because Suunto has integrated the GPS antenna into the bezel. In addition to GPS, it has GLONASS, Galileo, and QZZS satellite networks. The smartwatch also features a built-in optical heart rate sensor, altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass. The best thing about Suunto 9 is its battery superiority; the company claims up to 120 hours of tracking in the power-saving Ultra mode. The disadvantages: you can’t sync your workouts from third-party apps, no music control and there are no Strava live segments, reports CyclingNews.

Polar Vantage V2

Polar Vantage V2 is a lightweight premium multisport watch that helps you train smarter and recover fully. Thanks to its built-in GPS, wrist-based heart rate monitoring, and extremely long battery life, this sleek, lightweight smartwatch is an excellent option for cyclists. When you buy the cycling bundle, you get the Polar H10 armband for heart rate, a bike mount for the watch, and an exclusive saddlebag. The best training features are the built-in Cycling Performance FTP tests (when paired to a power meter) and new Running Performance tests, which enable you to more quickly and easily determine heart rate, speed & power zones within submaximal & maximal test options. The smartwatch also provides route guidance to make sure you never get lost. It connects easily to Strava, the running, and cycling tracking app.

Read more How Wearables are Helping Athletes Enhance Their Performance

Conclusion

So, that’s it for our top picks of the best smartwatches for cycling in 2021. With all the different types of smartwatches and fitness trackers out there, hopefully, this article has given you an idea about the options available and helped you in your quest to find the best smartwatch for cycling this year.

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Encouraging more contactless payment as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, leading radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology company ISBC has announced the intention to launch ISBC Pay, its first flagship Mastercard-certified contactless key fobs for payments. The company has also announced the establishment of its global headquarters in Singapore as part of its regional expansion plans.

ISBC wearables are currently used by over seven million customers worldwide across fintech, transport, and access control applications.

Read more Keyble – The World’s First Wearable With Fingerprint Authentication for Contactless Payments

Customers are able to upload their bank cards to the ISBC Pay wearables, providing a more convenient and personalized method for consumers to make contactless payments as an alternative to credit cards or smartphones. The wearables are protected by Mastercard’s security systems, built on the latest NXP microcontroller, and offer consumers data security akin to contactless payments with a physical or virtual bank card, reports ISBC.

ISBC’s expansion into Singapore attests to the country’s digitally-savvy population, where the ratio of cash withdrawals to payments has fallen from 47% in 2016 to 17% in 2020. Furthermore, according to a 2020 report by Visa, 84% of consumers in Singapore use contactless payments, indicating an increased demand for fast, secure, and digitized transactions, which ISBC plans to capitalize on.

Through its hub in Singapore, ISBC aims to connect with market leaders across Southeast Asia, with future plans to expand to Malaysia and Indonesia, and to partner with 50 banks globally by the end of this year. In preparation for future launches, ISBC is also designing prototypes of Singapore-themed key fobs to appeal to the local market.

The key fob was invented in 2015, where it was initially developed for access control, transport ticketing and bonus cards. In 2018, the product was certified by Mastercard and Visa, and rolled out in Europe as a payment wearable. Following that, 2019 saw the launch of pilot projects with banks and banking consumers, and a rebrand of the product to ISBC Key. Significant improvements were made in 2021 and ISBC Key 2 was released to provide greater security and convenience for everyday use.

“The establishment of our headquarters in Singapore underscores the importance of Asia which is seeing rapid growth and innovation in RFID technology. More consumers are embracing revolutionary solutions that are convenient, secure yet trendy all at once, and we look forward to becoming the contactless payment device of choice in Southeast Asia. Partnering with semiconductor market leader NXP and Fidesmo is a huge step in this direction,” says Ivan Demidov, founder and CEO of ISBC.

Read more Contactless Payment Systems On The Rise Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

“Enabling seamless contactless experiences is a key part of our mission at NXP,” said Alasdair Ross, Director of Secure Payment and NFC Infrastructure at NXP Semiconductors. “We’re excited to work with ISBC and Fidesmo on this project that helps ensure secure and convenient contactless payments through new, innovative form factors.”

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In the near future, your doctor will be able to track your vital signs via electronic skin worn on your body. Researchers in Japan say they have developed a new ultrathin, lightweight e-skin that’s worn on the chest area utilizing water spray and may be worn for every week at a time.

This research was led by Professor Takao Someya at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering.

Read more Artificial Electronic Skin Senses Pain, Temperature As Fast As Human Skin

Wearable electronics that monitor heart rate and other vital health signals have made headway in recent years, with next-generation gadgets employing lightweight, highly elastic materials attached directly onto the skin for more sensitive, precise measurements. However, although the ultrathin films and rubber sheets used in these devices adhere and conform well to the skin, their lack of breathability is deemed unsafe for long-term use: dermatological tests show the fine, stretchable materials prevent sweating and block airflow around the skin, causing irritation and inflammation, which ultimately could lead to lasting physiological and psychological effects.

"We learned that devices that can be worn for a week or longer for continuous monitoring were needed for practical use in medical and sports applications," says Professor Takao Someya at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering whose research group had previously developed an on-skin patch that measured oxygen in the blood.

Made from a flexible material — polyvinyl alcohol — with a layer of gold, the e-skin is a wearable sensor that can pick up signals such as heartbeat and electrical impulses from muscle movement.

A small wireless transmitter strapped to the chest will send heartbeat data to a nearby smartphone or laptop, or to the cloud, allowing a doctor to monitor it remotely, reports CNN.

"E-skin is the next generation of wearables," Someya tells CNN Business. "Today's mainstream wearables are in the form of smartwatches and glasses, which are bulky. In contrast, e-skin is thin, lightweight, stretchable, and durable."

Designed for older people

Someya said he designed his e-skin with Japan's rapidly aging population in mind. For remote health care to be most effective, Someya says it is important to monitor older people's health for long periods with high precision.

Read more Researchers Develop Flexible Patch That Can Monitor and Treat Heart Disease

Someya is also developing an LED display, in partnership with Dai Nippon Printing (DNPCF), to be worn on the back of the user's hand. This is designed for older people or those with who have difficulty using a smartphone. The device will show heartbeat data transmitted by it in the form of large and easily understood graphics. It can also display simple emojis — including a heart and a rainbow — sent by friends and relatives from a smartphone, to help older people feel connected to their loved ones, according to the CNN report.

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Sonova, the world’s biggest hearing aid maker, based in Switzerland, announced it will buy the consumer unit of German headphone and microphone maker Sennheiser for 200 million euros ($241 million) to reach younger customers through the emerging segment of in-ear wearables.

Read more Boston Scientific Buys Wearable Cardiac Sensor Maker Preventice Solutions for $1.2B

Subject to regulatory approval, the plan is to complete the transfer of the business to Sonova by the end of 2021. Sennheiser had announced in February that it would focus on the Professional business in the future while seeking a partner for the Consumer Electronics business.

The Sennheiser brand has been a synonym for first-class sound and excellent product quality for over 75 years. With the takeover of the Sennheiser Consumer business, Sonova is adding headphones and soundbars to its hearing care portfolio, which includes hearing aids and cochlear implants, among other hearing solutions. Sonova will also take over the development and production areas of Sennheiser Consumer Electronics so that Sennheiser customers will continue to benefit from this in the future, reports Sennheiser.

"We couldn't have asked for a better partner than Sonova for our Consumer Electronics business," says Daniel Sennheiser, co-CEO at Sennheiser. "Sonova is a strong, well-positioned company. Not only do we share a passion for unique audio experiences, we also share very similar corporate values. This gives us an excellent foundation for a successful future together." Co-CEO Dr. Andreas Sennheiser adds: "The combination of our strengths provides a very good starting point for future growth. We are convinced that Sonova will strengthen the Sennheiser Consumer Business in the long term and capture the major growth opportunities." Both partners see great potential in particular in the market for speech-enhanced hearables and for true wireless and audiophile headphones.

Arnd Kaldowski, CEO of Sonova, says: “I am very pleased that Sennheiser has chosen Sonova to further develop the well-renowned Consumer Division. We look forward to welcoming our new colleagues and to building on the combined strengths of both organizations to successfully shape our joint future. The fast-growing market for personal audio devices is rapidly evolving. Combining our audiological expertise with Sennheiser’s know-how in sound delivery, their great reputation, as well as their high-quality products, will allow us to expand our offering and to create important touchpoints with consumers earlier in their hearing journey. Combining our market-leading technology with the strong brand and well-established distribution network of Sennheiser creates a strong foundation for future growth.”

Read more Hearing Aids Market to Grow Up to $14.45 Billion by 2026, According to Fortune Business Insights

Sonova, headquartered in Stäfa, Switzerland, is a leading provider of innovative hearing care solutions. The Group operates through its core business brands Phonak, Unitron, Hansaton, Advanced Bionics, and the brands of the Audiological Care business, e.g. AudioNova, Geers, Boots Hearing Care, Connect Hearing, and Lapperre. Sonova offers its customers one of the most comprehensive product portfolios in the industry – from hearing instruments to cochlear implants to wireless communication solutions.

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If you’re afraid of misplacing your vaccination card, don’t worry. An enterprising company has developed a smart bracelet that could carry your COVID-19 vaccination card's information and tell others around you that you've been fully vaccinated.

Read more How Wearables Like Oura and Whoop Became Pandemic Lifestyle

The ImmunaBand is a stylish blue silicone bracelet emblazoned with the words "COVID-19 Vaccinated." Each bracelet has a metal tag with an engraved, unique QR code which, when scanned by a smartphone, directs users to their personal password-protected vaccination record. To purchase an ImmunaBand, customers must complete a COVID-19 vaccination that has received FDA Emergency Authorization and upload their vaccination card documenting that status to ImmunaBand's HIPAA-compliant server. The vaccination card storage process is end-to-end encrypted to ensure data privacy and security, the company said in a news release.

“These vaccines are a culmination of some of the best work the scientific community has ever seen. But with its tremendous benefits come challenges—as it stands, quick, easy access to documentation of vaccination status is lacking,” said J. Tashof Bernton, MD, President of ImmunaBand. “After a year defined by divisions, we deserve to feel comfortable and safe in public. ImmunaBand will serve as the passport that returns us back to normal life.”

The creators of ImmunaBand developed the technology to restore trust, bring people back together, and help collectively move toward a post-quarantine world. Immunaband offers a visible solution not just to individuals but to businesses who are eager to safely reopen their doors.

"Innovation and technology play a vital role in getting our economy, and society, back to normal again. Immunaband is a great example of this, by providing companies of all sizes—from small businesses to those in leisure, hospitality, and travel—with a novel and visible way to demonstrate their commitment to a safe environment for their employees and customers," said ImmunaBand Board Member, Daniel Charles.

Read more Empatica First to Win CE Mark For Wearable-Based Early Symptoms Detection of COVID-19

ImmunaBand is available starting at $19.99 plus shipping and handling. Quantity discounts are available for employers. More information is available on the company’s website.

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In the cement industry, production takes place where natural limestone deposits are found. The base material is crushed, ground, homogenized, calcined, and fired at 1,500 °C. Therefore, the construction sites are noisy, dusty and, can be very hot or frosty.

Read more RealWear’s HMT-1 AR Headset Helping Automotive Companies Achieve Greater Productivity

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions deployed polysius® connect solution based on oculavis SHARE to provide efficient remote assistance and ensure that machine and plant downtimes are minimized. The fact that machine-related challenges can be mastered remotely with a professional Augmented Reality platform like oculavis SHARE was quickly recognized by skilled workers and managers.

The integration of oculavis SHARE provided a huge advantage. Customers benefitted from fast service by reducing valuable downtimes of machinery and equipment and minimizing costs (e.g. travel expenses for flight, hotel, etc.), writes Daniel Mirbach in oculavis.

Confidence led to more complex use cases

Polysius connect was rolled out for further use cases in the life cycle of complex plants. The machine-related processes assisted with remote service to:

• Support for commissioning with regional offices,
• Preparation of inspections for upcoming repair and maintenance work,
• Guidance in preventive maintenance activities to ensure the availability of the production plant or to maintain the manufacturing process,
• Consulting and realization of plant optimizations to alternative fuels and combustion processes in order to reduce CO2 emissions,
• identification of spare parts in order to be able to supply customers optimally at short notice

Freedom in the selection of hardware

For live support with customers, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions does not use smart glasses exclusively. If the customer does not have one at hand, he simply takes a smartphone or tablet to use oculavis SHARE. The purely voice-controlled RealWear HMT-1 smart glasses are utilized. The HMT-1 is IP66 waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, and temperature-resistant. The high-resolution camera, active noise canceling, and long battery life are optimally supported by the smart glasses app optimized by oculavis. The biggest benefits are hands-free working and the free field of vision so that the contact to the environment is not affected, according to the oculavis report.

Read more Vuzix Smart Glasses Combined With Topcon’s MAGNET Software Boost Efficiency In Construction Sites

Breaking new ground in service and showing attitude towards customers

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions demonstrated its attitude and ability to act amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Processes and structures that existed before the crisis were questioned, redesigned and an innovative path was taken in service through the implementation of oculavis SHARE. The cement technologies business unit gains a competitive advantage by having not only a quick helper with remote service in times of need, but also a solution that reduces plant downtimes, increases the first-time-fix rate, and generates new revenues in sales in the long term. And less traveling also contributes to climate-neutral cement production by 2050.

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With shark bites increasing in countries like Australia, beachgoers wearing electronic technology while in the water is an effective way to prevent future deaths and injuries which could save the lives of up to 1063 Australians along the coastline over the next 50 years, new study on shark bites reveals.

Read more Wearable Device Reveal Seals Prepare Themselves For Diving By Reducing Blood Flow To Their Blubber

The modeling research, published in the scientific journal Royal Society Open Science, shows that while shark bites are rare events, strategies to reduce shark-bite risk are also valuable because they can severely affect victims and their support groups – with one-third of victims experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

There were 985 incidents reported in the Australian Shark Attack File from 1900 to 2020 from 20 different species, reports Flinders University.

The researchers analyzed per-capita shark bites around Australia from 1900 to 2020 and developed models to estimate the preventative impact of electronic deterrents if they were worn by water users, to predict how many shark bites could be avoided.

Lead author Professor Corey Bradshaw of Flinders University says efforts to reduce the risk of shark bites, even if they are extremely rare, are valuable with electronic deterrents capable of reducing the likelihood of a bite by about 60%, potentially saving hundreds of lives over the next 50 years.

"Avoiding death, injury, and trauma from shark bites over the next half-century would be a realistic outcome if people use these personal electronic deterrents whenever they're in the water, and as long as the technology is operating at capacity."

"Given that governments are applying multiple approaches to mitigate shark bites such as drones, SMART drumlines, and acoustic monitoring, our simulations suggest electronic deterrents could make a valuable contribution to overall mitigation, and so help allay community fears."

"This is especially so when you consider the additional costs associated with the loss of recreational, commercial, and tourism revenue in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars following clusters of shark-bite events. "

"For example, the New South Wales Government recently invested AU$16 million to mitigate shark bites in part due to lost revenue from businesses benefitting from water users and tourism."

Despite the low probability of being bitten by a shark, the rising number of people spending time in waters frequented by sharks increases shark-bite risk to an extent.

The researchers point out this approach relies on many assumptions, the biggest factors being stability in the abundance of sharks, shark behavior, shark distribution (potentially influenced by climate), and human use of the ocean.

Shark scientist and co-author Associate Professor Charlie Huveneers, who leads the Southern Shark Ecology Group at Flinders University, says the electronic deterrent devices can be beneficial, as long as people understand their effectiveness and how much they actually reduce the risk of attacks.

“Although several studies have demonstrated that electronic deterrents can reduce the probability of shark bites, device efficacy varies among manufacturers and even between products of the same manufacturer.”

Read more Scientists Develop Marine Skin Wearable to Track Underwater Creatures

“When testing these products scientifically, we need a large number of interactions to (i.e., using robust statistics) assess efficacy confidently. As a result, we often need to use bait or berley to attract sharks, which likely motivate sharks to bite more than in situations when sharks encounter a swimmer or surfer.”

“Therefore, the ability of electric deterrents to reduce shark bite risk might be greater than the 60% decrease we observed in our studies, further increasing the number of lives saved.”

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During quarantine, obsessive health tracking has become a hobby for people with means. Adelene Cheng is a 40-something Toronto bank executive. She uses Oura ring to monitor her sleep, heart rate, and overall health. The Oura app tells her how prepared her body is for activity that day. Cheng hopes to achieve triple crown which is an award given when readiness, sleep, and activity each has a score above 85.

Read more WHOOP Partners with CQUniversity and Cleveland Clinic to Study Whether its Wearable Could Identify Hidden COVID-19 Cases

“I do work out quite a bit, so sometimes my body says I'm not ready," she said. "And I'm not the greatest sleeper. That's why I got the ring.”

A category of apps, wearables, content, and workout equipment make up what's known as the high-performance lifestyle (HPL) market. The market has seen a boom during the pandemic as people with disposable income increasingly turned to tech to optimize their performance, reports Bartie Scott and Hillary Hoffower in Business Insider.

An Oura spokesperson told Insider that ring sales doubled in the last year to a total of 300,000 since the company's launch in 2018.

During the pandemic, the fitness tech startups raised a record $2.3B in 2020, per CB Insights, and connected fitness raised nearly $900M.

Monthly visits to Peloton’s US site soared from two million in March 2020 to 10 million in November 2020, according to Bank of America Research.

In San Diego, California, a 33-year-old biotech manager, named Justin Flowers, bought an Oura and a Whoop and took up running during the pandemic.

"I've learned a lot about my body from both devices," Flowers said, citing the impact of late-night exercise, blue light glasses, melatonin supplements, hydration, and the effects of alcohol. "These are all things that my Series 5 Apple Watch, which I also wear, can't tell me.”

Back in Toronto, Cheng thinks before having a glass of wine in the evening. She's noticed it increases her heart rate, which disrupts her sleep and hurts her readiness score the next morning, the Business Wire report said.

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

"I didn't make those connections in normal real-time, because I wasn't getting a hangover," she said. "I was ready for work the next day." Now, she said, the Oura data will tell her that even though she may feel okay, her body is still struggling to recover.

"My ring told me this morning that I was delayed in readiness. And it said, 'Did you have a late meal?' I did. "It allows me to see how certain activities help me or hinder me for the day ahead," she said.

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Fitbit is getting ready for its latest research initiative. The new research will focus on how the company’s smartwatches can measure blood pressure without the traditional arm-cuff method, Fitbit said in a blog post.

Read more Fitbit Users Can Now Track Their Blood Sugar Levels with the App Update

Starting this month, Fitbit Labs is launching a study to look at how Fitbit devices can potentially measure something called Pulse Arrival Time (PAT), which is the time it takes for a pulse of blood to reach your wrist after your heart beats, and explore the potential link to tracking blood pressure. U.S. Fitbit Sense users who are at least 20 years old can participate in the study.

High blood pressure is called a silent killer for a reason. Symptoms are rarely obvious but uncontrolled high blood pressure can increase the risk for heart disease and stroke, two leading causes of death for people in the United States. Nearly one out of two adults in the U.S. has high blood pressure, but many don’t know they have it, Fitbit said in its blog post.

While the ability to easily measure and monitor blood pressure in a wearable, non-cuff device has been of great interest, it has been rather elusive to date, and the ability to capture blood pressure readings in a non-cuff wrist-wearable has not yet been achieved.

Previous research has found a correlation between PAT and blood pressure, but the correlation was not strong enough to predict blood pressure. These investigations were limited to either small data sets or specific environments like an intensive care unit. Fitbit Labs also found a correlation between PAT and blood pressure in a small, 3-week internal study. The new study will extend this work to a broader population in order to learn more about how PAT measurements change under a variety of conditions.

“If high blood pressure was easier to measure, people could manage it earlier, which might help avoid preventable deaths from heart disease and stroke,” said Shelten Yuen, Principal Scientist at Fitbit, who is leading this work “It’s a hard scientific challenge, and a lot of work remains to be done to understand the best way to do this, but we have a history of advancing technology to make previously inaccessible health metrics available to Fitbit users from their wrist, so it’s a challenge we’re very passionate about solving.”

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

Having easy access to blood pressure readings is important for people with hypertension, so, assuming we can correlate PAT and blood pressure, being able to track PAT with a Fitbit device might give people more power to manage their condition in between doctors’ visits.

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