CES to include new generation of smartwear for health
After 24 months and more than 6 million steps recorded by about a dozen different trackers and smartwatches, the only thing I’m sure of is this: I am now two years older than when I started.
I’ve exceeded the step goal that my smartwatch set for me all but four days this month. Good, right? Except that my average daily step count fell more than 15% this month from November, when I missed the daily goal only once. So maybe I didn't do so well.
If you’re the proud owner of one of the 80 million wearables shipped this year, then you’re no stranger to this sort of head-scratching. Unless you’re a fitness fanatic, the stream of step counts and goal-beating atta-boy’s from these devices don’t seem much more pertinent to your overall health and wellbeing than fantasy football alerts.
Mercifully, 2016 will bring a new generation of wearables and apps worthy of the “smart" tag. Rather than simply spewing tallies culled from built-in sensors, they hope to hold your interest and avoid the sock drawer by delivering relevant insight and timely wellness advice. The first wave of this new breed will begin rolling out next week at CES in Las Vegas.
“All today’s metrics do is look at trends, but nothing is closing the feedback loop,” Liz Dickinson, CEO of Mio Global, told me. “I haven’t seen anything that gives a solid piece of advice based on the conditions.”
AI based on HUNT Study
Indeed. At CES next week, Mio plans to unveil a new recommendation engine designed to steer us to an exercise and activity level that’s optimal for us individually. The platform will be paired with the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company’s line of smartwatches and fitness bands.
The artificial intelligence that powers the platform marries insight from two primary sources: the landmark HUNT Study, a massive examination of population health out of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; and data it collects by observing the impact of exercise and other activity on your resting heartrate.
“I think it can reinvigorate the usefulness of wearables,” Dickinson said.
Though smartwatches and fitness trackers dominate the wearables landscape, many of the next-generation devices on the horizon focus on improving specific conditions. And they have other perches besides your wrist.
Take, for example, SpeechAid, a wearable from Aural Analytics being designed to help speech therapists extend guidance and direction to patients beyond their own facilities. SpeechAid hangs behind the ear and alerts patients when speech diverges from normal patterns. Aural Analytics, a Scottsdale, Ariz., startup out of Arizona State University, is focusing SpeechAid first on Parkinson’s disease patients, who have trouble controlling the pace and volume of their speech.
“Over time, people can’t hear (Parkinson’s patients), but they’re not aware of it,” said Xuan Zhong, an Aural Analytics engineer. SpeechAid helps correct that with vibrations to signal that their volume is too low and pulses like a metronome to help correct their pace.
Aural just produced working prototypes, and hopes to begin clinical trials with Parkinson’s patients in late 2016, according to Visar Berisha, an ASU engineering professor who co-founded the company along with Julie Liss, a speech-language pathologist and an associate dean at the university. They’re also developing a telematics app to help treat Parkinson’s patients remotely.
ASTHMA SUFFERERS
Another device, Atmotube, is a small, pill-bottle sized device from San Francisco-based NotAnotherOne that helps those with asthma and other respiratory ailments minimize exposure to detrimental air conditions. The portable device, which can be clipped to a belt loop or a purse, delivers real-time air-quality ratings via a smartphone app. It’s set to begin shipping this spring.
Vera Kozyr, CEO of NotAnotherOne, said the company plans to develop programming hooks to make it easier for developers to blend Atmotube’s capabilities with existing air-quality monitoring services. As well, the company plans to contribute to the Allergy & Asthma Network in an effort to more precisely identify attack-causing conditions. That work, in turn, will fuel improvements to Atmotube’s decision engine.
These are just a few of the apps and devices we’ll see next year promising insight and action plans rather than tallies and trends.
It won't be a moment too soon, as far as I’m concerned. As I’ve said, I don’t have any idea whether my activity’s at a healthful level. But my wearable should. It’s allegedly the smart one here. Finally, it seems, it’s going to prove it.
Mike Feibus is principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, a Scottsdale, Ariz., market strategy and analysis firm focusing on mobile ecosystems and client technologies. At CES in Las Vegas in January, he will be moderating a panel for the industry on user interfaces for next-generation wearables.You can reach him at mikef@feibustech.com.