The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the showcase event for consumer electronics innovations. This year’s giant show, held January 6 through 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada, was no different in that respect. What was different this year was the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) devices promising to change the lives of consumers for the better.
One of the areas most positively impacted by the rise in IoT is healthcare and wellness. There are some very interesting devices debuting this year. Let’s take a look at a few.
- Mocacare has designed a very small device, only seven millimeters thick, that can instantly read your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and blood flow. With the accompanying Mocaheart app that runs on iOS and android devices, those results, along with messages, pictures, and audio clips can be sent to your doctor, loved ones, or anyone you wish. This is a great tool for everyone from the very sick to the very healthy. An athlete may want to monitor and track these metrics for training purposes, while of course, someone wrestling with heart disease will want to both monitor and share this data with healthcare providers.
- Maybe the most avant-garde approach to stop smoking, the Quitbit is actually a cigarette lighter that tracks all your smoking! The device has an integral digital display, and also connects to an accompanying app designed to help and support those struggling with tobacco addiction. It lights cigarettes with a powerful electric heating coil, like those that came with automobiles up until recently. The manufacturers claim that it can last a week between charges. In addition to tracking your cigarette consumption, the device is trackable from your smartphone, so you don’t accidently lose your investment.
- Netherlands – based electronics giant Royal Philips has introduced its Lumify line of broadband ultrasound transducers. Rather than plugging into a big medical device that wheels around a hospital or clinic, the Lumify transducers plug into any Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. Ultrasound medical imaging now becomes an anytime-anywhere activity. This is useful in making medicine both less costly and more accessible. The devices are critical for various medical diagnoses and examinations, including, obstetrics, lungs, abdomen, and even gallbladder.
- Withings has rethought the oft-dreaded bathroom scale into a “Smart Body Analyzer.” Interactively, you and up to seven other family members or roommates, enter information about yourself on the connected app, and the system monitors several parameters such as weight, body mass index, fat mass, and heart rate. The device goes so far as to measure and tracks your indoor air quality via carbon dioxide levels, and ambient temperature. It even provides a daily weather forecast.
- Unfortunately, cases of food allergies are on the rise. Severe food allergies can be deadly. Adults and children often carry epiPen automatic epinephrine injectors as emergency treatment for exposure to severe allergens. Aterica Digital Health has created the Veta smart case and GPS enabled app with integrated sensors to monitor and communicate with iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth. The Veta sends automatic notifications when the device is beyond a certain distance from the mobile device to help prevent losing or leaving the epiPen behind. Parents can receive the notifications as well, to monitor their allergic children on the go. The Veta also sends notifications when the auto-injector has been removed from its case, or when the device temperature reaches a certain level, potentially destroying the medicine in the injector. It also sends an alert when the medicine is about to expire and needs to be swapped for a new dose.