One of the lower-key exhibits at the Engadget Expand conference last week was a table that showed a centimeter-square leaf of plastic with a wire running to it from a small panel of electronics. All the leaf did was flex and unflex, but it was doing it in response to electronic signals -- and that's a pretty good technical trick. A few days later, the Novasentis … [Read more...]
Reebok Skullcap wins CES Innovations Award
Just the other day, we wrote about the Reebok Checklight head impact monitor, powered by technology from MC10. Yesterday. the Checklight was awarded a 2014 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award. Those awards are kind of a big deal. Some of them are sometimes headscratchers from a commercial point of view, but they always reflect innovative product thinking and good … [Read more...]
Hands-on with the Avegant Retinal Display; Pre-orders at CES
I wrote last month about the Avegant Retinal Display, a goggle-style headset that projects images directly onto your retina. I got a hands-on demo Friday at Engadget Espand, as well as a chat with the energetic COO Yobie Benajmin, and it was a special as I'd hoped. Most goggle viewers work by throwing an image onto a tiny hi-res screen that sits close to your eyes. … [Read more...]
Commercial Exoskeleton Helps Paraplegics Walk
Sometimes this wearables stuff can be pretty inspiring. Here's a story from LiveScience about a paraplegic who can walk again with the help of an Indego Exoskeleton. The exoskeleton worn by Gore attaches at the ankles and up the legs to his torso. Electric motors drive the hip and knee joints, while either leaning forward or backward controls the motion of the … [Read more...]
Creepy Subcutaneous Temp Sensor
There are limits to the DIY movement, you know? The Motherboard channel of Vice has the story of Tim Cannon of Grindhouse Wetware, who inserted what appears to be a larger-than-necessary sensor under his skin to monitor his temperature. It happened at a body modification conference in Germany. Oh -- and there are status lights that shine through his skin and light up his … [Read more...]
Airo Fitness Band To Track Nutrients?
We're hearing about the Airo fitness band, which claims to track activity, sleep, stress, and even what you eat by looking at your bloodstream. The plan is to build an aluminum band with some soft material on the skin side, and to sync through smartphones. From their FAQ: We've built proprietary technology that uses different wavelengths of light to look into the blood … [Read more...]
Seizure Detection
Here's a TEDx talk from Rick Housely, an 18-year-old engineering student at StevensTech, about how he got the idea for a wearable device that can detect an oncoming seizure -- and summon help. As the former editor of a magazine about emergency medical response, I find this pretty compelling... (h/t Roy Walter for the pointer.) … [Read more...]
Open Source Wristwear: the Angel
Hardware is expensive to develop; software is cheap. That's why the Angel sensor, an open source fitness band, has the potential for being extremely important. The Angel is raising money on Indiegogo, and (as of this writing) has raised more than $200,000 of its original $100,000 goal, with 9 days to go. So the thing is a hit. Or, at least, there'll be enough money to get … [Read more...]
Avegant Retinal Display Prototype
Most heads-up displays work by putting a monitor close to your eyes, one way or another. cNet's got a hands-on story about the Avegant Virtual Retinal Display, a prototype that actually projects images directly onto your retina. It sounds creepy, but it is, after all, how people see: light hitting the backs of our eyes. There's a key quote from Avegant's Allan Evens, … [Read more...]
Basis raises another $11.75m; opens store
Basis Science, which makes the Basis health-tracking watch, says it's raised another $11.75 million in its Series B funding round, GigaOm reports, bringing the total for the round to $23.25 million. Total funding is now $32.25 million -- not bad for a watch company. And where the Basis device used to be available only by invitation, you can now buy one from the company … [Read more...]