Every year around CES, Accenture releases a big global consumer survey about the consumer electronics market, asking about things like purchase intent. (We've written about it in years past.) If you're in the consumer wearables business, they say, 2016 may be a bumpy ride. John Curran, the managing director of Accenture's Communications, Media and Technology group, briefed … [Read more...]
iTENS: Portable Pain Relief without Pills: CES
Chronic pain is an unwelcome and debilitating part of life for millions people, and the side effects from medications and therapies often just make things worse, adding nausea, fatigue, and possible drug dependency to the mix. iTENS, LLC, an Ohio-based company, is hoping to change that with Bluetooth-based electrotherapy. TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) … [Read more...]
OmSignal’s Sports Bra Talks to Your iPhone: CES
Seems as if everything these days tracks biometrics, either as a basic function or an added feature. Most of those trackers are not gender-specific, but when you’re talking sports bras, you’re talking a decline in gender diversity. But in a good way. We think. Canadian company OmSignal has developed the Om bra, a sports bra that tracks biometrics, calories burned, and your … [Read more...]
Pet Sounds: Canine Tech at CES
The idea of electronics on a dog or cat collar is not particularly revolutionary; pet doors that require collar electronics have been around for a while. But the world of technology never stays stagnant, so three companies have come out with fitness trackers for pets and one with a game console for dogs. (The cats feel this last is unnecessarily species-ist.) The trackers … [Read more...]
L’Oreal and MC10 Team Up on Beauty Tech: CES
The cosmetics firm L'Oreal is not one you'd expect to see at a CES, which skews heavily to the electronic. Yet here is Guive Balooch, Global VP of its Technology Incubator, sitting with MC10 Co-founder Roozbeh ("Rooz") Ghaffari, both of them sporting blue heart-shaped stickers on their hands. Those stickers, they explain, track exposure to the sun, but do it in two … [Read more...]
Kopin Debuts Jaw-Dropping Noise Cancellation Technology: CES
If you know Kopin Corporation at all, you probably know them as a display technology company. At CES today, it demonstrated a noise cancellation chip with stunning performance. The Whisper Chip is a 4mm x 4 mm chip that draws 10mW and replaces a CODEC; it's agnostic to operating system, supports up to four mics and doesn't require a digital-to-analog converter. It would sit … [Read more...]
Fuller Brushing Experience from Grush, Kolibree: CES
Kids hardly ever want to brush their teeth. Let’s face it: It’s supposed to take a full two minutes and that cuts into valuable play time. Now two companies are addressing this situation with a great concept—combine tooth brushing and games—from slightly different angles. Both Grush and Kolibree toothbrushes monitor the position of your toothbrush head to determine how well … [Read more...]
Fossil Group Touts 100 New Wearables in 2016: CES
The Fossil Group, marketer of watches under 14 brands and recent purchaser of Misfit, said today that it plans to release "more than 100" new wearable devices this year. Do the math and it makes sense. The Fossil brand alone has three types of conventional watch-style devices -- one with a digital display, one with no digital display, and one with LEDs that act as … [Read more...]
Under Armour Teams with HTC and JBL on Integrated Fitness Hardware: CES Day -1
The fitness clothing maker Under Armour, already into the software business with its purchase of MyFitnessPal and Endomondo, is diving into the hardware business with a Healthbox suite of connected devices. Healthbox, developed with HTC (better known for its cellphones) comprises a band, a heart rate monitor, and scale, and is available for preorder for $400. (HTC previously … [Read more...]
Intel to Ship Curie Development Board (Finally) This Quarter for Less than $10: CES
As part of his CES keynote address, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said the microprocessor giant will finally ship the Curie button-sized development platform this quarter -- roughly a year after it was first announced. The Curie platform is key to Intel's position in the wearables and dev platform market; it's at the center of the company's upcoming "America's Greatest Makers" … [Read more...]