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Wearables

Pilot smart earpiece soars with easy language translation

editors-choiceOne main challenge while traveling abroad is the ability to understand people speaking in different languages. Directions and other important information can easily be lost in translation.

Pilot is a smart earpiece that provides real-time language translation. It enables wearers to speak different languages, but still clearly understand each other because the language heard through the earpiece is each wearer’s own language. If someone does not have an earpiece, they can still use the smartphone app to translate. A nice extra feature is that the app can be used as a loudspeaker when in conference mode. Initial languages being supported are English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Additional languages will follow.

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Health and Wellness Wearables

WellBe bracelet detects your stress, helps all be well again

For many people, stress is a debilitating part of life, its negative impacts contributing to health problems as varied as headaches and fatigue to more serious ailments like heart disease and obesity. And since stress is everywhere, it’s difficult to address for many.

patent-claimedWith the WellBe digital stress therapy bracelet on the wrist, stress need not be this, well, stressful. WellBe helps using a combination of heart rate monitor and mobile app to determine a wearer’s stress levels over time based on three factors: time, location, and people. By constantly gathering this data, WellBe offers personalized playlists of exercises and classes guided by WellBe mentors to help control stress levels, displaying how each activity affects stress levels in the long-term. 

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Wearables

The Pebble Core wearale agent helps runners at a new clip

Crowdfunding darling Pebble, the company behind the first truly successful smartwatch, is back at it again. In refining its brand of practical design, the company recently debuted its next generation of devices. While the two smartwatches introduced, the Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2, were expected, a third device called the Pebble Core is the company’s attempt at an ultra-wearable that ends being surprisingly useful on a daily basis.

One of the biggest things about the Pebble Core is its tiny size, the result of it having been designed first and foremost as a workout companion. With it clipped to the collar of a shirt or at the end of a tank top, there’s no need for a bulky smartphone wrapped around the arm or waist. Without a smartphone, though, those who are active have to contend with being disconnected, a problem the Core solves with its built-in micro-SIM card reader. This allows it to connect via 3G in order to track pace and distance (in conjunction with its embedded GPS), stream music using Spotify, send emergency text messages, and interface with a wide array of fitness apps, from Google Fit to MapMyFitness.

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Health and Wellness Wearables

Fitti Guard smartwatch helps keep you fit and safe

There are many fitness trackers on the market, but they tend to offer limited functions, have a short battery life and lack a display. Smartwatches tend to offer more features, but don’t necessarily do a great job with any specific feature. The number of environment trackers is also growing, but those devices tend to offer no additional features.

Fitti Guard is a health-focused smartwatch that monitors fitness and environmental factors including UV exposure. It features a total of 10 sensors, including UV, noise, air quality, humidity and radioactivity. Users get immediate alerts and helpful advice if their individual levels or dose rates for polluted air, noise nuisance, sunlight or even radioactivity are exceeded.

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Imaging Video Wearables

Autoediting Frodo seeks the One Ring of GoPro victory

When the GoPro hit the scene many moons ago, it made a huge splash quickly becoming synonymous with the connected sports movement. It was everywhere: billboards, commercials, movies — everyone either had one or wanted one. But that massive excitement growth trailed off. And while the brand and its products are still popular, they face some stiff competition with arguably better ideas.

The Frodo is a wrist-worn smart adventure camera that intelligently edits videos using one of five styles: Genius, Action, Calm, People, and 15 Second (for Instagram, of course.) The product’s aim is to help people enjoy their adventures versus being stuck editing a bunch of videos they don’t really want to and with full HD resolution, a boot-to-shoot speed of 0.7 seconds, video stabilization, and a modular design for extra battery packs,

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Imaging Wearables

Tribble is a wearable wunderkind for your place, person or plane

editors-choiceAll the devices required for a connected daily life make things
better. Unfortunately, many of them need to be constantly monitored as well. Notifications can add up, making things much harder later on when addressing 400 emails or 1,200 group text messages. So, it’s important to stay on top of it all; a little help couldn’t hurt.

The Tribble is a connected, wearable companion aiming to be an all-in-one intermediary between a user and their smartphone or other devices. Its small, round body is made of stainless steel for durability and houses a 2.0GHz Quad-Core AR Cortex A9 processor along with 1GB of RAM. This powers a combination of LED touchscreen, 1080p video camera, and motion sensors for the Tribble wide array of functionality.

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Health and Wellness Wearables

Backbone supports you in the quest for better posture

It’s incredible to think that for every 15° of forward neck tilt, as much as 10-20 pounds of pressure is placed on the spine, neck, and back. This is not only a detriment to posture and overall well being, but puts people one step closer to looking like Quasimodo — a fate no one wants.

With bad posture so commonplace, it’s no surprise more and more crowdfunding campaigns are addressing the issue head on. The latest to do so is the Backbone, a pair of connected shoulder straps that not physically supports better posture but also reminds users to straighten up through notifications and vibrations.

Categories
Fitness Imaging Wearables

R2D3 records your workout in data and video, but not at the same time

Sorry, Star Wars fans. The R2D3 combination fitness band and sports camera won’t bleep and bloop its way into a user’s heart, but it will edit the most intense moments of their workout routines or adventures into social media-ready chunks based on algorithmically-backed presets. In a crowded field of increasingly uninspiring smart bands, the R2D3 succeeds in at least offering something different.

This hybrid sports all the expected features of a useful fitness band: step, distance, and calories counters along with a heart rate monitor. These sensors join a 1080p HD camera that shoots 30fps and an 8MP camera sensor with 120° field of view to do its best GoPro impression. And like the GoPro, the R2D3 can be attached to many parts of the body or equipment like the wrist, ankle, a book bag, or even a drone. It boasts a 72-hour battery life, with just 1.5 of those hours capable of taking video.

Categories
Input Wearables

The NEEURO brain training headband offers tough mental workouts for better cognition

It’s sadly inevitable: cognitive resources dwindle as people age, making it harder to recall information, get around, and make decisions. Fortunately, neuroscience has proven that those who routinely work out their cognitive abilities slow the rate of loss for a more alert and vibrant later into life.

The NEEURO brain training wearable is positioned as an aid. The device combines an EEG-based headband with an iOS or Android smartphone companion app filled with games that focus on maintaining and improving memory, spatial awareness, and attention amongst others. NEEURO features six sensors for accuracy when tracking progress in these game over time.

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Chargers/Batteries Wearables

The NiftyX Lifesaving Bracelet’s puny power bank is more jewelry than joules

The specter of a near-death smartphone battery is the type of first-world problem that needs an immediate solution lest the existential dread of being cut off from notification set in. Power banks can be a key aid in this regard, helping many smartphones avoid an untimely (if temporary) fate. However, they can sometimes be clunky and those cables can get pretty messy. In other words, shouldn’t there be more wearable power banks?

The team behind the NiftyX Lifesaving Leather Charging Cable Bracelet sure think so. The wrist-worn portable charger and cable boasts a hand-braided, genuine leather construction set off by a stainless steel buckle for maximum fashion appeal. But while it may look great, the NiftyX Lifesaving Bracelet’s 210m  Ah battery won’t be saving much. While it will certainly come through in a pinch, a more powerful solution is still needed if, say, one forgets to charge a phone overnight and needs to get through the day.