Tag: mood

Categories
Health and Wellness

Headoc offers alternative treatment for headaches, migraines, mood

The pain from a headache, and especially a migraine, can make it impossible to function. The frustration of having one’s day interrupted brings additional stress and sometimes anxiety. Headoc was created to bring some relief during these times.

The gadget includes three types of therapy, one of which is Red Light Phototherapy. This option is touted as being able to heal wounds faster and accelerate skin regeneration. The second is negative ions, which purportedly improve physical and mental health by relieving headaches, as well as influencing mood and improving memory. Thirdly, vibration-massage therapy brings pain relief and reduces muscle contraction, reducing stress, fatigue and anxiety.

Headoc works on an internal battery and can be charged with a USB charger or external charger. It seems like a potentially effective alternative way to deal with headaches, migraines and mood issues. Other interesting options that backers might like to check out are the Sleep Sensei and the Body Echo.  Where fevers come in, IDo and iTherm might also help.

This campaign seeks to raise $10,000 by March 10. Early bird backers get 100 Headocs for $50, with an expected delivery in July of this year.

Categories
Relaxation Smartwatches/Bands

Moodmetric ring wearable measures mood for improved outlook

Heart rate, burned calories, sleep quality: these are the domains most wearable technologies have traditionally focused on. But even if it’s well-known by this point how reflective our physical state is of our emotional well-being, there haven’t been many wearable devices that have focused this, despite how important it is to everyone.

Emotional intelligence is the understanding of a person’s emotions and how best to deal with them, which may not seem like a skill but most certainly is. The Moodmetric is aiming to help empower those who want to better track, share, and improve their emotional intelligence. The product is a stylish, yet understated ring that analyzes a persons mood, assigning it a mood level based on the stresses gleaned from the body’s nervous system through skin conductance. With this information literally at someone’s fingertips, learning about the situations which spike emotional levels along with techniques to calm one’s mind becomes much easier.

The Moodmetric use Bluetooth LE to work in tandem with a companion iOS app that takes that mood level and suggests mindfulness and meditation exercises to improve quality of life. The Moodmetric Black version is made of polycarbonate, high-gloss body with a steel ring for maximum contact, and goes for $179. The shinier, hand-crafted 14k gold version features a black agate stone top and gold plated ring for $3,950. The $50,000 is unclear as to when it is expected to be shipped.

The Moodmetric is a promising tool in the increasingly prominent field of emotionally-based wearables. While the Moodmetric is incredibly stylish, it simply doesn’t do enough when compared with the comparatively more functional Olive wristband. The Moodmetric’s actual metrics are a bit vague when compared to the specific data Olive provides, and Olive’s haptics provide a far more intuitive influence on one’s emotional state than manually checking an app.

Categories
Health and Wellness Wearables

Stress-detecting Olive wristband coaches more calm from your arm

Contemporary society dictates that life must be led with monkeys of all sorts on our backs, constantly stressing us out. Bills, project deadlines, families, friends, and so many more things increase our stress levels daily, but most of us wouldn’t even know it. Enter Olive, one of the first wearable devices specifically designed to track and help manage stress.

The company’s tagline is ‘Be Stellar,’ and the fashionably forward wristband does just that. It doesn’t help your stress by being a fashion accessory, though. The band is filled with sensors tracking the physical indicators of stress (heart rate, skin reaction, and skin temperature), combining that with information on your daily habits (sleep, physical activity, and exposure to light). With this, Olive gets to know you, nudging you using haptic feedback and LED lights when it detects elevated stress levels. The product guides you through these stressful moments with simple exercises that positively impact your life, like deep breathing or mindfulness exercises.

Call on Olive to guide you at any point with a simple rub, or make note of a particularly pleasant, enjoyable moment with a double tap. The companion iOS apps helps analyze you more fully, tailoring the exercises suggested to your personal life. Those responsible for Olive are looking for $100,000 to get it off the ground and running. For those simply looking to navigate the murky waters of everyday life, grab an Olive for $129 with the option to spruce it up with an elegant charging stand for $29.

Up to this point, wearable bands have concentrated solely on physical health and not much else. Rare is the product that tries to conquer another avenue but Olive is indeed that type of product. The product may not be unique in that in tracks your habits like the Jawbone UP, but what it does with that data is something special. Be on the lookout for it.

Categories
Home Lighting

LightFreq uses Wi-Fi, lets your house get its freak on

The Premise. “Smart lighting” has become one of the latest trends to hit homes and offices. In the past, choices were limited to light bulb style and wattage – usually dictated by a lamp’s requirements. Luckily for us, light bulbs have fast-tracked it to evolutionary nirvana.

The Product. LightFreq is a multi-color, energy efficient LED light bulb with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and HD Audio controlled by a smartphone app. LightFreq gives consumers and business owners the ability to turn lights on, control dimmers, colors, and other unique abilities. For consumers there is a built-in “follow me” feature which will turn lights on and off as you enter and leave the rooms in your house (as long as your smartphone is with you). The same can be set for audio if you choose to listen to music. Different lighting motifs can be turned on so that LightFreq chooses the colors, which colors to change to, and how fast to change them to the beats of your tunes. Similarly you can set your LightFreq to flash in different colors when you receive a social media notification, text message or phone call. LightFreq also allows you to play God in a neat way with an intercom feature allowing you to speak into a specific LightFreq in another room OR into all LightFreqs in your house at once. LightFreq even works as a morning alarm turning on light, music, or both gradually until you are bopping around in a fresh new day.

The Pitch. LightFreq’s video showcases the many utilities of having the product in your home or business. Devon, Founder of LightFreq, presents his concept of putting sound and light together into one product. The video also features Colin and Rob, chief designers, who explain the importance of putting the best technology into the smallest space to create a powerful speaker. One screen even boasts better sound quality than Beats Pill, but there is no reference data source. Later down the page, Devon hosts a few demos of the product and there’s even a LightFreq soundtrack you can sample. The campaign is looking to raise $50,000 over 30 days on Kickstarter.

The Perks. For just $55 Early Birds can secure their own LightFreq, but a pledge of $70 will take care of late-comers. If you’re interested in the KickStarter special edition, there is a $30 premium for black matte and KickStarter green logo. For $10,000 the founders will come to your business and set up 60 LightFreqs at your office (travel costs not included).

The Potential. Smart lighting has become a very popular concept in the last few years and LightFreq should be able to capture a lot of interest. Backerjack featured a similar product, Whome, with a slightly different design but almost the same functionality as LightFreq. One major difference between the products is that Whome does not use Bluetooth, which could be one of the reasons that the project was ultimately not funded, besides an unnecessarily technical campaign page.

Categories
Kids/Babies Toys

Bear on the Chair wears its emotions on its chest, reflects kids’ behavior

The Premise. Disciplining children is the one part of parenthood that isn’t so great. Most kids don’t respond to their parents simply because they are their parents. Outside sources sometimes have better luck showing children the difference between right and wrong.

The Product. Taking a naming cue from such sitting toys as The Elf on the Shelf and the crowdfunded Mensch on a Bench, Bear on the Chair is a behavioral modification tool for children. This cuddly toy sits on a white chair and hangs out with your child. If your child’s behavior is good, you can attach the yellow happy face to the bear’s shirt. However, if bad behavior ensues, simply attach the red sad face. Your child will take responsibility for the bear’s mood like a friend and will change their behavior to do so. The bear was designed to be super cute and cuddly as well as gender neutral making it great for girls and boys alike.

The Pitch. Bear on the Chair starts with a longer video of dramatizations of a bratty girl refusing to do what her father asks. It lacks a moment where the girl actually responds to the bear’s sad face, but you get the idea either way. The remainder of the campaign talks about the bear’s friends: Santa, the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny, and about how each bear comes with its own adoption certificate upon naming it. The Bear on the Chair needs some money for its honey —  $10,000 in a 45-day Kickstarter campaign.

The Perks. Backers can receive this cuddly bear for $55 with an estimated delivery date of July 2014. Reward tiers go all the way up to $1,000 for backers who really really love teddy bears.

 The Potential. Bear on the Chair is aimed at bettering a child’s behavior, though seems a little bit manipulative in the way it works. Also, if this bear and child are so close, wouldn’t the child notice that the happy/sad faces are removable? The campaign would benefit from testimonials of parents who can vouch for the Bear’s success. Still, Bear on the Chair presents a unique opportunity for parents to teach children how their naughty actions can influence others. Any toy that has the potential to make a child a little less naughty, even if a little expensive, is certainly welcome on the market for frustrated parents.