Helsinki, Finland-based sleep sensor company Beddit is on track to fulfill its promise to ship its product to its Indiegogo backers by the end of the year, the company says, and is opening the door for additional pre-orders via Amazon, its own online store and a number of resellers.
The company, which makes a sensor that straps to the user's bed, raised $503,000 this year in an Indiegogo campaign with an original goal of $80,000. Now it's opening two online stores, one for the United States and one for Europe, and accepting Amazon pre-orders. Whereas Indiegogo backers paid a discounted $99 for the sensors, preorders are listed at the full $149. They're expected to ship in January 2014. In addition, Beddit's online stores are offering gift cards to give as holiday presents.
Beddit also announced a list of global resellers and distributors, which includes Medisana, Now-Mobile, Danholt, Unikulma, Santé Connectée, Allo Matelas, Atlantis Sängspecialisten, Red-Dolphin, Trendhoek.nl, and Fonq.nl.
CEO Lasse Leppakorpi attributes interest in the device to consumers' desire to track sleep in a way that does not require them to wear cumbersome monitors.
“We’ve hit a sweet spot with fitness enthusiasts and health-conscious consumers who want to monitor their wellness and sleep quality, but who don’t want to wear wires or bands while sleeping,” he said in a statement. “Unlike the smartphone-only sleep apps, which rely on the phone’s microphone and accelerometer and therefore don’t work very well, our professional-grade sensor measures and tracks sleep quality, heart rate, breathing, movements, snoring, bedroom noise, and light with scientific accuracy. We’ve opened our online stores to keep up with demand.”
Beddit's sensor uses ballistocardiography to detect individual heartbeats from cardiac contraction forces and breathing rhythm from chest wall movements. The strap measures bed time, awakenings and bed exits, sleep time, sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep), testing heart rate, sleep quality and breathing movements, including snoring. From there the sensor uses Bluetooth to connect with the companion app, which offers personalized coaching, a wellness diary, a history of sleep recordings and a social sharing option.
Since the shut-down of sleep tracking startup Zeo earlier this year, sleep tracking startups with various form factors have emerged, including the wristworn Lark device and smart sleeping mask maker IntelliClinic, which is on track to possibly match Beddit's crowdfunding success (it's raised $344,000 so far).
