By 2018 an estimated 75.7 million consumer health and fitness devices with integrated wireless connectivity will ship, up from 23 million such devices in 2011, according to a recent report from IHS Technology. The research firms points out that Bluetooth Smart-connected devices are the most popular, but devices that make use of the fitness and health-focused ANT standard also have a foothold.
The...
UK-based BlueMaestro has put a new spin on health monitors for babies. The company offers parents a dishwasher-proof smart pacifier, which has a built-in temperature sensor that will track their babies' temperature over time.
“I know first-hand the difficulty in taking a sick baby’s temperature," co-founder Kristin Hancock told the Bluetooth SIG blog earlier this month. "It is easy to lose track...
Redmond, Washington-based Heapsylon has partnered with shoe company Vivobarefoot to sell Heapsylon's Sensoria Fitness sensor-enabled "smart" socks and to further develop the product.
The company says that all of the stores worldwide that currently carry Vivo's product will soon have Sensoria products in them, too. According to Vivo's website, there are nearly 500 such stores around the world.
The...
Polar, the longtime makers of heartrate-monitoring watches and chest straps, has launched a Bluetooth Smart-enabled, iPhone-connected activity tracker. The Polar Stride Sensor Bluetooth Smart is a small device that clips to the shoe and tracks stride-length, speed, running cadence, and distance.
Activity tracker maker Fitbit notably uses Bluetooth Smart in its devices, but while Fitbit is geared...
Research firm ON World is predicting a fitness tracking capability will be a top consumer requirement for forthcoming smartwatches.
"Some sports and fitness markets will be disrupted by the emergence of new general purpose mobile sensing products such as smartwatches," Mareca Hatler, ON World's research director, said in a statement. “Also, dedicated mobile sensing sports and fitness device...
At the American Telemedicine Association in Austin Texas, Nonin showed off its newest product, the Nonin 3230 Bluetooth Smart-enabled pulse oximeter. The product is still awaiting FDA 510(K) clearance, but the product is on track to be the first wireless pulse oximeter to use the low energy communication protocol, also known as Bluetooth 4 or Bluetooth LE.
The device is worn on the fingertip with...
San Francisco-based Fitbit, which offers activity monitors and a connected weight scale, has raised an additional $30 million in its fourth round of funding at a valuation of $300 million or more, according to a report over at TechCrunch. While the investors announced for its $12 million third round of funding in January 2012 included Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftTech VC and Felicis Ventures...
Silicon Valley-based startup Glooko announced two new executive hires this week and that its MeterSync Cable and Logbook iOS app received Class II FDA Clearance 510(k). The company appointed Rick Atlinger, who previously served as a vice president at Intuit Health, as its first CEO. Glooko co-founder Yogen Dalal filled in as interim CEO since the startup's founding. Altinger launched Intuit's...
The BodyMedia Core 2 Armband, with "jewelry-like" customization.
This weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, BodyMedia announced the Core 2 Armband, a smaller, more streamlined version of the company's wearable tracker.
Although the Core 2 (about the size of an iPod Nano) is considerably smaller than the existing FIT armband, lately famous for its use on the newest season...
At this week's iPhone 5 announcement, Apple confirmed something of an open secret among those companies that make health peripherals for iOS devices: The longstanding 30-pin connector dock has been swapped out for a new slimmer, redesigned connector dock that Apple calls Lightning.
Of course, an increasing variety of medical devices have received FDA clearance over the past few years to connect...
