Wearables are on the rise, including a new category: neurotechnology. A headband that can track your brain activity sounds fun, but the data it collects should be stringently protected.
New research explores the health potential of brief bursts of activity – and how wearables combined with machine learning can reveal health benefits of unexplored aspects of our everyday lives.
An increase in this particular biometric is a good thing.
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Wearables and smartwatches can track your pulse – but if you’re using them to scan for irregular heart rhythms, there are some things you should know.
Even with optimal treatment, asthma and COPD patients encounter unpredictable flareups of their conditions, which can become life-threatening and need immediate medical attention.
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Researchers are developing an AI-powered device to detect asthma and COPD symptoms in real-time for faster treatment. The ‘patch’ listens to airway sounds, but filters out speech to protect privacy.
Ben Singh, University of South Australia e Carol Maher, University of South Australia
About one in five Aussies currently own a wearable fitness tracker of some kind. Yet many people doubt their effectiveness. Let’s see what the research suggests.
Hearables are wearable listening devices that can interact with the wearer and the environment.
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More and more people are incorporating wearable devices like smartwatches into their lives. But these wearables are a driving distraction that the public and law enforcement should be aware of.
Gene-based vaccines had never been approved for humans before the coronavirus pandemic.
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The coronavirus pandemic has driven a lot of scientific progress in the past year. But just as some of the social changes are likely here to stay, so are some medical innovations.
Researchers are developing tattoo inks that do more than make pretty colors. Some can sense chemicals, temperature and UV radiation, setting the stage for tattoos that diagnose health problems.
Fitness information from wearable devices can reveal when the body is fighting an infection.
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Fitness information like resting heart rate collected by wearable devices can’t diagnose diseases, but it can signal when something is wrong. That can be enough to prompt a COVID-19 test.
Smartphone apps and wearable devices can tell when workers have been within six feet of each other, promising to help curb the coronavirus. But they’re not all the same when it comes to privacy.
Tiny fuel cells convert sweat to electricity that can power sensors in electronic skin.
Yu et al., Sci. Robot. 5, eaaz7946 (2020)
Lightweight, flexible materials can be used to make health-monitoring wearable devices, but powering the devices is a challenge. Using fuel cells instead of batteries could make the difference.
Wearable fitness trackers have less accuracy when used in certain ways.
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Engineers predict a time when people and robots physically interact all day long. For that to happen safely will require new soft materials that can do things like sense touch and change shape.
Insurance companies collect data from fitness trackers to help improve business decisions.
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Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Canada Research Chair in Personalized Medicine of Upper Airway Health and Disease, McGill University
Professor and Director of Quantitative Biosciences Institute & Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco