Biometric wearable technologies launched for heart and patient tracking, worker exertion, auto racing

Huami, parent company of global wearable brand Amazfit, has brought its wearable AI chip to public release to provide the company’s cardiac biometrics engine and three other core functions with 50 percent less energy and faster atrial fibrillation detection. The company will begin mass production of the new Huangshan-2 chip in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2020 year.

Ramesh Jain has been named as the Chief Technical Advisor of the Huami AI Research Institute, according to the same announcement. Huami calls Jain “the Father of Multimedia.” The company has set up three joint laboratories in the first half of 2020, focussed on smart wrist wearables, athletics, and computer intelligence.

The chip and the appointment of Jain were among several announcements by the company at its ‘AI to Decode Future’ Innovation Conference. Other included the development of the BioTracker 2 PPG Bio-tracking Optical Sensor, which supports five biological data engines, including RealBeats and OxygenBeats.

The Huangshan-1 was released in 2018 as a RISC-V open source instruction set wearable processor, which Huami says made it the first of its kind. The new version detects atrial defibrillation seven times faster than its predecessor, and 26 times faster than similar algorithms, the company says. It features an always on sensor mode with ultra-low power consumption due to the neural-network processing unit and C2 co-processor.

Wearable devices with the integrated Huangshan-2 may be available in the first half of 2021.

Self-charging activity tracker ordered by Japanese hospital

Medirom has received an order for its self-charging activity tracker MOTHER from a medical institution in Japan to deploy the wearable band as a health management platform.

MOTHER generates electricity with body heat, and tracks activity, sleep length and quality, calorie consumption and other biometrics, according to the announcement. The MOTHER SDK can be provided to third party developers to integrate it with data extraction and analysis tools. The SDK allows healthcare service providers to utilize the data gathered by MOTHER in their own apps, without requiring the closed system of a dedicated app.

The device was developed by Medirom and partner Matrix Industries, and launched at the beginning of this year.

The market for medical and nursing care in Japan is estimated to be worth $34 billion, according to Medirom.

Worker exertion partnership launched

FireHUD’s biometric overexertion detecting technology has been integrated with Guardhat’s KYRA platform through a new partnership to give organizations a holistic view of the worksite.

The integration of the FireHUD BioTrac Platform, which provides real-time monitoring through an arm-worn device, allows managers and workers to receive and send instant alerts in case of a fall, taxic gas exposure, danger from moving equipment, or other situations. The device captures heart rate, core body temperature, exertion, distance travelled, and calories burned to build up a personalized profile.

“Guardhat’s ultimate goal is to better protect the industrial workforce with advanced safety insight,” says Guardhat Executive Vice President of Growth Rony Roy Choudhury. “FireHUD hit the ground running, and their technology brings real-time biometric monitoring to our KYRA platform. We want to align our mission and enter the market jointly, greatly expanding the number of ways in which we can monitor and protect individuals working the most demanding careers.”

“We are incredibly excited to work with Guardhat,” comments Zack Braun, FireHUD CEO. “Their KYRA platform allows us to easily integrate our real-time physiological monitoring solution into their system in on-premise or cloud scenarios. Ultimately, allowing our complementary solutions to usher in a new era of safety for workers in the most extreme environments.”

The FireHUD platform has already been implemented in U.S. Air Force bases and first responder units.

Auto racing undershirt tracks heart and breath rates

A partnership between motorsports suppliers Marelli and OMP Racing has resulted in the development of a fire retardant undershirt with biometric data monitoring, Motorsport.com reports.

The biometric underwear, called VISM, short for ‘vital signs monitor,’ tracks performance and training data, as well as monitoring vital signs for safety. An image provided by OMP Racing seems to indicate the wearable tracks heart-rate and breathing.

“It is designed with a direct interface to the data acquisition and telemetry systems of a race car and includes end-to-end protection of sensitive data, giving the user full control of its use,” explains Marelli Motorsport CEO Riccardo de Filippi.

“We believe this experience is a major step forward in the development of safety systems as well as active driver aids, for passenger cars too.”

Race wear manufacturers began moving into biometric wearables with gloves, according to Motorsport.com.

Article Topics

AI  |  biometric data  |  biometric sensors  |  biometrics  |  data collection  |  fever detection  |  Guardhat  |  heartbeat biometrics  |  Huami  |  monitoring  |  temperature monitoring  |  wearables