… Apple is working with organizations on several research studies that let you share your Apple Watch and iPhone data to improve health. In 2018, it partnered with Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical brand Janssen on research to improve heart health among people 65 and older. It now has expanded research hearing, women’s health, and the correlation between physical activity and heart health.
Apple in 2017 also introduced a cellular version of the Apple Watch, letting people do things like make calls or access the internet while away from their phones. That’s particularly popular with users going for a run without taking a phone.
And last year, it finally introduced an App store that lives on the watch itself, instead of requiring an iPhone to download iOS apps that are compatible with the Apple Watch.
Garmin smartwatches were not designed or intended to monitor or diagnose diseases, but scientists from top universities and institutes around the world are actively researching whether wearable devices like ours can help identify early indications of coronavirus.
One premise is actually quite simple. (1) An elevated heart rate is an early sign of a common cold, the flu or coronavirus. (2) Garmin smartwatches have built-in heart rate monitoring at the wrist. Put the two together and society could have an extremely helpful tool for early indications of the virus on a mass scale.
To be sure, the ways in which wearable technology can help solve the current and future crises extend far beyond heart-rate monitoring. That’s why Garmin has teamed up with scientists around the world to seek the answers about the potential for Garmin smartwatches to be a useful tool in society’s need to better identify, track and monitor coronavirus.
Polar has just launched their new Grit X multisport GPS watch, aimed primarily at the outdoor enthusiast crowd that skews slightly more towards ultra runners and hikers than it does other groups. Still, the watch has the vast majority of the guts and features of a Polar Vantage series watch (don’t worry, we’ll get into the nuances in a minute). But it’s not viewed as the successor to the Vantage series. Instead, it’s an adjacent product category.
The watch has some new features including Hill Splitter which automatically counts your hill repeats, as well as new nutritional guidance bits mid-workout and post-activity. Plus, it’s got turn by turn routing instructions when paired with Komoot. Plus a handful of other minor tweaks like improved waterproofing specs and added weather information. Oh, and the new 100-hour GPS battery life.
MIT researchers have developed a way to incorporate electronic sensors into stretchy fabrics, allowing them to create shirts or other garments that could be used to monitor vital signs such as temperature, respiration, and heart rate.
The sensor-embedded garments, which are machine washable, can be customized to fit close to the body of the person wearing them. The researchers envision that this type of sensing could be used for monitoring people who are ill, either at home or in the hospital, as well as athletes or astronauts.
“We can have any commercially available electronic parts or custom lab-made electronics embedded within the textiles that we wear every day, creating conformable garments,” says Canan Dagdeviren, the LG Electronics Career Development Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT. “These are customizable, so we can make garments for anyone who needs to have some physical data from their body like temperature, respiration rate, and so forth.”
… Skin is the largest organ of the human body. It conveys a lot of information, including temperature, pressure, pleasure and pain. Electronic skin (e-skin) mimics the properties of biological skin. Recently developed e-skins are capable of wirelessly monitoring physiological signals. They could play a crucial role in the next generation of robotics and medical devices.
My lab at Caltech is interested in studying human biology and monitoring human health by using advanced bioelectronic devices. The e-skin we have developed not only analyzes the chemical and molecular composition of human sweat, it’s fully powered by chemicals in sweat.
Advances in rapid prototyping platforms have made physiological sensing accessible to a wide audience. However, off-the-shelf electrodes commonly used for capturing biosignals are typically thick, non-conformal and do not support customization. We present PhysioSkin, a rapid, do-it-yourself prototyping method for fabricating custom multi-modal physiological sensors, using commercial materials and a commodity desktop inkjet printer. It realizes ultrathin skin-conformal patches (~1μm) and interactive textiles that capture sEMG, EDA and ECG signals. It further supports fabricating devices with custom levels of thickness and stretchability. We present detailed fabrication explorations on multiple substrate materials, functional inks and skin adhesive materials. Informed from the literature, we also provide design recommendations for each of the modalities. Evaluation results show that the sensor patches achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio. Example applications demonstrate the functionality and versatility of our approach for prototyping a next generation of physiological devices that intimately couple with the human body.
Canadian Running Magazine, Ben Snider-McGrath from
Whether you’re just starting as a new runner or you’re coming back to the sport after some time off, you might need help getting into the swing of things. It can be intimidating to start running, and if you go about it without a set plan, you might be discouraged when you find yourself out of breath after just a few minutes. With None to Run, you can find motivation through an online community of new runners and the program app that will take newbies from running zero minutes to 25 minutes nonstop.
… Some models of Fitbit and Garmin smartwatches also have pulse oximetry features. Fitbit can track oxygen level trends during sleep, and Garmin can give on-the-spot readings. Their watches do use red light, but they use the less-accurate reflective method. They also take readings from blood flow at the wrist — which isn’t as strong as it is at the finger. Both companies note on their websites that their devices should not be used for medical purposes.
Accurate blood oxygen readings are important when people are trying to monitor any disease, but it’s particularly key for COVID-19. Usually, someone with a low blood oxygen level knows it — they struggle to catch their breath. If a person has a reading on a lower-quality oximeter that says they have low oxygen levels, but they don’t have those symptoms, doctors can usually assume the sensor just isn’t working, wrote James Hudspeth, the COVID response inpatient floor lead at Boston Medical Center, in an email to The Verge.
ΑΙhub, Allie McFadden and Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech from
… Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working to combine the accuracy of sleep clinics with the convenience of wearable computing by developing machine learning models, or smart algorithms, that provide better sleep measurement data as well as considerably faster, more energy-efficient software.
The team is focusing on electrical ambient noise that is emitted by devices but that is often not audible and can interfere with sleep sensors on a wearable gadget. Leave the TV on at night, and the electrical signal – not the infomercial in the background – might mess with your sleep tracker.
These additional electrical signals are problematic for wearable devices that typically have only one sensor to measure a single biometric data point, normally heart rate. A device picking up signals from ambient electrical noise skews the data and leads to potentially misleading results.
“We are building a new process to help train [machine learning] models to be used for the home environment and help address this and other issues around sleep,” said Scott Freitas, a second-year machine learning Ph.D. student and co-lead author of a newly published paper.
… Soft circuitry has two main applications in outdoor gear: in-garment heating and in-garment lighting, and each of these contain biosensors and LEDs. Our LEL, for example, is fully customizable for both and can be seamlessly integrated into jackets, gloves, boots, and even camping goods such as tents and sleeping bags. So, if you are in the dark woods at night, you can rest assure you will be kept safe and warm.
Drones are an emerging solution which makes particular sense in a disaster setting. Unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have the potential to enable faster, safer delivery of critical medicines and vaccines and bypass impacted infrastructure on the ground. Organizations are working together across a variety of collaborative projects to experiment and advance drone technology.
My company has also been participating in this work and our latest test flight achieved an important milestone: last year, together with several partners, and following previous tests to Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria, we successfully flew a drone to the Bahamas over open water beyond the operator’s line of sight. Today, it is fairly typical to maintain a temperature range of between 2-8 degrees Celsius within the payload of a drone. However, on this flight, the cold-chain delivery technology onboard allowed for precise temperature control at minus 70 degrees Celsius, the temperature required for storing and transporting some life-saving vaccines. This success proves the feasibility of using drones in the future to deliver vaccines and temperature-dependent medicines to remote locations – a practical advance that has major implications.
While backcountry ski racers are disappointed that they won’t be starting the Patrouille des Glaciers, one disabled skier is happily strapping on the climbing skins once again. The designers of TWIICE adapted their exoskeleton so that it can be used to skin up mountains.
If you have access to a treadmill or live in an area where you can run without worrying about too many people around, then you’ve probably thought about adding running to your pandemic workout routine. For some of us, that means dusting off our old running shoes. For others, that might mean buying their first pair. And for every runner, proper shoe fit is paramount—but how do you get fitted properly when you can’t go to the store?
As a progression to the ShoePrint framework that we launched early last year, I’m excited to announce our new ShoeRide visualizations! Where ShoePrints allowed you to see where on your shoe you were landing and taking-off, our ShoeRides now show the entire ground contact progression, from foot strike to toe off and all points in-between. We capture the stance progression velocity as the ‘Ride’ has been shown to be correlated with how well that shoe is working with the particular biomechanics of the runner.
… This list is a combo of my experiences and the top recommendations I received from a couple hundred runners on Instagram! So these aren’t just researched, they’re real world tested and approved. I’m providing a few details on each wireless running headphone to help you decide which one might be best for your runs.
Researchers at Monash University in Australia have created a new fabric using nanoparticles that they say could potentially replace current clothing textiles. Features include improved thermal comfort, reducing body temperature by 4.5°C, shielding harmful UV rays, and improving washing durability.
Population growth and improved living standards require solutions for textiles with new functions to meet changing needs,” the researchers say. “Imagine having clothing that can keep us cooler on those sweltering hot days and has the ability to prevent UV radiation from damaging our skin.”
… “Percentages are meaningless, because it is the absolute amount of carbohydrate and protein that matters,” says Asker Jeukendrup, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at the University of Birmingham in England and one of the world’s leading experts on the effects of different amounts of carbohydrate and protein intake on endurance performance. “How much you need depends on your goals and the amount of training you do.”
In other words, what matters is not the relative proportions of carbs, fat, and protein you eat, but rather the basic quantity measured as total calories or grams. And since macronutrient needs vary depending on training volume, there is no single macronutrient ratio that could possibly meet the needs of every athlete.
We introduce a new platform of modular, conformable (i.e., flexible and stretchable) distributed sensor networks that can be embedded into digitally-knit textiles. This platform can be customized for various forms, sizes and functions using standard, accessible and high-throughput textile manufacturing and garment patterning techniques. We have developed a tailored, electronic textile conformable suit (E-TeCS) to perform large-scale, multi-modal physiological (temperature, heart rate, and respiration) sensing in vivo. [video, 3:18]
… “Right now, when the sun comes out, every path, park and neighborhood is crowded with runners,” Brooklyn Track Club Women’s Performance Team running coach Kate Gustafson told CNN. “I live in Brooklyn Heights and I’ve never seen so many people out running through Brooklyn Bridge Park at all hours of the day.”
While Gustafson notes that New York City has long been a “running city,” there has been a noticeable uptick in people running outside.
In several American states and cities, residents have been asked to wear masks when they’re outside. This means masking-up for getting gas, groceries or just going for a walk. Canadians have been asked to wear masks when travelling by air (which most of us aren’t these days), but beyond airports, masks haven’t been deemed mandatory. Despite this, many are taking it upon themselves to cover up when heading outdoors or to the store. But how effective are these masks, and should Canadians be wearing them when exercising to keep themselves and those around them safe?
… Let’s be clear about this off the bat: you are allowed to get outside and go for a run. Depending on where you live, it’s possible that certain trails, parks, and beaches are closed for public use, there are no large restrictions in place to prevent Americans from solo outdoor exercise. (In comparison, Italy has banned outdoor activities altogether).
“What we are trying to do as a society is manage risk,” says John Brownstein, PhD, an epidemiologist, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, and professor at Harvard Medical School. “By limiting mobility and contact, we slow the spread of infection, and potentially eliminate new cases that turn into hospitalizations that turn into deaths. But we all have to make decisions of what we can do in a safe manner right now that are fundamental to our mental health. Running as a solo activity is on that OK list.”
Go for a run on a brutally hot, humid day, or log some miles at a higher elevation than you’re used to, and it feels like you’ve suddenly lost weeks of fitness progress. Heat and altitude put your body under a serious amount of stress, which translates directly to your performance. Knowing what to expect—and how to adapt—can help you deal with the new stressors and keep training smart.
Not Enough O2
Physiologically, both scenarios cause similar adaptations, and both involve oxygen. In the heat, your body is actually diverting oxygen from your working muscles to help cool you down; at altitude, you’re straight-up just operating with less oxygen in the air.
We get it. You don’t race in the Tour de France. You don’t ride off cliffs, à la Red Bull Rampage. You can’t even do a wheelie. Just the same, if you ride a bike—even just to work and back—you should wear a helmet. Slick leaves, loose gravel, wet trolley tracks, they can all bring you down, so protect your noggin. Since 2015, we’ve examined more than 70 helmets and tested 21 in person to determine that the classic Specialized Echelon II is the best bike helmet for commuters.
Aiming to inspire riders, support bicycle retailers, and unite the industry, PeopleForBikes is launching Ride It Out, a campaign to encourage responsible riding during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Ride It Out campaign is designed to give retailers and suppliers the resources, communication and engagement tools they need to inform their biking communities in a time of uncertainty. Participating retailers and suppliers will have access to a deep well of free resources, including a range of assets for email, social, websites and blogs. Each image can be modified with a shop’s logo and each image is paired with messaging that can be customized by the retailer for their markets and customers.
Is cycling research a distraction from action? Building on my own experience during my PhD, I just published an academic opinion article in which I have sought to express some of my frustrations about the large number of studies on cycling being published without much consideration as to their added value in terms of practical policy relevance. Here is my attempt to summarise my argument in a nutshell:
Studies seeking to identify what makes a “good” cycling environment largely keep on coming up with the same conclusions.
The huge growth of cycling research in recent years is mainly attributable to the increasing trendiness of cycling as a research topic, rather than any fundamental scientific disagreement or uncertainty.
… plenty of previous studies have found that competition allows you to go faster, and we intuitively understand that the presence of competitors (and perhaps of a crowd) somehow allows us to push harder. But what does that really mean? Attempts to understand the psychology of endurance usually focus on the subjective sense of perceived exertion, which incorporates both physiological (breathing rate, lactate levels, etc.) and mental cues.
But take a look at the data on ratings of perceived exertion (RPE, on a scale of 6 to 20) during the two 10K races. For both the solo time trial (TT) and the head-to-head (HTH) race, RPE climbs in a more or less straight line approaching the maximum value at the finish
… Depending on the type of watch you use, your GPS watch can provide simple metrics such as how fast and far you’ve run while others can provide very detailed information about your workout.
Understanding what each metric actually measures can help you understand patterns in your running and serve as a guide to analyze your performance.
A team of statistics and data science researchers have devised a predictive framework for assessing trail running performance. Riccardo Fogliato, Natalia L. Oliveira and Ronald Yurko, PhD candidates in statistics and data science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, propose a framework called Trail Running Assessment of Performance (TRAP), which assesses runners’ performance both before and during a race.
The framework takes into account three factors: the runner’s ability to reach the next checkpoint (or put another way, their probability of dropping out); the runner’s expected passage time at the next checkpoint; and predicted intervals for the passage time.
Employees of all industries are adapting to a more remote work setup as the stay-at-home orders continue on in the coronavirus pandemic, including the employees of Mount Rainier National Park.
The park is not allowing visitors at this time, but employees are still on duty. Chip Jenkins, superintendent of Rainier National Park, joined KIRO Nights to talk about what the rangers and employees are doing while the park is closed, and how you can stay connected to the park from home. [audio, 18:41]
… This is no time to demand people remain confined indoors. Public health officials recommend people stay at least 6 feet away from each other. But with almost 13 acres per person of public land in New Mexico, why should we remain as close as 6 feet apart?
Established campgrounds and other areas where people are likely to congregate are closed. That is appropriate. But it’s not the concrete picnic tables or the campgrounds New Mexicans require. The land itself and the plants and animals it sustains are the medicine we need.
American Chemical Society, ACS News Service Weekly PressPac from
Using electronic devices for too long can cause them to overheat, which might slow them down, damage their components or even make them explode or catch fire. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed a hydrogel that can both cool down electronics, such as cell phone batteries, and convert their waste heat into electricity.
University of Tokyo, Institute for Solid State Physics from
Researchers have found a way to convert heat energy into electricity with a nontoxic material. The material is mostly iron which is extremely cheap given its relative abundance. A generator based on this material could power small devices such as remote sensors or wearable devices. The material can be thin so it could be shaped into various forms.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, or free energy. But if your energy demands are low enough, say for example in the case of a small sensor of some kind, then there is a way to harness heat energy to supply your power without wires or batteries. Research Associate Akito Sakai and group members from his laboratory at the University of Tokyo Institute for Solid State Physics and Department of Physics, led by Professor Satoru Nakatsuji, and from the Department of Applied Physics, led by Professor Ryotaro Arita, have taken steps towards this goal with their innovative iron-based thermoelectric material.