… In a recent article published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, informaticians used a mixed-method approach to develop a deeper understanding of Fitbit user longevity to guide future development of activity trackers used for improving health.
What did they discover? Two stages were revealed: The novelty stage, where users discontinued use after three months, and the long-term use stage, when users continued use after three months.
Samsung is gearing up to introduce multiple new wearable devices, including smartwatches, fitness trackers and Bluetooth headphones.
We already knew the smartwatch was coming as it received FCC certification earlier this week. But there’s one thing that’s still unknown, and that is its name.
It was earlier believed the timepiece would be called Galaxy Watch Sport but now it’s emerged it may be called Galaxy Watch Active, instead. Whichever of the two Samsung decides on, the updated version of Gear Sport is expected to be more fitness focused than the original Galaxy Watch.
Jaybird created a completely wire-free set of headphones: the Run. The pods are nimble and durable. But are they secure? We put the brand’s most minimalist pair to the test.
… “Our experience is that it would be easy to think that adhering a medical device to the body is a trivial exercise and what we’re hearing from the marketplace through our experience in findmyadhesive.com is that it’s really helping to simplify what is a pretty complex decision tree for people and help them to funnel down based on their clinical need, the patient type and the application that they require to choose the right adhesive to begin with,” Marcello Napol, Director, medical device development at 3M told Medgadget.
A new device developed by Stanford University researchers could make it easier for doctors to monitor the success of blood vessel surgery. The sensor, detailed in a paper published Jan. 8 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, monitors the flow of blood through an artery. It is biodegradable, battery-free and wireless, so it is compact and doesn’t need to be removed and it can warn a patient’s doctor if there is a blockage.
“Measurement of blood flow is critical in many medical specialties, so a wireless biodegradable sensor could impact multiple fields including vascular, transplant, reconstructive and cardiac surgery,” said Paige Fox, assistant professor of surgery and co-senior author of the paper. “As we attempt to care for patients throughout the Bay Area, Central Valley, California and beyond, this is a technology that will allow us to extend our care without requiring face-to-face visits or tests.”
… The dreams of a Pixel Watch have led many to connect this minor Fossil technology acquisition to a first-party Google watch (Feel free to CTRL+F for “Pixel watch” in any of these reports: 1, 2, 3, 4), but Google and Fossil already shot down these theories. The two companies took part in an interview with Wearable, where Greg McKelvey, EVP and chief strategy and digital officer of the Fossil Group, admitted that this technology was for third-party devices and would be opened up to the whole Wear OS ecosystem. “The Fossil Group will bring the product to market across our full breadth of brands over time” McKelvey told Wearable. “And then, in true Google fashion, the technology will be expanded across the industry over time to benefit all.”
Something that will debut on a Fossil product first and then be opened up to the rest of the ecosystem doesn’t sound like a killer enabling technology for a first-party watch.
McKelvey went on to say that the technology is a “new product innovation that’s not yet hit the market” and stems from the company’s acquisition of Misfit, a fitness tracking company. The Misfit DNA makes this technology sound more like an acquisition to enable a new Google Fit feature.
Connect IQ™ has some amazing apps for your Garmin devices, and we’ve picked 2018’s best! These apps, widgets and watch faces have the highest ratings and best reviews from our users. Check out which apps are nominated for awards such as Best Edge® App, Best Training Plan App, Best Wearable Smart App and Best Watch Face. The winners will be unveiled at this year’s Connect IQ Developer Summit at Garmin Headquarters in April.
Suunto announced plans to retire their online training platform, Movescount, sometime around Summer 2020 (~18 months from now). Instead, users will use the newer Suunto online platform (previously called Sports Tracker – no relation to SportTracks). That’s the platform that Suunto has been pushing since the launch of the Suunto 3 watch a year ago, and then this past summer with the Suunto 9 series.
As one might expect, this has bubbled all sorts of questions to the surface on a variety of topics. Be it from the lack of features in the newer Suunto platform, to the lack of support for older watches (especially the Ambit 1/2 series) – there’s plenty of cause for needed clarity. Suunto attempted to cover that in a lengthy page of FAQ’s, though given the number of questions I’ve seen over the last 48 hours, it’s apparent that page might not be as clear as desired. So, I’m going to take a stab at covering some of the key points (after double-checking a few things with Suunto).
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found ways to track body movements and detect shape changes using arrays of RFID tags. RFID-embedded clothing thus could be used to control avatars in video games — much like in the movie “Ready Player One.” Or embedded clothing could to tell you when you should sit up straight — much like your mother.
RFID tags are nothing new, which is part of their appeal for these applications, said Haojian Jin, a Ph.D. student in CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). They are cheap, battery-free and washable.
What’s new is the method that Jin and his colleagues devised for tracking the tags, and thus monitoring movements and shapes. RFID tags reflect certain radio frequencies. It would be possible — but not practical — to use multiple antennas to track this backscatter and triangulate the locations of the tags. Rather, the CMU researchers showed they could use a single, mobile antenna to monitor an array of tags without any prior calibration.
Insurmountable detection challenges will impede the development of many of the next-generation of lab-on-a-chip devices (e.g., point-of-care and real-time health monitors). Here we present the first membrane-based, microfluidic sample preconcentration method that is continuous, quantifiable, simple, and capable of working with any analyte. Forward osmosis rapidly concentrates analytes by removing water from a stream of sample fluid. 10-100X preconcentration is possible in mere minutes. This requires careful selection of the semi-permeable membrane and draw molecule; therefore, the osmosis performance of several classes of membranes and draw molecules were systematically optimized. Proof-of-concept preconcentration devices were characterized based on their concentration ability and fouling resistance. In-silico theoretical modeling predicts the experimental findings and provides an engineering toolkit for future designs. With this toolkit, inexpensive ready-for-manufacturing prototypes were also developed. These devices provide broad-spectrum detection improvements across many analytes and sensing modalities, enabling next-generation lab-on-a-chip devices.
Valencell and Sonion select Maxim component to reduce size by 66%, combined with market leading accuracy, design flexibility, and advanced biometric measurements from Valencell tech in Benchmark BE5.0 biometric sensor
Ted Florence is ready for his family trip to Botswana. He has looked up his hotel on Google Maps and downloaded a digital map of the country to his phone. He has also packed a large paper map. “I travel all over the world,” says Florence, the president of the international board of the International Map Industry Association and Avenza, a digital map software company. “Everywhere I go, my routine is the same: I get a paper map, and I keep it in my back pocket.”
With the proliferation of smartphones, it’s easy to assume that the era of the paper map is over. That attitude, that digital is better than print, is what I call “technochauvinism.” In my book, Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, I look at how technochauvinism has been used to create an unnecessary, occasionally harmful bias for digital over print or any other kind of interface. A glance at the research reveals that the paper map still thrives in the digital era, and there are distinct advantages to using print maps.
New York Magazine, The Strategist blog, Karen Iorio Adelson from
In recent years, as bottled water has turned from status symbol to signifier of waste, the reusable water bottle has become an eco-friendly and stylish accessory for all kinds of tribes: Lululemon-wearing moms doing pick-up, desk jockeys resolving to drink more water at work, health goths hydrating before HIIT class. As wellness, athleisure, and environmentalism converge, the humble water-bottle is now its own signifier.
Much of the credit goes to S’well. Founded in 2010, the handsome stainless-steel water bottles in an array of matte and shiny shades became a $100-million business in 2016. (A few months ago, I was in the locker room of a spinning studio and found myself staring at two identical metallic gold S’wells sitting on a bench, unsure which one was mine. Another woman chimed in that she’d had to put a sticker on her S’well to avoid similar confusion.)
… Having been inside places like the New Balance technology area, I know that every company makes a male and female last. (A last is the model that is used to form shoes.) But Altra has taken it even further with their last, making changes that truly account for the differences in a woman’s foot.
… Professor Kathleen Groves, a member of the IFST Scientific Committee, says the main areas that could benefit from nanotechnologies are food packaging; health-linked ingredients; agricultural applications and food processing equipment.
“For example, in food packaging, they have an impact on quality and safety in that smart sensors can be used to detect spoilage of the food alerting the retailer or consumer, or inert nanoparticles can be incorporated into the packaging material to slow down deterioration. Nanotechnology can also be used in developing new rapid testing kits to help speed up the detection and analysis of bacterial contamination,” she tells FoodIngredientsFirst.
For ingredients, it has been shown that smaller particles of nutrients are absorbed faster into the body, therefore, for example, nano calcium or nano iron drinks are available to help improve the health of consumers needing these supplements in their diet,” Groves continues. “Additionally, encapsulation of insoluble bioactives at the nanoscale could allow them to be used in aqueous products without compromising the quality,” she notes.
In agriculture, potential benefits include increased absorption of insecticides if used in nano form. This allows a lower dosage of insecticide to be used as it is more effective in action, says Groves.
For food processing potentially nanocoatings on equipment could reduce the need for cleaning and downtime and nanosensors could be used to detect certain food changes during processing allowing more automatic control. These are not currently in use but are examples of potential applications,” Groves notes.
University of Massachusetts Amherst, News & Media Relations from
Many wearable biosensors, data transmitters and similar tech advances for personalized health monitoring have now been “creatively miniaturized,” says materials chemist Trisha Andrew at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but they require a lot of energy, and power sources can be bulky and heavy. Now she and her Ph.D. student Linden Allison report that they have developed a fabric that can harvest body heat to power small wearable microelectronics such as activity trackers.
Writing in an early online edition of Advanced Materials Technologies, Andrew and Allison explain that in theory, body heat can produce power by taking advantage of the difference between body temperature and ambient cooler air, a “thermoelectric” effect. Materials with high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity can move electrical charge from a warm region toward a cooler one in this way.
Your knees and your smartphone battery have some surprisingly similar needs, a University of Michigan professor has discovered, and that new insight has led to a “structural battery” prototype that incorporates a cartilage-like material to make the batteries highly durable and easy to shape.
The idea behind structural batteries is to store energy in structural components—the wing of a drone or the bumper of an electric vehicle, for example. They’ve been a long-term goal for researchers and industry because they could reduce weight and extend range. But structural batteries have so far been heavy, short-lived or unsafe.
In a study published in ACS Nano, the researchers describe how they made a damage-resistant rechargeable zinc battery with a cartilage-like solid electrolyte. They showed that the batteries can replace the top casings of several commercial drones. The prototype cells can run for more than 100 cycles at 90 percent capacity, and withstand hard impacts and even stabbing without losing voltage or starting a fire.
The foot has been considered both as an elastic mechanism that increases the efficiency of locomotion by recycling energy, as well as an energy sink that helps stabilize movement by dissipating energy through contact with the ground. We measured the activity of two intrinsic foot muscles, flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) and abductor hallucis (AH), as well as the mechanical work performed by the foot as a whole and at a modelled plantar muscle–tendon unit (MTU) to test whether these passive mechanics are actively controlled during stepping. We found that the underlying passive visco-elasticity of the foot is modulated by the muscles of the foot, facilitating both dissipation and generation of energy depending on the mechanical requirements at the centre of mass (COM). Compared to level ground stepping, the foot dissipated and generated an additional –0.2 J kg−1 and 0.10 J kg−1 (both p < 0.001) when stepping down and up a 26 cm step respectively, corresponding to 21% and 10% of the additional net work performed by the leg on the COM. Of this compensation at the foot, the plantar MTU performed 30% and 89% of the work for step-downs and step-ups, respectively. This work occurred early in stance and late in stance for stepping down respectively, when the activation levels of FDB and AH were increased between 69 and 410% compared to level steps (all p < 0.001). These findings suggest that the energetic function of the foot is actively modulated by the intrinsic foot muscles and may play a significant role in movements requiring large changes in net energy such as stepping on stairs or inclines, accelerating, decelerating and jumping. [full text]
… For his part, [Andrew] Jones, born in Wales, was a talented runner in his time, though he excelled in much shorter distances than the athletes he would one day advise. In 1987, when he was 17, Jones set the still-standing U.K. under-18 half marathon record, running a 1:06:55 in the English town of Stroud. But he soon decided to focus on science rather than running and racing, accepting fellowships at the American College of Sports Medicine, British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, and the European College of Sport Science, as well as editing the European Journal of Sport Science.
Ultimately, Jones became a marathon expert without ever having run one himself.
That is, until earlier this month. On January 4, Jones, now 48, finished the Tiberias Sea of Galilee Marathon in 3:34. Here, the physiologist shares his race experience, discusses what he has absorbed from his many years working with Radcliffe and Kipchoge, and predicts what’s next for the science of endurance excellence
Science, Perspective; Richard B. Alley, Kerry A. Emanuel and Fuqing Zhang from
Several features of the weather system are more persistent than day-to-day weather, allowing accurate predictions further into the future, from subseasonal to seasonal, annual, and interannual time scales and beyond, with even greater scope for improvement. For example, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) moves eastward around the tropics over 30 to 90 days, affecting rain, wind, clouds, air pressure, the onset and demise of summer monsoons, and more, with important agricultural and other implications. Weather prediction models have now shown predictive skills for the MJO phenomena up to 5 weeks (5).
In parallel with improving forecasts, communication of the growing wealth of weather data has expanded greatly, enabling a timely flow of ever more detailed and accurate information to a rich diversity of users.
People undertaking prolonged vigorous exercise experience substantial bodily fluid losses due to thermoregulatory sweating. If these fluid losses are not replaced, endurance capacity may be impaired in association with a myriad of alterations in physiological function, including hyperthermia, hyperventilation, cardiovascular strain with reductions in brain, skeletal muscle and skin blood perfusion, greater reliance on muscle glycogen and cellular metabolism, alterations in neural activity and, in some conditions, compromised muscle metabolism and aerobic capacity. The physiological strain accompanying progressive exercise-induced dehydration to a level of ~ 4% of body mass loss can be attenuated or even prevented by: (1) ingesting fluids during exercise, (2) exercising in cold environments, and/or (3) working at intensities that require a small fraction of the overall body functional capacity. The impact of dehydration upon physiological function therefore depends on the functional demand evoked by exercise and environmental stress, as cardiac output, limb blood perfusion and muscle metabolism are stable or increase during small muscle mass exercise or resting conditions, but are impaired during whole-body moderate to intense exercise. Progressive dehydration is also associated with an accelerated drop in perfusion and oxygen supply to the human brain during submaximal and maximal endurance exercise. Yet their consequences on aerobic metabolism are greater in the exercising muscles because of the much smaller functional oxygen extraction reserve. This review describes how dehydration differentially impacts physiological function during exercise requiring low compared to high functional demand, with an emphasis on the responses of the human brain, heart and skeletal muscles. [full text]
A sound nutritional plan is essential for achieving and maintaining optimal athletic performance. In addition to daily meal planning, a sports nutritionist pays special attention to the needs of athletes before, during and following training sessions and competitions. A wide variety of foods and nutritional products are available for the athlete to meet these needs. Sports nutrition professionals spend a lot of time reading and interpreting the relevant literature, and in many cases, researching the best products and ways to deliver the needed nutrients. In the research world, we often examine individual ingredients that have been removed from foods in an effort to examine the potential beneficial effects in isolation. In the real world, we most often eat foods that contain several important ingredients. So, it is ultimately also necessary to conduct research studies with real foods to determine how the food is received as a whole, and whether the important ingredients reach the target tissues in sufficient amounts, whether they interact with each other, and of course, whether beneficial effects are realized. This supplement examines the potential complications and benefits of eating foods in the context of achieving and maintaining optimal performance.
The Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) has been bringing sports nutrition and sports science researchers together for the past 30 years to address many issues that relate to the health, wellbeing and performance of athletes. Since 2012 this gathering has been known as the GSSI Expert Panel, which continued in 2017 with a meeting in October to discuss several nutritional issues that influence athlete performance. Following the meeting, the authors summarized the recent work in their topic area, resulting in the manuscripts in this Sports Medicine supplement (the sixth in a series supported by GSSI).