We’ve chosen the best of wearables have been selected from the CES Innovation Awards, which select the most innovative devices showcased at CES, held in Las Vegas this week. Wearables have gone far beyond smartwatches and VR headsets, now moving into skin patches and even smart sensors that sit within the strap of smartwatches.
Garmin has produced something incredible: a smartwatch that doesn’t need to be charged by electric or battery power. The Fēnix 6X Pro Solar edition is Garmin’s answer for outdoor users who find themselves frustrated with having to charge their smartwatches: it charges via solar power. Of course, this watch is ideal for those who find themselves outside often, but is also aimed at indoor users, so it can also be charged via a wall socket. That said, it’s great to know the watch will stay topped up during a long run while using GPS.
The watch is designed with what Garmin calls Power Glass, a transparent solar charging lens that uses the sun’s energy to extend battery life. Because it’s a performance watch, it features a rugged design with a large 1.4” sunlight-readable display, which is 36% bigger than previous fēnix 5X models. Users can check the latest solar input while they wear it, so they know in real-time how much solar energy the Power Glass has received. The battery performance on the fēnix 6X Pro Solar in smartwatch mode is 21 days, plus an additional 3 days when using the solar charging capabilities.
“We are thrilled to introduce solar charging into the new fēnix 6X Pro Solar edition, giving users all of the features they’ve come to expect from the fēnix lineup with increased battery life and larger displays,” says Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales. “In addition to our brand-new solar technology, we’ve built the fēnix 6 to redefine expectations, with enhanced features and design elements to appeal to adventurers of every kind.”
Other features include underwater heart rate for swimming and Pulse Ox blood oxygen saturation to support advanced sleep monitoring and altitude acclimation. A new Body Battery energy monitoring feature lets users see their body’s energy levels at different points of the day, which can help with scheduling workouts, rest times and sleep.
Visit the next page to read about a watch that can help with sleep apnea, a watch strap that measures hydration, and a chip that can give lab results just by sitting on one’s skin.
Withings, a French fitness tracking company, has unveiled the Core ScanWatch: a clinically-validated smartwatch that looks out for a ton of health aspects. They include ECG monitoring for AFib (Atrial Fibrillation or irregular heart rhythm) alerts, heart rate variability with a PPG sensor, and a SpO2 that’s used to detect sleep apnea. It also features 25-day battery life, sleep detection, water-resistance, and notifications.
While you might be thinking “Apple Watch does ECGs”, they technically don’t yet. While ECG and AFib detection on Apple Watch exist on a hardware level, both have yet to be enabled in South Africa. At this stage, if Withings has the license to enable ECGs in South Africa, South Africans may be better off with a Core ScanWatch than an Apple Watch.
This is also a boon for smartphone users across the board, because ECGs and AFib detection are now available to non-Apple Watch users. The sleep apnea detection is also a great feature that is not available on other wrist wearables.
This is done by activating the Overnight Scan that can detect signs of sleep apnea via the SpO2 sensor, and delivers sleep heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, heart events, and tracks REM sleep. The user will then wake to all data via a complete in-app report.
Other features include 50M water resistance, all-day heart rate tracking, and a stainless-steel watch case.
Visit the next page to read about a watch strap that measures hydration, and a chip that can give lab results just by sitting on one’s skin.
While the front of an Apple Watch is cool, wouldn’t it be even better to use the rest of the area that wraps around one’s wrist? That’s where the Aura Strap comes in.
Healthcare innovation company Aura has unveiled a new tracking device for the Apple Watch that monitors fat, muscles, and hydration levels, and assists in activity tracking. A standalone version was showcased at CES this week.
Aura says the Aura Strap is the only way to measure one’s body composition and hydration level on an Apple Watch. The sensor uses bioimpedance technology found in other devices like the Fitbit Aria scale, to allow users to track additional health parameters (fat, muscle, and hydration levels).
The straps will become available in the US from 1 April.
Visit the next page to read about a chip that can give lab results just by sitting on one’s skin.
Imagine having a skin lab on demand, wherever you are. Xsensio is doing just that with the Lab-on-Skin device, that sits on top of one’s skin.
The device continuously reads one’s biochemistry in real-time to reveal a broad range of biochemical parameters. It does this by using the sweat at the surface of the skin to notify the user of electrolytes and metabolites, hormones and proteins. Xsensio says it does this with the precision of a blood test and the convenience and real-time feedback of a wearable.
Thanks to its modular platform, the chip can address a wide range of health and wellness applications in sports, wellness, and elderly care. It can be integrated into next-generation skin patches, wristbands or smartwatches.
The device was developed at the Nanolab of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Xsensio provided the following information on features. The Lab-on-Skin device:
- is highly miniaturised (10’000 sensor array fits on a 0.1mm footprint, consuming around 100 microWatts),
- is highly sensitive (down to sub-picomolar concentration levels),
- relies on highly-scalable manufacturing processes, using semi-conductor fabs,
- can be integrated into wearable products and skin patches, for 24/7 monitoring,
- relies on just a few nanoliters of sweat, and hence does not require any artificial stimulation.