The CES tech show in Las Vegas has been packed with health gadgets this year, as technology continues to make great strides when it comes to helping consumers better understand their overall wellness.
Here’s our pick of the best on display.
Withings Smart Toilets
We had to start with Withings’ “urine lab.” This device provides an immediate snapshot of the body’s balance by monitoring and detecting a wide variety of biomarkers found in urine.
The device is only 90mm in diameter and fits inside most toilet bowls. The results are then sent to a smartphone app, which provides analysis and recommendations based on the data.
The company says it’s planning two different consumer products; one aimed at hospitals and other healthcare settings, the other for consumers.
“Urine actually has more than 3,000 metabolites. So a lot of information that’s not normally used much today because it’s so difficult,” Elizabeth Coleon of Withings told the Associated Press.
“Most people don’t like to go and get a urinalysis. Typically people will go once a year instead of being able to look at that information regularly and get the longitudinal data, which can give a lot more information to improve health,” she added.
Healthy Selfies from Caducy
Caducy, a device created by another French company called i-Virtual, measures health data in a different way.
Thanks to a 30-second selfie video, analysis is done in the cloud using artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms, including computer vision and signal processing.
The app then provides information including heart rate, breathing rate and stress level, a way for remote consultation, according to the company.
“So what we’re looking for, we’re looking for facial skin,” said Gael Constancin, founder and CEO of i-Virtual.
“And with what we see, we see the blood moving through the skin. So, it’s a signal analysis. We measure the purest wave by a signal analysis directly on the person’s face and the respiratory rate, we just look at the thorax and we count, we count the movement”.
German Bionic Exoskeleton Suits
Judging by what we saw at CES this week, another technology that could help us in the future is exoskeletons.
With more and more items being shipped around the world, it’s a strain for warehouse workers whose jobs require heavy lifting.
It’s a problem that German Bionic is working to fix with the Apogee exoskeleton suit.
The sixth iteration of the product, the Apogee is a lighter, stronger version and helps the user more easily lift items up to 30kg.
“So the product is an active lifting exoskeleton, all powered by a single 40-volt battery. And essentially what it does when you lean over, it knows your position relative to the ground,” said David Mack of German Bionic.
“Then when you start to stand up again, it will sense those movements and pick you up, compensating for almost 30kg of lifting force.”
hello air
Another robot on the show floor is Aeo, a new robot with a mission to clean. It’s a busy life, but he’s still found time to snap a few selfies with visitors, including Euronews Next deputy editor Natalie Huet.
The multi-talented robot can be used for patrol and delivery services currently deployed in Japan, Hong Kong and Taipei.
“We built Aeo as a multi-function robotic platform, so we could do many, many use cases. And one example is UV disinfection,” explains Dan Haddick of the manufacturers, Aeolus Robotics.
“We responded very quickly a couple of years ago during the pandemic and created this unique solution that has been very popular with senior care facilities, hospitals, and public transportation.”
Chillax Care AI Baby Monitors
Another device used to monitor humans (although only the little ones) is the Chillax Care, an AI-powered baby monitor.
The company says its app analyzes microscopic movements while babies sleep to provide a high level of precision.
It can tell parents if their baby is sleeping on their stomach or if there is a breathing problem. Over time, they will even be able to measure the respiratory rate.
Jon Budgen of Chillax Care says the camera looks for a number of different features, “Head, neck, back, legs, and determines if the baby is in a proper sleeping position to help prevent things like SIDS. And the algorithm will learn with the time which one is the baby”. head is seen, when he or she is face up or face down.
“If there is a compromised position, the baby sleeping with mum and dad will get an alert via our Chillax Care app and then they can come and make sure everything is okay with the baby in the nursery.”
