Tag Archives: Health

Babolat Play Connected Racket Raises The Game



Babolat PlayBabolat‘s pedigree in tennis is hard to beat, going right the way back to the 19th Century, when the company helped create the first racket strings. Today, it’s pushing forwards into the 21st Century with a new connected racket based on their AeroPro Drive to help both tennis professionals and keen amateurs improve their game. Don chats with Jean-Marc Zimmermann, Babolat CIO.

The Babolat Play racket looks like an ordinary racket on the outside but with sensors integrated into the handle, players now have access to a wealth of information – power level, impact position on the racket head, type and number of strokes (forehand, backhand, serve, overhead smash), top spin or back spin, all provided through a smartphone app for both Apple and Android. Incredibly, there are no sensors outside of the handle, so the racket can be treated like any other racket when it comes to match preparation and re-stringing. The racket can be taken on court for six hours between charges, which is plenty for a couple of matches, and holds over 150 hours of performance information.

The Babolat Play racket will be on sale in mid-January for $349. Two further models will be on sale; one lighter for junior players ($299) and one with a larger head (if I understand correctly), also at $349.

Interview by Don Baine, the Gadget Professor.

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iMedicpac Helps Monitor Family Members with Many Medications at CES



imedipac1The iMedipac is a connected pill box device which will help individuals on multiple medications better manage their med regimen. Chris Montera, the Geekymedic, guest host for Health Tech Weekly joined the rest of the TPN.tv team at CES this year to help cover health technology. The iMedipac is just the type of connected home health device we’re looking for.

A Pharmacy would prepare the weekly or monthly pill selection for the individual which is organized in specially designed blister pack. When the blister pack is inserted into the iMedipac device it then electronically tracks medications when they’re taken and sends a message when pills are taken, identifying whether the correct medication was taken and when it was taken.

The iMedicpac is currently in U.S. Food and Drug Administration review and will eventually retail for $250. There will also be an $8 to $10 monthly charge to monitor the medications and compliance via iMedipac’s secure online servers. This is the perfect solution for helping to monitor family members at a distance and make sure they’re taking their medications.

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Follow-up with more segments from CES 2014 here at TPN.tv and over at the Health Tech Weekly Podcast with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


Remote Control Your Hearing Aid From Your Smartphone or Tablet at CES



siemens_logoHearing devices are getting better and better all the time. Chris Montera, the Geekymedic, guest host for Health Tech Weekly talked to the folks from Siemens about their new connected hearing aids and how you can control them and use them in association with other devices like your smartphone and tablet. The controller programs for hearing aids give the user flexibility to dial in their hearing aids to each unique and specific situation in which they find themselves.

The best part of using a mobile device like an iPhone or Android phone to control your hearing aids is that you can do it without anyone know that you’re doing it or even revealing that you’re hearing impaired. You’ll just look like you’re texting like anyone else and not fiddling with your ears or holding an odd looking remote control up to your ear. The connection is via bluetooth with the MiniTek remote controls which then communicate with the hearing aids via inductive technology.

These devices are available now and can be found with your local hearing health professionals. For more information and to find a local hearing professional, visit hearing.siemens.com.

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Follow-up with more segments from CES 2014 here at TPN.tv and over at the Health Tech Weekly Podcast with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


Scanadu Health Scanner Brings Star Trek Tricorder Tech to Your Home



Scanadu Scout Vital Sign Tracker
Scanadu Scout Vital Sign Tracker

Would you like to have a Star Trek medical scanner in your home to help you monitor your family when they’re ill? So would I!

The Scanadu Scout vital sign sensor tracks 5 key vital signs just by holding it up to the patient’s forehead. Health Tech Weekly host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic chatted with Sam at the Scanadu booth at CES Digital Experience event this year about the Scanadu Scout health scanner. It communicates via bluetooth to your smart phone app, sending your temperature, heart rate, SpO2 (oxygenation) level, blood pressure and heart ECG in just 10 seconds.

The app allows you to monitor different profiles for all of your family members and track their vital signs over time. The device is an important tool and the data collected can be used by you to communicate information to your doctor you would ordinarily have to go into the office or emergency room to collect. Now, with the Scanadu Scout, you get to collect that information at home and maybe put off an office visit or ER trip and just talk with your doctor from home.

As if it is reading your mind, the Scanadu Scout™ detects problems early. It potentially decreases hospital readmissions, and the costs of managing chronic conditions for patients and insurance companies alike. Yep, all that just by placing it on your forehead. Imagine all the other possibilities.

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Find more segments from the Digital Health Pavilion at CES 2014 both here and at the Health Tech Weekly podcast site with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


Lumo Lift Wearable Device Helps You Improve Your Posture at CES



LumoLift
Lumo Lift Posture & Fitness Device

Jamie Davis, the Podmedic stops by the Lumo booth at CES Digital Experience recently in Las Vegas to see what they are bringing to market to help you improve your posture and back health. The Lumo Lift is the second posture and back health improving product from the folks at Lumo.

The Lumo Lift is a wearable fitness device that tracks your activity level along with watching how you’re sitting and standing along the way. Humans spent a lot of time evolving to be mobile creatures but now we spend a lot of time sitting and standing immobile. The Lumo Lift works with a mobile app to help remind us to use proper posture which actually uses less energy and keeps us healthier.

The device is small and is worn using a magnetic clasp so it can be worn under the clothing or on top of it so the Lumo Lift can be hidden or worn proudly to announce your fitness awareness to the world. The Lumo Lift will be released in late spring 2014 and is currently available for pre-order at their website, LumoBodyTech.com for $69. It will retail for $99 in stores later this year. Get yourself the Lumo Lift now while pre-order supplies last!

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Find more segments from the Digital Health Pavilion at CES 2014 both here and at the Health Tech Weekly podcast site with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


Nest Protect Remakes the Venerable Smoke Detector at CES



Nest Protect CO Smoke Alarm
Nest Protect CO Smoke Alarm

Nest, known for its groundbreaking interactive thermostat and mobile device app for controlling your home heating and air-conditioning, is now following up this success with a new device called the Nest Protect. The nest protect is a high-end combination smoke detector and carbon monoxide (CO) detector. But, as we expect from Nest, this home safety and wellness device is also connected to the Nest mobile app, sending you an alert when the device is activated and what kind of emergency is detected.

There are other user friendly features built in to the Nest Protect. The Nest site says it all – “Safety shouldn’t be annoying.” When alerting to a potential emergency Nest Protect gives you an early Heads-Up telling you what the danger is and where it is. If the problem is that you just burned something on the stove, no problem. No need to swing towels or get up on chairs. Silence nuisance alarms, like burning toast or bacon, with a wave of your hand. And the typical annoying battery-low chirps of other smoke detectors is a thing of the past. Nest Protect will send a message to your smartphone if the alarm goes off or if the batteries need replacing.

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Find more segments from the Digital Health Pavilion at CES 2014 both here and at the Health Tech Weekly podcast site with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


Gain Inner Balance With HeartMath’s App



Inner Balance Digital App After over 20 years of research and based on the emWave2, HeartMath has created the Inner Balance Digital App. The Inner Balance Digital app can help you reduce stress in your life. The product consist of an iOs app which is available for iPad and iPhone and the HeartMath sensor that clips to your ear. It reads your heart and breathing. It trains you through twice a day daily use to main proper breathing of 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out. You also learn to reach a calm aware Zen state where your heart beats at an even rate and its graph looks like rolling hills instead of jagged mountains when you are under stress. The app shows you both your breathing rate and your heart beat. When you are through your results are shown in easy to read graphs and charts.

The sensor and app together should sell around $99.00. Inner Balance Digital app will be available soon at the Inner Balance website. To receive a pre-release version send an email to info@heartmath.com.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network. and by Don Baine, the Gadget Professor.

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Play Attention and Move Stuff Using Your Mind with Freer Logic’s Body Wave



Freer Logic's Body Wave
Freer Logic’s Body Wave Makes You Play Attention
Visiting the Freer Logic booth at Eureka park led us to discover a product called Body Wave, which allows you to increase your mental capacity, physical performance or even control objects around you, all by using your mind. While this may sound a little far-fetched, it actually worked, all from a device that we wore on our wrist that was slightly larger than an MP3 player. There are three sensors that are on the back of the Body Wave that touch your skin and begin looking for brainwave activity and patterns, which are then sent via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to a computer or mobile device. In our scenario, we were told to focus specifically on the object in front of us, the dolphin. Then, once Nick’s brain was in its focused, calm state (which is difficult for him), the dolphin would move to the bottom of the ocean. When he would get distracted from Allante poking at him, the dolphin would lift. It’s definitely something you have to see and/or try to believe, but we’re pretty skeptical about things like this and it actually works. Freer Logic says that Body Wave would expand in the future to be able to allow you to control things like turning on your cell phone or other home electronics with just your mind, and they also said the device would get a lot smaller before it becomes a mainstream product.

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Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live.


Wearable Body Monitors get Smaller



bodyMediaLogoBody Media is a lifestyle management company tracking activities and calories – having been in the business since 1999.

Their new multi-sensor technology is patented, and stores data for up to ten days. The unit has accelerometer, galvanic response skin conductivity monitor, skin temperature and heat flow.  It provides Bluetooth download of information through smartphone to log and report your activity online. The report helps you set goals on weightloss, activity, or health goals.

In conjunction with IBM, Body Media is initiating recommendations based on the data to help subscribers become more active. There are commercially oriented applications as well.

TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey, SDRNews and Don Baine, The Gadget Professor.

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Medfolio Medication Reminder System



Medfolio Pill Box
Medfolio Pill Box

What if you had a pillbox that could tell you when it’s time to take your medicine? The Medfolio Medication Reminder System at CES 2013 is set up to help patients with multiple medications remember their medications through multiple forms of reminders.

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Julie Mason from Medfolio chats with Health Tech Weekly guest host Chris Montera about how she started the program and product development for the the medication reminder system. She’s a pharmacist who worked for many years with the Veterans Administration. In the past she has spent time working with patients on medication adherence and going into their homes to help them develop tools to remember their pills.

Basic Pill Box Enters 21st Century

The Medfolio system is build around a basic pillbox system because that is something consumers are familiar with. The device has been upgraded to the 21st century with built in software that allows patients or caregivers to enter medications and times into the system. When it’s time for a medication, that compartment will light up in the box and an alert chime will sound.

When coupled with an online reporting system, the Medifolio Medication Reminder device can trigger email or text alerts to both the patient and their caregivers.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).