If you think your skin wouldn’t be the next frontier for wearable tech, think again. And if you begin thinking again, a new wearable device created by New York researchers could monitor your mental state and feed that data back to you.
That’s one of the intriguing new insights we curated for in this week’s edition of Weekly Wearable News. Let’s see what’s been trending recently…
Top wearable tech news:
– Off the Skin Deep End
When we sweat, it’s not just a stinky and sticky predicament. We’re also emitting signals that can be analyzed by researchers, such as academics at the New York University Tando who created a wearable device made to measure mental activity using electric processes on the skin.
Dubbed MINDWATCH (Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive Closed-loop arcHitectures), this device can end up monitoring your mental state and push out suggestions on how best to come back to a neutral or positive state of mind. For example, if this gadget detects that you’re anxious about an experience at work, it could play some calming music or offer some other ways to help ease the stress.
A health-care application is top-of-mind for researchers, as they said the technology could be used in the early diagnosis of disorders such as diabetic neuropathy. By monitoring electric processes on the skin suspected of being damaged, the device could detect nerve damage associated with the condition and can help improve patient outcomes by allowing for early detection and treatment.
– India stepping into smart ring market
Wearable tech is hot today, so it’s not a surprise major tech players want to take advantage of the spreading buzz. Indian startup Ultrahuman is teasing a new wearable ring brimming with sensors such as temperature, heart rate and movement monitors, which enable the device to track the wearer’s sleep quality, stress levels and activity frequency.
As reported in TechCrunch, the device, yet to be released but taking pre-orders, is supposed to blend with the firm’s existing wearable, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sensor-based service it called Cyborg. This kind of pairing seeks to deepen the quality of insights for users such as tracking when a poor glucose response might be linked to a bad night’s sleep, say, or elevated stress levels, instead of focusing on whatever it was the user ate right before their blood sugar spiked.
– Survey: Mental health pros support technology but worries over its usage remain
Psychiatry is ripe for a tech overhaul, and a new survey reveals their deep interest in how innovation can help complement their work.
In an August report published in the journal Advancing Digital Health and Open Science, 83 per cent of surveyed psychiatrists believe that data culled from technology could improve their practice.
But they are still hesitant to whole-heartedly embrace digital partnerships. The survey found that 88 per cent of responders are concerned about the potential for greater clinician time demand and burden, and 77 per cent still wonder if digital data can be actionable.
