A two-year-old startup is looking to bridge the gap between fitness and healthcare by creating a wristband that can monitor any number of vital signs through an open source platform.
The Angel, designed to be worn around the clock, is equipped with integrated optical and acoustical sensors that measure activity, pulse, temperature and blood oxygen level, automatically relaying that information in real time to apps on a smartphone, PC or other mobile device.
"Most of the products out there can do only one thing – they can track fitness, count steps and calories, but that's all they can do," says Eugene Jorov, one of the founders of Seraphim Sense, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that created the Angel, and the company's CEO. "We want to go beyond tracking."
The Angel will no doubt face a difficult path in carving out a place on the consumer's wrist. Companies like Nike, Jawbone/BodyMedia, Misfit Wearables and Samsung Health have already made a push into the market, and that's not even taking into account the rumors of smartwatches on the horizon.
It's a realm teeming with possibilities. According to the research firm Kalorama, the sale of remote patient monitoring systems has grown from $3.9 million in 2007 to $8.9 million in 2011, and is expected to blossom to $20.9 million by 2016.
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The key to the Angel's development is an open platform designed to enable any app developer to design for the platform. All SDK, drivers and app templates are open source, says Jorov, and support iOS, Android and Bluetooth 4.0.
"We're not interested in a closed platform," Jorov adds. "That's like having an iPhone with apps from Apple alone. We want an open platform to provide as much as possible."
Crowdfunding investors have taken notice. The Angel is currently featured on indiegogo, and garnered more than $112,000 – well past its goal of $100,000 – as of October 21, with 12 days left to go on the site.
Billed on the site as "the first open sensor for health and fitness," the Angel is targeted for a wide variety of audiences, from health and wellness enthusiasts to clinicians. Among the possible uses listed by Seraphim Sense on the indiegogo page are workout tracker, sleep monitor, fertility calendar, silent alarm clock, tele-nanny, heart monitor, golf trainer and marathon coach.
Jorov says the Angel will be initially marketed as a consumer device while the company awaits an FDA review. Once approved, he said, the device could be marketed to any number of healthcare resources.
"We wanted to create the right hardware for the future of health," he said in a press release posted on the company's website. "Right now digital health solutions are started from scratch by building a sensor. Most devices end up with very limited functionality. Whatever the product, its users are typically locked into using the only app that comes with it. Health is just too important to remain closed to mass innovation and we believe in an open future for the health ecosystem.”
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