Researchers have developed a lightweight computer mouse that you wear on your finger like a ring and works for more than a month on a single charge.

Called picoRing, the device weighs just 0.18 ounces (5 grams) and is designed as a discreet, low-power alternative to traditional mice.

Its inventors see it initially as a contender for controlling augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems, where compact, hands-free control offers a practical advantage over standard input devices. Users can scroll and interact with virtual interfaces using small hand gestures, making picoRing ideal for setups that lack desk space.

Because the ring sits in direct contact with the skin, future versions could also monitor heart rate, stress levels and other health markers, the researchers said in a statement. Combining these health features with interaction control could open the door to "multifunctional wearable devices."

"Although it's just a prototype, picoRing could have several useful impacts on the way people interact with technology," Ryo Takahashi, assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, said in the statement.

"Obviously, it could mean longer-lasting wearable technology becomes more common, but it also offers a new intuitive way to interact with AR. It offers more discreet control to avoid being too obvious in public spaces, is generally more convenient because it’s so compact, and may become a platform for health sensors or other innovations."

The humble computer mouse has been kicking about for almost 60 years, and while its design has been refined and improved in that time, attempts to radically rethink it have never quite taken hold. Researchers hope picoRing's convenient form factor and month-long battery life will help it stand out, particularly as other ring-style wearables gain traction.

"Previous so-called smart rings suffer from short lifespans because their small 50-60 megawatt-hour batteries struggle to power the necessary communications components for long," Takahashi said."To solve this challenge, we needed picoRing to use hundreds of times less power at around 30-500 microwatts."

Ring of Powerpoint?

That huge battery life is the result of a unique power system called semi-passive inductive telemetry (semi-PIT), which pairs the ring with a wristband that serves as a relay between the ring and the device it controls.

This is built around a coil of wire, similar to those found in wireless chargers, but with small capacitors running along its length. Together, these boost the magnetic fields that carry signals between the ring and wristband, extending its range without needing an external amplifier.

This enables the ring itself to use much weaker and less power-hungry components than other wireless wearables. The researchers had already ruled out standard wireless systems like Bluetooth and NFC, noting that Bluetooth would consume too much power for such a small device, while NFC only works over very short distances.

As with many prototypes, picoRing faces practical constraints in its current form. It remains somewhat bulky and can be prone to interference. For the time being, it also supports only basic inputs like scrolling and clicking.

The researchers said future refinements could make the device smaller, more responsive and easier to use in everyday settings. Still, it's unlikely ever to become the go-to for more intensive office work.

"For typical office work like spreadsheets or long editing sessions, a standard mouse is still more comfortable," said Takahashi. "But as the technology improves, it could become a lightweight alternative for mobile or occasional use."

Your body could become a battery for wearable devices, thanks to a breakthrough in harvesting waste energy from 6G wireless communication.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that waste radio frequency (RF) energy given off by visible light communication (VLC), if used to deliver 6G, can be harvested with small, inexpensive copper coils and transmitted to power other devices via the human body. 6G is a future wireless communication technology that is currently in development and is set to be deployed before the end of the decade.

As outlined in a 2022 research paper, the crux of this mechanism lies with VLC — which transmits data through extremely fast flashes of visible light from sources such as LEDs. VLC is one method through which 6G signals might hypothetically be transmitted in the future. But LEDs also emit side-channel RF signals, as a form of leaked energy. The researchers found that this could be harvested by a coiled copper wire, whose energy recycling efficiency is boosted when touching human skin.

Related: Scientists could make blazing-fast 6G using curving light rays

According to the study, skin contact boosted efficiency by up to 10 times compared to using the coil on its own. The human body also proved to be better at amplifying the coil’s ability to collect leaked radio energy than wood, plastic, cardboard or steel.

Body batteries

From this, the researchers created "Bracelet+" — a simple copper wire coil that could be worn as a bracket on the upper forearm. The design can also be adapted to be worn as a necklace, anklet, belt or ring, although the scientists found the bracelet occupied a happy medium between power harvesting and wearability.

"The design is cheap — less than fifty cents," said the authors of the study in a statement. “But Bracelet+ can reach up to micro-watts, enough to support many sensors such as on-body health monitoring sensors that require little power to work owing to their low sampling frequency and long sleep-mode duration."

With this in mind, such technology could solve the issue of limited battery life on wearable devices. Even highly rated smartwatches, like the Apple Watch, tend to need charging on a near-daily basis, which can mitigate how useful they are unless charging is part of one’s daily routine. And now that smart rings are growing in popularity, there are even more devices that require regular power top-ups.

The energy harvesting technology that the Bracelet+ facilitates could, therefore, become a form of in-situ charger for next-generation wearable devices, providing of course that such devices come with a way of taking power from the bracelet.

Of course, this relies on 6G networks that use VLC, which are currently far away from deployment, let alone widespread adoption and integration into consumer or industrial devices.

But this could be the advent of turning the human body into a form of battery to power technology, only in a more harmonious fashion than the future envisioned by "The Matrix."

"Ultimately," said lead author of the study Jie Xiong, professor of information and computer sciences at UMass Amherst, in a statement, "we want to be able to harvest waste energy from all sorts of sources in order to power future technology."

Upping your health game can start with better awareness of your health. One surefire way of doing that is to use a smartwatch, which can track things like your steps, sports sessions, sleep quality, heart rate, and stress. The Amazfit Bip 3 Pro Smart Watch does all these things and is now reduced to just $54.99 for a limited-time early deal as part of the Amazon Big Spring Sale. 

In our 2022 review of the Amazfit Bip 3, we rated it a high 4 out of 5 stars, which is impressive considering its affordable price. We also found similarities between it and the more expensive Apple Watch, trumping the premium counterpart with its "mammoth battery life."

This $54.99 deal is the lowest price Amazon has sold the Amazfit Bip 3 at for a while, and it has also received plenty of five-star reviews — over 3,500. Many have even been writing impressive statements like "this changed my life" and "best watch I've tried," while some even likened it to its more premium competitor, calling it "as good as an Apple Watch."

As well as monitoring your health, the Amazfit Bip 3 also does the other handy things that you would expect from a smartwatch. That means providing you with message notifications, alarms, weather reports, controlling music on your phone, and more. It even has 51 watch faces, so you can change its appearance to match your outfit or mood.  

Key features: 14-day battery, count steps and distance, heart rate and blood oxygen monitor, sleep monitor, 51 watch faces, strong GPS, water resistance, voice call, music player, sleep, touchscreen, wireless. 

Product launched: June 15, 2022

Price history: Before today's deal, the Amazfit Bip 3 switched between $69.99 and $59.99 for most of this year, but this is the lowest price we've seen for this smartwatch, so it's worth getting today. 

Reviews consensus: The Amazfit Bip 3 has received more than 3,500 five-star Amazon reviews. Customers have called it things like "expensive looking" and the "best value smartwatch." 

Buy it if: You want an affordable fitness watch that can track a range of health factors like your heart rate, steps, sports sessions, and stress, as well as do other useful non-health related things. 

Don't buy it if: You don't mind spending more money and would like a watch that is even more high-tech and can do things like play music directly (rather than through your phone, like this one).  

The gene activity of "designer" human cells can be remotely toggled on and off with electric currents, a new study in mice shows. 

In a study published July 31 in the journal Nature Metabolism, direct current (DC) from off-the-shelf consumer batteries triggered the release of insulin from genetically engineered human cells that scientists had implanted under the skin of diabetic mice. The insulin successfully restored the rodents' normal blood sugar levels. 

The researchers hope this electrical fine-tuning of gene expression, broadly known as "electrogenetic" technology, will eventually be integrated into wearable devices that can be used to tune the activity of designer cells implanted in the human body. 

Wearable devices are already in vogue and can monitor pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and more. But currently, no such tech can be used to control gene expression.

Related: How fitness trackers monitor your sleep 

To move this idea from science fiction into the real world, Martin Fussenegger, a professor of biotechnology and bioengineering at ETH Zurich and the University of Basel, and his colleagues designed an interface called DC-actuated regulation technology (DART). It's powered by DC from standard 1.5-volt AA or AAA batteries. 

As a proof of concept, they tested DART in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes. They implanted engineered human cells in the rodents' backs and stimulated the cells through two acupuncture needles placed near the implantation site. The needles were attached to the batteries via a wire, whose end was plugged into a simple power switch. 

The electrical current flowed through the needles and triggered minor oxidative stress in the designer cells, meaning it caused a slight buildup of reactive molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS). These molecules were detected by a molecular sensor built into the cells. 

The sensor, which was engineered to work as a transcription factor — a protein that latches onto DNA to turn a gene "on" or "off" — then bound to a designated spot on the cell's DNA and, in turn, activated the gene of interest, the insulin gene. The human cells were genetically engineered to express, or activate the gene of interest only if the ROS levels produced by the electrical current were high enough, and as the ROS dissipate, the gene switches "off."

Stimulating the designer cells for just 10 seconds once a day was enough to induce gene expression and trigger sufficient insulin release to restore normal blood glucose levels in the lab mice.

Fussenegger told Live Science he thinks this new electrogenetic interface is "a complete game changer."

"It's a tremendous application of electrogenetics," a technique that uses "electronic means to turn on specific gene expression," William Bentley, a synthetic biologist and professor at the University of Maryland who wasn't involved in the research, told Live Science. 

The Fussenegger lab previously designed an electrogenetic device that used alternating current (AC) at high voltage to activate cells, but it required too much power to be suitable for wearables. The new study shows that electronic control of gene expression doesn't need a lot of power or fancy devices, Bentley said. "That’s a significant advance."

Bentley, who pioneered this technology and coined the term "electrogenetics," added that the work still only "represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of electronic communication with and control of biology." Bentley's team first demonstrated electronic control of gene expression in experiments involving engineered bacterial cells, but this new study is the first to remotely regulate gene expression in a mammal using a DC-powered device.

Fussenegger believes that, someday, this technology will not only be integrated into wearables but also link people's metabolisms to "an 'internet of the body.'" This would mean that doctors could intervene remotely, from anywhere in the world, he said. However, devices could eventually be programmed to sense and adjust blood sugar automatically, so "there's nothing for humans to do anymore,” Fussenegger added.

Integrating this technology into smartwatches might not be simple, though, Bentley cautioned. One limitation is that you still need the engineered cells implanted underneath that wristband, which may turn off some people, he said.

Fussenegger conceded that there's still a long way to go. The next steps would entail testing this electrogenetic interface in human clinical trials before it could be commercialized and integrated into wearables.

The Huawei Band 7 looks to be the company’s direct competitor to the likes of the Fitbit Inspire 2, and packs a lot of tech into a very small, and very affordable product.

It’s one of the best fitness trackers around right now, thanks to a combination of factors that belie its £49.99/$59.99 price tag (availability in the U.S. is through third-party sellers). It’s thin and light, but offers a bright, colorful OLED display that other cheaper bands simply cannot match. It's easy to read, presents metrics in a pleasing way, and just feels more useful in direct sunlight than other options.

There are drawbacks, of course — there’s no GPS, and because it piggybacks off of iOS and Android, it doesn’t have any third-party app connections. There’s also no way to store music on the device for listening to playlists while working out.

And yet, if you don’t mind carrying your phone with you on a run or to the gym, the Huawei Band 7 may just knock the Fit Inspire 2 off of its perch for anyone looking for a fitness tracker that won’t cost a lot, but doesn’t sacrifice features. 

Price and release date

The Huawei Band 7 launched in May 2022 and is available at £49.99 or AUS$159. Sadly, availability is limited in the U.S., but we’ve seen some sellers offer it for $59.99.

Design and display

The Huawei Band 7 is available in Graphite Black, Nebula Pink, Flame Red, or Wilderness Green (our review unit is the latter).

Its design is a little squarer than the Fitbit Inspire 2, with a more rectangular face that incorporates some slimline bezels that are subtly hidden by the predominantly black display. And what a display it is too, with an AMOLED making colors ‘pop’ in every facet of the UI and the blacks remaining deep throughout.

There are a series of watch faces available, with each able to be tweaked in small ways. It’s not quite the same as you’d find on something like an Apple Watch, but we found ourselves swapping faces depending on the occasion.

Straps are swappable, with the device itself weighing just 16g without them. Unlike the Inspire 2’s capacitive ‘button’, the Huawei Band 7 offers a physical button which we preferred for being more reliable — particularly with sweaty hands. Still, it’s worth remembering that this could theoretically increase the chances of getting sweat inside the device and therefore limit its long-time usability. 

• Related: Best running watches

Features

To begin with the bad news, the Huawei Band 7 lacks any GPS functionality. This is a shame, and perhaps not too unexpected given the price point, but that does mean it’ll lean on a connected smartphone to do all of the heavy lifting with regard to location. Still, if you prefer to go for a run and take your phone with you anyway, it’ll be no biggie.

This would also be good because there’s no onboard storage for queuing songs or podcasts for your workout. It’s something even Fitbit has shied away from in recent years, so again, it’s not that surprising.

What is surprising, in a good way, is the number of sensors on offer here. There’s an accelerometer and gyroscope, but there’s also what Huawei refers to as TruSeen 4.0. The two-pronged tech assesses blood oxygen and heart rate at the same time, and the two run constantly if you choose – meaning no stopping to take an Sp02 reading. Considering blood oxygen tracking was only introduced to Apple Watch Series 6, which costs considerably more, its presence here is a huge boon for the Huawei Band 7.

The Band 7 also does a great job with sleep tracking, with TruSleep 2.0 helping track duration and sleep states in more detail than you’d expect for such a cheap tracker.

Everything is presented nicely on the Huawei Fit app, which works almost entirely the same as Fitbit’s — it’s a dashboard that users can dive deeper into with a tap.

• Related: How accurate are fitness trackers?

Performance

Throughout testing, we ran the Huawei Band 7 on one wrist with an Apple Watch Series 7 on the other in order to check the step tracking. Across the board, from running to walking, from a pool swim to a cycle, the Band 7 didn’t skip a beat and matched the internal GPS of the Apple Watch while piggybacking off the iPhone’s GPS.

In fact, the only issue was the number of workout types available — your cardio staples are covered, as well as the option to tweak them further and create your own, but we’d have liked more options. If you’re a dancer, into combat sports, or something else that’s not covered here, you may be a little disappointed.

One area that exceeds expectation is the Huawei Band 7’s battery life. The Band 7 will last for an incredible two weeks, meaning it’s ideal for extreme workouts over the course of longer periods. Charging can be fiddly, though, and lacks the ease of the Fitbit range’s magnetic connectors.

Verdict

For a fitness tracker newcomer, the Huawei Band 7 is an easy purchase. It lacks the more guided workouts of the Fitbit and the powerful third-party connections of something like an Apple Watch, but if you want to track your steps, find out how far you can run, walk, or cycle, and track your heart rate or blood oxygen level without needing to charge for two weeks, it’s ideal.

If this isn't for you

For more features (and a color screen), the Luxe offers the next step up in the Fitbit range, while the Versa 3 adds more sensors and expands more into smartwatch territory.

We’re hesitant to suggest the Apple Watch given that the Series 3 seems primed for the chop soon and there’s nothing Apple makes for iOS users at this price range, either.

It’s just over 18 months since the Apple Watch SE launched and while it was a winner then, the presence of the Apple Watch 7, with the larger screen, has made it less attractive as a device.

However, it is still the best Apple Watch for “most people”. What that means is – when you ask what you want in a Watch from Apple, is it just a device that sits on your wrist as a companion for your iPhone? If so, then you should check out the Watch SE, especially if you can get a deal on it.

Launched in September 2020 as the “affordable” version of the Watch 6, the Watch SE cost £269/ $279 for the 40mm version … and it's not come down much in price since then. 

In that time, the Watch 7 has emerged at the same £419/$399 price as the Watch 6 but with a larger, easier-to-read screen. So, given the most expensive Apple Watch is more feature-rich, we’d expect the Watch SE to be cheaper to show the gulf in performance. Thankfully, we are seeing good deals emerge for the SE – and it’s becoming a more attractive buy.

That said, the Watch SE is still a tremendous device for those who want a good fitness tracker, a motivating health device and a smart digital companion to the iPhone – the notifications are rich and the range of watch faces is useful and continually growing.

There are small touches that a spec list can't show you: like the Taptic Engine that will tap away at your wrist to give you a notification, and which is far nicer than the heavy buzz many smartwatches offer.

The Breathe and Relax features in the Meditation app – which appeared with the new watchOS 8 software – are a genuine draw, so if you're not sure you'll get the maximum benefit from all the health-monitoring features of the new Watch 7, the Apple Watch SE is a top choice if you don't mind flicking your wrist to just see the time.

It might not rank as the best running watch, but it's still a decent little tracker for anyone with an iPhone.

Apple Watch SE: Design and display

• Easy-to-read display
• Nice haptic feedback
• No always-on display

When it comes to the design of the Apple Watch SE, it's very familiar. You've probably seen an Apple Watch at some point over the years if you're reading this review, and you're getting the same curved glass covering a vibrant OLED screen.

The buttons on the right are the Digital Crown, used to scroll through menus and confirm choices, and the Side Button, which allows you to pay for things with Apple Pay and see your recently used apps. 

Both are easy to hit and more useful than they used to be: the Digital Crown, for instance, packs haptic feedback so you can feel the items scrolling past when you're browsing a menu.

The Watch SE comes in 40mm and 44mm screen sizes, depending on the size of your wrist, though unlike the Apple Watch 5 onwards there's no always-on display here. 

That may not sound like much (and does help improve the battery life) but it means if you want to know the time, it's an exaggerated raise and flick of the wrist just to find out how late you are for an important meeting.

However, the screen is bright and easy to read – it lacks the peak brightness of the Watch 7 but we've never had an issue with reading the Watch outdoors.

Apple Watch SE: Set up and usability

• Simple set up
• Great range of watch faces
• Not as fast as newer Watches

The Watch SE sticks to Apple's mantra of “It Just Works”: from the set up (where you scan a digital image from your Watch with your phone or bring it close to an iPhone to begin pairing) to the first flicks you encounter, everything is clearly signposted and intuitive.

Some people may not like the sprawling spread of apps in grid view – it's easily changed to a list view – but most will delight in the many watch faces on offer.

Fancy a watch face that makes it all about your fitness and heart rate? Simply done. Want to see the battery life? That's an option. Care about the solar cycles or how bright your part of the world is right now? All there for you.

If you're scrolling through the Watch SE, you can either do so with the Digital Crown or the speedy and responsive touchscreen. 

As the Watch SE is based on the older S5 chipset from Apple, it lacks the zip of the Watch 6 or Watch 7, but still performs well under the finger.

Apple Watch SE: Features and performance

• Great all-round fitness tracker
• Sub-par battery life
• Can be used to unlock iPhone when wearing mask

The Apple Watch SE might look like it's feature-poor from the outset – it lacks the ECG or SPO2 sensor that the Watch 5 and Watch 6 brought, and are still present on the Watch 7. 

However, we've found these to be redundant features. Sure, they're helpful if you've got a condition where monitoring your heart rhythm or blood oxygen is relevant, but for most they'll be played with once or twice and dropped.

Yet it's under this high-level health monitoring that the Watch SE shines, as it's just a good smartwatch, balancing well between useful features that enhance your day and not overfilling things with too much choice.

For instance, the Watch SE tracks sleep and heart-rate variance, but not stress levels. It'll track a wide range of sports, including dance, running, high-intensity interval training and more, but doesn't have options for tracking what happens when you jump out a plane, as top-end fitness-focused smartwatches do.

If you're hoping for a device that will let you take a call hands-free without needing to reach for your phone, the Watch SE can do that. It'll show your messages with a nice, rounded bubble, and let you send them back using your voice.

With 32GB of storage, you can fill it with your own music or subscribe to Apple's Music service, allowing you to download music to your wrist – and no longer have the need to take your phone with you to listen to tunes. And with competitors like Spotify now doing the same thing, the Watch SE is growing in prowess as a media companion.

That usefulness appears in elements like the music control, which pops up automatically if you start playing music on your phone. So often we’d be listening and then realise we have no hands to grab a phone and change tracks, but there's the option, right there on your wrist when you raise it next.

The Watch SE can help with the issue of not being able to unlock an iPhone with Face ID when wearing a mask. It will look for a connected Watch and skip the lock screen, as it knows you’re nearby. It’s a handy feature during the pandemic and one we used far more than we expected to.

We feel the Watch SE is feature-rich enough for most, though it's still not perfect. It's not as accurate in terms of GPS performance as a dedicated Garmin (have a read through our round-up of the best Garmin watches, if you're looking for a top-end tracker) but it's darn close. In our test we found that it managed to be within a few hundredths of a mile over a longer course, but wasn't as bang on mile markers as we'd like.

The heart rate monitor is good enough for many, too, but it can struggle to track unless you move it further up the arm. If you're after a top-end fitness device, no model in the Watch range is going to be your friend. Instead, look to brands such as Garmin and Polar for proper fitness tracking.

Apple uses a system of rings to show you how active you’re being each day. These rings ‘close’ when you hit your daily exercise targets. Standing, moving or exercising will help close those rings so that they form complete circles – if you don’t hit your target, then the rings will have a gap in them.

Being encouraged to close your rings each day is motivating and the Watch SE will learn your daily rhythms and ping you when it thinks you need help remembering to work out. It has an inbuilt decibel-meter to remind you to watch out for your audio health, and it'll track your VO2 max and daily resting heart rate. We like wearing it to get these notifications and know we're on track.

One major issue for the Watch SE is the battery life. Apple's claim of 18 hours in normal use is pessimistic: we easily got 24 hours of use, even with some running and other movement and use throughout the day. It's capable of monitoring you without a hint of needing a charger through a 2-3 hour run, losing 9% battery over 90 mins when connected to your phone, so GPS isn’t needed on the wearable. 

But for generally lasting without needing to find a power top up – especially if you want to track sleep – it's too short. If you want to monitor your slumber, when are you supposed to charge it? The Watch SE takes more than two hours to charge, so it's hard to know when to do this.

Apple needs to start offering a Watch with three days of battery life at least. It's annoying that, even without an always-on display, the Watch SE doesn't offer satisfying battery life.

Should you buy the Apple Watch SE? 

If you just want an Apple Watch, and worry about the stuttering performance and age of the Watch 3, then we recommend the Watch SE as your best bet.

You will miss the always-on display, but for the overall Apple Watch experience you’re getting a great range of features here.

We would say that the lack of a price drop since launch is galling. We’d suggest keeping an eye out for a good deal to bring it down a touch in cost (and we’ve already seen a few sales that offer it).

You’ll get a lot out of the Watch SE, as long as you find a decent charging schedule.

If the Apple Watch SE isn’t for you…

Apple Watch 7

The easy alternative offer, the Watch 7 is 50% more expensive, but you’re getting a newer, faster and larger-screen watch, without adding much heft to the wrist.

If you don’t care about the always-on display, or need the SPO2 or ECG sensor, then this may not be worth the upgrade – but it will stay with you for a long time.

Garmin Venu 2

Among the best fitness watches, this is the one to go for if you want to spend the same but want things like an always-on display and demand more metrics from your device. The impressive display, combined with nearly three times the battery life, means that more serious runners or lifters should be checking this out.

Fitbit Versa 3

A cheaper option, the new Fitbit Versa is more fitness tracker than smartwatch, but also comes with GPS tracking, as well as a wider range of body metrics. Plus, there are more ways to help you work out.

If you want to spend a little less add this to your list of possibles – and it will last a good three days with everything turned up to the max, too.

Fitbit Inspire 2 is a health tracker that’s ideal for those looking to start understanding their body’s natural rhythm and realize their own fitness goals.

It’s the most affordable Fitbit in the range but still offers plenty of features, including heart-rate tracking, sleep-tracking and the ability to see notifications on your wrist.

There are compromises to hit that price point, though: there’s no blood oxygen level, no GPS and its 1.4in display isn’t as colorful as the likes of the Fitbit Luxe. In fact, there’s no color at all, although it is bright enough to be read anywhere. The best fitness trackers, in our opinion, tend to have all of the above features and more. 

In some areas, it’s better than the more expensive trackers in the lineup – including a year of Fitbit Premium as opposed to six months and almost a week and a half of battery life.

If you’re looking for a first Fitbit to set modest step goals, the Inspire 2 is a great choice. Is it the best Fitbit out of the lot? Here’s what we made of it after testing.

Price and release date

• Launched September 2020
• Can be found discounted

The Fitbit Inspire 2 has been available since September 2020 and retails for $99.95 (UK £90). However, it’s typically found for around $60, so it’s worth hunting for a deal. The Fitbit Inspire 2 comes with a year of Fitbit Premium.

Design and display

• Still small and easy to forget you’re wearing it
• No color display

The Inspire was a breakout success for Fitbit and the second iteration doesn’t change a great deal. It is more curved than its predecessor but otherwise almost exactly the same size.

That means it’s still tiny, and makes all-purpose fitness trackers, like the Apple Watch 7 or Fitbit’s own Versa 3, feel huge by comparison.

The strap is the same as the last one, too, with an “elastomer” band that’s comfortable and comes in two sizes.

The bulk of the device is taken up by the OLED screen and the black and white display is easy to read in sunlight or indoors. It’s crystal clear, too, because the 1.4in screen makes the most out of the modest resolution. However, the lack of colored icons may affect users with vision impairments. Without color, many of the icons look similar at a glance.

The Fitbit Inspire 2 comes in Black, Desert Rose, and Lunar White.

• Related: Best running watches

Features

• Works with Fitbit app
• Fewer sensors than more-expensive trackers in range

While the Fitbit Luxe squashes all sorts of sensors into a svelte frame, the Fitbit Inspire 2 is more restrained. Yes, it will track your steps, the distance you’ve moved, calories burned, and has menstrual cycle tracking. It’ll also track your heart rate, which wasn’t in the Inspire 1’s bag of tricks – unless you opted for the Inspire HR.

Sleep tracking is here – and looks at stages of sleep to calculate a sleep score that feeds into preparing you for the day ahead. Unfortunately, though, there’s no ECG or EDA scan, and you won’t find an NFC chip for Fitbit Pay. It will let you read messages and notifications on your wrist.

The slimline display means you can expect to scroll through text regularly, especially if you get a lengthy message.

The data collected is used to put together a Daily Readiness Score for you as part of Fitbit Premium. This will indicate how best to make use of the day ahead, be that through exercise, recovery, or maximizing rest.

Fitbit Premium is included as a six-month trial with other Fitbit models, but here you get a year, which is worth more than you can buy the Inspire 2 for. Is it worth it? Yes, even if just for that year – you’ll get personalized training recommendations, diet ideas, and that all-important Daily Readiness score.

• Related: How accurate are fitness trackers?

Performance

• No GPS
• Impressive battery life

The Fitbit Inspire 2 doesn’t have GPS tracking, but it can piggyback off your phone’s GPS connection, so if you’re happy to carry your iPhone or Android device you’ll still be able to see how much quicker you’ve got when running your route or cycling.

There’s also no onboard storage available for music, so don’t expect to load the Inspire 2 up with a playlist or podcast.

Step-tracking is accurate when tested against the Apple Watch Series 7 and the Fitbit Sense – both significantly pricier devices. Heart-rate tracking is solid, too, taking just a few seconds to catch up when you go from a run to a walk or vice versa.

Given the small size of the Fitbit Inspire 2, its battery life – advertised as being enough for 10 days – is incredible. While fewer sensors and a monochrome screen undoubtedly help, we hit nine and a half days of use without a charge, and that includes workout and sleep tracking, too.

Verdict

The Fitbit Inspire 2 is an ideal fitness tracker for those initial steps into getting active. Metrics like steps, calories and heart rate are important at any point of your fitness journey, but none more so than when starting out.

If this isn't for you

For more features (and a color screen), the Luxe offers the next step up in the Fitbit range, while the Versa 3 adds more sensors and expands more into smartwatch territory.

We’re hesitant to suggest the Apple Watch given that the Series 3 seems primed for the chop soon and there’s nothing Apple makes for iOS users at this price range, either.

It's been over four years since the Apple Watch 3 came out, but the Cupertino brand is keeping it alive by offering it for over half the price of the top-end Watch 7, making it the affordable option if you're thinking of getting into the Apple Watch world.

It's a tricky call though - back in 2017, many of the Watch 3 features were cutting edge, where now they're petty run-of-the-mill and have been heavily usurped by a lot of other fitness trackers on the market. 

However, Apple has maintained a pretty healthy lead as the world's best smartwatch manufacturer, especially in terms of sales, and has consistently been upgrading its Watch software to bring features to its range - including the older Watch 3.

It comes with a good range of band designs - easily swappable thanks to the lugs at the top and bottom of the device - and while it lacks many of the hardware upgrades that later Watches bring (especially when it comes to the display) it's also rife with the DNA that makes Apple Watches so popular.

If you're looking at buying a Watch 3, then you'll be able to pick it up in 38mm or 42mm versions, depending on the wrist size you've got, and it starts at just $199 now - although, saying that, it's been at the price point for years now, and we think it's high time that Apple reduced it further if it's going to be the affordable way to get into the Apple Watch ecosystem.

That said, it is a cheaper way to get into things like Fitness+, Apple's guided workout platform that you can take anyway and uses your Watch to monitor performance and save your workouts. It's a nice system, and three months of free use come bundled with the Watch 3.

But you'll need to be sure you're OK with the 'basic' model of the Apple Watch if you go for the third-generation model, as you are making some relatively significant compromises. If budget is less of a concern, the Apple Watch 6 and Apple Watch 7 are superior models.

Apple Watch 3: Design and display

Back in 2017, we thought the Apple Watch 3 had a great display. Bright and vivid, the OLED technology shone through. But now, compared to the Watch 7 or Watch SE (which are also on sale) it looks tiny in comparison.

The biggest change is the bezels - they look super chunky on the Watch 3, coming in over 4mm compared to the 1mm off the Watch 7. Given the casing hasn't altered that much in size (the Watch 7 is now available in 41mm and 45mm sizes, compared to the 38mm and 42m options of the Watch 3) the reduction in bezel is stellar, and with the Watch 3 you've got so much less space to poke at.

It's not as bright as newer watches either, but we can't say we really struggled with seeing what was on it at all in this modern-day retest. Sure, it's not the brightest or largest, but it's always visible outside and when raising the wrist.

The Apple Watch 3 also lacks the always-on display, which will go dim when you lower your wrist, but still shows the time and some information. You need to flick your wrist in an exaggerated fashion with the Watch 3 to see the time, which is irksome (although, you will get used to the motion quickly).

In terms of the design, it's never really changed in terms of the way an Apple Watch looks - the Digital Crown on the side doesn't have the pleasant haptic feedback that newer watches have, but other than that it's just a bit smaller than newer models.

However, we would say the 38mm model is a little on the small size these days - if you can get away with the 42mm option, we suggest you check that out. 

• Related: How to start running

Apple Watch 3: Set up

The Apple Watch 3, like its wearable siblings, is a cinch to set up. Hold it close to your phone and it'll instantly begin pairing, using the camera to start the connection. There you answer some questions about your preferences, set the passcode, establish some fitness goals and you're off.

It takes a while to get going, especially if you're restoring from a backup of an older Watch, but once it's ready you're good to go.

In terms of usability, there are few smartwatches on the market as good as the Apple Watch range in terms of how you use them - the notifications are rich and clear, the Taptic Engine (which makes it feel like the Watch is knocking on your wrist to let you know things are happening) is sublime and even the fiddly Digital Crown doesn't feel entirely useless all the time, especially when scrolling through a menu.

We would suggest that you change from the odd grid set up to a list view of your apps, as it's so much easier to find the title you want when it's in alphabetical order - although it doesn't look as nice, it’s easier to use.

The Watch faces continue to get better and better from Apple as time goes on, and now you can have quick access to features of many apps through the complications offered on the face. Whether it's tracking the phases of the moon, using your favorite images as wallpaper or celebrating Pride, Apple has many - although it's still hugely irritating it doesn't allow third-party faces yet, and you don’t get access to all the new Watch faces.

Apple Watch 3: Features and performance

So, then, how does using the Apple Watch 3 feel day to day, especially in light of the other high-power smartwatches available, often not much more money (and sometimes less)?

Well, the first thing you might notice in a side-by-side comparison is the speed - the Watch 3 takes a few seconds to register tasks, jumping between apps taking a clear beat longer than you might expect.

This is OK a lot of the time, but when you're on a run and want to swipe to change your music, it becomes irritating.

However, when it comes to fitness tracking, the Watch 3 is still as good as more recent Apple Watch models in some respects. The Move Rings, the methods of following how active you are per day in a more visual way, are a nice way to help you stay healthy, and they're just as good on the Watch 3.

The GPS performance when you're out running is just fine - partly because you'll generally have your phone with you and it'll draw location data from that, but on its own it's still OK. Not as accurate as many others, as it can't sense as many satellites, but fine in terms of telling you how far and fast you ran with relative accuracy.

You can now track a wide range of activities with the Apple Watch, from dance to running to HIIT workouts, and we generally found the Watch 3 to be good enough in terms of tracking these sweat-inducing sessions and filling our fitness rings accordingly.

One thing that you can now do with recent software upgrades is track your sleep - but we wouldn't suggest you buy the Watch 3 (or any Watch) for that from Apple, as it's really basic information that doesn't really give much of an insight. You can download other apps to help you with this, but we think devices like Garmin or Fitbit are far better at the job.

The heart rate monitor on the back isn't the best out there either. We found it to be generally accurate, giving the same responses as other optical heart rate sensors (as in, using green LEDs to spot your heart rate on the go).

It's also a good enough system to let you know when you're having low or high heart rate moments that you may have missed or not expected, although it lacks a blood oxygen sensor or ECG function. But it sometimes would lose performance if you put it on the wrong part of your wrist, as it needs more sensors to compete these days.

Whether you need these though, is entirely up to you. We've not seen much use for them in our testing, so we think most people would happily live without them.

When it comes to battery life, Apple remains as confusing as ever, saying that its watches can last 18 hours but they often go further than that. 

For example, we used the Apple Watch from 8:30pm one night until around 11pm a day later - this included a half-hour run in the middle, as well as constant connection to the Watch and heart rate monitoring. It also lost only 5% of battery during that run (while, admittedly, still connected to the phone), showing that the Apple Watch 3's battery resilience hasn't been harmed in recent software updates.

Apple has removed the Watch 3 LTE version of the device in recent years, allowing you to just buy the GPS-only version to keep it low cost.

That omission means you can't take or make calls on the Watch 3 when out and about, but you can use it to answer when a connected phone rings. The speaker is a little on the quiet side compared to later models, but fine enough.

But all the above doesn't really scratch the surface of what the Apple Watch 3 is capable of - if you're embedded in the world of Apple's HomeKit smart devices, you can raise your wrist to issue a command to turn off a lamp, or set automations.

You've got a nifty torch that can blaze light into a room, a Walkie-Talkie to chat to friends with (although we quickly tired of this gimmick to be honest), an easy voice recorder, and more.

If you like the idea of using your Apple Watch as a music player, then you should probably steer clear of the Watch 3 - it can do it, and can now store offline music from both Apple Music and Spotify. But with only 8GB of storage onboard, compared to the 32GB of newer Apple Watches, that's not enough in our opinion.

Should you buy the Apple Watch 3?

It’s a tricky question, and it entirely depends on whether you want a basic fitness tracker to sit alongside your iPhone, and whether you’re on a stricter budget.

If you can afford it, we suggest going for the new Apple Watch 7 or poking up to the Watch SE as a halfway house, as you’ll get more features and, crucially, a faster interface.

However, if you never try those models, you won’t notice too much as the Watch 3 works just fine as a running watch. You won’t get the most accurate GPS tracking, heart rate or sleep tracking, but it’ll work, again, just fine.

You can get the smart meditation apps, the enjoyable Fitness+ platform and the range of apps and notifications that the watch is known for - if you want to get an older or less tech-infused family member into fitness, the Watch 3 could be a great starting point.

If this product isn’t for you

eThe latest and greatest from Apple, you could make a strong argument that the 41mm Apple Watch 7 is a much smarter buy than the Watch 3, such is its speed, fitness tracking and capacity improvements. That said, you get the same base performance for half the price with the Watch 3, so you’ll need to really want to maximize the benefits of the newest Watch to go for that.

For less than the Apple Watch 3 you can get a blood oxygen monitor, clear and bright screen, GPS tracking, excellent fitness insights and so much more from Fitbit Versa 4. Coupled with a great app experience and a much longer battery life, you might well consider this smartwatch - especially if you’re thinking of switching from Apple in the near future.

A little more expensive than the Watch 3, the Garmin Forerunner 245 nevertheless brings a suite of fitness, sleep and health tracking to its sleek body, and provides days of battery life that fully usurp that of the Watch 3. It might lack the build quality, but if you’re a more serious runner or cyclist, we suggest you head down the Garmin route - and the app is so much more fully-featured than Apple’s Health option too.

Counting your steps used to be an activity restricted to OCD sufferers, but with the advent of smart phones and fitness trackers, it's easy to keep track of precisely how many strides you take in a week, or a day, or an hour.

New technology out of Harvard promises to make this kind of tracking even more accurate and ubiquitous. A team of researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed a stretchy fabric-based sensor that can detect and transmit data on a wide range of human movement. The highly sensitive capacitor technology could be incorporated into the next generation of smart apparel, in which your clothing doubles as a digital device.

Put another way: Your shirt could be your next computer. 

Working with colleagues at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the research team set out to find a replacement for the hard and inflexible materials used in most wearable computing systems today — think fitness bands, clip-on pedometers, etc. By incorporating computing elements into the fabric itself, the researchers hope to kick start a whole new class of light, flexible, and truly wearable computing systems.

The Harvard technology consists of a thin sheet of silicone sandwiched between two layers of conductive fabric, creating what's known as a capacitive sensor. This kind of sensor can track even the slightest movement by constantly monitoring tiny electrical charges as they travel through the material.

"When we apply strain by pulling on the sensor from the ends, the silicone layer gets thinner and the conductive fabric layers get closer together, which changes the capacitance of the sensor in a way that's proportional to the amount of strain applied,” said co-author Daniel Vogt, in a statement announcing the new research. "We can measure how much the sensor is changing shape."

The material is sensitive enough to register physical strain of less than half a millimeter. According to testing on a pair of gloves made from the material, that level of sensitivity is good enough to measure fine motor movements like slightly moving one finger side-to-side. But the material is so light and flexible that such movements are entirely unimpeded.

The new process is also easy to set up and duplicate, making it immediately useful for manufacturers of smart apparel and other wearables.

"We have designed a unique batch-manufacturing process that allows us to create custom-shaped sensors that share uniform properties, making it possible to quickly fabricate them for a given application," said researcher Asli Atalay in an email.

The National Science Foundation, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, and the US Department of Defense provided research support.

RELATED: This Sports Bra Checks Your Heart Rate and Recharges as You Move

The paper, published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, is only a preliminary proof-of-concept study, but the research team is optimistic that the textile technology could be used for motion capture applications — athletic clothing that tracks physical performance or soft clinical devices to monitor patients in a medical setting.

"This work shows promising results for human motion monitoring in sports, for performance optimization, or training purposes," Atalay said. "For example, a golfer who wears sensor integrated clothing can train himself on correct posture, or an athlete can optimize his performance by learning from sensor feedback."

Another possibility: By combining the sensor material with fabric-based soft actuators, engineers could develop robotic systems that truly mimic apparel. In other words, instead of simply tracking movement, the material itself could assist or even initiate specific movements, leading to soft exoskeleton systems for physical labor or disabled patients.

"There is a growing interest in utilizing textile technology in soft robotic systems," Atalay said. "For example, the Wyss Institute develops fabric-based assistive robots to help people with physical impairments such as spinal cord injury or ALS. Another example is monitoring breath rate with sensors integrated into garments to prevent sleep apnea."

Original article on Seeker.

A new transparent, flexible touchpad can sense the touch of a finger even when the material is stretched or bent, which could help engineers one day create advanced wearable touch screens, according to a new study.

Increasingly, researchers around the world are developing flexible electronics, such as display screens, cameras, batteries and solar panels. These devices could one day be woven into clothing, prosthetic limbs or even human bodies, the researchers said.

Previously, scientists developed flexible touch screens based on materials such as carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires that are only nanometers — billionths of a meter — wide. However, these devices typically struggled to operate well when they were stretched, which included the material's inability to distinguish between a touch from a finger and a stretch of the fabric itself. [Body Bioelectronics: 5 Technologies that Could Flex with You]

Now researchers have developed a new, flexible touchpad that can tell the difference between a touch and a stretch. Moreover, the device is also transparent, which suggests that it could get combined with a flexible display to create a flexible touch screen.

"This is the first time anyone has made a transparent, touch-sensitive electronic device that can detect touch while the device is being bent or stretched," said study senior author John Madden, an electrical engineer at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

The new device is made with a hydrogel, which is structurally similar to the materials from which soft contact lenses are made. "Often when people think of gels, they think they're soft and weak, like Jell-O, which is purposefully weak so you can chew it," Madden told Live Science. "But people have developed these extremely tough gels to replace cartilage, and some of these can stretch by a factor of 20 or more."

By adding salt to the water-laden hydrogel, electrically charged ions can flow within the hydrogel and generate an electric field around it. When a finger comes near the hydrogel, it interacts with the electric field in a way that electrodes attached to the hydrogel can detect. These signals are readily distinguishable from those generated when the hydrogel is flexed, the researchers said.

The scientists embedded the hydrogel in silicone rubber. They created a square transparent touchpad about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) wide, with 16 buttons that are each about 0.2 inches (5 millimeters) wide.

The array retained its sensing abilities even when it was bent or stretched, and it could withstand such common environmental contaminants as coffee spills, according to the study. The transparent pad could also detect multiple fingers simultaneously, which is necessary for a typical zoom function on a smartphone, the researchers said.

The researchers note that the materials used to make their devices cost about $1 per 10.75 square feet (1 square meter) and are cheap to manufacture.

"You can put these on pretty much anything," Madden said. "It opens up the opportunity to make wearable devices, or some sort of robotic skin, or putting it under a carpet to detect someone elderly falling."

In the future, researchers can experiment with making touchpads that are more durable and stretchable, Madden said. The scientists detailed their findings online today (March 15) in the journal Science Advances.

Original article at Live Science.

The jean jacket is getting a 21st-century upgrade: Levi's and Google are planning to launch a new "smart" jacket later this year, according to news reports.

The companies' so-called Project Jacquard was first announced in June 2015 as a line of "connected" clothing that would interact with wearers' smartphones, reported Tech Times. The so-called Commuter Jacket was unveiled in May 2016, and Levi's and Google revealed more details about the smart jacket project this weekend at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, Tech Times said. The companies said the jacket will cost $350 and will be available this fall.

The garment can interact with a person's smartphone via Bluetooth technology.  Conductive fabric on the connected jacket's wrist acts as a control panel for the wearer's smartphone. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]

In a video about Project Jacquard, Ivan Poupyrev, technical program lead at Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, explained how the jacket works. Conductive threads have replaced some of a textile's original threads, so the woven-in technology can recognize simple touch gestures — similar to what a touch screen does, Poupyrev said.

"The tech is becoming a design element like a zipper, so it can be used in many normal ways," Poupyrev said during the SXSW presentation, reported Ars Technica. "I believe this is going to be the first commercial product which takes the touch interaction of the screen and puts it on an actual product."

Wearers can use the smart jacket to answer incoming calls, change music or get directions, said a promotional video made by Levi's. The Bluetooth device is attached to the garment as a cuff and connects the 15 conductive threads to the wearer's smartphone; batteries for the device are designed to last about two days, reported Engadget.

Other than the conductive fabric and Bluetooth cuff, the jacket looks like a standard denim Levi's piece. It's even washable, Engadget said, as long as the Bluetooth cuff isn't attached.

Original article on Live Science.

Google recently filed a patent for a technology-enhanced baseball cap that can take still photos and capture video from a camera mounted on the brim, according to news reports.

The high-tech cap may be the tech giant's follow-up to its failed Google Glass and could offer competition to similar wearable devices, including Snap's Spectacles.

The patent, granted on Tuesday (Feb. 28), describes a hat-and-camera system that offers users an interactive experience for social media purposes, and it can also be used for personal safety, reported Silicon Beat. Users could share photos or video directly from what's been dubbed the Google Hat to a social media account, but the hat's technology could also be useful in an emergency. [Photo Future: 7 High-Tech Ways to Share Images]

The patent indicates that the wearable camera hat could protect the user from a threatening situation, according to Silicon Beat.

"The user can activate an emergency situation indicator and cause the wearable camera system to transmit a video feed to an appropriate emergency handling system, potentially deterring a dangerous person near the user," according to the patent filing, reported Silicon Beat.

Along with the patent for the Google Hat, the tech company was also granted one for a "camera bracelet," according to Silicon Beat. Drawings of the bracelet show a digital screen and two camera lenses, but potential application details were not included in the patent application.

Another camera-equipped wearable device, Spectacles by Snap, recently became available online. These sunglasses are integrated with camera lenses and wireless technology that allow users to upload their point of view directly to Snap's social app, according to the tech company.

Original article on Live Science.

Netflix engineers recently developed a mind-control gadget that could use your brain to help you browse the streaming service.

As part of Netflix’s hackathon in January, which challenged employees to come up with an innovative project in 24 hours that was aimed at improving the Netflix experience in some way, a group of the company's engineers made a device that allows viewers to choose what they want to watch by using their brain waves. The so-called "Mindflix" uses a Muse headband — a wearable device that measures brain signals — that was designed to help users with meditation. However, engineers hacked the device so that it could be used for the more forgetful (or lazy) viewer.

In a "commercial" that was produced for the hackathon, the developers said that their invention could help Netflix users when they lose their remote — or, if the remote is simply too far away. The people in the YouTube video then demonstrate how the "brain wearable" acts as a remote, with the wearers moving their heads to scroll through Netflix's offerings. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

Mindflix was just one of the projects that was developed during Netflix’s internal hackathon. In a company blog post, other projects were highlighted, including a "picture in picture" that allows users to see what other people on their account are watching. Two of the projects were inspired by the hit Netflix-produced series "Stranger Things" — a reimagining of the show as a video game, and a Christmas sweater capable of spelling out messages. One project had a charitable mission, allowing users to donate to organizations that are related to the socially conscious titles they had watched.

While these hacks may be inventive, Netflix said that users may never see them on offer.

"While we’re excited about the creativity and thought put into these hacks, they may never become part of the Netflix product, internal infrastructure, or otherwise be used beyond Hack Day," company officials wrote in the blog post. "We are posting them here publicly to share the spirit of the event and our culture of innovation."

However, some previous projects have seen the light of day. Engineers first developed a virtual-reality app concept during a Hack Day in 2014, using an Oculus Rift to put users in a 3D-room-version of the streaming service's interface. Netflix now offers users a similar virtual-reality watching experience.

Original article on Live Science.

Diabetics and athletes alike could soon be able to test their blood sugar and lactic acid levels to measure those health stats with a wrist-worn device that can virtually "taste" through the skin, according to device maker PKvitality. The company's $149 K'track Glucose wrist-worn tracker absorbs fluid that contains those chemicals through the underside of the device.  

The benefit for diabetics is that they'll no longer have to endure finger pricks when they need to check their blood sugar levels. Plus, they could save money on testing strips needed to test blood sugar levels using traditional glucose monitoring methods.

MORE: Best Fitness Tracker - Top-Rated Activity Trackers

That doesn't mean nothing will penetrate the skin, however. Instead of one sometimes-painful prick, the K'track inserts tiny micro-needles less than half a millimeter in diameter slightly past a user's outer layer of skin. Fluid is absorbed from just under that outer layer and soaked up through the device and sent to sensors that identify glucose levels. Paired with K'track app for Android or iOS devices, users will be able to track their glucose levels over time.

For athletes, a separate $199 K’Track Athlete wearable detects lactic acid levels, which indicate how well the body is responding to workouts and and how long an athlete should allow for recovery after intense exertion, PKvitality explains. Since the device is a wearable, athletes won't have to stop their workout to measure lactic acid levels.

While the technology is novel and could make life easier for both diabetics and athletes, it's unclear whether PKvitality's K'track devices will make it into the hands of consumers. The company is still awaiting clearance from health regulators to sell its devices.

Originally published on Tom's Guide.

Imagine if taking a snapshot of your health were as easy as slapping a sticker on your skin. A new study finds that a tiny adhesive sensor can read what's going on in your body based on your sweat, and relay information about your well-being wirelessly to a smartphone. This type of wearable sensor could work as an alternative to blood tests to assess people's health one day, according to the researchers.

Perspiration is a rich chemical full of molecules ranging from simple electrically charged ions to more complex proteins that can shed light on what is happening inside the human body. Doctors can use sweat to diagnose certain diseases, uncover drug use and reveal insight into athletic performance. Sweat also can be gathered far less invasively than blood, said study senior author John Rogers, a materials scientist and director of Northwestern University's Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics in Evanston, Illinois.

In the new study, scientists embedded chemical sensors and other devices into a soft, flexible silicone rubber disc, about the size and thickness of a quarter, that can easily stick to skin. The device is designed to collect and analyze sweat for key biomarkers, or markers of health. For instance, the sensor can show how people are responding to exercise, including whether someone needs to make adjustments, such as drinking more water or replenishing electrolytes. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

"We've been developing various thin, soft and flexible skin-mounted devices as a next-generation platform for wearable technologies for a few years now," Rogers told Live Science. "Now, we've developed such a device to capture and analyze sweat."

This wearable lab contains "microfluidics" designed to route fluids inside themselves in much the same way that microelectronics do with electrons. Specifically, the sensor directs sweat down a number of microscopic channels that are about 0.02 inches (0.5 millimeters) wide into compartments about 0.16 inches (4 mm) in diameter. Each of these chambers measures specific biomarkers, such as pH, lactate, chloride and glucose levels.

"We chose these four biomarkers because they provide a characteristic profile that's relevant for health-status determination," Rogers said in a statement. "The device also can determine sweat rate and loss, and it can store samples for subsequent laboratory analysis, if necessary."

Chemical reactions within the sensor's compartments result in visible changes in color that reveal what levels of a given biomarker are present in the sweat. When a smartphone is brought near the sensor, near-field communications technology within the smartphone — the same kind used in mobile payment systems such as Google Wallet and Apple Pay — use short-range radio waves to power and talk to electronics within the sensor. Then, the electronics in the sensor cause a smartphone app to take a photo of the sensor, and the app can then analyze this image to calculate biomarker levels, the researchers said.

"The sweat analysis platform we developed will allow people to monitor their health on the spot without the need for a blood sampling and with integrated electronics that do not require a battery but still enable wireless connection to a smartphone," study co-author Yonggang Huang, a professor of engineering at Northwestern University, said in a statement.

Conventional methods of analyzing sweat capture perspiration with absorbent patches taped to the skin and analyze them later, off-site. In contrast, the new sensor can analyze sweat in real time, Rogers said.

Sweat sensors that other scientists have developed can be worn on the skin. But these other sensors still rely on absorbent patches as opposed to microfluidic channels, so they do not analyze the rate at which people sweat, Rogers said. Moreover, unlike previous sweat sensors, the new device does not require batteries, he added.

In experiments, Rogers, Huang and their colleagues placed their sensor on the forearms and backs of 21 healthy volunteers to analyze their sweat. Nine of the participants cycled indoors in a fitness center under controlled conditions, while the other 12 took part in the El Tour de Tucson, a long-distance bicycle race in arid and complex outdoor conditions.

The data from the sensors that the indoor cyclists wore reliably matched those from conventional methods of analyzing their sweat, according to the scientists. The sensors on the outdoor cyclists also performed as expected, and stayed on despite the complex and unpredictable conditions of the desert. In addition, the devices stayed on all the volunteers without causing discomfort or irritation, the researchers said.

The aim is for the sensors "to come in less than $1.50 per device," Rogers said. "At that price point, we think they can reasonably find application for one-time use."

In terms of immediate commercial applications, the scientists said they "can see this device used in fitness, wellness and exercise — for instance, for athletes to track sweat rate and electrolyte loss," Rogers said. "We're also working with a large biomedical device company to use these to noninvasively track glucose in sweat in the context of diabetes," he added. "We're also working with the U.S. Air Force to track the health states of active-duty airmen."

The researchers added that that their technology could potentially extend to other bodily fluids, such as tears and saliva. The scientists detailed their findings online Nov. 23 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Original article on Live Science.

A new bendable lithium-ion battery that can flex and twist could power wearable devices and one day be used to develop a flexible smartphone, according to Panasonic, which is developing the new battery.

Although it's still in the early stages of development, the battery already has been tested to withstand twists, bends and other deformations while maintaining its ability to hold a charge, according to Panasonic. In contrast, a regular lithium-ion battery, commonly used in smartphones and other gadgets, can degrade when it is deformed, thus shortening the device's operating time, the company said.

The battery was unveiled earlier this month during the annual Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC), a technology fair held from Oct. 4 to Oct. 7 in Japan. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]

Lithium-ion batteries can be highly volatile if they malfunction, as was the case with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which was plagued by battery problems that caused them to overheat and sometimes explode. Faulty batteries can catch fire when they are overcharged, because the lithium ions can collect in one spot and be deposited as metallic lithium. If this happens, the heat from the overcharging can cause oxygen bubbles to form, which are highly reactive with metallic lithium. If they combine, this can lead to an explosion.

Panasonic's bendable battery uses "a newly developed laminated outer body and internal structure" that the company said makes it difficult for the battery to leak or overheat. With this new casing and internal wiring, the battery is both safer and more reliable for wearable tech devices, the company said.

The bendable battery is just 0.02 inches (0.55 millimeters) thick, and was able to withstand being bent so that the curve of the battery has a radius of 25mm, and being twisted up to 25 degrees in tests, according to Panasonic. The company noted that the capacity of these batteries is still small — they can hold a charge between 17.5 mAh (for the smallest size) and 60 mAh (for the largest). For comparison, the iPhone 7 has a 1,960-mAh battery. Though further development is needed before the battery will be ready for use in smartphones, the invention could be suitable for low-power devices such as smart cards or smart clothing, Panasonic said.

"When used in card devices such as smart cards and card keys that work on batteries, as well as body-worn devices and smart clothing, this battery can retain its characteristics even if the device is frequently bent or twisted," the company said in a statement.

Though samples of the battery were on display at the conference and sample shipments are scheduled for the end of the month, Panasonic said mass production will require further product development.

Original article on Live Science.

Friendship bracelets have been a mainstay of middle-school fashion for decades. From knotted threads to plastic lanyards to interlocking charms, each generation seems to find its own unique way of displaying its social network. And for today’s tweens, the latest incarnation could be wearable technology, but with some educational benefits.

A new product called Jewelbots aims to elevate friendship bracelets from fashionable status symbols to an interactive, educational tool that teaches kids to code.

The bracelet's coding aspect was always the primary goal for Jewelbots co-founders Sara Chipps and Brooke Moreland. Chipps, now CEO of the company, has been coding since her preteen years, and in 2010, she founded a national nonprofit called Girl Develop It, which offered a series of low-cost coding classes for adult women. But Chipps said she heard repeatedly from these women that they wished they could have learned coding skills when they were young. [Best Educational Toys & Games for Kids]

The idea sparked Chipps' interest and she designed a bracelet that would change color based on a girl's outfit. Unfortunately, the jewelry fell flat in testing groups, Chipps said, because the girls were bored.

"We have to give them something they love so they learn and code," Chipps told Live Science. So, she went directly to the girls and asked them for advice. Their nearly unanimous answer was to design something centered on friendship, according to Chipps.

With their input, Chipps came up with Jewelbots. The bracelet is simple enough: electronics and LED lights enclosed within a plastic charm, stamped with a flower design, and threaded onto a woven strap. The included Bluetooth-enabled charm can be programmed to react to up to eight friends, glowing in a unique color when a certain friend is nearby. Girls can also send secret messages to each other through lights and vibrations, Chipps said.

The Jewelbots friendship bracelet can be paired with a smartphone app that transforms it from a simple piece of jewelry into an educational tool. Using very rudimentary coding, girls can program their Jewelbot to respond to almost anything — from changes in the weather to a new Instagram post, according to Chipps.

Jewelbots communicate via Bluetooth, piggybacking on nearby networks to extend their reach, Chipps said. The bracelet is not enabled with wireless or GPS technology to protect kids' privacy. In fact, Chipps added that the bracelet could be programmed to send a text to a parent or guardian if a child is feeling unsafe. 

Jewelbots can be preordered for $69 on the company's website and the bracelets are expected to begin shipping this fall.

Original article on Live Science.

If you've ever been on a crowded bus and found yourself stuck between a loud conversation on one side and obnoxiously loud music on the other, the idea of being able to cancel out that background noise probably sounds like bliss. Now, new earbuds can not only help boost your hearing and cancel out pesky noise, but also serve as wireless earphones for making phone calls and listening to music hands-free.

Wearable devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches have become popular accessories, and recently, companies have started developing "hearables" — earbuds that electronically control how a person hears the world.

The IQbuds from Nuheara in San Francisco can use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to a smartphone. As such, these earbuds can act like wireless earpieces, so you can listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks in stereo; make hands-free phone calls; and engage with Siri and other voice-enabled apps. Users can also answer phone calls and start or stop audio with a simple tap of the earbuds. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]

Furthermore, IQbuds are equipped with noise-cancellation technology, which generates sounds that can neutralize background noise, such as distracting chatter in crowded places. In addition, microphones in each IQbud capture incoming audio, letting in sounds that you may want to hear, such as someone next to you talking to you. As such, people can "genuinely and in real time experience the ability to augment their hearing in noisy social environments," said Nuheara co-founder David Cannington.

A smartphone app accompanying the IQbuds can help users control exactly what they hear in the world around them. Moreover, the app can save hearing settings personalized for specific environments; for instance, you may want to hear as much of your surroundings as you can while riding a bicycle, but suppress background noise while in a cafe.

The founders of Nuheara came up with the idea for the IQbuds in late 2014. Cannington said that no other wireless earbud combines a Bluetooth earpiece with the abilities to boost hearing and cancel noise.

IQbuds can operate over 4 hours of continuous use with the help of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and low-power electronics that optimize battery power. And the carrying case that holds the earbuds houses three additional charges, granting an extra 12 hours of battery life, the company said.

Nuheara representatives said hearables will grow to become a large segment of the wearables market. "Voice-recognition technologies will drive how consumers interact with their devices, and hearing-technology platforms will play a major role in this development," Cannington said.

"Fifty million people in the USA alone have some degree of hearing loss. They will be our early adopters," Cannington said. Moreover, younger audiences "like the idea of bionic hearing," Cannington said.

In 2015, Nuheara raised $750,000 in seed money for the project, and in 2016, the company raised $3.5 million when it went public. The business also has $480,000 in pre-orders from more than 2,200 backers in an ongoing Indiegogo campaign.

So far, more than 300 people have tested IQbuds prototypes, in Australia, the United States and Canada, Cannington said. Nuheara plans to ship IQbuds to backers in December, and the devices should reach the market in early 2017, he added. They will be compatible with Android and iOS devices, the company said.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Whether you fear face-planting the moment you get off a chairlift or you're perfectly at home on the slopes but want to better navigate a tricky black-diamond course, a new wearable gadget for skiers is here to help.

The Carv, developed by the United Kingdom-based company MotionMetrics, is a device that directly attaches to ski boots and wirelessly connects to a smartphone to relay instructions on how to improve your technique while skiing.   

The wearable device has two parts that attach to a ski boot: an insert and a tracker. The insert looks like a memory-foam liner and is housed directly underneath the foot. The Carv insert does not sink under pressure as memory foam does, but it does remember and record where it experiences pressure, with the help of 48 sensors, according to MotionMetrics. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

The sensors are designed to pick up subtle changes in pressure distribution and to track acceleration, rotation speed and location, said Jamie Grant, CEO of MotionMetrics.

The insert is less than a millimeter thick and doesn’t affect the user's ability to ski, according to the company. The insert has a cord that extends up the back of the ski boot to connect with a tracker that clips onto the outer top edge of the back of the boot. The tracker manages data collection, calculates pressure and motion, and communicates with a smartphone to provide instructions to the skier.

The device can relay messages such as, "Keep your weight forward!" and "Good job!" while the skier is on the slopes. "Every time you finish a turn, we calculate a load of metrics," Grant told Live Science in an email. The metrics feed into software that comes up with recommendations when it senses a pattern, Grant said.

The Carv uses metrics that measure pressure and motion. For instance, the device can sense how symmetrical a skier's feet are, how much pressure is placed on each foot, what the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the foot is, the location of the skier's center of pressure during turns, and the forward and backward pressure exerted as a skier moves, Grant said.

After the sensors collect data, this information is fed through an algorithm that identifies patterns, and then the algorithm produces text that is relayed to the skier, Grant said. The combined metrics can reveal if a skier is off-balance while skiing or landing too hard on jumps, for example.

Carv can advise casual skiers who want to improve their form, freestyle skiers who want to pull off smoother jumps and flips, cross-country skiers who want to efficiently use their energy and racing skiers who want to boost their speed, according to the company.

Grant and his team spoke with ski instructors and watched different skiers, including Olympians, to estimate a reasonable range for the metrics, Grant said. The Carv even takes the type of skiing (downhill or cross country, for instance) into account while measuring metrics, Grant said. 

The Carv can be synced with video footage from a GoPro or other camera to add a visual component to the data analysis, the company said. (Our sister site, Tom's Guide, put together a guide for how to decide which GoPro is right for you.) And the device can be social: Skiers using Carv can share their progress with friends and compare their improvement with fellow Carv users.

MotionMetrics ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the project. The crowdfunding campaign far surpassed its original goal of $50,000, raising a total of $275,196 from 1,234 backers, as of March 31. The Carv can be preordered online via Indiegogo. The company is selling two trackers and two inserts for $299, plus shipping. The Carb is expected to ship to customers in January 2017, according to the company.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Imagine if you could make a garage band sound as if it were playing in a concert hall, or if could turn down the volume of a screaming baby on an airplane.

New earbuds from the Here Active Listening can now instantly transform sounds from your surroundings. These wearable devices seek to "augment reality" — in this case, your soundscape.

In the future, these devices could enable translation of live speech, much like the "universal translators" in "Star Trek," said researchers at Doppler Labs, where the Here system was invented. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]

"We believe in a future where supercomputers can fit in the ears," Noah Kraft, co-founder and CEO of Doppler Labs, told Live Science.

The Here system differs from both virtual reality and augmented reality headsets. Virtual reality headsets, such as the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, block the user's view of the real world, while augmented reality headsets such as Google Glass and the Microsoft HoloLens superimpose images onto the real world to create a mixed reality. In contrast, Here seeks to modify what people hear instead of what they see.

"We think the future is in wearable technologies, in our case, hearables," Kraft said. "We want people to be more engaged in their environments, to personalize their sonic experiences."

The Here system consists of a pair of earbuds that use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to a smartphone app. A microphone on each Here earbud captures incoming sound waves. Electronics in each bud can modify these sounds, and then miniature speakers play the result, all in less than 30 millionths of a second, leading to no perceivable delay, according to Doppler Labs. Users can use the smartphone app to adjust Here's settings.

The earbuds can boost or reduce the volume, bass, treble, reverb and other aspects of live sounds in a person's environment. For example, you could dampen noise from chatter in a crowded room or crank up the bass of music playing at a club.

Grammy Award-winning film composer Hans Zimmer said he is a fan of Here. "You can turn off your nagging mother or the dog barking," Zimmer said in a promotional video. "It's about having control of your life beyond the ear that you were born with."

To nullify sound, the earbuds possess not only complex internal air spaces, but also active noise-cancelling technology, which generates sounds to counteract incoming noises. "We can remove the screeches that subways make," Kraft said.

Here can operate for 4 to 6 hours with the help of a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and low-power electronics that optimize battery power. Moreover, the case that holds the earbuds houses two extra charges as well, Doppler Labs said.

Through Kickstarter, Here raised more than $635,000 from more than 2,800 backers. Doppler Labs then raised $17 million from venture capitalists to help bring Here to market. The makers have created a limited run of 10,000 Here units. The waitlist for these devices currently exceeds 25,000 people, but Doppler Labs said it will make Here available to buy at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, in April. The feedback from users on these units will help Doppler Labs tweak Here for the mass market, and "we hope to be consumer-ready by the end of the year," Kraft said.

Doppler Labs emphasized that Here is not meant for phone calls, nor does it play music that's been wirelessly transmitted by smartphones. Here is not a hearing aid, either, nor is it meant to replace the kind of hearing-protection systems used at firing ranges.

However, Kraft noted that Here could one day find use in real-time translation. "Who doesn't want to work on a 'moon shot' idea like that?" he said. "We're only at the beginning of the journey right now to help give people full control of their world."

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Blood tests allow doctors to peer into the human body to analyze people's health. But in the future, there may be a less invasive way to obtain valuable information about a person's health: wearable sensors that use human sweat to look for signs of disease.

Sweat is a rich source of chemical data that could help doctors determine what is happening inside the human body, scientists explained in a new study. Perspiration is loaded with molecules, ranging from simple electrically charged ions to more complex proteins, and doctors can use sweat to diagnose certain diseases, uncover drug use and optimize athletic performance, they said.

"Sweat is pretty attractive to target for noninvasive wearable sensors, since it's, of course, very easy to analyze — you don't have to poke the body to get it — and it has a lot of information about one's health in it," said study senior author Ali Javey, an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

Commercially available wearable sensors, like the Fitbit and the Apple Watch, track users' physical activities and some vital signs, such as heart rate. However, they do not provide data about a user's health on a molecular level. Now, scientists say "smart" wristbands and headbands embedded with sweat sensors could sync data wirelessly in real time to smartphones using Bluetooth.

Previously, studies of sweat largely relied on perspiration collected off the body in containers that was later analyzed in a lab. Now, researchers have devised a soft, flexible, wearable sensor array to continuously monitor changes in four molecular components of sweat and to provide real-time tracking of a person's health.

These devices might one day help athletes track their performance and enable doctors to continuously monitor the health of their patients to better personalize their medication, the scientists said.

"This could help tell athletes to take liquids or warn them they are going through heat shock," Javey told Live Science.

The invention uses five sensors to simultaneously track levels of glucose, lactate, sodium and potassium, as well as skin temperature. This data is fed to a flexible board of microchips that processes these signals and uses Bluetooth to wirelessly transmit data to a smartphone. All of these electronics could be incorporated into either a wristband or headband.

"We have a smartphone app that plots the data from sweat in real time," Javey said.

The researchers tested the device on 26 men and women who pedaled indoors on stationary bikes or ran outdoors on tracks and trails. Sodium and potassium in sweat could help check for problems such as dehydration and muscle cramps. Glucose could help keep track of blood sugar levels. Lactate levels could indicate blood flow problems, and skin temperature could reveal overheating and other problems.

In addition, the skin temperature sensor helps adjust the chemical sensors to make sure they get proper readings, the researchers said. For instance, higher skin temperatures increase the electrical signals from glucose, which can make it look as if people are releasing more glucose in their sweat than they actually are.

Previous wearable sweat monitors could track only a single molecule at a time, which could generate misleading information, the researchers said. For example, if a lone sensor showed a drop in a molecule's level, it might not be because that molecule's level is actually falling in a person's sweat, but rather because sweating has stopped, the sensor has detached from the skin or the sensor is failing. The inclusion of multiple sensors could help shed light on what is happening to a person and the sensor array as a whole.

In the near future, the researchers hope to shrink the device's electronics down and boost the number of molecules it monitors. Such molecules could include heavy metals such as lead, which recently made news for appearing in dangerously high levels in the water of Flint, Michigan, Javey noted.

In the long term, the researchers hope to conduct large-scale studies with their device on many volunteers. The data such work gathers could help researchers better understand what levels of various molecules in sweat mean for athletic performance and human health, Javey said.

The researchers have filed a patent on their work, although they are not currently collaborating with anyone to commercialize the sensors, Javey said.

The scientists detailed their findings in the Jan. 28 issue of the journal Nature.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Stretchy fibers that mimic electric eels could be woven into clothing to power wearable technology one day, new research suggests. In experiments, these flexible fibers produced enough power to run electronic lights and watches.

The new fiber is exciting because it takes a page from nature to "solve real-world problems and even surmount nature in some aspects," said study lead author Hao Sun, a materials scientistat Fudan University in Shanghai. [Top 10 Inventions That Changed the World]

High voltage

Electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) can generate deadly shocks to stun prey and defend against predators. These fish have cells known as electrocytes, which store and release electrically charged ions to generate powerful electric fields.

By themselves, electrocytes in electric eels generate low voltages of only about 0.15 volts. However, in eels, thousands of these disclike electrocytes line up, working in concert to produce deadly shocks of up to 600 volts, or about five times the voltage emitted from a U.S. electrical outlet.

Sun and his colleagues wanted to harness the power of the electric eel in a man-made material. To do so, they created fibers that mimicked the shocking creatures' ability to stack up tiny voltage-producing cells in concert.

These fibers are capacitors, meaning they alternate pairs of electrical conductors and electrical insulators, or materials that block the flow of electricity. Capacitors store electric charge on the surfaces of the conductors, and can capture and release energy much more quickly than batteries can, although they usually store less energy than batteries do.

The scientists fabricated the capacitors by first wrapping sheets of carbon nanotubes around elastic rubber fibers 500 microns wide, or about five times the average width of a human hair. Carbon nanotubes are pipes only nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in diameter that possess remarkable electrical and mechanical properties.

The researchers made sure that the electrically conductive carbon nanotube sheets did not completely cover the electrically insulating rubber. Instead, there were gaps where the insulating rubber was exposed. Such gaps are key, because capacitors consist of both conductive and insulating units.

Then, the scientists applied patches of electrically conductive electrolyte gel onto these fibers. The pattern of patches the researchers used converted the fibers into capacitors.

The more alternating segments of electrically conductive nanotube sheets and electrically insulating rubber gaps a fiber had, the greater the voltage it could generate. A fiber about 39 feet (12 meters) long could generate 1,000 volts, the researchers reported online Jan. 14 in the journal Advanced Materials.

Previous research also sought to mimic electric eels by connecting many electrocytelike units together. However, those units were impractical because they were strung together with metal wires, and generally had poor flexibility, the researchers said. This new device instead connected all of its electrocytelike units together on a single fiber.

"We think these findings provide an efficient strategy for the advancement of flexible electronics and wearable devices," Sun told Live Science.

Power fiber

The elastic fibers could stretch up to 70 percent more than their usual length without losing their electrical or structural properties, the researchers said. The team also showed that the fibers could be woven together with conventional elastic fibers to create fabric that could be incorporated into clothes.

The researchers suggested that the eely fibers could help power miniature electronic devices. For example, in experiments, they created energy wristbands to power electronic watches, and wove fibers into T-shirts to power 57 light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In the future, these energy fibers "might be incorporated into our daily clothes to power our wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch and Google Glass," Sun said.

The scientists also connected their capacitor fibers to fiber-shaped solar cells to create material that could both harvest and store energy. In experiments, these combinationfibers generated 10 volts of electricity when exposed to light — enough to power some types of small electronic devices, they said. Solar cell fibers could also recharge battery fibers in wearable devices, the researchers said.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @livescience, Facebook&Google+. Original article on Live Science

Scientists have developed a way to produce soft, flexible and stretchy electronic circuits and radio antennas by hand, simply by writing on specially designed sheets of material.

This technique could help people draw electronic devices into existence on demand for customized devices, researchers said in a new study describing the method.

Whereas conventional electronics are stiff, new soft electronics are flexible and potentially stretchable and foldable. Researchers around the world are investigating soft electronics for applications such as wearable and implantable devices. [5 Crazy Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Biotech]

The new technique researchers developed creates circuits by fusing, or sintering, together bits of metal to form electrically conductive wires. But the newly developed process does not use heat, as is often the case with sintering. Instead, this method involves soft sheets made of silicone rubber that have many tiny droplets of liquid metal embedded inside them. Pressing down on these sheets using, for instance, the tip of a pen, ruptures the capsules, much like popping miniature water balloons, and the liquid metal inside can pool to form circuit elements.

"We can make conductive lines by hand simply by writing," said study co-senior author Michael Dickey, a chemical engineer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

The researchers used a metal known as eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn), a highly electrically conductive alloy that is liquid at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius). They embedded droplets of EGaIn that were only about 100 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, wide into sheets of the a kind of silicone rubber known as PDMS.

When these droplets pool together, their electrical conductivity increases about tenfold compared to when they are separate, the researchers said. To understand why, imagine a hallway covered with water balloons.

"If you covered a floor with water balloons, you could not make a conductive path between balloons," Dickey told Live Science. However, if the balloons get popped, they merge to form a continuous electrically conductive pathway, he explained.

These mechanically sintered metal pathways could also serve as radio antennas. Researchers could tune which frequencies these antennas pick up simply by changing the length of the pathways.

"An antenna can be created on the fly simply with a magic marker," Dickey said.

Normal circuit boards consist of circuits of electrically conductive foil laminated onto stiff electrically insulating boards. The fabrication of such circuit boards requires multiple steps, and the circuits must be designed in advance of use. In contrast, these new soft circuit boards can be created simply by writing on them, which means the circuits can be built on demand, the researchers said.

"We live in a world with lots of soft materials — our bodies, clothing," Dickey said. "Most electronics are made from rigid materials and are therefore mechanically incompatible with our 'soft world.' Rigid electronics also tend to fail catastrophically when deformed — I've seen plenty of cracked phones, as an example. The circuit boards we made are soft and deformable."

The soft circuit boards can easily be cut into desired shapes, the researchers said, and it is also possible to connect rigid components, such as lights, simply by inserting them into the sheets. For instance, using this new technique, researchers created Christmas trees that could be lighted.

One drawback of this approach is that droplets may sinter accidentally if they're exposed to excessive pressures. The researchers discovered that one way to solve this problem is to brush a clear glue onto the sheets. The glue dries and forms a rigid protective layer that could prevent unwanted sintering after the circuits are written, the scientists said.

Another limitation of this approach is that the wires are only as thin as the stylus used to create them and thus are nowhere as narrow as the wires in traditional microchips. The scientists noted that commercial desktop lasers could lead to more complex patterns, although this does make the fabrication process more complicated. Another possible way to form straight, thin channels involves embedding the droplets in orderly patterns within the silicone rubber, such as in microscopic rows.

However, "Many advances are still needed to make this commercially viable," Dickey said. "This is a simple demonstration to illustrate the concept of soft circuits."

The scientists detailed their findings online Nov. 16 in the journal Small.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Wearable sensors could one day interpret the gestures in sign language and translate them into English, providing a high-tech solution to communication problems between deaf people and those who don’t understand sign language.

Engineers at Texas A&M University are developing a wearable device that can sense movement and muscle activity in a person's arms.

The device works by figuring out the gestures a person is making by using two distinct sensors: one that responds to the motion of the wrist and the other to the muscular movements in the arm. A program then wirelessly receives this information and converts the data into the English translation. [Top 10 Inventions that Changed the World]

After some initial research, the engineers found that there were devices that attempted to translate sign language into text, but they were not as intricate in their designs.

"Most of the technology ... was based on vision- or camera-based solutions," said study lead researcher Roozbeh Jafari, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A&M.

These existing designs, Jafari said, are not sufficient, because often when someone is talking with sign language, they are using hand gestures combined with specific finger movements.

"I thought maybe we should look into combining motion sensors and muscle activation," Jafari told Live Science. "And the idea here was to build a wearable device."

The researchers built a prototype system that can recognize words that people use most commonly in their daily conversations. Jafari said that once the team starts expanding the program, the engineers will include more words that are less frequently used, in order to build up a more substantial vocabulary.

One drawback of the prototype is that the system has to be "trained" to respond to each individual that wears the device, Jafari said. This training process involves asking the user to essentially repeat or do each hand gesture a couple of times, which can take up to 30 minutes to complete.

"If I'm wearing it and you're wearing it — our bodies are different … our muscle structures are different," Jafari said.

But, Jafari thinks the issue is largely the result of time constraints the team faced in building the prototype. It took two graduate students just two weeks to build the device, so Jafari said he is confident that the device will become more advanced during the next steps of development.

The researchers plan to reduce the training time of the device, or even eliminate it altogether, so that the wearable device responds automatically to the user. Jafari also wants to improve the effectiveness of the system's sensors so that the device will be more useful in real-life conversations. Currently, when a person gestures in sign language, the device can only read words one at a time.

This, however, is not how people speak. "When we're speaking, we put all the words in one sentence," Jafari said. "The transition from one word to another word is seamless and it's actually immediate."

"We need to build signal-processing techniques that would help us to identify and understand a complete sentence," he added.

Jafari's ultimate vision is to use new technology, such as the wearable sensor, to develop innovative user interfaces between humans and computers.

For instance, people are already comfortable with using keyboards to issue commands to electronic devices, but Jafari thinks typing on devices like smartwatches is not practical because they tend to have  small screens.

"We need to have a new user interface (UI) and a UI modality that helps us to communicate with these devices," he said. "Devices like [the wearable sensor] might help us to get there. It might essentially be the right step in the right direction."

Jafari presented this research at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 12th Annual Body Sensor Networks Conference in June.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Stretchy batteries inspired by origami could power smartwatches and other wearable electronics, researchers say.

Increasingly, scientists worldwide are developing flexible electronics, such as video displays and solar panels, that could one day make their way into clothing and even human bodies. But one limitation of these devices is the scarcity of equally flexible batteries to power them or store energy they generate.

Although prior research has created bendable batteries, it has proven more challenging to developing ones that are stretchy versions has proven more challenging, researchers said. Now, inventors have created lithium-ion batteries that can stretch to more than 150 percent of their original size, while remaining capable of powering devices. [Top 10 Inventions that Changed the World]

Hanqing Jiang, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Arizona State University in Tempe, came up with the new device after "talking with an origami artist who showed me some famous origami patterns," he said. One of these patterns, known as the Miura-ori fold, is currently used to fold large maps into small rectangles, and was originally invented to help pack solar panels efficiently on spacecraft.

One problem with using principles of origami to create electronics is that folding often produces uneven surfaces. This can make it difficult to integrate these devices with other electronics, the researchers said.

Instead, Jiang and his colleagues used a variation of origami known as kirigami to create their stretchable batteries. Whereas conventional origami uses only folding to create structures, kirigami uses both folding and cutting. The technique results in structures whose surfaces can stay even after stretching.

"We found a new approach to make stretchable structures using conventional manufacturing approaches," Jiang said.

The batteries were created using slurries of graphite and lithium cobalt dioxide, which together can store and release electricity. These slurries were coated onto sheets of aluminum foil, and kirigami techniques were then used to fold and cut the sheets into stretchy serpentine shapes.

In experiments, the new batteries could power a Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch even when stretched, the researchers said. The batteries could easily be sewn into a stretchy wristband, which suggests they could be used in flexible wearable devices.

Another research team recently developed a battery that could stretch to 300 percent its original size. In this device, the energy-storing materials were sandwiched between thin sheets of silicon rubber. Jiang said his new battery has an advantage over this previous battery because his is compatible with commercially available manufacturing technologies.

The researchers are now working on creating microscopic origami patterns to combine stretchable batteries with microelectronics. Jiang and his colleagues detailed their findings online June 11 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

A prominent feature of the Apple Watch is its health and fitness tracking capability — the watch monitors your movement throughout the day, including workouts, and even reminds you to get moving. But is the device worth buying for its health features alone?

After wearing the Apple Watch for a few weeks (and after having previously tested out dozens of other fitness trackers), I found the Apple device works decently as a fitness tracker. It not only tracks your activity passively, but also reminds you to stand up and sends several updates each day to tell you how close you are to reaching your activity goal. It's also the only smartwatch so far that specifically tracks the amount of time you spend standing, which seems apt, given the growing body of evidence showing the health hazards of too much sitting. Plus, you can use the watch to track your heart rate and view your workout stats, all from your wrist.

As recently as a year ago, the Apple Watch would have seemed like a pretty comprehensive fitness tracker. But now, an increasing number of fitness trackers — including the Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Surge and Jawbone Up3 — have added heart rate monitoring, and these devices cost less than the Apple Watch. And unlike the majority of fitness trackers, the Apple Watch lacks sleep tracking, which some people may want.

At a starting price of $350, the Apple Watch costs $100 more than even some of the most expensive fitness trackers. Therefore, it's a little pricey to buy just for the health and fitness features, given that you'd find many of the same features in other, less expensive trackers.

But I was impressed with the Apple Watch's design — a factor that, at first, doesn't seem to have much to do with health and fitness. But the design is incredibly important, given that you'll be less inclined to use a device in the first place, or to keep using it over time, if it's uncomfortable, doesn't fit right or has a boring design. The Apple Watch's beautiful color display makes it fun to use, and because it comes in two sizes — 38 mm and 42 mm — it won't look too big or too small on your wrist. You can also download a number of third-party apps to the watch, including popular health and fitness apps like MyFitnessPal and MapMyRun+.

So, if you're an Apple fan (the device is only compatible with the iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus) or an early adopter who's also in the market for a fitness device, the Apple Watch is worth considering.

Here is a detailed rundown of the device's health and fitness features:  

As an activity tracker

The Apple Watch's Activity app keeps track of all the activity you do throughout the day when you're not working out. When you open the app, you'll see three rings, which represent different aspects of your health: The Move ring tracks how many calories you've burned, the Exercise ring tracks how many minutes you've spent doing brisk activity (i.e., equivalent to at least a brisk walk) and the Stand ring tracks whether you've spent at least 1 minute standing in a given hour. You can zero in on each ring separately to see the times of day you were eating, exercising or standing.

The app sets a default goal of 30 minutes of exercise per day, which is in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health organizations. The watch sends you notifications at various points throughout the day, to let you know how close you are to meeting this exercise goal, and also sends an alert (in the form of a vibration and sound) if you have not stood up in the last hour.

The three rings make it easy to see at glance how much activity you've done that day, and how close you are to reaching your goal. And I found the "standing" alert pretty effective — I would get up and walk around just so I could meet my goal for that hour.

However, there is only one goal that you can adjust from its default setting: the Move goal for calorie burning. I found this a little odd because, out of the three activity measures, calorie burning is probably the least accurate, simply because it is a highly individual metric.

Also, I found the exercise goal too easy — I could get 30 minutes of activity in every day without making any adjustments to my routine. I applaud Apple for using a "30 minutes of activity a day" goal instead of the less-scientific 10,000-steps-a-day goal that many other devices use, but I wished there were a way to adjust this goal so that it would be more of a challenge for me to meet.

I also found that there sometimes seemed to be a small delay in when the watch would send an alert — for example, I once got an alert to stand up when I was already standing up. Although this is a minor hiccup, it made the smartwatch seem not quite so smart.

In addition to the Activity app on the watch itself, there's an app for the iPhone, where you can view not only your daily progress, but also a history of your total activity and workouts. I liked this feature — the phone app makes it easy to find out what your activity was on specific day, and gives you an overall picture of your activity for the past week, month, etc.

As a workout tracker

The Apple Watch has a separate app for workouts that lets you time your workout, as well as keep track of your pace, distance, calories burned and heart rate. The watch itself doesn't have GPS, unlike one of its competitors, the Fitbit Surge. So, if you want to track, for example, your exact running route or elevation changes during your bike ride, you'll have to bring your phone along. Still, many people already bring their phones with them during workouts. And after your first few workouts with your phone, the Apple Watch calibrates itself to your stride, so the distance tracking becomes pretty accurate even without your phone.

In addition to tracking walking and running, the Apple Watch lets you select from a variety of other workout activities to track, including cycling, rowing or a workout on an elliptical machine.

However, during a workout, you'll have to swipe right across the watch's screen to see each of your stats individually (such as pace or distance), which could slow you down during a run.

In addition, the Apple Watch is compatible with a number of third-party workout apps, including Runtastic, Strava and Nike+ Running. However, I tested the Runtastic app, and the functionality offered on the Apple Watch was pretty limited — for example, I could start a workout on the watch, but couldn't stop it. Hopefully, the functionality will improve with newer versions of the app.

As a health tool

The Apple Watch does go a step farther than some smartwatches by sending you progress updates on your activity and reminders to move. But the Apple Watch offers little in the form of analysis. For example, every Monday, the watch sends a summary of your weekly activity. My summary told me that I did not meet my Move goal, and offered me the chance to "adjust" my goal, but it did not tell me what a more realistic goal would be. Moreover, the watch does not offer suggestions for how to boost your activity.

But some third-party apps may soon help fill this gap. Jawbone, for example, is reportedly working on an app for the Apple Watch, and the company's current Smart Coach system offers more tips and reminders than many other systems to help people meet their goals. For instance, it suggests when it's time to start getting ready for bed to meet your bedtime and thus get enough sleep.

The Apple Watch is also missing nutrition tracking, but again, there are third-party apps that can step in. MyFitnessPal, a popular nutrition tracking app, works with the Apple Watch. But like Runtastic, the functionality of MyFitnessPal is pretty limited on the watch — you can view your calorie count, but you can't add to your log of the food you've eaten that day from the watch. As such, it may be a little early to buy the Apple Watch if the ability to use the third-party apps is a big selling point for you.

But it will be interesting to see what types of Apple Watch-compatible apps developers come up with — sleep tracking seems like a no-brainer, but perhaps other apps will also figure out new ways to use heart rate and other health data from the watch to offer users a new experience.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

More than 1 million Apple Watches were pre-ordered last week, on the first day the device went on sale, according to a firm that tracks consumer spending.

Based on receipt data, an estimated 957,000 people in the United States ordered an average of 1.3 watches each on Friday (April 10), spending about $503.83 per device, Slice Intelligence reported.

What is it about the Apple Watch that makes people want the gadget so badly? [Best Fitness Tracker Bands]

There are some likely explanations for why people are crazy about the Apple Watch, which is scheduled to be released on April 24. The conventional view is that it's merely a cool new gadget, said Markus Giesler, a marketing professor at York University in Canada. But the real answer is more likely sociological, he said.

Apple-mania

Most technology companies sell attribute-oriented benefits, such as functionality or convenience, Giesler said. By contrast, Apple sells emotion and identity. "When you buy an Apple Watch, you're not just buying this watch — you're also buying the interface into this matrix Apple has created" — a world that consists of other Apple products, such as the iPhone, iPod, MacBook and iPad, he said.

Yet, the Apple Watch isn't the first smartwatch or fitness tracker on the market. Similarly, the iPod wasn't the first portable MP3 player, but Apple was the first "to make it really easy to use and publicize it," said Scott Thorne, a marketing professor at Southeast Missouri State University. "Same thing with the Apple Watch," he said.

People also see the Apple Watch as a way to make their lives more productive and manageable, Giesler said. "Wearable technologies permeate the boundary between where the consumer ends and technology begins," he told Live Science.

A device like the Apple Watch could help people accomplish goals such as staying healthy, organizing their lives or communicating more easily with others, Giesler said.

"That's why technology like the Apple Watch comes in handy, for people to have this hope that 'this technology's going to make my life so much better,'" he said.

The smartwatch comes in three versions: the Apple Watch (starting at $549), the Watch Sport (starting at $349) and the Watch Edition (which retails for $10,000 to $17,000). Within each version, the prices vary based on the size of the case, the color of the band and, in the case of the Watch Edition, whether the case is 18-karat gold. [Apple Watch Hands-On: Smartwatch to Beat But Pricey]

But who exactly is buying these devices?

Early adopters

Gadget consumers typically fall into one of five categories: innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority and laggard, Thorne said. "Most Apple fans tend to be in the early-adopter category," he said. In other words, these are the people who start using a technology as soon as it becomes (publically) available.

The watch requires an iPhone 5 or later model, so "you're probably not going to get anybody who's not already an Apple devotee running out to buy this product," Thorne told Live Science.

And the consumer base is likely much broader than just gadget geeks, Giesler said. The watch could appeal to anyone who looks at him or herself as an "ongoing project," in terms of fitness, nutrition, learning, career advancement and dating. As for the expensive Apple Watch Edition, these luxury devices will appeal to the rich and famous. The company is buying into the super-rich, "winner-takes-all" philosophy, he said.

But Giesler said he also sees a more sinister side to this gadget-mania. The Apple Watch seems to bring the promise of advancement, he said, "but once we get deeper, we realize that the technology consumes us as much as we consume the technology."

Apple's smartwatch also contains a camera and audio-recording capabilities, which come with their own dangers, he said. "Imagine how this technology will create new ways of bullying," Giesler said. For example, people could use it to record others in embarrassing situations.

And then there's the fact that you become reachable at all times, via a buzz on your wrist. The technology is no longer just part of an iPhone, Giesler said — "it's part of your body."

Thorne, however, takes a less ominous view. "You're doing the same thing with your phone, anyway," he said, adding that the majority of people with smartphones have them handy 24 hours a day. Now with the Apple Watch, "it's a little more convenient for you," he said.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

The Mio Fuse is a fitness tracker and training device from Mio Global — a company known for wrist-worn heart-rate monitors — that is very much intended for people who work out. The device includes an optical sensor to measure your heart rate during workouts, and will notify you when your heart rate has reached certain "zones." It also measures your workout's duration, distance, pace and speed, and even when you're not working up a sweat, it tracks total daily steps and calories burned.

At about $150, the Mio Fuse is on the higher end of the price range for fitness trackers, and it's the same price as the Adidas Fit Smart, which also features heart-rate-based training but does not track steps or calories.

Still, the Fuse does not include some features that have become standard in many fitness trackers, such as sleep tracking.

Overall Rating: 5.1/10

Although the Fuse is labeled as an activity tracker, it is more of a heart-rate monitor/training device that has a few fitness-tracking features tacked on. If you already work out regularly and are looking for a device that can monitor your heart-rate zones from your wrist, then the Fuse may work for you.

But if you are more of a fitness amateur, or want a device that provides motivation, I suggest looking elsewhere.

After testing out both devices, I think the Adidas Fit Smart is a better choice than the Mio Fuse, because (as I'll explain below) the Fit Smart lets you design your own training plan and calibrate your heart-rate zones, and it shows you if you are improving in your workouts by providing a score at the end of every workout. The Fuse does not offer any of these features.

The Fit Smart also includes a heart-rate sensor made by Mio. Still, the Fuse is a very comfortable and accurate device.

Design/Comfort: 6.5/10

The Fuse is a fairly large device, with a screen that's 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) wide. But despite its size, I found the device to be very comfortable. It has a soft silicon strap that's adjustable. The device comes in two sizes: large and small/medium. But there's not much room for personalization with this device. Each size comes in only one color — aqua for the small, and red for the large. Plus, it's the underside of the strap that's colored, so it's hard to see the color when you're wearing it.

The Fuse doesn't have any buttons, but there are dot icons on either side of the screen that you tap to scroll through your stats. There are also dots on the top of the screen, which you hold down to take your heart rate and tap a second time to start a workout.

The screen has a bright-red LED display that's easy to read in most situations but is a little less readable in direct sunlight. The screen stays off most of the time, unless you tap it to view your time/stats. This means that if you're wearing the device as a watch, you have to tap it to see the time. In contrast, the Basis Peak, which also tracks heart rate, has a screen that is always on, so you only have to glance at your wrist to see the time. But there is a difference in battery life: The Fuse's battery lasts up to seven days with regular use, whereas the Peak's lasts a maximum of four days.

Another way the Fuse saves its battery is that it does not monitor your heart rate all day along (unlike the Peak and Fitbit Charge HR, which do track heart rate all day). The Fuse tracks your heart rate only during workouts. However, you can check your resting heart rate with the Fuse by pressing down on the dots at the top of the screen.

The Fuse is waterproof up to 30 meters (about 100 feet), so you can take it swimming.

User-Friendliness: 7/10

The Mio Fuse is meant to be paired (via Bluetooth) with the Mio Go app, which is available for the iPhone and Android devices. I was happy to discover that the syncing process was flawless. I have an older iPhone (4S), and some of the fitness trackers I've tested have had trouble pairing with it, but the Fuse did not.

The Fuse also syncs with some other smartphone apps, such as MapMyRun, and pairs with a number of GPS watches and bike computers.

During workouts, the Fuse gives you a ballpark indictor of your heart rate via a small light that flashes on the side of the screen. The light changes color depending on what heart-rate zone you're in: A blue light indicates that your heart rate is in the "very light" activity zone (e.g., 94 to 112 beats per minute), a yellow light indicates that you're in the "moderate activity zone" and a red light indicates maximum heart rate. There are five heart-rate zones, each with a different corresponding color.

In addition, the device vibrates when you change heart-rate zones. This gives you an idea of the intensity of your workout, without the need to tap the device, or even read any numbers, while working out.

The device provides default heart-rate zones (which I assume are based on age), and you can change the zone ranges in the settings. But the Fuse doesn't provide a way to calibrate the zones based on your actual heart rate at different workout intensities. In contrast, the Adidas Fit Smart does provide a way to calibrate your heart-rate zones, by having you perform an assessment workout in which you run at certain intensities for about a minute each.

Heart-rate measures are very individual, so the default heart-rate zone settings in the Fuse are likely to be rough estimates. Experienced athletes may already know their heart-rate zones, in which case they can simply change the zone settings or look at their exact heart rate during workouts. But amateur athletes may want more guidance on the subject, so they may prefer the Fit Smart.

I also had a bit of a hard time determining how to see my exact heart rate during workouts. At first, I tapped the dots on the top of the screen, because this is what you need to do to see your heart rate in rest mode. But during a workout, tapping the top dots actually pauses the workout, and tapping again restarts the workout. Eventually, I figured out that, to see your heart rate during a workout, you have to tap the side of the screen instead, which wasn't very intuitive. (But the Fuse does automatically flash your heart rate on the screen when you change heart rate zones).

After a workout, you can sync the Fuse with the Mio Go app to see additional stats, including your average and maximum heart rate, speed and pace. The app also provides a graph to show you when you reached different heart-rate zones and how much time you spent in each zone. You can tell the Fuse what type of activity you were doing — running, road biking, walking, mountain biking, climbing, swimming, rowing or hiking.

Value of Information: 4/10

The Fuse works well as a heart-rate monitor, and the graph it creates at the end of each workout provides a nice summary of how intense your workout was. In addition to the five heart-rate-zone settings, you can set the Fuse to tell you whether you are in your "target zone" for heart rate, or if you are above or below the target zone. (Your target heart-rate zone is about 60 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate.)

But there is very little hand holding with the Fuse. For example, it does not explain why target heart-rate zones are useful, or how you would know if you were improving your workouts. In contrast, the Adidas Fit Smart calculates a "Run Score" after each workout, which is a score from 1 to 1,000 that you can use to see if your workouts are improving.

In addition, the Fuse sets a default step goal of 10,000 steps, without explaining why people should aim for that level of activity. Many other fitness trackers also pick this default goal, even though it is not an official health recommendation. (In fact, to meet physical activity guidelines, you'd probably only need to walk about 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day, experts say.)

Enjoyment/Inspiration: 3/10

The Fuse is aimed at people who are already motivated to work out, so the device and accompanying app offer very little encouragement. Even though you could be wearing the device all day, the Fuse does not alert you when you've been sitting too long (unlike some other fitness trackers, like the Soleus Go and the upcoming Apple Watch).

There's also no option to share your workouts with others via social media, or earn badges, points or some other form of motivation, as some fitness trackers offer. And the Mio Go app does not send alerts to remind you to work out, or provide a way for users to create a training plan. In contrast, the Adidas app, called miCoach, does offer these features.

About the only thing that the Fuse offers in terms of motivation is to show you how many more steps you need to take to complete your daily step goal.

Still, some people may find it motivating to see their heart-rate zones, and to try to aim to keep their heart rate in a particular zone color.

Price: $149.00

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. 

AUSTIN, Texas — Sometime in the near future, drones may be wearable and may even become our buddies — at least if one futurist has any say in the matter.

The wearable tech of the future might be able to perform many more functions than current technology can, from acting as a scout and tour guide in an unfamiliar city to being a rock-climbing companion, one expert said here at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival.

That future isn't so far away, said Adam Pruden, an interaction designer and tech futurist at design firm frog. [9 Totally Cool Uses for Drones]

"Drones are starting to behave like smartphones — and they're also entering this era of post-smartphone capabilities," Pruden said. "One day, drones may become an everyday household device."

Wearable products

Drone technology is advancing rapidly, and these flying bots are already being used for a growing set of functions, from making agriculture more efficient to capturing dramatic video footage of a churning lava lake. Increasingly, drones are also being seen as a key way to deliver supplies to hard-to-reach areas during humanitarian crises. And as drones get smarter, their capabilities have begun to mirror those of smartphones, Pruden said.

Though wearable drones may seem far-fetched, at least one is almost on the market already: the wearable drone Nixie, which is a camera that launches from the wrist, is supposed to be released soon.

Pruden and his  colleagues tried to envision what drones might look like in the future when wearable drones become more commonplace. First, they had to determine where drones could live on the body when they're not in use.

"We have to find a place to put them when we're not using them," Pruden said.

Next, the team came up with myriad possible uses for the machines, from drones that carry intravenous drips to drone dog collars. In the end, they settled on four uses that seem the most promising.

The first, called Breathe, would be a pollution sensor and filter that sits passively on a person's shoulder but deploys when pollution levels are high. The Breathe drone could hover in front of someone's mouth and nose, cleaning the air they breathe. [See Images of the Wearable Drone Concepts]

Other devices could clip on to someone's clothing or backpack and devise active games to play. The drone could even identify the proper route for a rock climber scaling a rock wall, the team said.

"It's set to challenge the owner to continue to improve as they climb again and again," Pruden said.

A personal tour guide, called the Flare, could attach to a clear wristband. When it's time to investigate an unfamiliar city, the Flare could launch from the wrist and fly ahead, scouting out the best routes. When it returned, it could hover a few feet in front of the owner, pointing out interesting sites along the way.

The final concept, called Parasol, could act as a personalized weather drone that could be worn like jewelry or a belt buckle when not in use. If the bot were to detect impending precipitation or high levels of ultraviolent radiation, it could morph into protective gear (like an umbrella) to shield its owner from harm.

Drones of the future

Pruden predicts that wearable drones will be in use by around 2030. As these new objects proliferate, humans may create infrastructure to help them do their work, such as drone superhighways or charging stations that allow them to make long-distance journeys.

But these futuristic devices will likely have functions that are different from those on smartphones, which are basically used by just one person.

"They're going to have to interact at many different scales — interact with other drones, other people and other objects," Pruden said.

In a drone-filled world, the ever-present buzzing robots could affect human emotional states, Pruden said.

"We can anticipate that more technology and devices will be taking to the sky," Pruden said. "We must carefully plan and design these objects to improve our lives rather than disrupting them."

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

Wearable drones may be buzzing on the horizon. As drones become increasingly sophisticated, they will soon take on the roles currently performed by smartphones, tech futurist and designer Adam Pruden argued in a talk at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Saturday (March 14). The future may hold wearable drones that interact with users, other people and objects in public space; as the skies fill with drones, they may even get their own superhighways and charging stations to go long distances, he speculated. Pruden and industrial designers at the firm frog tried to envision how these wearable flyers would work, and came up with conceptual designs for four different wearable drones. [Read the full story on the wearable drones]

Breathe

The Breathe is a small plastic drone that sits on the shoulder when not in use. The plastic lung is consantly sensing pollution levels in the immediate vicinity, with air filtering in thanks to a small propeller hidden in the base. (Photo credit: JungSoo Park, frog)

Air filter

When levels of pollution get too high, the propeller launches the drone into the sky, where it flits in front of the user's face and filters pollution form the air that they breathe. (Photo credit: JungSoo Park, frog)

Parasol

The Parasol is a weather drone that normally hooks into a belt or is worn as jewelry. Consistent with its jewelry function, the drone is made of gold. (Photo credit: Jessica Covi, frog)

Flying Umbrella

But the Parasol is more than just a fashion statement. The drone is filled with humidity and temperature sensors that can detect exactly when the weather takes a turn for the worse. If ultraviolet radiation levels get too high or rain is on the way, the drone's propellers launch it upwards and form a large disk that constantly adjusts its position to protect the user from the environment. (Photo credit: Jessica Covi, frog)

Scout

The Scout wearable drone is like a workout budy and playmate in one. The sphere, which is encased in rubber, snaps into a magnetic clip and is also a health monitor. (Photo credit: Reid Schlegel, frog)

Playmate

When a user launches the scout, the propellers expand and the scout can climb up a sheer rock wall, identifying a climbing route that is the perfect challenge for the climber's skill. (Photo credit: Reid Schlegel, frog)

Flare

The flare is essentially a flying tour guide and navigator. The flare is reminiscent of a compass, and is made of metal and glass and clicks into an acrylic wrist strap. (Photo credit: JungSoo Park, frog)

Tour guide

When the user wants to find something, such as a good ice cream shop, he or she simply gives verbal commands, and flicks their wrist to deploy the drone. The drone flies up to scout the environment and hovers a several feet in front of its owner, gudiing the person through a city. (Photo credit: JungSoo Park, frog)

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

This story was updated at 1:30 p.m. ET on March 25.

The Withings Activité Pop is a fitness tracker for people who don't want to look like they're wearing a fitness tracker.

On the surface, the Activité Pop looks like a regular analog watch (with an old-school clock face), but the device subtly tracks your activity and sleep. In addition to telling you the time of day, the tracker includes a smaller dial that shows your progress toward your activity goals, from 0 to 100 percent.

And when you're ready to hit the sack, the Pop will automatically detect that you've started sleeping (there's no need to put it in sleep mode, as you have to do with some other trackers). You can set the Pop's alarm to wake you up.

At around $150, the Pop is a more affordable version of the company's previous fashion-forward fitness tracker, the Activité, which costs $450. The two devices are similar, but the Pop is made from some different materials: For example, the Pop has a silicone strap, whereas the Activité's is leather.

Still, the Pop is about the same price as the new Fitbit Charge HR, but unlike that device, the Pop does not track heart rate, nor does it include smartwatch features such as caller ID. But those who want to get away from clunky smartwatches may not miss such features.

Overall Rating: 6.6/10

If you're looking for a fitness tracker that's stylish and doesn't scream "tech geek," the Pop might be right for you. It subtly tracks your activity and sleep, without a whole lot of bells and whistles. Other pluses are that the device has automatic sleep detection and can be worn swimming.

However, if you want to see how many calories you've burned or how many steps you've walked on a wearable device itself, you might consider looking elsewhere. The Pop does not track heart rate, either, and there's almost no way to interact with the device itself, except through the app.

Design/Comfort: 6.5/10

The Pop comes in three colors — Azure, Shark Grey and Sand — and additional wristband colors will be available soon, the company says. You can also use your own watch straps, if you wish, because the Pop has standard watch attachments.

One thing that disappointed me is that the Pop did not quite fit my wrist; even after I adjusted the strap to the smallest size, the device was slightly too big, so that it slid around on my wrist while I was wearing it. This probably would not be a problem for most people, but those with smaller-than-average wrists should be aware that this device (and the accompanying straps) may not quite fit them.

Because the tracker does not have a digital screen, you can't see the exact count of your steps taken or calories burned on the watch itself — for that, you'll need to download the Withings Health Mate app, and sync the watch with your smartphone via Bluetooth. (Currently, the Pop only syncs with the iPhone, but Android compatibility is coming at the end of February.)

There aren't any buttons on the Pop, either, so you also set the alarm, and calibrate the device hands, through the app. If you tap the watch face, the hands of the watch will move to show you the time of your alarm, although I found this feature pretty useless (since I knew what time I'd set my alarm for). During the week I wore the Pop, I sometimes wished the device was a bit more interactive. But again, the Pop is supposed to be a wearable that's disguised as a regular watch, so it's not aiming to be a device that's full of bells and whistles. 

You won't need to charge the Pop; it comes with a watch battery that lasts at least eight months, according to the company.

User Friendliness: 6.5/10

I found the process of syncing the Pop with the Health Mate app to be fairly straightforward. However, the method for setting the alarm is a bit odd. The app presents you with an alarm time (around 7 a.m.), and then you slide your finger up or down your phone's screen to change the time. But you can't choose the hours and minutes separately. So if you wanted to set your alarm for some time in the afternoon, you would have to slide your finger down the screen, and keep sliding — going minute by minute — until you eventually reached the time you wanted. This takes quite a while. I'm guessing that Withings assumes that most people are using the alarm feature to choose a wakeup time in the morning.

The Withings app has undergone a redesign since I last used it (to review the company's Pulse O2 tracker), and I like the new presentation. The app now shows your activity at the top, and then a timeline of your various activities throughout the week as you scroll down. (The new design actually reminded me of the Jawbone Up app.) If you choose a specific day, you can see exactly how active you were at any point during that day, as well as your overall steps, distance, calories burned and elevation(vertical distance climbed), and how close you got to reaching your goals. You can also see your weekly averages for metrics like steps taken and hours spent sleeping.

Devices like the Pop, which track sleep without needing to be put into sleep mode, are decidedly more convenient than those that do need to be put into sleep mode, in my experience. I also found that this device was pretty accurate at detecting when I was awake versus asleep. In fact, I was impressed that the device could tell the difference between when I was just sitting quietly and when I was actually asleep.

The alarm vibrates quite a few times to wake you up. But if you like to hit snooze, you're out of luck — the Pop's alarm does not have a snooze feature. If you forget to wear your Pop to bed, the alarm won't go off.

The default activity goal on the Pop is 10,000 steps per day, but I couldn't change my step goal. I found this a bit annoying, especially because you can't see your actual step count by looking at the device, only the percentage of your step goal you've achieved. But the company told me that an update in late February will allow users to set their own goals (if they want to choose something other than 10,000 steps).

Value of Information: 7.5/10

Unlike a lot of other fitness trackers, the Pop (like other Withings devices) does actually include some information about what your stats mean. However, this information is somewhat buried in the Health Mate app. For example, if you select a day's activity and look at your sleep, you'll see three small dots in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Tap on the dots, and you'll be given the option to view the Help Center. Within this center, Withings provides answers to various questions that actually might be helpful to people who want to not just track but also improve their health. Answered questions include "How much physical activity should I get?", "What are the consequences of physical inactivity?" and "How can I improve my sleep quality?" All this information is very useful, but I wish it were featured more prominently within the app.

On the downside, the app offers no explanation as to why 10,000 steps is the default step goal. Many fitness trackers similarly pick this default goal, even though it is not an official health recommendation. (In fact, to meet physical activity guidelines, you'd probably only need to walk about 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day, experts say.)

And because the Pop's hand dial shows you your progress as a percentage, the dial will move only a small amount when you've walked a few thousands steps. Some people may find this disheartening (I know I did). I'm a pretty active person, and I never reached the 10,000-step goal per day while I wore the device.

In the pool

The Activité Pop is waterproof, so you can wear it in the shower and take it swimming. However, Withings has not yet released its planned software update that will enable the watch to track swimming metrics. (The update is scheduled to be released at the end of April 2015, according to the company's website.) I wore the Activité Pop during a swim workout anyway to see how it held up.

After doing some laps and a few aquatic exercises, such as treading water and jogging in place, I checked to see if the activity hand on the watch had registered anything, and it had. Later, I went into the app and found that the watch had picked up my movements in the pool and added them to my total step count for the day. My pool time was also graphed in the app as time spent being active.

Enjoyment/Inspiration: 6/10

If you enjoy earning rewards, you may like that the Withings app sends push notifications to your smartphone for certain accomplishments — such as when you've unlocked a badge (which might tell you that you've walked enough to have climbed the Eiffel Tower, for example). The app also sends you reminders when you forget to wear your Pop.

About once or twice a week, the Health Mate app provides users with an analysis of their activity — in the form of a short message — which the app calls Insights. The only message that I received during my week of testing was one that read, "With only 6,420 steps, that was the least active you've been in 15 days," along with an accompanying frowny face. Needless to say, I did not find this very motivating. I love the idea of providing users with insights that get more specific the more you use a device, but telling someone that they're not doing well may actually backfire.

The app does have a feature called Reminders, which allows you to set memory-jogging messages to yourself to engage in healthy behaviors, such as weighing yourself or going for a run every day. These reminders appear as notifications on your phone.

The app also has a feature called Leaderboard, which allows you to challenge your friends to a weekly step competition to see who can walk the most. This type of competition may motivate some people: Withings says that those who use the Leaderboard feature are 24 percent more active, on average, than other Withings users.

Buy the Withings Activité Pop >>>

Editor’s note: This story was updated on March 25, 2015 to include information about how this device performs “in the pool.” Live Science Staff Writer Elizabeth Palermo conducted the testing and wrote that section of the review. 

Editor’s Note: In February 2015, we changed the rating system we use in our fitness tracker reviews from a 5-star system to a 10-point system. Not all of our ratings were a straight conversion (i.e. 2/5 stars = 4/10 points). Instead, we adjusted some of them in order to give our readers a better idea of how these devices perform in relation to each other.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook& Google+. 

The Withings Aura is a device that aims to track how long and how well you sleep, and also helps you fall asleep by playing soothing ocean sounds and washing crimson sunset lights over you. In the morning, the Aura gently wakes you to beautiful tunes, while shining a blue light on you.

The Aura is made up of two main pieces: a sleep sensor, which looks like a small pad and is put under the mattress, and a bedside device, which looks like a nightstand lamp. The sensor and bedside device communicate via Bluetooth with the Withings app on your iPhone (currently, there is no Android version), so you can set your alarm on your phone.

I used the Aura for a few days to test how it works. At $299.95, the Aura may be too pricey for a device that just tracks your sleep and has an alarm clock. (There are fitness trackers that cost less and offer those features.) Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed using it, and found it to be a beautiful addition to my room, which I thought looked like a futuristic spa in those foggy moments when I was falling asleep. Your opinion of the device, however, may depend on your taste as well as your room's arrangement. In any case, the Aura is a large, white block that is unlikely to go unnoticed. [11 Odd and Intriguing Smart Home Technologies ]

A beautiful design

The Aura has a modern design, and interacting with the device is very intuitive. Instead of buttons, the Aura has a touch-sensitive surface. You can trigger all of the Aura's functions with hand movements. For example, one tap on the device activates the sleep mode, and you can dim the lights or change the volume of the speaker by rubbing your hand over the right-hand side of the device.

The Aura starts your sleep cycle at night by shining a red light. The idea behind this function is that some studies have suggested a link between certain wavelengths (or colors) of light and the brain's secretion of melatonin, which is the hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. It is thought that red light may promote the brain's secretion of melatonin, making you feel sleepy, whereas blue light is said to interfere with melatonin production, which would have the opposite effect. The Aura shines a blue and purple light in the morning, when it's time for you to get up.

The sleep sensor is designed to be used by one person, but you can purchase a second one and plug it into the same bedside device in order to track the sleep of two people. The bedside device, which has to be plugged into a wall outlet to work, also has a free USB port for charging your phone.

Enriching the sleep experience?

Aura's sleep sensor tracks your movements during sleep to determine your sleep phases. Most sleep trackers on the market also use this principle to monitor sleep phases, but the method is far from a perfect way to measure the quality of your sleep. As a result, there are limits to what you can learn about the quality of your sleep by looking at this data, experts say. [Related: How Accurate Are Sleep Trackers?]

In the morning, you can see your data on a graph in the app. It shows how long you slept, the time it took to fall asleep and the number of times you woke up during the night. The app also breaks down your sleep into light, deep and REM (rapid eye movement) stages based on how much you moved during the night. You can track and review your nightly data over time.

Like some other sleep-tracking devices and apps, the Aura also has a "smart wake-up" function that aims to wake you when your body is ready to do so. To do that, the Aura lets you choose when you want to wake up, and also a window of time — for example, 20 minutes — around your intended wake-up time. Within this window, the Aura's alarm goes off when you are in the lightest stage of sleep, according to Withings. The device brings you to awareness slowly, by brightening its lights and playing smooth sounds. I liked waking up this way, but I can't tell with confidence whether it was because this function really works well, or whether I woke up nice and easy every morning simply because the sound of the Aura is far gentler than my phone's horrifying alarm tones.

The Aura also has a bonus function: a nap feature. By choosing this option, you can trigger the device to accompany you into a 20-minute relaxing break.

Bottom line

All that data about your sleep is fun to pore over, but you can get the same data using a fitness tracker that is equipped with sleep tracking, such as the Jawbone UP24 (which costs $129.99), the Jawbone UP Move ($49.99) or the iFit Active ($65). The main advantage of using the Aura is that it may help you to fall asleep more smoothly and wake up more easily.

BUY the Withings Aura >>>

Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

Runners aren't the only athletes who can track their stats with a wearable device — a slew of new wearable sensors are aimed at people who play sports, and cyclists. Here's a roundup of some of the most interesting sports wearables we saw at this year's CES.

Game Traka

In contact sports, wearing a fitness tracker or GPS watch on your wrist is often forbidden, because the device could harm other players. But a new wearable called Game Traka, debuting here at CES, solves this problem by being designed to fit in a vest under a player's jersey.

The device is marketed to amateur football, soccer and basketball players who want to learn more about their activity during a game, and improve their performance. The rectangular device is about the size of a box of matches, and has a GPS that updates five times per second.

Game Traka tracks a wearer's distance, speed and other data, and then gives players an intensity rating out of 100, which reflects how hard they've worked during a game, said William Strange, founder and CEO of Game Traka.     

The device costs about $300, which is much cheaper than the GPS trackers used by professional athletes, which can cost thousands of dollars each, the company says. [Future of Wearable Tech]

Epson M-Tracer

There are now several devices for tracking golf swing, including the newest device from Epson, the M-Tracer MT500GII. The device, which was also announced at CES, mounts on the grip of the golf club, and captures data about the swing path of the club, the club's speed and the angle of the club's face at impact, along with other metrics, the company says.

Users can view their data in a smartphone app that also shows their swing path in 3D, and allows them to compare their swing to that of a pro golfer.

Another company, Zepp, recently released a sensor that clips to the top of a golf glove.

Connected Cycle

The first ever "smart pedal" made its debut at this year's CES. The pedal, from French company "Connected Cycle," contains a GPS and cellular chip, and can be attached to any bike in less than two minutes, the company says. The device records speed and route information, as well as the number of calories burned during a user's bike trips.

The device also automatically sends a notification to a user's smartphone when the bike is moved, and the app lets the user see where their bike is at all times — which may be useful to those concerned about bike theft. The device also powers itself when you cycle, so there's no need for batteries.

The company does not have a product available to consumers yet, but is seeking investors.

Fitguard

Continuing to play football or other contact sports after a concussion or significant blow to the head can be harmful, but athletes may not always know when they should step out of a game. Several new devices aim to inform athletes of just how hard they've been hit, and assess their likelihood of head injury.

One product, called Fitgaurd, from Force Impact Technologies, is a mouth guard that detects rates of acceleration. If the acceleration of the head reaches a certain threshold, LED lights in the mouth guard will change color, from green to blue to red. Blue and red colors indicate medium and high-force impacts, respectively. A player who receives a more severe impact should be evaluated before returning to play, the company says.

Force Impact Technologies recently completed an Indiegogo campaign, and plans to start delivering products in September.

Another device, called Vector Mouthguard, from company i1 Biometrics, is also a mouth guard device that monitors head impacts. However, the device has a protrusion that extends outside the mouth, so it is intended to be worn only during sports in which players wear helmets.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

LAS VEGAS — The era of ugly fitness trackers appears to be coming to an end. A number of the fitness trackers on display here at CES 2015 cater to those with an eye for fashion. Here are some of the best fitness trackers we saw, which aim to let you monitor your workouts in style.

Mira band

The makers of the Mira band clearly took fashion into account when designing this fitness tracker, which is aimed at women. The tracker attaches to a cuff bracelet that comes in either Brushed Gold or Midnight Purple finishes. "We designed Mira to fit right in with your jewelry collection," the company says on its website.

Up close, the device is definitely feminine looking. The tracker can also detach from the bracelet when you head to the gym or don't feel like wearing a bracelet.

Mira has completed its Kickstarter campaign, and the company says it plans to start shipping devices this month.

Wellograph watch

Designed as a "sleek timepiece," the Wellograph watch is a modern-looking device that features a sapphire-crystal watch face, which is stronger than steel and can only be scratched by diamonds, the company says. The device also displays a number of different infographics to depict your activity, heart rate and other fitness data. However, these graphics are in black and white on the watch display, and in looking at them close up, I thought they were less impressive than they would be if they were in color.  

The watch tracks daily activity, heart rate and running stats. Next month, it will offer sleep analysis along with stress testing based on the variability between heart beats.

The device currently comes in White, Black and Silver, and at CES the company announced that the watch will soon also be available in Pink Gold and White Pearl. But all this style comes at a price: The watch costs $329. [Fantasy Fitness Tracker: 8 Absolutely Must-Have Features]

Misfit Swarovski Shine

Misfit already has a reputation for producing fashion-forward fitness trackers, including the Misfit Shine, and the company's latest fitness trackers are no exception. This week at CES, Misfit announced a partnership with the Austrian crystal-jewelry–making company Swarovski to release two new fashionable fitness trackers: the clear Swarovski Shine, which has a crystal face, and the violet Swarovski Shine, which is solar powered, the company says.

The company also released nine new accessories for the trackers, including a crystal-studded bracelet, and several pendants to hold the tracker on a necklace.

Withings Activité Pop

At CES, Withings announced their latest fitness tracker, the Activité Pop, which has a sophisticated clock-face design, but costs only $150 — much less than the company's previous fashion-forward tracker, Activité, which costs $450.

Like the Activité, the Activité Pop has two hand dials: one that shows the time of day, and a smaller dial that shows users' progress toward their activity goals. Although the device is pretty, you probably wouldn't mistake it for a designer watch – for example, the device has a silicon strap instead of a leather one.

The Pop comes in three colors — Azure, Shark Grey and Sand — and additional wristband colors will be available soon, the company says.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

The LifeTrak Brite R450 is a new fitness tracker from Salutron that aims to provide a comprehensive view of health and fitness.

The R450 certainly does have a lot of bells and whistles — it tracks your daily steps, distance, calories burned, heart rate and workouts, and automatically detects when you fall asleep and wake up. The device vibrates to alert you when you need to be more active, and it includes an alarm that the company says will wake you up at an optimal time that's based on how well you've slept. The device starts at around $120 on Amazon, putting it in the middle of the price range for fitness trackers.

The Brite R450 is also one of the few fitness trackers that monitors your light exposure, including blue light. (It is thought that too much blue light exposure before bedtime could interfere with sleeping well.) The company also says the device can tell you when you need more natural light.

The device also has some smartwatch features, including alerts for incoming calls, texts and emails, as well as calendar reminders. And it is waterproof up to 90 feet, so you can wear it while you are in the shower or swimming. All of these features sound good in theory, but how does the device work in practice? I tested it for a week to find out.

Overall Rating: 5.8/10

The pros of the LifeTrak Brite R450 include automatic sleep detection, a vibrating alarm and an ambient-light detector that can tell you when you need more natural light.

The cons of the R450 include a slow syncing process, bugs in sleep detection and a strap that is somewhat uncomfortable.

Design/comfort: 7/10

The Brite R450 has a large, circular screen surrounded by a ring of metal that I thought looked quite sleek. The display is easy to read, and the screen is always on, so you don’t have to push any buttons to see the time of day. But if you're in the dark, you'll need to turn on the backlight by holding down a button on the side of the device.

I was disappointed with the device's strap — it has a plastic feel, and it is hard to put on. The strap is adjustable, but because it is somewhat ridged, I found it hard to adjust it to one of the smaller sizes.

The device has three buttons on the right side. When you press the top "mode" button, you toggle through viewing: your notifications about calls and texts, a graph of your hourly activity, a graph of your weekly activity and a screen to track your workouts separately. The middle "view" button lets you see your basic stats: total sleep time, distance walked, calories burned and total steps for the day. You see these stats on the bottom of the screen, below the time of day, along with a progress bar that shows how close you are to completing your goal for the day. Also, you hold down this middle button to check your heart rate. The bottom button is the "start/stop" button, which you press to start/stop your workouts. You also hold it down when you want to sync the device to your smartphone (which syncs wirelessly via Bluetooth).

People who do not have smartphones may find the Brite R450 more appealing than other fitness trackers, because although it helps to have the LifeTrak app, it is not essential for using the device — you can view your weekly activity on the device itself. You can even manually enter all your information (height, weight, etc.) into the device itself, without the app, as well as set your goals and alarms. But this does require a lot of button pushing, and it's definitely easier to enter your information through the app.

Unlike many other fitness trackers in its price range, the Brite R450 battery does not need to be charged — it lasts about six months before you'll need to replace it.

User friendliness: 4/10

The Brite R450 has three navigation buttons, and each performs a different function, depending on whether you press the button once, twice or hold it down. This makes for quite a complex fitness tracker. For this reason, you'll want to give the user guide a read before you strap the tracker on your wrist and head out the door.

Performing basic functions on the device, like starting workouts and viewing your stats, is pretty easy, once you've familiarized yourself with all those buttons.

However, I found it tricky to get the device to check my heart rate — I would often need to do a reading multiple times before it would show a measurement. This may have been because the device did not fit me properly, as I had a hard time adjusting the strap to fit my wrist. Also, unlike some other fitness trackers that also track heart rate — like the Basis Peak and the upcoming Fitbit Charge HR — the LifeTrak does not measure heart rate continually throughout the day. Instead, the Brite R450 performs a measurement only when you tell it to.

Syncing the wristband with the LifeTrak app proved frustrating. First, I attempted to pair the device with my iPhone 4S, but I kept getting the message "Pairing Failed," even after I tried suggestions from the company for fixing pairing problems. I then tried an iPhone 5, and my R450 was able to pair, but the syncing process took forever. Seriously, it was several minutes. This is much longer than many of the other fitness trackers I've used, which usually sync in a matter of seconds. Because it took so long to pair, I would sync the device and then go do something else. Sometimes it would take several minutes, and then tell me there was a problem, and I would have to start again. I can only hope that the time it takes to sync will improve with newer versions of the app.

I also encountered problems with the device's sleep tracking. You don't have put the device into sleep-tracking mode, because the Brite R450 is able to automatically detect when you fall asleep, based on your motion, arm posture and ambient light. This is an appealing feature for people who don't want to remember to put their device in sleep mode every night. The first night I used the R450, the automatic sleep detection worked well — the device seemed to be able to detect when I was asleep and when I woke up fairly accurately. But the next few nights, the device did not track my sleep at all (it said I got zero hours of sleep). After exchanging emails with the company, I was told there was a bug in the app that turns off sleep detection in some cases, which the company is working to fix. (A representative told me this update would be available fairly soon.) But on the device itself, I was able to follow some steps to turn it back on, and after that, sleep detection worked again.

The ambient-light detection is an interesting feature, but for it to work, you have to keep the watch face from being covered by a sleeve from your sweater, jacket or coat. Because I tested the device in winter, the Brite R450 was almost always covered by my sleeve when I was outdoors, so it usually didn't detect when I had been outside. This is not a criticism of the watch design, but I think that users in cold climates should be aware that the ability of the device to detect when you're outside may be a problem when you're wearing winter clothes.

Value of information: 6/10

Although the LifeTrak Brite R450 tracks a lot of things, it provides very little information about what your stats actually mean. For example, although the default step goal is 10,000 steps a day, LifeTrak does not provide information about how much exercise you need to "be healthy." Not everyone cares about this type of information, but those who are just starting to track their distance/steps may be interested in knowing more specifically what they should aim for, and other fitness trackers do give users more insight into their activity. For example, the Withings Pulse O2 explains that people should aim to get 150 minutes of moderate activity per week (as recommended by the World Health Organization), and the Fitbug Orb looks at your activity for the past week to provide personal targets for total steps, aerobic steps and calorie intake.

Also, although the Brite R450 is one of just a few trackers that can track ambient light, it provides very little information about what to take away from your data. A graph in the app shows you your exposure to "all light" and "blue rich light" over time, and the app tells you how many minutes you were exposed to "bright light." The app suggests you get about 30 minutes a day of bright-light exposure. But is it bad if you get more or less than that? The app does not say. Also, the device did not tell me whether I needed more or less blue light, or whether I was exposed to blue light at the wrong time of day.

Still, the device does provide some takeaways in the form of vibrating alerts on your wrist. It will buzz to tell you to "get more light" if you've been inside too much. Another alert will say, "let's walk now" if you've been sitting down too long. In this way, the device does let you know when some of your behaviors are less than optimal.

Enjoyment/inspiration: 6/10

The physical vibrations from the Brite R450 on your wrist, and the messages to "get more light" or "walk now" may provide the extra nudge you need to get moving throughout the day.

In the app, next to each of your metrics you'll see a circle that fills with color as you get nearer to completing your goal for that day. When you complete a goal, you'll see a green check mark next to that metric. This is a quick way to see how active you are throughout the day. On the device itself, the R450 also displays your progress with a progress bar. If you see that you've nearly completed your goal, you may be motivated to go out and walk a little more.

The device does not have a way for you to connect with friends, however, or share your progress on social media sites, which may be a motivation for some.

Editor’s Note: In February 2015, we changed the rating system we use in our fitness tracker reviews from a 5-star system to a 10-point system. Not all of our ratings were a straight conversion (i.e. 2/5 stars = 4/10 points). Instead, we adjusted some of them in order to give our readers a better idea of how these devices perform in relation to each other.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook& Google+. 

Some of humanity's greatest technologies were inspired by animals. Now, scientists, inspired by the movement-sensing organ of a spider, have developed a wearable sensor that can detect music, recognize speech and monitor a person's heart rate.

Spiders have an organ called the "slit sensilla" near their leg joints that detects tiny vibrations in their environment. By mimicking the design of this organ, researchers produced a sensor that is extremely sensitive and flexible, and could be used in wearable electronics.

The slit sensilla in spiders consists of parallel slits of different lengths embedded in their exoskeleton, resembling the strings of a harp, which senses movement by opening and closing in response to forces exerted on it. The slits are connected to nerves that relay information about the vibrations to the spiders' brains. [Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature]

For example, the American wandering spider (Cupiennius salei) scratches the leaves of plants with its mouth and abdomen, which a potential mate can detect using its slit organ.

The new sensor consists of a platinum film on top of a soft polymer, with cracks in it, according to Mansoo Choi, a mechanical engineer from Seoul National University in Korea, and his colleagues. They call it the "‘nanoscale crack sensor."

Vibrations cause the cracks to stretch or compress, which changes the resistance of an electrical circuit. The device is extremely sensitive to vibrations or sounds, according to the article published today (Dec. 10) in the journal Nature.

"We are still far away from an artificial sensory system with a performance similar to that of the spider organ, whose evolution going back to the origins of the Chelicerata group of arthropods has been 1,000 times longer than the existence of humans," Peter Fratzl, a biomaterials scientist at Germany's Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an article also published in Nature.

To demonstrate the device's sensitivity, the researchers attached the sensor to a violin, and converted the strings' vibrations into digital recordings of each note. In another test, the sensor detected the flapping of a ladybug's wings, the researchers said.

The device can also detect simple speech. When the scientists had people wear it around the neck, the device recognized simple words used to control a computer game, such as "go," "jump," "shoot" and "stop."

The sensor could also be used to measure a heartbeat. When worn on the wrist, the sensor can detect the heart contractions through the blood vessels, the researchers said.

But the manmade sensor doesn't work exactly like the spider slit organ, even though they have similar shapes, because the electrical conduction through the sensor isn't identical to the transmission of signals through a spider's neurons.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Note: On Aug. 3, 2016, the Basis Peak was recalled because of the risk that the device may overheat and cause skin blisters or burns. It is no longer being sold.

The Peak is the latest fitness tracker from Basis, and the wrist-worn device aims to provide users with a number of insights into their daily activities while motivating them to live healthier lives. This tracker is our "Editors' Choice" among all the fitness trackers we've tested because not only does it track a vast array metrics, such as perspriation levels, but also we found it to be one of the more motivating fitness trackers to use.

Like the previous Basis B1 fitness tracker, the Peak tracks heart rate throughout the day, but the new device features improved sensors that allow it to keep track of your heart rate while you exercise, without a chest strap. In this regard, the device is similar to the Samsung Gear Fit, and the upcoming Apple Watch and Fitbit Charge HR, which will also monitor heart rate during exercise. I wore the Peak for about a week, to test out its features.

Unlike many other fitness trackers, the Peak doesn't need to be put into sleep mode — it automatically detects when you're sleeping. It also automatically detects certain activities, such as running, walking and cycling, and tells you the duration of your activity as well as how many calories you burned. The Peak is also one of the only trackers to measure skin temperature and perspiration. At about $200, the Peak is on the high end of the price range for fitness trackers. [Best Fitness Trackers]

The company says that the Peak will soon have some smartwatch capabilities, such as the ability to receive notifications for incoming calls and texts. These features will be included in a future software upgrade.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

The pros of the Peak include a screen that doesn't require button pushes to see the time, automatic detection of activities, including running, cycling and sleep, and the ability to track heart rate during exercise.

The cons of the Peak include the lack of an alarm, the lack of a way to track distance in miles/kilometers, and the omission of a way to share your information on social media.

Design/Comfort: 8.5/10

Compared with the previous Basis tracker, the Peak features a number of design improvements. Perhaps the biggest change is that the device doesn't have any buttons — instead, it has a touch screen. In addition, the device's screen is always on, so you don't have to push any buttons to see the time of day. (Many other fitness trackers require a button push to see the time.) And because the Peak can detect when you are exercising, the device will automatically show your steps, activity duration and heart rate, all in one screen, without any button pushes. This is very convenient when you're running or cycling, or just have your hands full.

The device's black-and-white display is large and easy to read, even in daylight. The Peak's screen also has a backlight so you can read it at night, but this does not turn on automatically. You have to swipe up on the right-hand side of the screen to turn on the backlight. I found that I would sometimes accidentally turn on the backlight when swiping on the screen to view my stats.

The Peak's breathable silicone strap feels soft and comfortable, and it can be adjusted to fit various wrist sizes. The straps come in only two colors, white/gray and black/silver, but you can also use your own watch straps if you wish, as the Peak has standard 23-millimeter watch-strap attachments.

However, the Peak's watch face comes in only one size, and it is rather large. As a petite female with small wrists and arms, the Peak looked big on me, and felt a little heavy. In contrast, the Apple Watch is expected to come in two sizes, including one for smaller people.

The Peak is waterproof up to 165 feet, so you can take it swimming. It is also fairly easy to charge — it snaps into its magnetic charging cradle, which connects to a computer or USB hub. It has up to four days of battery life.

Weirdly, the Peak doesn't have an alarm, which I would expect in a device of this price. But it does have the capability to vibrate, so perhaps an alarm will be included in a later software upgrade.  

User Friendliness: 7/10

To set up your device, you have to download the Basis Peak app, which is available for iOS and Android. The app walks you through the setup, but there is no additional video explaining how to use the device. I thought a video or an illustration of how to use the device would have been nice — it's not a particularly complex device to use, but there is a lot of swiping left/right and up/down on the screen that is required to view different stats, turn on the backlight and sync the device, and as a user you are essentially left to figure all of this out on your own.

By default, the main screen shows the time, and if you tap on the screen it also displays the date. You swipe left to view your heart rate, and swipe left again to view your recent activity. Swiping down from the heart rate screen also shows your total steps and calories burned for that day.

I found the device easily detected when I was walking or running. However, it sometimes took a while to measure my heart rate, and sometimes I could not get a reading. This may have been because the device was slightly loose on my wrist.

The app has a main dashboard that provides an overview of your daily activity (steps taken and calories burned), and also shows your recent exercise and recent sleep, as well as how you are progressing toward meeting selected goals, which Basis calls "Habits" (more on this later).

You can also view charts of your daily activity within the app, which shows you the time of day you were active, along with your heart rate, steps and calories burned. You can also choose to view your skin temperature and perspiration on the same graph. And you can zoom in on a particular part of the day to see your activity more easily. You can also hold your finger down on the graph to show your stats at a particular point in time, and then slide your finger along the graph to see how the stats change over time. 

The Peak was good at detecting when I was asleep. But I found that the app would sometimes break up my sleep charts — instead of showing me one chart of my sleep for an entire night, it would show me two charts, each a few hours long. This was rather annoying, as it meant I could not get an overall picture of a single night's sleep. 

I had one problem while using the Peak — when I first started to use the device, it did not display my calories burned, no matter how long I wore it. I was told this was a bug, and that the company was working to fix it. The support team provided me with a quick fix: I simply needed to change my height and weight information in the app, sync the device, then change the information back and sync again. My Peak tracked my calories after that.

Value of Information: 6.5/10

Within the Habits section of the app, Basis provides preset goals, each with an explanation of why that particular goal will make you healthier. For example, the Habit "Don't Be a Sitter" says "taking breaks to get up and move around, even briefly, can counteract the adverse aftermath of a sedentary job." The app also provides a few tips on how to reduce sitting time. I also liked the Habit "Regular Rising," which says "climbing out of bed the same time every morning (even on weekends) is the best way to establish a healthy and strong daily cycle."

This information is a good start, and goes far beyond what many other fitness trackers provide in the way of explaining the goals they set for you. Still, I felt that the app could have done more to help explain what my individual stats meant, and how to improve. For example, although the Habit "Get More Sleep" says you should aim to get 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep per night, the app provides no information or tips on how to improve sleep. Also, Basis does not explain why knowing your skin temperature and perspiration would be useful.

Perhaps the biggest thing missing from the device is this: If you're interested in knowing how far you ran during a workout, you're out of luck. The Peak does not provide information about distance in terms of miles or kilometers. It only shows how many steps you took. Also, the Peak app does not provide a place to enter information about what you ate during the day, so it does not track your calorie intake.

Enjoyment/Inspiration: 8/10

Like the previous Basis trackers, the Peak excels in the motivation department. The Peak uses a point system to help you become healthier — each Habit is worth a certain number of points, and you need to earn points to unlock more Habits. I found this system very motivating. Also, every time you open the dashboard, the app shows you how close you are to competing your step or activity goal for the day. And the app will send push notifications to your phone to congratulate you on completing a goal.

However, the Peak does not appear to have a way to share your information on social media, or connect with friends, which may be a motivator for some.

Editor’s Note: In February 2015, we changed the rating system we use in our fitness tracker reviews from a 5-star system to a 10-point system. Not all of our ratings were a straight conversion (i.e. 2/5 stars = 4/10 points). Instead, we adjusted some of them in order to give our readers a better idea of how these devices perform in relation to each other.

More Reviews: See all our Fitness Tracker Reviews to find the best one for your needs.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Several new innovations on the way could dramatically change how people receive health care.

New products that make use of smartphone technology — such as phone-based systems that track all of a person's health data, and sophisticated hardware and apps that let a person sample and test their own blood, DNA and urine — will allow people to take the clinic home with them, Dirk Schapeler, director of digital health at Bayer HealthCare LLC, said in a presentation Wednesday (Nov. 19) here at the IDTechEx conference.

These innovations will change where and how people get their health needs met, Schapeler said.

Moreover, such advances could not only allow pharmaceutical companies to identify patients for whom medicines work best, but also give patients better insight into their health problems and even identify health crises before they occur, he said. [Fantasy Fitness Tracker: 8 Absolutely Must-Have Features]

Health care issues

The existing models for delivering health information are badly outdated, Schapeler said.

"Most of us have a better idea how our car is doing than our health is doing," Schapeler told Live Science.

People's medical records usually reside with their doctors, and they may even have to pay to see the files. And worse, when people see multiple doctors or switch providers, there is no single repository containing all of their health information.

Because of complicated regulatory hurdles and a slow adoption of technology, many doctors have piecemeal electronic medical records systems, and many still do not communicate with patients via email.

But in the future, all-in-one apps will store a patient's health data in one location. That repository could then be easily sent to a person's new doctor, or from one specialist to another, all from someone's phone, Schapeler said. And, for example, a person could track how their cholesterol levels have changed over time, rather than waiting for a scolding at their annual doctor's checkup.

Phone-based medicine

New technology could also allow tasks now performed at the clinic or the hospital to be done in the comfort of a patient's home, Schapeler said. Several companies are developing portable phone attachments that can measure insulin levels, check heart rate and test oxygen saturation levels. For instance, the company Scanadu is developing a phone-based urine test kit that could detect early signs of liver, kidney or metabolism problems such as diabetes, Schapeler said.

The results of all these tests could be stored on a person's phone or be sent automatically to a doctor, who would then have a much better sense of the patient's long-term health trends.

Phone-based sensors and apps that use more uniform ways to track people's symptoms could allow pharmaceutical companies to more effectively conduct clinical trials. These innovations could make it feasible to do blood tests on patients more frequently, and better identify drug side effects in patients who are on multiple medications. They could also reduce the number of trips that patients make to the doctor for blood tests and other checks. By making the process more convenient, this innovation could keep more patients in trials, Schapeler said.

Phone-based DNA scanners, which would allow people to spit into a phone attachment to test their genetic material, could allow doctors to identify the subset of patients for whom certain drugs work best, and then prescribe medicines based on that knowledge, Schapeler said.

Combined with the next generation of fitness trackers, this extra information could also warn doctors of when a health crisis is coming, he said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA — Hitting the track with a bulky fitness tracker on your wrist or hip may soon be a thing of the past. Tiny sensors that can be embedded into a shirt, sports bra or even a pair of glasses are now able to continuously track your heart rate, log miles walked and calculate calories burned.

These sensors are possible because scientists have developed new technologies that allow tiny, stretchable electrical circuits to be printed onto fabric. These new technologies — from printable ink to yarn that can conduct an electrical impulse — are being paired with rugged sensors, to create new types of wearable fitness trackers.

And unlike some of the best fitness trackers for your wrist, these can simply be tossed in the wash after a sweaty workout. 

Embedded circuits

Traditional electronic devices can contain a labyrinthine electrical circuit made of metal wire and silicon chips. But typical electronic components aren't stretchy or waterproof, and so they must be placed on a rigid backing, like a computer motherboard.

For several years, researchers have been trying to develop stretchy, conductive materials that could be used to power the next generation of sci-fi devices, from stretchy batteries for bionic eyes to electronic skins. Some technologies have even worked fairly well, but they couldn't be scaled up to the existing manufacturing processes for textiles. But in the last few years, technologies for stretchy conductive materials have taken off.

One way of making such devices uses stretchable ink that serves as the wires between different sensors, such as global positioning systems (GPS), accelerometers, heart rate monitors or temperature sensors. The ink is made of conductive-silver nanoparticles that are embedded in a stretchy polymer resin, said Michael Burrows, the segment manager at DuPont Microcircuit Materials, which developed the ink. 

Unlike past efforts, newer conductive inks can be screen-printed or laminated onto a shirt or a bra using technology that's available in almost any textile factory, from Bangladesh to the United States, said Steven Willoughby, the marketing manager for DuPont Microcircuit Materials. The new printable ink will be unveiled here at the IDTechEx Conference tomorrow (Nov. 20).

"The backbone to the entire system will be this stretchy ink system that allows the entire technology to be worn on a shirt, on a sleeve, on a watch or even on glasses," Burrows told Live Science.

And while an accidental trip through the washing machine spells doom for the average smart phone, the new ink can withstand at least 100 wash cycles, Burrows said.

Another technology already in use is a type of conductive yarn, made of metal strung through the fibers of the clothing. Conductive yarns tend to be stretchier and more comfortable than printable inks, whereas the inks provide a more ready-made platform for inserting silicon-based processors into clothing, said Akseli Reho, the CEO of Clothing+, a company that designs wearable technology.

New clothes

Despite changing fashion trends, clothing is a very old technology whose main functions — keeping people cool or warm, covering the body, and helping people to look attractive — haven't changed much since early humans draped fur pelts over their bodies.

"I would claim that the pocket is the last big invention in clothing," Reho told Live Science.

But that is set to change, with several smart shirts, bras, bicycle pants and socks on or about to hit the market. These smart clothes are only a little more expensive than their "dumb" counterparts.

And new smart sensing technology could bring a whole new set of uses to clothing, such as highly accurate, continuous heart-rate monitoring — which could be key for getting real measures of calories burnt, recovery time and workout impact for a wearer, Reho said.

Clothing could also one day be used in clinical applications to monitor patients' health more closely and could even predict or avert health crises, he added.

And unlike existing fitness trackers, the new electronics could be embedded into something the person would wear anyway, Burrows said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

The Go is a new fitness tracker from watch maker Soleus, and it tracks many of the standard metrics seen in fitness trackers today, including your daily steps, calories burned, distanced traveled and how much you sleep. But unlike some fitness trackers, the Go also tracks your workout time and pace, and it includes a few smartwatch features, such as alerts when you get a call or text, and even shows you the weather.

At $80 to $110, the Go is in the middle of the price range for fitness trackers. Here's what I found after testing the device for a week.

Overall Rating: 5/10

The pros of the Go include vibration alerts that remind you to move, the ability to receive alerts for incoming calls and texts, the ability to track workout times right on the device and the option to set the device to automatically enter sleep mode.

The cons of the device include a lack of information about what your stats mean, a cumbersome charging device and the need to press buttons multiple times to find certain information, such as your daily steps. 

Design/Comfort: 6/10

The Go is designed to be worn on the wrist, and it has an adjustable silicone strap. The Go fit me quite well, but it was a little difficult to put on at first — I initially had trouble snapping the clasp, but this became easier over time. Also, there is only one way to wear the Go: as a wristband. It cannot be worn like a pedometer (i.e., clipped on your belt or clothes near your waist).

The digital OLED display is bright and easy to read. The device has two navigation buttons on either side of the screen — one button that you press to see the time of day and your stats, and another button that allows you to cycle through the various modes of the device, showing you the time you've spent exercising, sleeping, etc.

A neat feature of the device is that it can vibrate to remind you to get up and move when you have been idle for too long. You can set the amount of time (such as 45 minutes) that the Go will let you sit before it buzzes you. The vibrate feature also serves as an alarm to wake you up in the morning.

The Go comes with its own charger, which I found somewhat difficult and cumbersome to use. The charger prongs align with metal pads on the back of the device, but the only way to get the charger to stay in place is to wrap an attached band around the Go, and clip it into place. You then have to connect the charger by a USB cable to your computer. I found that even a slight misalignment of the charger prongs would cause the device to stop charging. On the plus side, once you get the device charged, the battery should last seven days (and the device I tested still had some battery power left after a week).

Although the device tracks workouts, it does not have a heart-rate monitor. It is also not waterproof — it cannot be used to track swimming, and the company does not recommend wearing it while bathing or showering.

User-Friendliness: 6/10

The Go and its accompanying app are fairly easy to use. The device even stores a 30-day history of your activity on the device itself, so you don't necessarily need a smartphone to see your progress over time (although it helps to have one).

Within the Go App, you'll see a quick summary of your stats, as well as a circle that fills up with color (going from red to green) as you become more active — like a car speedometer. This is an easy way to see at a glance how much more activity you need to complete your daily goal. The app also has sections to show you more information about your activities, such as what time of day you were most active, and when you were in deep sleep versus light sleep.

However, on the device itself, the Go display does not turn on unless you press one of the display buttons, which is difficult if your hands are full, or if you're on a jog. What's more, I found that I needed to push the navigation buttons multiple times to find the information I wanted. For example, pressing the button on the right side of the screen once shows the time and how much battery life you have. Pressing the button a second time shows the date. It's not until the third press that you see one of your stats — how many calories you've burned. If you want to see the number of steps you've taken that day, you have to press the button five times. Many people buy fitness trackers to count their daily steps, so I think this information should not be so buried.

To switch modes, you push the button on the left side of the screen until you get to the mode you want (such as sleep tracking). Then, you hold down the button until you see the words Hold Start. Once you release the button, the device will enter the new mode (for example, sleep mode will start). This process is fairly straightforward, but it's still more steps than other devices require to start tracking in a given mode.

One feature I liked is that you can tell the Go to automatically enter sleep mode at a certain time — say, 10:30 p.m. This way, you don't have to remember to put the device into sleep mode. And since many people go to bed at the same time each night, it seems logical. With other devices that track sleep, such as the Jawbone UP24 and the Withings Pulse O2, users have to put the device into sleep mode each night. (The Basis Carbon Steel fitness tracker claims to be able to tell when you are sleeping without needing to set the device to sleep mode, but I found that it sometimes made mistakes.)

Before entering sleep mode automatically, the Go will flash "Good Night" on its screen. The downside is that if you happened to stay up later than usual, you'll have to exit sleep mode and re-enter sleep mode manually once you do go to bed. Still, I found that knowing my device would go into sleep mode automatically at a certain time gave me extra incentive to get to bed on time.

One problem I found with the device is, if you have it set to enter sleep mode manually, but you forget to actually put it into sleep mode, the vibrations that alert you that it's time to move will go off in the middle of the night (because it thinks you are not active). This will likely wake you up.

Value of Information: 4/10

Although the Go tracks your activity, it provides virtually no information to explain what your numbers mean. For example, the Go does not tell you how much activity you need to be healthy, or how much sleep you should aim for. Nor does it explain how it determines whether you are in deep sleep versus light sleep, or how much you should expect to get of each. The Go seems to be intended for people who are already active, or who have a good idea about what they want their goals to be.

The alerts that let you know you are getting a call or text seemed redundant at times (the watch and your phone go off at the same time), but there were a few situations where I found the alerts useful. For example, when I was washing the dishes, I could see on my wrist that I had a call coming in and could immediately run to pick up the phone.

Enjoyment/Inspiration: 4/10

The Go's vibration alerts that remind you to move are a good way to make sure you don't sit too long. The physical vibrations are also impossible to miss. (The Garmin Vivofit displays a red line to remind you to move, but if you don't look at your wrist, you might miss this alert.)

However, the device provides little else in the form of motivation — it does not send push notifications about your progress or goals to your phone, for example. There are also no awards or badges for when you meet your goals. In comparison, the Nike+ Fuelband rewards your progress with Fuelpoints.. The Go did tell me to "smile" when I completed my goal, though.    

Editor’s Note: In February 2015, we changed the rating system we use in our fitness tracker reviews from a 5-star system to a 10-point system. Not all of our ratings were a straight conversion (i.e. 2/5 stars = 4/10 points). Instead, we adjusted some of them in order to give our readers a better idea of how these devices perform in relation to each other.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. 

The Fit Smart is a new fitness tracker from Adidas that's intended for people who want to improve their workouts, whether those workouts involve running or doing fitness training for sports, including soccer, football and basketball.

Unlike other fitness trackers, such as the Fitbit and Jawbone Up, the Fit Smart does not count your steps or track your calories all day long. It is designed to be used only when you're working up a sweat. At $199, the Fit Smart is at the higher end of the price range for fitness trackers.

A key feature of the Fit Smart is that it includes a heart rate monitor, and uses your heart rate to give you coaching while you are training — the device prompts you to increase or decrease your workout intensity to hit your desired heart rate zone. It also tracks the number of calories you burn during a workout, along with your pace, stride rate and distance.

The Fit Smart syncs wirelessly with the Adidas miCoach Train & Run app that you can download to your smartphone. You can see information about your workouts and training plan on the app, or by logging into your account online. [Best Fitness Tracker Bands]

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

If you're training for a race or want to stay in shape for your sport, the Fit Smart may help you set a training schedule, and can coach you during your workouts. The app can provide you with a "Run Score" that's useful to compare your workouts over time, and predict your race times.

The Samsung Gear Fit is about the same price as the Fit Smart, and also provides workout coaching, but the Gear Fit comes with other smartwatch features than a person interested solely in working out may not find desirable.

However, if you want a more versatile fitness tracker that you wear all day to track your steps, calories and sleep, you'll need to look elsewhere, because Fit Smart is a dedicated just to workouts. The Fit Smart is also not recommended for swimming.

Design/Comfort: 6/10

The Fit Smart is designed to be worn on your wrist like a watch, and its strap is made of soft silicone, a material that feels comfortable against the skin. It's not very heavy, either — it weighs about 2 ounces (58 grams). It comes in only two sizes (small and large), and has an adjustable strap. However, I have small wrists, and even the smallest size on the "small" band was slightly too big for my wrist, so the device slipped back and forth a bit during my runs. I don't imagine this would be a problem for most people, but if you have small wrists like me, it might be.

The face of the device has three buttons: A center button that you press to activate the device and select options, and two side navigation buttons. Pressing the center button once will display the time, and pressing the navigation buttons will allow you to scroll through the workout options. You can select to start a coached workout, a "free" workout (meaning without coaching), or to view the stats of your last workout.

The device has a white LED display that's bright and easy to read in most situations, but I found it slightly hard to read in direct sunlight. The screen stays on during your whole workout, so you don't have to keep pressing buttons every time you want to check your time.

The underside of the device contains the heart rate sensor, which shines a strong green light into your skin to detect your pulse. (You cannot really see this light when you're wearing the device). The side of the watch face contains a strip of LED slights that change color depending on the intensity of your training session (displaying either white, blue, green, yellow or red).

To charge the device, you attach it to the charging cradle (which is magnetized) and connect the USB to your computer or other charging hub.

User-Friendliness: 6/10

The Fit Smart itself was fairly easy to use, but I sometimes found myself puzzled over certain terms displayed on the device, which required a little bit of research to understand. I didn't know that my "SR" was my stride rate, or that "AW" stood for "assessment workout" until I looked it up (more on this later).

You can create a training plan using either the app or by logging onto the website online, and miCoach walks you through which plan is best. I selected the "run a 5K" plan, and chose level 1, for beginners.

To start a workout, you first select whether you want a coached or a free workout.  Once you select a workout, Fit Smart will take your resting heart rate, and when that's finished, you select "GO" to begin.

If you're doing a coached workout, the device vibrates to indicate an alert, and the display will tell you to speed up or slow down. During a free workout, the device periodically vibrates and displays your heart rate. To end a workout, you hold down the central button, and use the navigation buttons to select the stop icon.

To calibrate your personal heart rate zones and pace zones, the device has you complete a 12-minute Assessment Workout, in which you run at a certain intensity for about 1 minute. You start off walking, and gradually increase your intensity when prompted by Fit Smart. I thought this was a good idea in order to create more personalized training zones.

However, none of this information is explained inside the miCoach app. So when my Fit Smart displayed "AW" after I selected a coached workout, I did not know what this meant. Even once I knew what this stood for, I still would not have been able to complete an assessment workout without reading the instructions, which I found by logging into my miCoach account, and reading the "Guidelines and Tutorials." The app does include a video to get you started with Fit Smart, but it is very brief. I feel that the video would be more useful if it included information about the purpose of Assessment Workouts and how to complete them.

Also, when I completed my Assessment Workout, the device told me that it could not determine my heart rate zones, because my "heart rate data did not show a steadily increasing pattern." I was very disappointed to have completed a whole workout and still not achieved the goal of calibrating my device.

The app says this can happen due to a "noisy signal" from the heart rate monitor. Also, I did slow down before crossing roads on my run, and I think this may have interfered with the heart rate intensity assessment, so I would suggest you do your assessment workout in an area where you'll be able to run without stopping for lights. It would have been nice to know this information before I did the assessment.

Fit Smart also does not have GPS — it uses an accelerometer to track your pace and distance. That means if you want more accurate distance information, or want a map of your route, you need to bring your phone along during your run. However, when I ran with my phone and my Fit Smart, the app still did not create a map of my route. I looked on the website and in the app, and its still not clear what I needed to do to get the device to track my route. (I've reached out to Adidas to ask them about this, and will update this story if they answer my question.)

Value of Information: 7/10

After you complete a workout, you sync Fit Smart with the app to see a breakdown of your stats, including your time, distance, average heart rate, speed, calories burned and steps per minute. The app also displays charts showing how your speed, heart rate and stride rate varied during your workout, and provides your mile splits. Some of this information may be more than enough for a lay athlete, but if you're training for a race, or want to improve your race time, you may find this information useful.

Another neat feature of Fit Smart is that after a free workout, the device calculates your "Run Score," which is a score out of 1000 that you can use to see if you're improving in your workouts. The Run Score can also tell you which training plan you should use. Although I initially picked a level 1 training plan, my Run Score informed me that I should pick a level 4 training plan. Run Score also predicts what your time would be in a 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon. This would be particularly useful if you were training for one of those distances.

However, because Fit Smart is used only for workouts, it does not provide feedback about other daily habits that could affect your training, such as your diet or sleep.

Enjoyment/Inspiration: 7/10

If you set a training plan (for example, a plan to run a 5K), the app will create a training calendar that displays the days you are scheduled to work out. It also will send an alert to your phone to remind you that you have a workout scheduled for that day. These are useful features to help you stay organized and remember to work out. You can also share your workout stats to Facebook, which may provide extra motivation for those who like to keep their social networks in the loop about how their training is going.

However, the miCoach app seems to assume that its users are dedicated athletes, so other than notifying you that you have a run scheduled for a certain day, it does not really provide other encouragement in the form of alerts.

Editor’s Note: In February 2015, we changed the rating system we use in our fitness tracker reviews from a 5-star system to a 10-point system. Not all of our ratings were a straight conversion (i.e. 2/5 stars = 4/10 points). Instead, we adjusted some of them in order to give our readers a better idea of how these devices perform in relation to each other.

More Reviews: See all our Fitness Tracker Reviews to find the best one for your needs.

Follow Rachael Rettner @Rachael Rettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Are you being recorded? Thanks to the ubiquity of CCTV and camera phones, the answer is more than ever before likely to be “Yes”. Add to this the growth of wearable technology such as Google Glass and people are increasingly exposed to devices that can monitor and record them, whether they realise it or not.

The privacy implications are obvious, but also interesting to psychologists such as myself, are how such invasions of privacy – real or perceived – change the way people behave in everyday life.

My colleagues and I have been examining the ways people change their behaviour when they are being recorded. In a typical psychology experiment, participants are aware that they are being watched, and a range of equipment monitors their responses, from computers and cameras to eye-trackers and electrodes. Do people in this scenario behave the same way as they’d behave, unwatched, in everyday life? While this may be true for some people and some behaviour, it is not in all cases. Thankfully, with some ingenuity, we can investigate whether being monitored changes how people behave. This should be a crucial topic for psychologists.

Research using eye-tracking devices, led by Eleni Nasioupolous and Alan Kingstone from the University of British Columbia, Evan Risko at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and myself, provides a good example. In several situations participants were left alone in a room with a calendar featuring a scantily-clad female, behind which lay a hidden spy camera. When people were free of any recording device, they usually looked at the calendar. However, when they wore an eye-tracking device, which records the wearer’s field of view and their eye movements within it (just like Google Glass) they stopped behaving naturally and avoided looking at the saucy image.

In other words they were aware that what they were looking at was being watched and changed their behaviour accordingly. This reinforces our natural assumption that we can’t take for granted that people will behave normally when they know they’re being watched, both in lab experiments and when using wearable technology out in the world.

Those aware that what they are looking at is being monitored seem to act in a more socially acceptable manner, something that is consistent with a range of behavioural research. The presence of others leads us to act in a way that converges with social norms. Security cameras – even a picture of someone’s eyes – can have the same effect by implying that someone is watching.

In our recent paper published in the British Journal of Psychology we varied the amount of time that people had to get used to wearing the eye-tracker. Surprisingly, we found that even after only 10 minutes of wearing the equipment, users essentially forgot about being monitored and started acting normally again. Soon enough the socially acceptable behaviour associated with being watched dissipated and they again spent time, for example, looking at the calendar.

But while the implied social presence of another watching the participant’s behaviour wore off surprisingly quickly, when they were reminded that they were wearing the eye-tracker they once more reverted to a socially acceptable pattern of behaviour and averted their eyes.

So what does this mean for privacy in the age of Google Glass and other wearable smart devices? We shouldn’t assume that people will be sufficiently self-aware to regulate what they’re doing while using wearable technology. Our research shows that users can easily forget that they are recording (or being recorded) and even with the best intentions could violate the privacy of others.

This is good news for those of us who seek to measure and understand natural behaviour, and particularly for using eye-trackers to achieve this. However it could be bad news for those who champion the use of wearable computing in everyday life. With even short periods of use, people may stop being aware of their own actions and in doing so end up recording things they would rather not be seen – look away now if you value your privacy.

Tom Foulsham receives funding from The British Academy.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

The Apple Watch enters fitness-tracker territory by offering ways to monitor your heart rate and daily exercise, but the device doesn't necessarily mean the end of earlier trackers like the Jawbone UP and Fitbit, experts say.

Unveiled yesterday (Sept. 9), the Apple Watch will have a fitness app that tracks how many calories you burn in a day, as well as how many minutes you exercise and how long you stand, the company said. The watch also has a heart-rate monitor and includes a workout app that tracks the speed, distance and duration of workouts.

The Apple Watch doesn't quite match up to some of the other best fitness trackers on the market. For example, because of their long battery life (usually up to a week), many fitness trackers can track a person's sleep, whereas the Apple Watch may need to be taken off at night to be charged, said Dan Ledger, principal at the consulting firm Endeavour Partners. [Fitness Tracking Wearables Compared (Infographic)]

In addition, several fitness-tracker makers — including Jawbone — have announced they are opening up their applications to support other company's hardware. This means that, not only can data from a Jawbone UP band be transferred to the Apple Watch (if you have both devices), but also you could theoretically use the Jawbone application to analyze data from your Apple Watch.

The fitness-tracker industry is trying to promote the idea that "it's not a one wearable world," Ledger told Live Science. "This is a world where you may have and use two or more wearables."

The software from some fitness trackers that were previously physical bands (hardware) that people could wear may be incorporated into the Apple Watch. This seems to have already happened with the Nike+ FuelBand. This year, Nike announced it would not be making new hardware for the FuelBand. But yesterday, Apple mentioned that FuelBand technology would be available in the Apple Watch. "Nike has agreed to move its smarts into the Apple Watch," Ledger said.

Another reason the Apple Watch does not necessarily mean "death" to fitness trackers is that many fitness trackers are considerably less expensive. The Apple Watch will cost about $350 when it comes out next year, whereas the Fitbit Flex, Withings Pulse O2 and Misfit Shine each cost around $100, and the Jawbone UP costs $150. Some fitness trackers, such as the Fitbug Orb , are available for as little as $50. "[It's] in a different price category," Ledger said.

In addition, "a lot of the activity trackers might just appeal to a different crowd of people," Ledger said. For example, someone specifically focused on changing his or her activity habits might not be in the market for an Apple Watch, Ledger said. "I don't think their customer base overlaps 100 percent," he noted.

Shane Walker, an analyst at research firm IHS Technology, agreed that the market for fitness trackers, which are dedicated solely to activity monitoring, would continue to grow, even as multifunctional devices like smartwatches are released. "Even with the advent of these relatively new devices, I still predict growth within dedicated monitors over the next few years," Walker said.

But as a smartwatch — that is, a wearable computer that can run applications — the Apple Watch is unique and may have more success than any other smartwatch to date, Walker said.

"[It's] the most interesting watch we've seen so far in the smartwatch race," Walker said. The device has a unique interface that enables a lot of control in a small space, Walker said, including a "digital crown" that turns to zoom in and out.

Apple will also release a tool kit for building apps for the watch, thus allowing developers to come up with creative uses for the device, Walker said.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Apple's new smartwatch, Apple Watch, aims to get people to move more by tracking their daily exercise as well as sitting time, according to an announcement from the company today (Sept. 9).

"Being more active is one of the best things you can do to improve your health, and Apple Watch gives us the ability to motivate people to be more active," Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said at the Apple Watch unveiling today in Cupertino, California.

Apple Watch has a fitness app that monitors a person's movement throughout the day, using the watch's accelerometer and gyroscope, and suggests activity goals to work toward. For example, it has an "exercise ring" that fills up with color as you complete more activity during the day. When you complete the recommended 30 minutes of activity in one day — either all at once or in bouts — you "close the ring," and complete that goal, the company said. [Fantasy Fitness Tracker: 8 Absolutely Must-Have Features]

The Apple Watch also has a "move ring" that fills up as you burn calories and a "stand ring" that fills up as you stand during the day. For the latter, if you stand for at least 1 minute every hour, during 12 hours of a day, you complete the ring. (An increasing amount of research has shown that in addition to not enough exercise, too much sitting is bad for your health.)

A separate workout app in the Apple Watch will track your stats during a workout, including how far you've gone, how fast you're moving and the length of your workout. Data from your Apple Watch can be stored on the iPhone's Health app, which can be accessed by third-party apps, the company said.

The device "gets to know you the way a personal trainer would," and delivers personalized goals as well as reminders to be active, according to a video shown during the announcement. The Apple Watch can also measure the intensity of your workout by tracking your heart rate.

Many of the health components in Apple Watch are available in fitness trackers, such as Basis and Withings Pulse O2, but the Apple Watch lacks the ability to track sleep found in these trackers. On the other hand, most fitness trackers do not have the ability to run apps, as the Apple Watch does.

The company also put a large emphasis on the style of the watch, which can be personalized for each user. The watch comes in three different styles: The Apple Watch, the Sport Collection (specialized for fitness) and the Apple Watch Edition, which is made from 18-karat gold. There are six different, interchangeable straps for the watch.

The Apple Watch also comes in two different sizes. This feature distinguishes it from other smartwatches, such as the Samsung Gear 2, which only comes in one size and may be too big for some people. Users can also personalize the face of their Apple Watch by choosing the image they want to display, along with information they want to appear on the home screen, including an astronomy screen that will zoom in on that day's moon and even show the entire solar system.

The Apple Watch "is the most personalized device Apple has ever created," Cook said.

The watch will sell for $349 when it goes on sale early next year, the company said.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

If you own a fitness tracker that sits in your desk drawer instead of on your wrist, you're not alone.

About one-third (34 percent) of people who buy a smart wearable device, such as a fitness tracker or smartwatch, abandon the device after just six to 12 months, according to a recent poll conducted in June by the consulting firm Endeavour Partners.

That's a slight decrease from last year, when 44 percent of wearable-device owners said they stopped using their devices within six to 12 months. [The 11 Weirdest Gadgets of 2014]

Still, "abandonment rates continue to be high despite increased adoption, and the industry continues to struggle to deliver products and services that provide sustained benefit to the mass market," a July report from Endeavour Partners said.

Part of problem is that this first generation of wearables is a little primitive, said Dan Ledger, principal at Endeavour Partners, who wrote the report. For example, fitness trackers track only simple measurements, like steps taken and calories burned, and smartwatches are often bulky and perform the same functions as a mobile phone, Ledger said.

"Wearables resonate with a very small percentage of the population," Ledger said. "They're not indispensable."

But that's changing. Several important developments are underway that aim to boost the usefulness, and uniqueness, of smart wearables, Ledger said.

"We're really entering the new era of wearable technology," Ledger told Live Science. "The breadth of these devices, and the breadth of the problems that they solve, is going to go up."

For example, the industry is starting to develop new and better sensors that will be able to track a greater number of parameters, such as a user's blood pressure and stress level, both accurately and consistently, the report said. The startup Quanttus is said to be working on a wristband that can measure blood pressure, and Samsung is working on new sensors for its Simband reference fitness tracker to measure heart rate and blood flow.

"As this technology improves and these smart wearables can more robustly and persistently measure more bio parameters, we will see an explosion of health-and-wellness-related devices, apps and services that provide a far greater breadth of utility than what we see today," the report said.

"Once you begin collecting data from people 24/7, you can do a lot of powerful things [with] that data," such as manage chronic diseases and understand stress, Ledger said.

Large manufacturers — such as Samsung, Apple and Google — are also entering the wearables market. (Apple's smartwatch, reportedly called the iWatch, is rumored to be released later this year). These companies have extensive resources and manufacturing capabilities that will likely accelerate the speed of innovation, Ledger said.

As smart wearables and their sensors get better, the number of apps and other services designed to utilize this data to provide insight and analysis will also expand, Ledger said.

"It's going to be similar to what Apple did with the smartphone," Ledger said, referring to the platform that Apple created on the iPhone that allows third-party apps to be downloaded.

If that's the case, smartwatches and fitness trackers that have apps may have an advantage, in terms of their longevity with users, over those that do not, Ledger said. For example, the Pebble smartwatch has apps, and "Every day, you can go to the app store and discover a new utility for this device, and keep the experience fresh," Ledger said.

Finally, better-looking devices that are more fashionable than traditional tech gadgets will make smart wearables appealing to a larger number of people, Ledger said. For instance, Withings recently released Activité, a device that looks like a stylish wristwatch with a clock face, but has the ability to track walking, running, swimming and sleep.

Fitbit also recently announced a new collection of accessories, such as brass bracelets and pendants (from luxury fashion brand Tory Burch) that can hold a Fitbit Flex.

However, Ledger said that people who were not satisfied with the first generation of wearables may be reluctant to buy another one, even if the next generation is far better.

"We're seeing a non-insignificant chunk [of the public] that has owned a Fitbit and hasn't been that impressed," Ledger said. "What's it going to take to get them back to this category?"

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

The Polar RC3 is a GPS-enabled watch that runners and cyclists can use to track their speed, distance and route during their training sessions. If users pair the device with a heart-rate monitor, they can use their heart-rate data to train more efficiently, and with the right intensity. The Polar RC3 costs $279.95, or about $350 if you get a heart-rate monitor, too (Amazon retailers have lower prices), which puts it in the middle of the price range among similar devices. I used the Polar RC3 watch along with its heart-rate sensor, which is a chest strap, to see how it would perform. I found the device easy to use and inspiring, especially if you are training for an upcoming event, such as a race or marathon. [Best GPS Running Watches]

Overall Rating: 5/10

For runners — or even beginners with big training goals, such as running a marathon — the Polar RC3 GPS watch can be a motivating addition to training routines. It can provide useful information to help you make the most out of each session, and the Polar personal trainer website gathers the information in an organized way.

However, the device may be too complicated for casual runners, who are not necessarily training for a goal. Furthermore, this watch originally launched in 2012. Polar has since released more advanced GPS watches in a similar price range, such as the M400.

Design/Comfort: 4.5/10

The Polar watch comes in black, blue, and orange. It is light and comfortable, and the design is sleeker than those of other sport watches I've tried, which tend to be quite bulky. The screen is very large and easy to read, and the five buttons surrounding the screen are easy to access while you're working out.

The heart-rate sensor attaches to an adjustable strap that goes around the chest. The sensor and the watch communicate wirelessly and in real time. Chest-strap sensors are generally more accurate than wrist-worn devices for measuring heart rate.

Although the Polar RC3 can withstand water splashes, you can't wear it while bathing, which means swimmers can't use it to track data during their workouts.

User-Friendliness: 5.5/10

I was able to start using the watch after only quickly reviewing the information in the guide provided in the package. But to use all the features of the device, I had to read the more in-depth user manual, which is provided online.

The watch comes with access to a free training website called Polar personal trainer. There, you can upload your training data for review, or create a training program for running or cycling and download it to your watch. The website and the watch communicate with each other using a program called Polar WebSync, which you can download to the watch from the personal training website. I found both the software and the website easy to navigate, with designs that were simple and intuitive.

Value of Information: 5/10

The Polar RC3 watch uses GPS capability, so it measures the distance that you've run or cycled more precisely than regular activity monitors — such as fitness trackers — can. It's worth noting that the GPS only works if you train outside.

During a workout, the watch gives you quite a lot of information. You can toggle among eight screens, and each of them shows several pieces of your training data — for example, your real-time heart rate, distance covered and pace.

When you start to use the watch, you can take the Polar fitness test, which aims to gauge your current fitness level. The test measures your heart rate at rest and how much it varies during rest, and also uses information such as age, gender and weight to come up with a fitness score. I took the test only once, but users can track their progress by taking the test again after few weeks of training.

However, you should know that measuring heart rate is just one method for estimating one's level of aerobic fitness. The more precise method of determining aerobic fitness level requires the use of laboratory equipment to measure a person's oxygen uptake during strenuous exercise.

One feature of the watch that sets it apart from some other devices is that it shows you how much time during your workout you spent in each of five "sport zones," which range from very light to very hard activity based on your heart rate. The device also has an interesting option called ZoneOptimizer. When the option is turned on, the watch automatically measures the changes in your heart rate during the warm-up and determines your personal sport zones. Using all of these options can give you a wealth of data about your workout, but I can see how it could be overwhelming for more casual runners, who may be looking for a more streamlined picture of their runs.

The watch also allows you to "lock" into a sport zone. For example, if, for training purposes, you'd like to stay in sport zone 3, the watch sounds an alarm every time your heart rate falls out of the range of that zone.

The Polar Personal Trainer website acts as a diary for your training sessions and upcoming events, such as road races. It has a section where you can review your progress by comparing training results, such as distance covered, time spent in each sport zone and the duration of training sessions. The website has several useful calculators, such as a calorie calculator and daily calorie needs based on your information. You can also define new "challenges" for yourself and even share them publicly with other users. [Video: How to Get the Most from Wearable Devices]

Enjoyment/Inspiration: 5/10

I was particularly happy about how easy it was to start using the watch and the personal trainer website, and I was motivated to read more in the user manual to learn about other features of the device. I believe that the heart-rate monitor was an essential addition to the device because it provided useful information about my progress in getting fitter, and whether I was training efficiently.

One shortcoming of the device, however, was that it wasn't waterproof. Still, I could manually enter my swimming sessions into the personal trainer diary.

Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

Megs Bell started using a Fibit Flex this year, along with her whole family. The device worked well for about four months, but then it started to have problems holding a charge. The battery would drain after less than hour, leaving Bell unable to track her workouts and daily steps.

"It's really frustrating," said Bell, who lives in Maryland. "My family and I, we all compete," to get the most weekly steps, Bell said. So when she opens the Fitbit app and sees her step count dropping with each passing day, "it makes me really sad," she said. 

Bell's experience is not unique. While it's unclear how common the problem is, some Fitbit Flex users have posted on forums and social media sites about experiencing issues with their Flex holding a charge after just a few months of use. (The Flex battery generally lasts five days between charges, according to the company.)

The Flex is an older model now, which isn't really considered to be one of the best Fitbits in the range, but if you happen to still own one of them here's what to do to resolve the issue:

• Clean the charger contacts.
• Try charging from a different USB port.
• Try charging from a computer USB port instead of a USB hub.
• Reset your tracker. (For the Flex, this involves pulling the tracker into a USB port, and using a paperclip to press down on a small pinhole on the back of the charger, for three to four seconds.)

Both Bell and Hamilton said that they still experienced charging problems even after trying all of Fitbit's recommendations. If this is the case, Fitbit may replace the tracker free of charge. Hamilton said the company replaced her device, even though it was a gift.

"I love the product (despite the failed battery) but would not have gone out to buy a replacement," Hamilton told Live Science. "My fear of the same issue caused me not to want to make the investment. But I was highly pleased with the way the support team handled my case."

Bell said that out of the four members of her family, she is the only one with a charging problem. Bell also contacted Fitbit customer support, and received an email from the company saying that her Fitbit was draining unusually fast. Bell answered questions about her case by email, and Fitbit sent her a replacement tracker. The new tracker "works like a charm," she said.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Ahmed Banafa is a Kaplan University faculty member for the School of Information Technology with experience in IT operations and management and a research background related techniques and analysis. He is a certified Microsoft Office Specialist, and he has served as a reviewer and technical contributor for the publication of several business and technical books. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. 

You could say that our society's attraction to wearable technology took hold when the Dick Tracy comic strip introduced the 2-way wrist radio and TV to its readers more than 50 years ago. Walkmans, iPods, Bluetooth earphones and more have joined the realm of consumer wearable tech since then. And with our smartphone and tablet dependencies, the evolution into wearable computing was an inevitability. But with the advent of the Samsung Smartwatch and Google Glass last year, such tech has now become an obsession. To fuel that obsession — and grow the market for more wearable computing devices — programming, application and thoughtful design needs to keep pace along with imagination.

Are apps up to the task? 

One of the key challenges facing current wearable computing devices is the lack of apps. Without a variety of robust apps serving the different needs of consumers, the future of wearable devices will be cloudy at best. If we scan the market to see what is available right now, the few apps around are limited to fitness-specific features like heart-rate monitoring, calorie intake, diet tracking, etc. Although helpful, these aren't considered "killer apps" that capture the imagination of consumers, nor make them excited enough to invest in and use a wearable computing device. [10 Fitness Apps: Which Is Best for Your Personality?]

According to the tech research firm Gartner, "wearable devices will drive half of all app interactions by 2017." If this prediction proves to be true, we will see a wave of new apps hit the market. Consumers want to have apps available in all major operating systems like iOS and Android. As Matt Hamblen mentioned in ComputerWorld earlier this year, that need will drive many developers to be creative and fast in introducing new apps to the market.

Building the future of wearable systems

There are a host of concerns related to wearable computing devices that need to be addressed for such devices to become mainstream, such as:

• Technological dependence created by augmented reality and automatic processing;
• Power management;
• Heat dissipation from batteries and how it will impact user health;
• Advances in software architecture to make up for the challenges of navigating on such small-screen interfaces;
• Management of wireless and personal area networks (PAN);
• Sufficient security from hackers with the potential to control the data stores on the device, if not the device itself while in use.

But with security and other risks addressed, the hands-free and location-independent operations of wearable computing devices could lead to a number of applications. For example, the devices could provide new capabilities for those needing high-tech mobility and connectivity in the field, such as emergency personnel, search-and-rescue teams, warehouse workers or anyone on the move. The systems also make it possible to track individuals, such as nurses performing rounds or emergency workers in the field. 

Wearable computing devices could also display schematics to a technician repairing a specialized piece of machinery or allow a worker to manage equipment remotely, such as assembly-line machinery, providing an extra layer of safety for the workers. Even sales personnel could take advantage of such technology, easily accessible information to deliver better and faster customer service.

Every new technology has an introduction and discovery phases in its life cycle, and wearable computing devices are no exception. Recently, many places banned Google Glass due to concerns about privacy by recording people without their permission, but I believe that issue will be resolved, and acceptance of such "nerdy looking glasses" will be the norm. 

There will be times when consumers will question the purpose and use of such devices, and some people will reject them altogether. But the potential of wearable devices is too much to ignore, and the benefits are too many to walk away from. If past experience with the everyday significance of smartphones and tablets is any indication, then the future of wearable computing devices is just as bright, and limited only by our own imaginations.

The author's most recent Op-Ed was "As AI Advances into 'Deep Learning,' are Robot Butlers on the Horizon?" Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the view of Kaplan University. "This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

The Withings Smart Body Analyzer is a smart scale that not only measures weight, but also calculates your body mass index (BMI) and fat mass, and registers heart rate and indoor air quality/air temperature. But at $150, it's on the high end of the market for a scale, even a smart one. So are the extra features worth the price? I tested the scale to find out.

Design/Comfort: ★★★★☆

The Smart Body Analyzer is a sleek-looking scale that's about 1 square foot (.1 square meters) in size, and fairly lightweight (a little over 4 lbs. or 1.8 kilograms). It has a rectangular display screen that lights up when you step on the scale, and the display is clearly readable. Once the scale has shown all your readings, the screen fades to black. You can press a silver circle in the center of the scale to check the indoor air quality and temperature. The device comes with batteries, so there's no need to charge it.

You can make profiles on this scale for up to eight people at a time, and the Smart Body Analyzer will recognize you based on your weight. It automatically takes readings every half hour of the carbon dioxide in the air and the temperature, and syncs with the Withings Health Mate app every 12 hours, or whenever you weigh yourself. Withings recommends that you keep the scale in your bedroom to monitor air quality where you sleep.

User-friendliness: ★★★☆☆

The Smart Body Analyzer is pretty easy to set up: Just pull a tab underneath the scale to activate it, and then hold down a button (also underneath the scale) to pair the device with your mobile phone via Bluetooth. Once you install and launch the Withings Health Mate app on your phone, the app walks you through how to use the scale.

When you step on the scale (with bare feet), the screen displays your weight, followed by your fat mass, your heart rate and the air quality/temperature measurement. It takes less than a minute to cycle through all these readings. A neat feature of the weight measurement is that small arrows appear on the four corners of the display screen, and tell you which way to move if you are not standing in a proper place on the scale for an accurate reading. Withings says you should balance your weight to make the arrows disappear — for example, if two arrows appear on the bottom of the screen, then shift your weight slightly forward.

The app keeps a record of all your measurements, as does the online account you create. For the most part, the device and app were easy to use, but I struggled to find explanations for what my weight measurements meant (e.g., how they compared to normal), or even what the term "fat mass" means. It turns out that Withings does provide these explanations, but they are a bit hidden. In the app, you need to select the Weight/BMI/Fat Mass section, then select the three dots at the top of the screen, and then select Help Center. This takes you to an FAQ section, with questions such as "What is normal weight?" and "What is body mass index?" All of the answers to these questions were quite useful, I just wish they were easier to find.

The scale also displays an arrow above a dark line on the fat mass measurement to indicate where your rating falls along the normal range, or if it falls outside of this range. But because this is not explained in the instructions, I actually completely missed this piece of information during my initial measurements. It wasn't until sometime later that I figured out what this line meant.

Value of information: ★★★☆☆

I found the scale's weight and BMI measurements quite accurate; I happened to visit the doctor a few weeks before I tried the Smart Body Analyzer, and my weight and BMI measurements on the device matched up pretty closely with what the doctor told me. However, my fat mass measurements were somewhat inconsistent, ranging from 6.5 percent to 9 percent in a single day, leading me to wonder how accurate this measurement was. (I assume my average measurement over time is more accurate than a single measurement.)

The FAQ section of the app not only does a good job of explaining the meaning behind the weight measurements, but it also suggests when to take measurements (in the morning, about 30 minutes after you wake up), and explains why some people go through weight fluctuations known as the "yo-yo effect."

The app and the online account also give you the option to display the "normal range" of weight/BMI on the same graph as your measurements, so you see how you compare.

The device monitors air quality by measuring carbon dioxide levels, and rating the levels as "good," "medium" or "bad." All of the measurements in my office were in the "good" range, about 400 to 800 parts per million (ppm). Other than this rating, there wasn't much explanation about the carbon dioxide readings on the app, but the Withings website says to "clear the air" (i.e., open a window), if levels are medium or bad. The website also says that very high levels of carbon dioxide, between 30,000 and 50,000 ppm, can cause nausea, headaches and breathing/pulse increases. I thought the company could have put more emphasis on the point that carbon dioxide is also a proxy for other pollutants in the air. That is, if you have a buildup of CO2, chances are other pollutants are building up, too.

Enjoyment/inspiration: ★★★☆☆

The Smart Body Analyzer offers a few features to keep you motivated to step on the scale. In the Health Mate app, you can set a reminder to weigh yourself, and you'll get an alert at a scheduled time on your phone that reads, "Step on your scale now. When you weigh-in regularly you are more likely to achieve your weight goal."

You can also share your measurements by text, email or social networking sites, such as Twitter, which may be helpful for people who get an extra push from their friends.

Another device, the Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale ($129), offers some of the same features as the Withings Smart Body Analyzer, but the Fitbit's scale does not measure indoor air quality. So if air quality measurements are important to you, the Withings might be worth the extra $20. I personally did not get much value from learning about air quality; the numbers didn't change much for me and were always "good." But I tested the device in an office setting, and I could see how air quality readings could be more valuable in a home setting.

Conclusion: 13 out of 20 stars

If you're only interested in measuring your weight, you'll likely want to stick with a regular scale. But if you want a device that also measures your body composition and indoor air quality, then the Smart Body Analyzer may be right for you.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. FollowLive Science @livescience, Facebook& Google+.

The Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor is a device for people who want to measure their blood pressure at home, and keep track of their readings over time. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the device.

The American Heart Association recommends that people who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure (hypertension)monitor their blood pressure at home. This is because home measurements can give doctors a more accurate picture of a patient's blood pressure, and help them see whether a treatment is working. Some people also get nervous when they visit the doctor, which can lead to higher blood pressure readings in a doctor's office, so home measurements can also reveal whether office readings are really accurate.

I'd never been told that I had high blood pressure, and actually had no idea what my blood pressure was, so I tested the device to see what it could tell me.

Design and comfort: ★★★☆☆

The Withings blood pressure monitor has a sleek and simple design. There is one button, which you use to turn the device on. The monitor has a large band (cuff) that's coiled into a cylinder, and you slip your arm through this band to take a measurement. The band has Velcro to adjust the strap if needed. There's also a metal tube, which you position on the front of your arm. During a measurement, the device squeezes your arm quite tightly, and this was a little uncomfortable for me, but that feeling was temporary.

The device is intended for people with an arm circumference between 9 and 17 inches (22 to 42 centimeters). You should not buy the device if your arm circumference is outside of this range, because the readings may not be accurate. For people who do fall into the specified range, the device's readings are accurate within plus or minus 3 mmHg, Withings says.

User friendliness: ★★★★★

I found the blood pressure monitor extremely easy to use. It comes with batteries, so there's no need to charge the device. Once you turn it on, the monitor connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone or Android phone. You'll need to install the Withings Health Mate app, which then launches automatically when you turn the monitor on. A set of instructions pops up to explain how to accurately take a blood pressure measurement.

Value of information: ★★★★☆

As a device intended for health purposes, Withings goes the extra mile to explain your measurements and answer questions you may have about blood pressure.

Before you take a measurement, you can read through an FAQ section by clicking on an information icon near the top of the screen. This section answers questions such as "What is blood pressure?", "What do systolic and diastolic mean?", "What are the recommended values?" and "My results appear abnormal, what should I do?" The section also includes information about how to lower blood pressure.

After you take a measurement, a colored dot — green, yellow or red — appears next to the reading, indicating that your reading indicates optimal or normal blood pressure, mild hypertension, or moderate to severe hypertension. The app includes a chart showing the range of blood pressures that are considered to be normal, mild, severe, etc. (My readings were in the normal range: 118/73). Withings is careful to point out that the standard values it provides, which are those the World Health Organization uses, are based on measurements taken in doctor's offices, but that recent studies also provide an indication of what is considered "high" blood pressure at home.

Withings also lets you know that some individuals should not measure their blood pressure at home, saying that the device may not be accurate in people with irregular heartbeats, or those whose arms are too big or too small for the device.

The device even provides a way to share your blood pressure readings with your doctor, by email or text message.

Enjoyment/inspiration: ★★★☆☆

It was interesting to find out my blood pressure, and reassuring to know my values were in the normal range. Through the app, you can also set an alarm to remind yourself to measure your blood pressure, and a notification will pop up on your phone at the same time each day. This may provide people with extra motivation to measure their blood pressure, and readings are more useful if you track them consistently over time (because a single reading may be influenced by your emotions, diet or other factors.)  

Conclusions: 15 out of 20 stars

The Withings blood pressure monitor provides an easy way to measure blood pressure at home, and includes plenty of educational information about blood pressure and what your measurements mean. But it's important to note that you should speak with your doctor about whether home monitoring is right for you before you purchase a monitor.

At $129 to $190 dollars, the Withings blood pressure monitor is more expensive than some other home blood-pressure monitors, which can be in the $50 to $80 range. But the Withings monitor has some advantages, including that it connects wirelessly with your phone, allows you to email results and provides reminders to check your blood pressure.

BUY the Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor>>

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. FollowLive Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.