health

Cheap sensors enabling new smartphone fitness gadgets

LAS VEGAS--Later this month, runners will be able to pop a set of earbuds into their noggins and do a whole lot more than rock out to their favorite songs.

The new earbuds will monitor a range of biometric data, including heart rate and VO2 max, a key fitness measure for performance athletes, and shoot that information off to their smartphones.

The sensor chips were developed by Valencell, a Raleigh, N.C., startup. It's licensing the technology to earbud makers and the first set will debut later this month, said Valencell founder and chief executive Steven LeBoeuf at the … Read more

2012 an in-between year for digital health at CES

LAS VEGAS--Those who scoured the health and wellness zones at CES both this year and last may be wondering why they came at all in 2012. Many of the gadgets and services were either already in the works last year or being held behind the curtain for future reveals.

Within the designated Fitness TechZone in the North Hall, a few sub- or satellite genres were nearly empty or devoid of cutting-edge tech. Being six months pregnant, I had a personal interest in Mommy Tech this year. Yet when I approached BabyPlus(one of the only booths in the tiny Mommy … Read more

A 'Star Trek' inspired X Prize for revolutionizing health care

The "Star Trek" universe may be beloved by millions, but it's entirely fictional. Yet one element of Gene Rodenberry's timeless creation may actually help people with their health care decisions in real life.

The problem faced by millions of people around the world, especially in the third world, and in rural areas of the first world, is that there's not always a doctor around to help figure out what's wrong with you--and sometimes, one isn't even necessary. Sometimes, the right technology could help us determine what's going on in our bodies.

That'… Read more

How to use Android to quit smoking

"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." -Mark Twain

Can you relate? If one of your New Year's resolutions for 2012 is to quit smoking for good, here are a few Android apps that might help:

1. QuitNow! QuitNow! is a smoking cessation app that can help you track how long since you quit, how much money you've saved, and even the positive impact quitting has had on your health. QuitNow! has achievement badges as well, so you can try to make quitting … Read more

Jawbone halts Up production over battery issue, offers full refunds

Jawbone has halted production of Up, its fitness wristband over battery issues and has offered customers full refunds, regardless of whether they've encountered problems.

And the company is even allowing customers to keep their devices if they receive a refund. In essence, customers could tap the refund program to offset the cost of the device, even if their Up has no issues.

"I think most people will do what's right," said Travis Bogard, vice president of product management at Jawbone.

The Up, which garnered much attention at its launch a month ago, is a wristband that … Read more

Microsoft, GE team up in health care venture

General Electric and Microsoft have formed a health care company with a 50-50 ownership split. Sound familiar? It should. GE has a similar joint venture with Intel.

Add it up and GE has turned out to be a key partner for Wintel’s health care ambitions.

The GE-Microsoft healthcare joint venture is focused on patient outcomes as well as real-time data. The companies are planning to develop an open platform as well as clinical applications. Microsoft also finds a home for a bevy of technologies acquired when the software giant bought Sentillion two years ago.

With the move, GE has … Read more

How to turn your iPhone into a microscope eyepiece

Sometimes people ask me to look at frightfully exciting things.

These normally come via the incomprehensible medium of the press release. However, sometimes I get sent things (in this case, via an e-mail from my louche engineer friend George) describing a new invention that seems positively useful and even vaguely comprehensible.

This thing is called the SkyLight. It allows you to take your iPhone, Android phone, or any other that might still exist and turn it into a microscopic eyepiece for the world.

Its creator is medical designer Andy Miller. He has already designed the Global Focus microscope, a light, cheap fluorescent microscope for developing countries. … Read more

When an iPod gets stuck... inside you

No one can deny that human being do things they sometimes regret.

These things seem like good ideas at the time. And then, well, you end up in the ER being X-rayed.

It is, therefore, both exhilarating and instructive to look at some of the pictures from a new book called "Stuck Up."

This tome for our ages (but not necessarily all ages) features 100 X-rays that have revealed strange objects perched inside people's bodies.

As the Huffington Post displays it, people do end up going to hospital with iPods inside them. Cassette tapes, too. Although the … Read more

The laser that turns brown eyes blue?

Some people cry over the hue of their eyes.

If only they were blue, rather than muddy brown. And, well, brown eyes don't look so good with your dyed-blonde hair.

An inventor in California believes he has found the solution. Gregg Homer, founder of Stroma Medical, says that, in a mere 20 seconds, he can turn old brown eyes into old blue eyes. Or even young ones.

The way Homer told it to KTLA News, brown eyes are actually blue. Well, beneath the brown pigment that covers the iris, there is apparently a blue-looking orb.

 

So his procedure … Read more