fitness trackers

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10 of Today's Really Cool Network & IT Research Projects

Bob Brown | Network World | February 1, 2016

University at Buffalo and Northeastern University researchers are developing hardware and software to enable underwater telecommunications to catch up with over-the-air networks. This advancement could be a boon for search-and-rescue operations, tsunami detection, environmental monitoring and more. Sound waves used underwater are just no match for the radio waves used in over-the-air communications, but the researchers are putting smart software-defined radio technology to work in combination with underwater acoustic modems...

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Are Smartwatches Being Over-Hyped as Health Trackers?

I don't get smartwatches. Yes, I know; they're all the rage.  Apple unveiled its Apple Watch earlier this month, to generally good if not entirely ecstatic reviews.  Not to be outdone, Google announced a collaboration with TAG Heuer and Intel for a "Swiss Smartwatch."...I have to wonder why the focus on the wrist.  It isn't the ideal place to track, say, your heartbeat, your sleep, or your steps, and as a result fitness trackers have been faulted about their accuracy.  Cramming features into a smartphone makes some sense, because they have become so ubiquitous, but I'm not sure who is clamoring to add more features to a watch...

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Best Buy Buys Into Health

Best Buy generated a lot of positive press recently with its acquisition of GreatCall, which focuses on technology services for seniors.  Its move into health may not be a surprise since it seems lots of retailers -- think Walmart or Kroger -- and many big tech companies -- think Apple or Amazon -- want into health, not to mention more tech startups than you can throw $100 million at. It's the why and the how about Best Buy's moves into health that deserve more scrutiny, and that healthcare organizations may learn from.

Bringing Open-Source IT To Personalized Health

Frank Irving | Medical Practice Insider | October 27, 2014

It's widely believed that engaged patients have better outcomes, but the healthcare industry has been grappling with how to make that happen.  Joanne Rohde, CEO and founder of mobile software developer Axial Exchange, believes the solution lies in bringing low-cost technology to patients at a personal level so they can track their health — and integrating that information with the systems physician use to run their practices...

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For $149 a Month, the Doctor Will See You as Often as You Want

Rachel Metz | MIT Technology Review | January 17, 2017

Forward’s rethinking of the doctor’s office includes lots of touch screens, white walls, and wood accents. Imagine if your doctor’s office was more like an Apple Store mashed up with a fancy gym: a modern white-and-wood aesthetic, replete with fancy gadgets and gleaming touch screens, for which you paid a monthly fee to visit as often as you wished. That’s the environment I stepped into last week upon entering the new medical clinic belonging to San Francisco health startup Forward, which opened to the public on Tuesday in the city’s Financial District...

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Google Wants To Collect Your Health Data With 'Google Fit'

Parmy Olson and Ewan Spence | Forbes | June 12, 2014

Google GOOGL -1.53% is planning to launch a new health service called Google Fit to collect and aggregate data from popular fitness trackers and health-related apps, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the company’s plans. It will launch the service at the Google I/O conference for developers, being held on June 25 and 26.

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In Groundbreaking Move For Health Trackers, Apple Teams With Mayo Clinic

Zina Moukheiber | Forbes.com | June 2, 2014

In a move that propels mobile health apps and fitness trackers from a mostly amateurish realm into the formal health care setting, Apple AAPL  announced that it is working with Mayo Clinic to integrate medical information via its platform HealthKit, a part of its new operating system iOS 8 for iPhones and iPads. Apple will consolidate heart rate, blood pressure, weight, and other data from disparate apps and devices, including Nike....

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Open Thread: Microsoft Health's Big Advantage Is Cross-Platform Support

Stuart Dredge | The Guardian | October 31, 2014

Microsoft has been winning generally approving headlines for its Microsoft Band fitness tracker and accompanying Microsoft Health platform, since both were revealed – seemingly unintentionally at first – on Wednesday...

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The Health Benefits Of Wearable Technology

Lloyd Price | LinkedIn | May 2, 2014

...[T]his year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas revealed, a diverse and dizzying array of wearable devices that record and monitor every aspect of our health (and our dogs) are now on offer. Will wearable tech be relegated to the domain of gadget enthusiasts or could these budding fashion statements soon become part of our day-to-day lives?...

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The Price of Wearable Craze: Personal Health Data Hacks

Maggie Overfelt | CNBC.com | December 12, 2015

...in a year when the world's largest technology, medical device and health-care firms are betting big and fast on wearable technology's role in delivering patients a more precise and cost-effective way to manage their health, experts are worried that the pace of updating data-privacy laws and building infrastructures with optimal levels of security doesn't match the speed of the market's technological rollout. The risks to consumers depend on what type of device they're wielding. In rare instances, weak links or endpoints in a cloud-based network powering something like a wearable insulin pump could be life threatening, as it opens the door to hackers tampering with them...

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