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Fitter, Happier: an eight-week exercise in using technology to help lose weight
For 27 years he ate what he wanted and avoided exercise like the plague. Can an arsenal of fitness gadgets make this human healthier in just eight weeks? From the snake oil salesman to the Thighmaster(TM), science and technology have promised the end of obesity, ill health and lethargy for centuries. Today, weight loss gadgetry is all around us, with affordable commercial systems available from Nintendo, Nike, Adidas and countless other manufacturers, all promising their technology will turn us into paragons of healthy virtue. How is it then, that for all of this, we live in an age where a quarter of the American population is obese? Do any of these seemingly endless health aids actually work? Will a $200 wristband or a $100 pedometer cause you to banish microwave dinners and saturated fats, take up regular exercise at the gym at least three days a week and sleep well with no bad dreams? Or has the health industry made technology another ineffective distraction that only provides you with a vague sense that you're doing something positive? Is the real answer what it's always been: go for a walk in the trees and eat your greens?
Omron releases a pair of sleep monitoring gadgets that watch you slumber
Insomnia and a love of gadgets go hand-in-hand, so it's no surprise that more companies want a piece of Zeo's sleep-monitoring action. Omron's the latest to supply an offering with a pair of sensors to work out how much shut-eye your getting. Working on the principle that you stop moving when you're deep in sleep, the devices measure your movement while in bed and count up how long you remain static. The HSL-101 uses a radio-frequency sensor that measures movement to any object within its 5-foot range. The HSL-001 is a pebble-sized kit that sits underneath your pillow and uses an accelerometer to measure your restlessness instead. The 101 will arrive in Japan in May as a standalone unit, while the 001 will need to be paired to an Android smartphone when it arrives in April.
Withings' new cloud can tell you how fat you are anywhere in the world
Fitness gadgets are a big part of this year's CES and everyone's racing to get hooks into a cloud platform. Withings is pulling the dust sheets off its own health and wellness cloud that'll aggregate the data from your web-connected scales and blood pressure monitor to your eternal public humiliation. It'll also pull in data from Zeo's range of branded sleep gear and your RunKeeper data -- but it's not clear if you can edit out the evidence about how much you ate over the holidays.
Zeo Mobile turns phones into a sleep clinic, aids in advanced Power Rangers dreaming
Much like hope, love and Coconut M&Ms, sleep is one of those things that is both hard to live with and impossible to live without. But unlike the first three, it's evidently possible to throw math into the whole "shut-eye" thing. Like it's bedside-based older brother, the newly-announced Zeo Mobile includes a SoftWave wireless headband that wraps around your grey matter as you sleep, reporting on how well your brain is shutting down. Instead of the custom base-station, the data is sent straight to your iOS or Android device and syncs up with the Zeo site to give you the inside skinny on your dreaming. Best of all, the device can wake you at the peak of a sleep cycle, rather than halfway through that dream about Björk and the melting clock. Of course, if you didn't already know that mainlining Red Bull until 3am isn't healthy, then perhaps you're beyond redemption.
Zeo's Personal Sleep Coach makes money from your insomnia
We've seen a few devices that claim to cure insomnia with expensive lights and magnetic headgear, but if you're serious about getting some sleep you should definitely check out Zeo's Personal Sleep Coach. At night a SoftWave sensor-equipped headband collects data pertaining to your sleep habits (or lack of), which you can then parse on your PC (via SD card). It's like having a University sleep clinic right there in your flop house! And if that isn't enough, the device's SmartWake alarm clock can be set to get you out of bed at your "natural awakening point," decreasing the grogginess one feels when waking from Deep sleep. Order now for $399 and get free shipping. Sort of pricey, sure, but much more cost effective than that $1.5 million dollar floating bed -- which doesn't actually look that comfortable, at all. Video after the break. [Via Engadget Poland]
