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Raybaby is a baby monitor that tracks your child's breathing
When Ranjana Nair, Sanchi Poovaya and Aardra Kannan saw a friend's prematurely born child two years ago, they were shocked at the amount of electronic equipment hooked up to her tiny body. But even after their friend was able to bring her baby home, the anxiety persisted. Constantly concerned, she kept going to the crib to put her hand on the child's chest to make sure she was breathing. There are respiratory trackers for infants, but most of them require putting some kind of battery-powered sensor on the baby's body, which is a concern for many parents. Nair, Poovaya and Kannan -- all engineering graduates -- thought there had to be a better way. And so the Raybaby was born.
Mattel's Aristotle is a kid-focused Echo alternative
First there was Alexa, Siri, Cortana and the Google Assistant. Now you can prepare to add Aristotle to that growing list of voice-enabled assistants. Mattel's cheerful AI companion differs from the competition by focusing on children, first and foremost. It's been packaged inside a smart speaker (what else?) and promises to understand your little one's vocal ramblings, all the way from toddler to middle school. That's a bold promise, given most of the current offerings struggle with even the most eloquent adults. Mattel says it's solved the problem with a custom AI engine, which uses a mixture of "natural language processing" to learn your child's enunciation.
Mattel built a $300 Echo for kids
It's late, and you're tired. Before you can knock off for the night, however, there's one thing left to do: read your child a bedtime story. In Mattel's world, you might not have to pick up a book or even put on voices for their favorite characters. That's because it's working on an Echo-style speaker with an assistant called Aristotle. It's built specifically for kids, offering games, facts and soothing sounds on demand. Most importantly, it has the smarts to recognize your little one's less-than-perfect speech and adapt as she gets older and more curious about the wider world.
Even breastfeeding is getting quantified, thanks to Momsense
The health benefits of breastfeeding are well-known, yet for various reasons, many new mothers quit after a few months. Maybe they don't have the time, they find it uncomfortable or they believe that the baby isn't getting enough milk. A new product called Momsense is taking aim at this last problem with a product and app that can keep track of how much a baby is actually drinking, hopefully putting a mom's worries at ease.
Doctors relax rules on letting babies watch screens
Ever since 1999, many pediatricians have clung to one main recommendation about kids and gadgets: you shouldn't show screens to any child under 2 years old. However, they've just loosened that once-firm policy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has softened its guidelines to permit screens for the under-2 crowd in the right circumstances. If your little ones are 18 months or older, they can watch "high-quality programming" (think PBS and Sesame Workshop) so long as you're there to help your kids understand. Any younger than that and you should limit them to video chat, the AAP says.
New smart crib aims to relieve frazzled, sleep-deprived parents
Exhausted parents the world over have probably fantasized about a crib that could automatically rock their crying babies to sleep. And Snoo, a new $1,150 smart sleeper, promises to do that. It mimics the sounds of the womb and comes with a swaddle blanket to prevent your baby from rolling over into dangerous positions, which the company says is a big reason more than 3,500 babies a year die in their sleep. To tackle this problem, pediatrician and author of The Happiest Baby, Dr. Harvey Karp, teamed up with MIT engineers and designer Yves Behar to develop what they're calling the first smart (and, they add, safest) sleeper.
Zika virus' effects are broader than first thought
The Zika virus is primarily known to cause microcephaly (small heads) in the babies of infected mothers, but its effects may be wider-ranging than first thought. A Harvard-led study has conducted brain scans of 45 Brazilian babies from Zika-stricken mothers, and the data suggest that even those children born without conspicuous problems may suffer later on. Ultimately, Zika is disrupting brain development -- microcephaly is a frequent result of that, but there can also be issues around the cortex (which is crucial to coordination and memory) that show up first and may only materialize on the outside as the child grows. Moreover, Zika can damage nerves in such a way that it forces arms and hands to contract.
Nanit's baby monitor offers wearable-free sleep tracking
A company that's describing itself as the "Tesla of baby monitors" has produced a device that it says is the best way to watch your munchkins at night. Nanit (geddit?) stands over your baby's crib like a shower head, with a night vision camera and motion sensor aimed towards the mattress. Should it detect any noise or movement, your smartphone will get a ping, enabling you to watch the action as it unfolds. That way, parents in another room avoid the vagaries of simply listening out for signs of distress.
Philips camera monitors baby vitals from afar
Sure, junior looks fine sleeping on the baby-cam, but do you know her or his oxygen level, heartbeat and breathing rate, you monster? Of course not (don't worry, you're a good parent), because there's no way of monitoring such things short of hooking the poor tyke up to a pulse oxymeter. At least, until now. Philips has revealed a camera that can detect all those things from afar, without touching the patient. The fruit of the companies contactless monitoring project, it can get a pulse rate, breathing rate and blood oxygen level by detecting changes in skin color that are invisible to the naked eye.
Samsung app helps premature babies hear their mothers
For babies, the sound of their mother's voice isn't just comforting -- it can be the key to healthy brain development. That's not easy to manage for premature babies stuck in incubators, though, and Samsung thinks smartphones might help out. Its Voice of Life app lets a mom record her heartbeat and voice on her phone, and "wombifies" that audio (that is, remove the high frequencies) for playback on a speaker at the baby's side. It not only provides a reassuring sound in the middle of a neonatal care unit, but helps parents connect to a child that they may rarely see in those crucial first weeks or months after birth.
LSD makes you think like a baby
Researchers at Imperial College London believe that they know what effect LSD has on the human brain. After pumping test subjects full of the stuff and shoving them in an MRI, the team learned that the drug makes our brains behave similarly to that of a baby. In order to understand this, imagine that your mind is the single floor of an office, with cubicles running as far as the eye can see. Each cubicle is responsible for different jobs, such as memory, balance and hearing, only talking to each other on the annual company retreat. LSD is like a disgruntled former employee, temporarily smashing down the plyboard dividers and forcing everyone to collaborate.
Owlet's smart baby monitor can save lives while looking cute
Most startups crow about saving people time or money — Provo, Utah-based Owlet, on the other hand, is part of an exclusive club that wants to save lives. After a successful crowdfunding campaign and a beta testing push, Owlet recently released its washable, wearable baby monitor to the masses in hopes that its heart tracking abilities could help few the youngest of young ones succumb to ailments like SIDS.
Can a high-tech car seat offer a safer ride for your baby?
Properly installing a car seat is a struggle all parents with young children face. At CES this year, a company called 4moms is showing off its solution to the problem: a self-installing car seat that employs robotics. Once you attach the base's anchors to the hooks in your vehicle, the car seat automatically levels itself and properly tensions those belts to secure it. There's also an app that offers voice-guided step-by-step installation instructions, should the need arise.
Give your fetus a concert with vaginal sound system, Babypod
Some people are born to get down; others are gestated. Spanish gynecology clinic Institut Marquès wants to tap into the fetal-music market with Babypod, a speaker that expecting mothers insert into their vaginas a la tampons to play songs for their unborn babies. Babypod connects to a smartphone and plays music directly in the vagina, which is the only way for a fetus to hear unmuffled sounds, the company says. It's also more stylish than giant headphones wrapped around your belly.
Mark Zuckerberg will donate 99 percent of his Facebook shares
While birth announcements are common on Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg's post is a little different than most of the new parent pics in your newsfeed. That's because along with welcoming daughter Maxima to the family, he and his wife Priscilla Chan announced their commitment to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares -- currently worth about $45 billion -- to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that will try to "advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation." The two joined the Giving Pledge in 2010, promising to use most of their wealth for philanthropic efforts, and today's announcement sheds more detail on how that will happen.
Instababies: People are naming kids after Instagram filters
When it comes to deciding on a baby name, you could go with a family name. Or, like several couples did in 2015, you could look to your cellphone photography habit for inspiration. According to BabyCenter, some of the hottest trends in baby names shared monikers with Instagram filters. Yes, really. The site says that names of the photo-sharing apps presets were extremely popular this year for newborns, with Lux being the top choice. Additionally, Ludwig, Amaro, Reyes, Hudson and Kelvin all rose up the popularity rankings for boys while Juno, Valencia and Willow were routinely picked for girls. The site says it gathered its name popularity and trend data from 340,000 parents from around the world to compile the stats. Here's to hoping the trend continues in 2016 with babies named Lo-Fi, Inkwell and Nashville, because the internet.[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Acer's smart diaper sniffs out baby troubles
Ever since the introduction of the Edison, Intel's been actively pitching this tiny computer module to makers by way of workshops and hackathons. At Computex, the chip giant took the opportunity to show off the latest round of hacks based on its $50 kit, and we were amused by one particular demo: the DiaperPie*, a smart diaper solution created by four Acer engineers. The module -- which will be the size of a coin if Acer commercializes it -- sits inside a regular diaper and is able to monitor a baby's temperature plus sleeping posture, as well as detecting the presence of pee (moisture) and poo (methane) in the diaper. The data is logged on both the app (via Bluetooth LE) and the cloud, and if the baby needs attention, you'll get a notification. Given that we haven't heard much about the previous smart diaper attempt, it'd be cool to see Acer realize this project. *Ted plush not included.
Smart thermometer is ready to track your kid's fever all day long
You no longer have to disturb your kid's sleep just to see if that fever is getting any better. Months after its CES debut, Blue Spark's TempTraq thermometer is available for a fairly reasonable $25. The Bluetooth patch keeps tabs on a child's temperature in relative comfort for a full 24 hours, giving your progeny a chance to rest instead of enduring yet another probe in the ear. It can warn you if the temperature gets above a certain level, and you can use the Android and iOS apps to log when your tiny patient eats or takes medicine. This won't track the illness from start to finish, unfortunately, but it might be all you need for that one day when you're worried your little one's condition might get worse.
Super cheap diaper insert alerts parents to dehydration and more
As a new parent, there are some issues that I can't see with the naked eye. Things like dehydration and bacterial infections can go unnoticed in little tykes, but there's a group of engineering students that's are looking to help. A team from University of California, Riverside developed The Diaper Detective: a low-cost insert that employs chemical indicators similar to a home pregnancy test to reveal the aforementioned ailments. Using paraffin wax flow channels, the pad directs collected urine to areas where the indicator material resides. While the dehydration tests were quite successful (around 100%), bacterial infection trials suffered due to outside air exposure. Aiming to reduce infant mortality worldwide, especially in developing countries, the non-invasive method of collection can be made for around 34 cents and passed out easily by relief workers. What's more, the group says it can be adapted for adult use too, adding additional tests for more maladies.
The Daily Grind: What's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen in an MMO?
I loved Zentia before it was shuttered in the West, but it has to be one of the most bizarre games I've ever played. Not only did it mix cartoony graphics and Daoist mythology and conga lines in the streets, but you could play a baby. No, really. An actual baby. I rolled my Vajra Guardian (a tanky character) as a baby in a diaper because why not? You don't get opportunities like that every day. What's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen in an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
