For independent designers and engineers wanting to tap into wearables, the headache of both incorporating and managing sensor data can stop an otherwise brilliant idea dead in its tracks. But what if figuring out how to track and measure data through health and motion sensors were, in fact, the last things worth worrying about?
More recently, this is the question that a small group of renegade computer engineers at San Francisco-based MbientLab asked themselves.
Their answer, a coin-sized $99 development board called MetaHealth, combines heart rate (PPG), galvanic skin response (GSR), and 6-axis motion sensors (ACC + GYRO) into an all-in-one package that enables product developers to easily build and prototype wearables that actually work from day one. Using Bluetooth, the board can instantly stream this data over to smartphones, tablets, computers, and even a Raspberry Pi using the company’s MetaWear platform:
At just 24mm in diameter and 3 mm in height, the board is smaller than a US quarter and even includes onboard flash memory for logging sensor data and downloading it to your devices later. Out-of-the-box applications and capabilities include reading heart rate data, detecting the emotional state of the user, measuring sweat level of skin, notification on freefall, logging gyroscope data and streaming accelerometer data.
Find out more – including how to snag one for just $69 – over at Kickstarter.
