A Singapore-based startup is turning to Indiegogo to fund the development of Juvo, a sleep tracker that will fit under your mattress and track each breath and heartbeat without relying on uncomfortable wrist-worn bands. Through a comprehensive array of sensors, the tracker will offer helpful insights, lull you to sleep with a white noise machine, and wake you up at the right time through smart lights and thermostat integration.
While there are plenty of sleep trackers around, studies show that these devices need more hardware than a simple three-axis accelerometer to do their job reliably. The current generation of activity trackers has added an array of sensors that range from heartbeat monitors to skin temperature, opening the potential for better sleep tracking, but they still need to be worn on your wrist, which can hinder nighttime comfort.
Some dedicated sleep trackers do one better by getting rid of wearables altogether. Such is the case with the Sleepace RestOn, which Gizmag has recently put to the test. As the name suggests, the RestOn sports a strap about the size of a car seatbelt that you lay across your mattress and sleep on. The band then detects your heartbeat and breathing patterns and feeds that data back to you through a smartphone app.
In many ways, the Juvo is a RestOn on steroids – working using similar principles, but using new technology and adding many new sensors, a white noise machine, integration with smart home devices and a software layer that analyzes your data and gives you practical tips to make the most out of your downtime.
Like the RestOn, Juvo also relies on a band to track your sleep metrics overnight, but the band is a passive device that needs no charging and is designed to work unobtrusively under your mattress. The unique fiber optics-based sensor is claimed capable of tracking your slightest movements 100 times a second, picking up every breath and every heartbeat (to within two beats per minute), resulting in accurate sleep pattern classification based on that data.
"The sensor technology is fiber optic," company founder Toi Ngee told Gizmag. "So there's a LED in the bedside unit that emits normal light that passes through the cable to the sensor under the mat. We then measure the amount of light lost within the mat a hundred times a second to extract out vitals such as movement, breathing etc. Therefore, there's absolutely no radiation and even electricity from the sensor under the mat."
Juvo comes with a Wi-Fi-enabled, mains-powered SleepSmart bedside unit with a built-in speaker. This allows the unit to serve as a white noise machine and a smart alarm, which will only attempt to wake you once the band has detected you are in a light sleep phase. Also included in the bedside unit are a microphone, light sensor and thermometer.
Perhaps the tracker's most interesting feature is how it can integrate this wealth of metrics to improve your sleeping experience. This is done in part through IoT and smart home devices – such as by wirelessly connecting to LIFX lights and smart thermostats to set the mood – and in part via the companion "SleepCoach" Android and iOS app.
The app in particular could be Juvo's killer feature, as it collects data from the sensors and gives you personalized and actionable advice to make your nights as restful as possible. According to Juvo's creators, you will be able to find out what effect increased noise levels have on your sleeping, and receive insightful advice such as "You achieve deep sleep fastest when your room temperature is set to 74° F (23° C)" or "You are typically in light sleep at 7 am, consider setting your alarm around that time."
Other app features include silencing your Android phone when you fall asleep and re-activating you when you wake up, working with Fitbit devices to understand how your daily activity affects your sleep, and integrating with Apple's Healthkit.
The tracker is only designed to track one person at a time, so if you sleep with a partner you'll have to be careful to place the band on your side of the double bed (and mostly stick to your side, of course). The tracker has reportedly already undergone consumer trials and was tested with children in mattresses up to 5 inches (13 cm) thick and adults in mattresses up to 9 inches (23 cm) thick, though it won't work on waterbeds.
At the time of writing, Indiegogo backers can pledge US$149 for an early-bird Juvo (shipping is $9 to countries including US, Canada and Australia and $20 to the EU and most other countries). The tracker will come with 12-month warranty and, if everything goes to plan, will be delivered starting March next year.
You can watch the crowdfunding pitch in the video below.
Source: Juvo