New Atlas

Smartwatches Audio available

Fossil Sport boasts Qualcomm's newest wearable chip and plenty of sensors

David Nield November 8, 2018

The Fossil Sport is the latest smartwatch from Fossil, and as well as carrying an impressive number of onboard sensors, it also has the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip inside – the processor that is set to power the next generation of wearables running Google's Wear OS.

The Fossil Sport comes with a choice of six colors and 28 straps

Good Thinking Review

Review: Three weeks with the KeySmart Pro taught me it's OK for my keys to be dumb

Nick Lavars November 6, 2018

Billed as the "world’s smartest key holder," the KeySmart Pro integrates tracking technology along with a few extra bells and whistles. But is it worth the extra baggage?

Health & Wellbeing

Starkey's latest hearing aid doubles as a health tracker

Paul Ridden August 28, 2018

Starkey Hearing Technologies has transformed a single use device into a multi-purpose hearing aid, adding physical activity and cognitive tracking smarts to a device that essentially moves health trackers away from the wrist and wraps them around the ears.

The Livio AI hearing aid can track physical activity and cognitive health, take phone calls, interface ...

Robotics

Ground-sniffing robot may give tracker dogs a run for their money

Ben Coxworth June 21, 2018

Could scent-tracking sniffer dogs be out of a job? Well, perhaps eventually. Scientists from Japan's Kyushu University have developed a prototype robot that can detect and follow odors left on the ground, such as those deposited in footprints.

Good Thinking

Motorized AI-packin' suitcase keeps its eyes on its owner

Ben Coxworth June 15, 2018

If you travel a lot, it's possible that you may get tired of dragging your suitcase around. Wouldn't things be easier if it could just follow along beside you? Well, according to Beijing-based startup ForwardX Robotics, that's just what its motorized Ovis suitcase is able to do.

The Ovis suitcase follows along beside its user

Science

MIT trains AI to track people's movements through walls

David Szondy June 12, 2018

An MIT team has hooked the latest version of a radio scanning technology that can see through walls to an artificial intelligence (AI) neural network. The AI was trained to deduce a person's postures and movements even when completely hidden.

Using wireless signals, RF-Pose could serve as a health care system to monitor patients' movements from ...

Outdoors

LynQ is made to keep you linked outdoors

Ben Coxworth May 15, 2018

OK, so you're out hiking, canoeing or whatnot with a bunch of people who have gotten spread out all over the place, and you want to know where everyone is. Do you phone them? Not if there's no cellular service. If a new Indiegogo campaign is successful, though, you could just use your LynQ.

Health & Wellbeing

In-mouth sensor could tell users when to halt the salt

Ben Coxworth May 8, 2018

According to the American Heart Association, about one third of Americans can't estimate their daily sodium intake. If someone has a condition such as hypertension, obesity or diabetes, then knowing the correct figure is important – which is why scientists have developed an oral sodium sensor.

The prototype device has been successfully trialled on three adult test subjects

Science

Marine Skin could make for kinder, gentler tagging of sea life

Ben Coxworth May 3, 2018

If you don't like seeing sea creatures getting saddled with cumbersome, uncomfortable-looking data-tracking devices, then you might like Marine Skin. While it still allows scientists to gather important data, it's also thin, light, flexible, stretchable and streamlined.

Marine Skin may replace more awkward, invasive tagging systems

Wearables

Performance tracking starts when you put on your swimsuit

Paul Ridden January 5, 2018

What if you want to track your swimming performance but forget your smart tracker? One thing you'll always remember is your swimsuit, which has prompted Swim.com and Spire to join forces and create a smart swimsuit that keeps track of watery workouts.

The Spite Health Tag fitted to a swimsuit ordered online, and connects to a tracking app ...