New Therapeutic Aspirations for Wearables
Last year, CCS Insight noted the addition of temperament as a new variable in contextual computing, and major companies were taking this potential seriously. Dell and Microsoft, for example, were developing ways to measure a user’s feelings to adjust feedback from apps (see Daily Insight: Here Come the Moodables). The device can change the way it behaves.
Now, recent claims of therapeutic delivery via wearables are taking consumer electronics to a different level — and potentially placing gadgets in a different regulatory sector.
The innovators of a Kickstarter project for a wearable called Doppel say the device can alter behaviour and improve the user’s mood and focus using pulses. It appears to use rhythmic vibrations on the wrist to tap changes into the wearer.
Thync Calm Vibes is a new head-worn device intended to provide the wearer with a calming effect to ease anxiety. The delivery of “calm or energy” via a wearable device is another impressive claim.
Cutting-edge medical proclamations from just a few years ago are finding their way into over-the-counter consumer electronics, and regulators will define the next level of this trend. Altering behaviours is a big boast.
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