CES 2018 debuts wacky health gadgets to tackle sleep

FROM a cuddly, “breathing” robot designed to soothe you to sleep to an under-mattress sensor to predict your fertility, technology is emerging to help you stick to your New Year’s resolutions this year, though it spans the gamut from sensible to outlandish.

There are unusual innovations to suit almost every health goal at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, whether you want to calm down, tone up, or address a medical issue.

Insomniacs were well catered for this year, with plenty of sleep-friendly devices on show including a furry, bean-shaped robot that vibrates as if it has a heart rate and plays white noise or lullabies to lull you to sleep.

Somnox Smart Sleep Robot co-founder Julian Jagtenberg said there was plenty of technology to track rest but the cuddly robot, be released in July for $US559 ($710AUS), “actually does something to help you get to sleep”.

One-time mobile phone giant Nokia also released a snoozing gadget at CES — a sensor-packed pad that slips under a bed mattress to assess the breathing, snoring, heart rate, and sleep quality of the user above it.

Nokia Sleep, due in Australia this year, can also be connected to smart home gadgets to turn off the TV or cool the room when you fall asleep.

Another under-mattress gadget on show included the fertility-focused EarlySense Perception device that captures thousands of measurements of the user to determine when they are most likely to fall pregnant.

“It’s a contact-free fertility monitor that you place under your mattress, and it measures things like your heart-rate variability, breathing, motion, sleep quality, and predicts your six-day fertility window,” spokesman Ori Balaban said.

“It’s based on medical technology that is used in hospitals.”

But women who prefer more traditional medical approaches could opt for the Mira Fertility kit, also at CES, that asks users to wee on disposable wands that are tested in an egg-shaped smartphone accessory.

Mira co-founder Zheng Yang said the device, in stores later this year, was designed to fill a void in the market for “accurate and personalised insight” outside a doctor’s office.

For those who prefer a quieter existence, or who need a moment away from family to relax, there were brain-sensing smart spectacles on show.

The Smith Lowdown Focus look just like sunglasses but spokesman Thorsten Brandt said they feature five sensors that register the electrical activity in your brain and provide feedback, by playing music, to indicate whether you’re focused or your mind is wandering.

The sunglasses connect to a smartphone using Bluetooth to deliver tunes, and will be launched in October for $US349.

Of course, there were also plenty of fitness-inspired devices at the annual technology show, including the first smart “barefoot” shoes, created by Vivofit and Sensoria.

The Vivobarefit Smart Shoes contain a thin sensor that record impacts and foot-landing information and transmit it to a connected smartphone.