Ah, January. With the new calendar replacing the old,
January is the month in which people believe most strongly in replacing their
old selves with an improved version. And by that, we usually mean improving our
habits to improve our health. Well, 2016 was a year of innovation in products
to make people healthier. Below are some of what we think are the most
interesting and possibly helpful inventions of the past year, whether they are
currently for sale, still in development, or somewhere in between.
2017 Fitness Goals
First, the most popular New Year’s resolution of all time:
fitness! From wrist devices like the LVL
by BSX Athletics that use near-infrared scanning to monitor your hydration
levels, to sensor technology embedded in a runner’s very
shorts, the net is flooding with Fitbit-like devices to monitor your health
as you exercise, producing all sorts of metrics to inspire (or guilt) you into
optimal regimes. In order to inspire U.S. kids to get active, UNICEF has even
developed a wrist device that sends food packets to malnourished children in
proportion to the physical activity of the kids wearing the devices.
The UNICEF Kid Power
Band. Source: UNICEFkidpower.org
In addition to wearable monitors, athletic shoes have seen
some technological improvement. The main buzz surrounds Nike’s
self-lacing HyperAdapt sneakers, which auto-adjust the shoes’ tightness via
sensors. Right now, they’re being advertised as useful to professional
competitors who can spare an arm and a couple fingers to buy them, but there’s
future potential for the technology to help those with limited motor function
in their hands, too.
Saucony Peregrine 6
ICE+ Trail-Running Shoes with Vibram Arctic Grip. Source: REI.com
You know what isn’t healthy? Slipping on ice and cracking
your skull. So #2 interesting advancement in athletic shoes goes to Vibram’s Arctic
Grip technology, giving wearers traction on wet ice. The technology is now
available on Wolverine brand shoes, some of which (like the ones above) are
pretty cute, so ditch the treadmill and get moving through those winter
wonderlands.
Speaking of winter wonderlands,
check out Digitsole’s new smart
shoe. Sure, these shoes look like they came out of Star Wars and can track health metrics, be recharged wirelessly,
and tightened via voice commands to your smart phone app, but who cares about
any of that in the face of the fact that they are also heated? Because no one wants to leave their blanket fortress in
January to take a walk when they know they’ll have ice blocks instead of feet
within minutes.
SensorWake olfactory alarm clock. Source: kickstarter.com Hello Sense sleep monitor Source: kickstarter.com
Other innovations to improve personal health involve devices to help you sleep and devices to help you breathe. The SensorWake alarm clock wakes you up (or gives you hungry dreams?) naturally by filling your bedroom with scents like espresso or toast. The Hello Sense sleep monitor tracks your sleep patterns and environment to wake you up at the right time in your sleep cycle and tell you why you still feel like death warmed over.
For the health of our lungs, crowd-sourced companies are
creating air purifiers. Two of note are the Wynd
personal air purifier to give you a bubble of clean air, and the Molekule air purifier, which
destroys air pollutants in whole rooms. The latter is currently sold out, but
I’d be looking at the former for city offices.
No more cold metal
prodding in uncomfortable places: the contactless thermometer. Source: withings.com
While there are lots of other interesting personal health
innovations, like The North Face’s breathable waterproof
jacket, Withings’s no-contact
thermometer, and the Morpher folding
bike helmet (again, cracked skulls are not healthy), it’s possible that
this invention is the one to keep you healthiest : Sharkbanz.
Sharkbanz emit
electromagnetic fields to repel sharks. Source: sharkbanz.com
Because being eaten by sharks while swimming or diving is
not healthy. Not healthy at all.
Check out these cool new devices to inspire you to be
healthier in 2017 (at least until February), and then tell us what you think of
them. Did we miss one you find particularly compelling? Let us know in the
comments below or on Facebook
or Twitter.