A few of the digital healthcare products to hit the showroom follow at CES 2018.
The Consumer Electronics Show is literally chock full of items for your home to make your life easier. Day one, we highlighted the amazing new displays tech giants developed. Day two centered around amazing—and sometimes luxurious—products for your home. But CES 2018 also has items that could become part of your health routine. Today is all about digital healthcare.
Lishtot’s TestDrop
We tested the bottled water that everyone at #CES2018 is buying from the @SandsExpo @VenetianVegas @PalazzoVegas Watch the video to see whether it is contaminated or not! pic.twitter.com/2001nObmoy
— Lishtot (@lishtot) January 11, 2018
Flint, Michigan’s water crisis is going on 1,200 days with unsafe drinking water. The cost-cutting measures the town took devastated the drinking supply, and residents could very well be feeling the harmful effects for decades to come.
This situation brings into sharp relief the absolute need for an easy test to tell whether water is safe to drink, or not. Lishtot might have just the device for the job.
It’s tiny—a bit larger than a quarter—but packs a punch. The digital healthcare device instantly determines if water is safe to drink by analyzing the electric field surrounding it. Lishot, which is Hebrew for “drink”, recognizes the unique field that water has. Water that has even a slightly different field due to lead, chlorine, or other contaminants will come back as unsafe to consume.
Robot Therapy Duck
This one will tug on your heartstrings. A partnership between Aflac and Sproutel has yielded a cuddly duck that mirrors the one beloved from the Aflac commercials. But instead of touting the benefits of insurance, this one is meant to comfort children undergoing treatment for some pretty terrible diseases.
The digital healthcare duck may not manage symptoms, but it is packed with sensors that allow the user to interact: scratching under its chin, tickling under its wing, and the like. but it also comes with the ability to read cards with emojis depicted, which patients can show to the duck to explain how they are feeling. The little guy even has a port-a-cath with an RFID chip so the duck can undergo chemotherapy with its patient.
An app comes with AR features, letting the kids explore calming scenery and other relaxing features.
Companion Robots
PHOTO FEEDBACK on the 2nd day of #CES2018 Buddy the companion #robot has interacted freely with the public in the aisles of the Blue Frog Robotics booth. Many smiles and positive impressions from many visitors. #CES pic.twitter.com/dYmA8Rs4MG
— BUDDY (@adoptbuddy) January 11, 2018
Although personally I would prefer the Aflac duck, BUDDY the companion robot is definitely winning over fans. Although not made specifically with digital healthcare in mind—the website touts that “Open source and easy to use, BUDDY connects, protects, and interacts with each member of your family,” users can use it as a companion, something that could be good for lonely elderly users or children that find themselves having a difficult time making friends at school.
By making the platform open source, Blue Frog Robotics hopes global developers will build innovative applications to go along with its base abilities.
Smart Mouthguard for Athletes
We made the @engadget Best of #CES2018 finalist roundup! Help us win People’s Choice Award as the first and only concussion monitoring technology that detects head impacts in real time. Vote here: https://t.co/E0e3VPujjT pic.twitter.com/C0i5PqjjfR
— Prevent Biometrics (@PreventBio) January 11, 2018
Parents of athletes, rejoice. Prevent Biometrics has developed a head impact monitor system that brings advanced head impact analytic capabilities to schools, associations, teams, and coaches.
The Gen 1.2 Head Impact Monitor is designed to reduce undetected or untreated concussions, improving player safety and ultimately performance. It’s not just a mouthguard either. It comes with a team app, which provides notifications when an impact exceeds a set threshold, as well as a web portal.
Smart Heart Monitor
Please welcome our new design for @cardiomocare wearable patch. It’s thinner than original device and looks great. Pre-orders at https://t.co/gK6J95uioX with early bird discount. Shippings scheduled for May 2018.#Wearables #wearabletech #heart #Health pic.twitter.com/NUhxxGygvR
— cardiomo care (@cardiomocare) January 10, 2018
The standard wearables aren’t for everybody. But Cardiomo, a digital healthcare heart monitor, is unlike anything we’ve seen yet. It fits comfortably on your chest using the same adhesive patches found at a hospital, but sans the cords.
Now patients are able to discreetly wear a heart monitor and still collect important data about their heart health.
Cardiomo tracks important data on a continuously loop. Its one-of-a-kind algorithm can alert wearers of an abnormality and then provides advice on how to take preventative measures.