Whether you resolved to kick a bad habit, become more organized, work out more, eat better, or lose that pesky holiday weight gain and keep it off, there is more than likely a new invention that can help support your efforts.

Today, we want to talk about an invention that will help monitor your food intake!

Usually, when a person eats a little more than they should at a meal, it’s a common practice to loosen their belt buckle to give themselves a little more room and comfort.

This smart belt prototype, known as the “Belty,” invented by a Paris-based startup called Emiota, does just that, it loosens your belt buckle without having to lift a finger.

Sure, you might be thinking that this is just a lazy way to help people eat more. However, you are sadly mistaken. Because this invention does the opposite, it actually helps people be mindful of when they have eaten too much.

Above is a picture from Mashable of the Belty at CES 2015.

This smart belt adjusts itself throughout the day, depending on the amount of food that a person has eaten and how much exercise was done to compensate.

Wearable technology was very popular in 2014 and that same trend seems to have carried over into the first week of 2015 with this smart belt. Not only can it adjust itself according to how much you have eaten, it also keeps track of your overall health and prompts you when you’ve been sitting for too long.

Much like most pieces of wearable technology on the market, this smart belt is equipped with a gyroscope, an accelerator and small sensors to help determine how much you have been moving or whether or not you need to be more active.

The Belty connects to an app that records all of the data that has been collected throughout the day and sends out suggestions and feedback regarding how the belt adjusts in real time.

So far, some are skeptical as to whether or not the Belty prototype will actually be useful in everyday life. However, with the beginning of 2015 underway, only time will tell if this smart belt will be helping people eat less and move more this year!

For more info on how technology is helping shape health and wellness in today’s society, check out this article !

Copyright Inventionland, 2015

Sources:

https://mashable.com/2015/01/04/belty-smart-belt/

https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-belty-the-ridiculous-but-strangely-popular-show-stealer-of-ces-unveiled/

Media:

https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5vJK13u-tiQNNc8ioBbYTvQf-SE=/1020×0/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2903374/IMG_7136.0.jpg

https://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzAxLzA1LzY4L0Vtb3RpYVNtYXJ0LjgyYTNiLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/1d4a6253/717/Emotia-Smart-Belt-6.jpg

The post Smart Belt: A “Smart” Way to Slim Your Waistline appeared first on Inventionland.

Wearable technology is all the rage lately. Everywhere you look, you see a new wristband or a pair of glasses that touts that it’s the wearable technology of the future. However, just as fast as one invention hits the market, another follows suit. For activity trackers in particular, the market is hot and that’s why brands are constantly evolving and inventing more and more innovative products for the consumer.

Just like most inventions on the market, the Fitbit experienced some problems that ultimately led to the voluntary recall of their Force activity trackers. But, rather than throw in the towel, the company might have found a better way to track activity and it goes by the names of the Fitbit Charge and the Fitbit Charge HR!

So, what exactly did the leaked reports show? For starters, the Charge has a fuller display and a wider band. Though at their core, they’re still basic activity trackers, the new devices will have the same basic functions that the previous Fitbits had, including:

• Water resistance
• Silent, vibrating alarm
• Sleep monitor- checks for quality of sleep
• Caller ID, time and stat display
• Tracking for active minutes, floors climbed, calories burned, distance and last, but not least, steps

But, perhaps the biggest upgrade is that the Fitbit Charge will incorporate a heart rate monitor, which is unlike any of their previous devices. This new addition will give users a continuous 24-hour a day update on their heart rate that is available on their dashboard.

Also, the heart rate monitor could possibly be equipped with a new “PurePulse” system, which shows it’s worth when you are pushing yourself at the gym. As said before, the data that is recorded from your Fitbit will be stored on the Fitbit app.

Though Fitbit hasn’t formally introduced these highly-speculated upgrades to the market, from what we have seen so far, we think that the Fitbit Charge and Charge HR will soon be on the horizon!

Copyright Inventionland, 2014

Sources:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/10/14/6977583/fitbit-charge-fitness-trackers-leak

https://mashable.com/2014/10/15/fitbit-charge-hr-leak/

https://gizmodo.com/exclusive-fitbit-charge-and-charge-hr-images-and-full-1646208023

Media:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Fitibit_Flex.jpg

The post The New Fitbit is a ‘Step’ in the Right Direction appeared first on Inventionland.

The 2014 US Open Tennis Championships are underway and fans far and wide will be able to see the Polo Tech smart shirt for the very first time. This compression shirt will be worn by the ball boys throughout the entire tournament.

So, what’s so special about this shirt? For starters, it combines the biometric technology from OMSignal and the design is provided by none other than famous fashion designer, Ralph Lauren. The shirt will have the ability to read your activity such as steps, the length of your activity, heart rate and breathing. All of these statistics are delivered in real-time to your Bluetooth-equipped smartphone.

Ralph Lauren’s expertise is in fashion and OMSignal’s expertise is in technology. That’s why the two joined forces to provide their respective pieces that have been fused together into one shirt of the future.

On the surface, it may just look like your average shirt; however, this “average” garment is not-so-average.

In fact, this compression shirt that fits snug to the contour of a person’s body consists of a band that is made of slightly thicker material that is positioned right below the chest. Attached to the band by way of five traditional snaps is a black module, which holds the Bluetooth transmitter, gyroscope and the accelerometer.

Basically, the shirt is the sensor and underneath the fabric are the silver-yarn-based sensors. The material of the fabric is anti-microbial and it can detect the expansion and compression of the user’s chest. As the user breathes, the fabric reads the electrical changes that are associated with heart rate. The sensors in the shirt then collect statistics and data, which are sent in real-time to the Ralph Lauren mobile app.

As of right now, this invention is still in the prototype stage and is only being used currently by the US Open Tennis Championships’ ball boys. The idea behind this invention is that it looks to find a better way to record fitness and heart rate data during exercise rather than wearing monitors that could potentially get in the way for the user.

Copyright Inventionland 2014

Sources:

https://mashable.com/2014/08/25/ralph-lauren-smart-t-shirt/

https://www.engadget.com/2014/08/25/ralph-lauren-tech-polo-shirt/

Images:

https://distincttoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/16017-thumb.jpg

https://gearpatrol.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Polo-Ralph-Lauren-Wearable-Tech.jpg

The post Technology Meets Fashion with Ralph Lauren’s Latest Invention appeared first on Inventionland.