wearable devices

There are 2 posts tagged wearable devices.

Sensors Increase Live Births & Farm Profitability

home-left-right-image-2It’s refreshing to see how beacons and sensors are evolving in market sectors that are mostly invisible to the general public, but have far-reaching impact on specialized industries. And one such application that we love here at Beacon Blog is the creation of Moocall.

Moocall noninvasively hooks onto the tail of a pregnant cow (unlike more invasive cow birthing monitors) and sends a text message to the farmer when the cow’s about an hour away from giving birth. It was designed to free farmers from keeping vigil over pregnant cows and to help increase live births and farm profitability. The device, which the company says can be shared among 50 to 60 cows, uses 3-D motion sensors, algorithms, and an embedded roaming M2M SIM card that claims it can pick up even weak network signals.

After losing a heifer and her calf back in 2010, Niall Austin, one of the founders of Moocall, came up with the idea of using sensors to monitor births and alert farmers when cows are in labor.

“The heifer was calving outdoors, unfortunately the calf died, and the heifer was paralysed and ended up being put down. There was no system available that would work outdoors as well as indoors. It was a very big loss to us.”

Having realised this was a common problem, Niall researched to see if a solution could be worked out. And thus, Moocall was born. Getting the product to market has taken 3 years and a significant capital investment.

Moocall was launched commercially in January 2015 and since then thousands of units have been sold and the general reaction from customers has been phenomenal. We reckon this fantastic gadget will have far-reaching impact on farmers of the world.

For further information visit : Moocall

Bluetooth Low Energy is better for your health!

Wearables like Google Glass, Samsung Gear Live and the Apple Watch are a growing tech category. But do they pose serious health risks?

These gadgets put wireless technology right on your body, increasing exposure to radio waves when we’re all already carrying wireless smartphones, laptops and tablets.

The good news is that most wearables use Bluetooth technology, which emits much lower levels of radiofrequency, or RF, than cellular-based smartphones and other devices that use Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth Low Energy, is a lower power technology than classic Bluetooth typically used in headsets, and operates at powers a lot lower than mobile phones.

The output power of some Bluetooth Low Energy trackers is so low, the FCC does not require them to be tested for Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the human body when exposed to RF radiation, including microwave radiation). Cellphones and laptops, on the other hand, must pass strict SAR testing requirements, since they operate at higher power levels.

But many wearables don’t limit their radiation to Bluetooth. Products like Google Glass, Recon Instruments’ Recon Jet and Optinvent’s ORA use Wi-Fi, too. And that is sounding the alarm for some health professionals.

“Wi-Fi is very similar to cellphone radiation. You definitely don’t want to put these devices near your head or near your reproductive organs” for extended periods of time, said Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the UC Berkeley Prevention Research Center School of Public Health.

Source : Fox News