health

ZZZ Checker – monitors and analyzes your sleep

Home Automation, Sports, Health & Fitness, Outdoors / By /

Add another sleep analysis gadget to the growing list. This time around, Japanese company Spec Computer has a product that does not require you to wear a wristband. Instead the ZZZ Checker uses audio and visual sensors to tell what you’re doing.

This is not a tool like the aXbo alarm clock that wakes you up at optimum points during your sleep cycle. However, it records things like snoring, teeth grinding, tossing and figures out if your sleep is light, medium or deep.

You can transfer the data from the ZZZ Checker to your PC and analyze with the included software.

Sorry sleep-deprived Westerners, but it’s currently only available in Japan, although if the display is any clue, they’ve probably designed it with English speakers in mind too. If you’d like to get your hands on something similar, take a look at the SleepTracker Pro Watch.

via dvice.

Cosmed’s Fitmate tracks metabolism, spits out target caloric needs

Sports, Health & Fitness, Outdoors / By /

Metabolism. Most of us wish ours was a lot higher, mostly so we could eat as many donuts and burgers as we wanted to without gaining weight. Tracking how our body reacts to changes in diet and exercise is tough, slow going work with no bottom-line number to really tell us where we’re at. However, there are devices that can do it, except they’re not in the $100 get-at-Walmart type of gadget.

For example, Cosmed makes a hand-held device that can track just how many calories an individual needs. You just breathe into it for seven minutes and then you get a report with your caloric needs, including how much exercise you need to lose x number of pounds and/or gain lean muscle mass. Just one catch – it costs $7,900.

via PressofAtlanticCity.com

FINIS Aqua Pulse – Swimmer’s Heart Rate Monitor

Gizmo of the Day, Sports, Health & Fitness, Outdoors / By /

FINIS Aqua Pulse

With the world swaying more and more towards one where people like to stay in shape, more products are appearing to help you out. Here’s where FINIS have found their niche – they’ve developed a heart-rate monitor to measure your body’s exertion and exercise intensity while swimming. They claim that other products aren’t quite up to the job when it comes to swimming as they keep falling off.

Aqua Pulse works by picking up your heart rate from your earlobe (slightly unusual – have to try that one out sometime) and then tells you the results by sending sound waves through the bones in your ear, as you wouldn’t be able to hear it through a normal speaker. It appears they’ve thought of just everything with this. Hit the read link for a full description and feature list.

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $139.99 (To be released this month)
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Review: EatSmart Digital Nutrition Scale

8 Comments / Gizmo of the Day, Home Automation, Recommended, Reviews / By /

If you are ready to start that long postponed diet program, and are serious about the nutritional values (or lack thereof) of what you consume, then the EatSmart digital nutrition scale is the way to go. This thorough review of the EatSmart scale will take you through what the scale can do under real-world conditions.


eatsmart-digital-nutrition-scaleAt a compact 9″ x 7″ and under 2″ high, this user-friendly scale delivers more than you would expect at first glance. It comes with a database of 999 of the most common foods and has the ability to calculate nutrients from thousands of packaged foods. The LCD display is divided into 8 sections, which affords you a lot of information at one glance. Although the nutrient values were easily readable, the one minor drawback was the very small size of the units (e.g. mg).

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Google using search data to explore flu trends in the US

Miscellaneous / By /

In a cool use of search data, Google’s philanthropic arm is tracking queries on illness and correlating it with geolocation data to trend flu activity in the US. The idea here is to try to predict flu trends faster than the CDC normally does based on their methodology. Google in turn works with the CDC to make this data available and useful.

You can find out how this all works by visiting Google’s Flu Trends site.

BTW, you can even download the raw data and toy with it yourself if you’d like.

Salter Nutri-Weigh Portable Dietary Scale

Gizmo of the Day, Home Automation / By /

If like so much of the rest of America, you need to clean up your diet and eat less, then you should take a look at the tech world for tools that will help you in your quest. One such excellent tool is a scale, and today’s models use technology to give you even more relevant information.

Take the Salter Nutri Weigh & Go Portable Dietary Computing Scale. Whew, that was a mouthful (pun intended!) The Nutri Weigh calculates the nutritional value of food by portion size, using its database of 1400 foods! It shows you 11 different pieces of nutritional info on each of those foods.
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