Smartlbelt WELT (Photo : Samsung)
Seoul-based Samsung is featuring three devices developed by its Creative Lab at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016. The ideas developed by the Creative Lab comes from Samsung employees under the company's innovation program that encourages creative business ideas.
The development of new business ideas that focuses on health trackers and other technologies is apparently Samsung's way of addressing it loss of market share in the smartphone market to its competitors.
Leading the list is a smartbelt called WELT, described as a "smart wearable healthcare belt that looks like a normal belt." More than just keeping the trousers of the user from falling and serving as a fashion accessory, WELT also measures the wearer's waist size, counts the number of steps taken and logs the amount of time spent sitting down, reports Gizmondo.
The information it gathers is sent to an app which offers exercise and nutrition recommendation. The development of the WELT is timely since numerous research discovered that spending so much time sitting is unhealthy. The smartbelt would remove the guesswork on how long should a person sit.
The smartbelt would apparently have the Bio-Processor which Samsung announced on Tuesday. The all-in-one-chip could several biometric signals such as heart rate, body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress level.
Samsung is already mass producing the chip which integrates the eFlash memory, digital signal processor, power management integrated circuit, microcontroller unit and Analog Front Ends. The Bio-Processor would be found on several wearable reference platforms such as the wrist band, board and patch type reference devices.
Aside from the smartbelt, Samsung would also showcase the TipTalk and rink at CES 2016. TipTalk is a watch strap that allows the user to listen to sounds from devices, such as the Samsung Gear 2, without headphones, while the rink is a set of hand-motion controllers for virtual reality headsets. TipTalk functions with the press of a finger on the ear like how spies or detectives do it in science fiction movies or TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ahead of WELT, France-based Emiota announced early this year in CES 2015 the Belty, a pants-holder manufactured from fancy leather with a huge buckle that is wirelessly connected to a smartphone app. Belty teaches the user how tight or loose it must be worn. The hi-tech belt could be tweaked when the wearer binges eat. It loosens when the bloated wearer sits down after a big meal or tightens when the user went on a diet for several days, according to Gizmondo.
These two belts would surely be good yearend holiday gift ideas since waists would likely be bigger because of rich food eaten during Christmas and New Year. However, since many people often promise to be healthier in 2016, these smartbelts would help the user know the number of extra steps to take and how physical activity affects heart rate and other biometrics to prevent a heart attack.
