Angel – the first wearable health sensor designed to be open
A while ago we wrote about Angel, the first wearable health sensor designed to be open. A wristband that monitors heart-rate, skin temperature, steps, calories and sleep – with blood oxygen level tracking set to be enabled at some point in the future.
The company successfully raised $334,000 with an Indiegogo campaign that closed in November 2013. It has been in development since then, but has started shipping over the past month or so. Reviews on the device are mixed so far, with many bugs still to be ironed out.
Basically, this is a device designed with developers in mind. Currently most trackers for fitness and health are built for use by a single proprietary app. Angel wants to change that and give give developers real-time, raw data access. The company is opening up communication protocols, API/SDK and sensor data streams. Ultimately, this will mean more apps to choose from.
In addition to the original device, Angel has recently launched another fitness tracker – the Angel Sensor M1. The device introduces a simple and clean design, equipped with all of the original Angel Sensor features. It also features a brand new Lua engine, so you can host your code onboard the wristband itself. Apparently, the original Angel Sensor wristband is slightly thinner, but significantly more challenging to manufacture.
The company’s long term goal is to get Angel FDA approved for medical use. This would allow developers, health experts, and researchers, to collaborate and push health treatment and prevention forward.
“The original Angel Sensor is our flagship product, yet it simply hasn’t been hitting the streets fast enough in order to make a meaningful impact on mobile health.”
“Our main concern was that, although our first product was slick and thin, it was also devilishly challenging to manufacture. Implementing the principles of Extreme Ownership, we couldn’t blame everything on the subpar performance of certain vendors. Our main pain concern was silicone and that’s what we simplified,” said Eugene Jorov, co-founder of Seraphim Sense Ltd., the designer of Angel.
While this a device that is still very much in development, it may be of interest to experimenters, quantified-selfers, hackers, researchers, inventors and tinkerers.
Many of the original backers who supported the Angel Sensor have been disappointed after waiting over 2 years for it. The product received in some cases won’t charge and applications are limited. What is worse is their lack of response towards resolving these issues.
Thanks for your reply. We have been following their Indiegogo campaign very closely. It is indeed disappointing that it took so long to bring this product to production, and many backers have been complaining of issues. Also, it seems they are selling a new device while the original device still seems to be work in progress.
There is something wrong with this company.
“Fake company”, this company is a big scam be careful they will steal your money, make false promises to deliver your product and never ship your product neither return your money. They took my money and still waiting for more than one and half year. they made me 4 false promise but never deliver product.