“Feel” bracelet makes you happy when you are feeling stressed
Wearable technology gets emotional.
Sentio Solutions, a new wearables company out of Los Angeles, showed off a prototype of a new kind of tracker at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The wearable, aptly called Feel, is the first wristband for emotional tracking.
Instead of focusing on keeping its wearer physically active, the device is supposed to help wearers keep track of their emotional well-being, and make adjustments if necessary. Sentio’s slogan for the Feel is – “Hack Happiness”.
Essential reading: Stress busting wearables to keep you chill
Recognising our stress triggers and the factors that affect our mood is the first step in managing stress and improving our well-being. Apparently, science can now help us track our emotions by measuring the response from a variety of physiological signals.
Feel is a water-resistant leather bracelet that is designed to alert you when your body sends off biometric signals indicating that you are under stress or having extreme emotions. The integrated sensors on the wristband measure and track biosignals throughout the day, while the mobile application visualizes the results and provides personalized recommendations to improve emotional health.
According to the Feel website, the wearable, which at first glance doesn’t look too different from your standard fitness tracker, contains four integrated sensors. These include galvanic skin response, blood volume pulse and skin temperature.
The wristband communicates directly with the user’s mobile phone using Bluetooth. The mobile application visualizes the results to show users how they feel during the day and how their mood is affected by factors such as their activity, the people they meet, as well as the environmental conditions. The app will also offer guided breathing and meditation exercises to help alleviate any stress you may be experiencing.
In cases of extremely stressful emotions, the bracelet will vibrate to to alert you of your emotional status. The app provides tailored recommendations to help reduce stress and improve well-being. It can also give you short-term notifications to improve your well being, such as “be active”, “meditate” or our favourite “laugh more”.
The claims made by Sentio certainly seem to be exciting, and are backed by science. Whether the wearable can actually make people happier remains to be seen. We will certainly be happy when it launches – according to Sentio, towards the end of 2016.
More info: http://www.myfeel.co
