'Open' Development of Wearable Health & Fitness Wristbands

There are more and more health or fitness wristbands starting to hit the market every few weeks.  According to the latest projections from ABI Research, the total market for wearable wireless devices in sports and healthcare will grow to 170 million units by 2017. While many of these devices currently have limited capabilities, usually measuring just one metric, this is about to change.

Unfortunately, most wristband health sensors currently involve the use of 'closed' platforms that can’t be easily modified to perform additional functionality beyond what is delivered by the manufacturer of the device. What is needed is an 'open' solution that developers can use to build new applications that can be downloaded and installed in whatever wristband sensor device you decide to buy.

One company trying to change all that is Seraphim Sense, with their Angel health sensor wristband device and associated 'open' software development kit (SDK).  Angel is the first available sensor that integrates multiple metrics and provides the user freedom to choose which applications they would like to use. The company was co-founded by Eugene Jorov and Amir Shlomovich.

Angel is an innovative wearable health band, packed with the most advanced sensors,and has been designed to remove many of the barriers to rapid  innovation.  Angel's 'open' platform is designed to allow developers to create any number of new applications that will make use of the multiple sensors built into the Angel wristband device. The possibilities are almost endless.

Angel features four different sensors: movement, temperature, optical, and acoustical. The sensors can monitor multiple metrics including:
• Motion and acceleration
• Skin temperature
• Blood oxygen saturation
• Heart rate

In the meantime, there are a growing number of other health & fitness wristband devices  you might want to check out. The following are just a few examples:

• Fitbit
• Jawbone Up
• Nike+ FuelBand
• BodyMedia’s Armband
• Basis Band

The market for wearable health & fitness wristbands and smartwatches is about to boom. Especially now that Angels 'open' platform is about to be released and the power of the open source development community is about to be engaged. Stay tuned! This is going to be big.