French firm Baracoda gave CES visitors a first glimpse of its ‘endless battery’ health tracker in Las Vegas. Using patent pending BMotion energy harvesting technology, BHeart can recharge itself entirely by motion, body heat and environmental light. Integrated discreetly within bracelets and watch bands BHeart is compatible with any classic timepiece.
Through the power of motion, BHeart gathers enough energy to power a range of sensors that deliver health data to a smartphone app for iOS or Android devices. Sustainable leather and high-quality and lightweight alloys have been chosen for durability and its design for use with current classic watches further reduces the electronic waste associated with some smart watches’ short life cycles. As a result BHeart was awarded a CES Innovation Award in the sustainability category.
BHeart is designed to be subtly worn as a screenless watch band for an existing timepiece or as a bracelet. Despite its simplicity, its clever design hides complex sensors and energy collection technology.
Baracoda’s AIoT platform transforms the data coming from multiple health sensors into actionable insights about users’ body energy, health status, mental resilience, activity level, and sleep quality. BHeart’s smartphone app shares these insights and also provides simple, personalised advice, if needed, on the state of the user’s health in order to improve it daily.
In addition to health indexes, users can see the energy they produce each day and over time, showing personal baselines and how behaviour influences health, to encourage daily improvements.
Integration of health and fitness tech into everyday objects
Today’s health trackers often require considerable user intervention, including frequent charging, manual updates and complicated data interpretation. The complexity can create barriers to adoption for those who don’t want another gadget to manage, preferring instead to seek more passive ways to keep tabs on their health and fitness. Baracoda is focused on technical solutions that can blend into existing objects, fashion and routines, making health and fitness technology more hassle-free and invisible.
“The first health trackers were important for establishing that wearable technology can encourage healthier lifestyles, but we must reach more than athletes to improve public health,” said Thomas Serval, CEO of Baracoda. “People of all ages and fitness levels need easier ways to track their health, so we must design products that fit into everyone’s lifestyles, including people who don’t find today’s technology accessible or easy to maintain.”
“Helping people become healthier shouldn’t demand they take on entirely new routines, and technology doesn’t have to be disposable to be low maintenance,” added Serval. “We can build tech that lasts to build habits that last. It just has to be designed to fit into our existing lifestyles.”
For the base model of the watch band, the material is lightweight metal, in silver, dark silver, or gold tones to match most classic watches. The extended product line will include a watch band or standalone bracelet made of sustainable leather to easily match any daily outfit.
BHeart is compatible with standard watches with a lug width of 18-22mm. The price of BHeart starts at US$100 and will be available to purchase at bheart.io. The BHeart app will be free to download from iOS App Store in April and Google Play Store in June 2023
