2breathe Sleep Inducer Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Peaceful slumber could be only a wearable away.

Josh Miller

Insomnia is a cruel but common affliction. Now one company has, quite by chance, found a possible solution to it.

An idea occurred when, having developed the world’s only FDA-approved hypertension treatment wearable, its Israeli creators discovered that it was making users drowsy. And so the 2breathe Sleep Inducer was born.

The device itself is fairly simple. A tracking module sits on an elastic strap worn around the user’s mid-section. As their stomach rises and falls it feeds back the rhythm of their breath to a companion app in real time. The app then formulates a unique melody to synchronise with their breathing, and gradually encourages the user to prolong exhalation in time with the music. As the breaths slows, the wearer should drift into a peaceful slumber.

At least that’s the idea. A demo we received standing up in a noisy hall at CES did not, you might be surprised to hear, conclude with anyone reaching REM state. But thanks to detailed session reports that provide feedback on the process of nodding off, it’s easy to see whether the 2breathe Sleep Inducer is working for you.

If you’re struggling to get to sleep at night and looking for a solution, the good news is that the product is already available through the 2breathe website for $180 (converts to AU$250, ‎£150). For peace of mind, it also comes with a 60-day money back guarantee.

The next step for the company is to introduce a pillow topper with built-in speakers later this year, designed for those who want to listen to lullabies without disturbing their partners.

Emotech Olly Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

There are smart home hubs and there are smart home robots, but where does the dividing line fall?

The key is a combination of personality, movement and interaction, according to Hongbin Zhuang, the London-based founder of social robot Olly.

Pointing to two Olly robots sitting side by side in Emotech’s booth at CES Unveiled, Zhuang explains that where one Olly is whizzing around energetically responding to anyone and everyone who engages with it, its neighbour is more calm and reserved — it only speaks when spoken to.

This is the result of the robot’s deep-learning capabilities that mean as your Olly gets to know you and your daily routines over time, it will evolve to become more like you and respond to the patterns of your life.

When it comes to what the robot can actually do, it is similar to Amazon’s Echo or Google Home. It can respond to your questions by looking up information for you, and can control all of your smart devices and internet-connected products you may have around your home. Where it differs from its rivals is in its ability to be proactive. It could predict whether you might want to listen to music when you get home from work for example, as well as what you might like that music to be.

The original prototype of Emotech’s robot featured a single eye, but testing suggested that while some users loved this feature, others did not. Now, Olly is a black donut that rises to greet you when you wake it and swivels to face you when you address it. It responds not just with voice, but with mesmeric light patterns that help it express itself.

The Olly we encountered at CES was still in prototype format, but following further user testing this spring, it should be available to buy later this year.

Your next phone may switch to facial recognition when you’re wearing gloves

Fingerprint and iris scanning in one, thanks to Synaptics.

One of the most important companies you may not know about just made an important, and impressive, announcement at CES 2017.

Synaptics, purveyor of laptop trackpads and smartphone fingerprint sensors, announced that it is partnering with facial biometrics provider KeyLemon to allow for simultaneous multimodal smartphone security in future handsets. Says Synaptics:

The multi-factor fusion engine allows users to choose a modality based on preference, or one that is most convenient to environmental conditions such as when wearing gloves. Improved security is achieved by requiring multiple-modes of authentication for financial transactions or other sensitive applications.

In other words, your next phone may know that, when it’s cold out and you’re wearing gloves, facial recognition is the best method for unlocking your phone.

The Galaxy Note 7 used iris scanning when the phone was released in late 2016, but the integration was finicky and prone to failing. It’s unclear whether this turnkey solution will be any more robust, but given that we likely won’t see this multi-factor technology until the middle of this year, it’s possible that just by maturity alone it will be more reliable.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Samsung enters the era of QLED TV, amazing 2017 models revealed

Samsung has continued to develop its Quantum Dot technology for its 2017 TV range rather than compete in the OLED sector, highlighting the 100 per cent colour volume of its new picture tech – a first for the manufacturer’s televisions – and significantly higher brightness.

The viewing angle has also been improved upon, it claims, something OLED has been traditionally great at and LED less so.

It calls the new tech QLED.

As is the norm for Samsung these days, there will be flat and curved models in different screen sizes and at different price points – although release dates and pricing is yet to be revealed.

• CES 2017: All the announcements, TVs, laptops and more from the show
• Best TVs of CES 2017: What to expect

Full specifications are also still forthcoming, although it does have a peak brightness of between 1,500 to 2,000 nits. All sets are naturally 4K Ultra HD and have extended smart functionality and apps.

Samsung

Other major features include picture frame-like wall mounting and only one cable socket on the TV itself, with a separate media box being connected through a single optical cable.

Samsung has also linked the new TV range with its Smart View app for Android and iOS, which can be used as a separate smart remote control. It can even be used as a game controller.

The TV is being shown at CES 2017 and we’ll be getting a closer look very soon.

Orosound’s ‘noise-managing’ earphones hush unwanted sounds

Sometimes it’s nice to be able to hear clearly in a crowded and noisy environment. It can be extremely difficult to communicate with someone when you can’t pick up every word they’re saying. The chaos of a CES event is a prime example. Orosound is looking to lend a hand helping you hear better in noisy situations with its wireless Tilde earphones.

The company calls the headset a “nose management” system that uses active noise cancellation to hush background noise and focus in on the voice of the person you’re talking with. The level at which you’re able to turn down the sounds of the environment you’re in is easily adjusted with a slider up to 30 decibels. There’s also a directional mode that only allows you to hear the voice of the person standing directly in front of you. And yes, you can use the Tilde just like a regular set of wireless earbuds to play music and take calls. When doing so, that noise reduction can still help block out the world around you.

I tried the Tilde here at CES, a fitting place to test a product that claims to cut down unwanted noise. While the tech did do just that, it also noticeably muffled the voice of the person who was speaking. Right now it’s not perfect, but if the company can fine-tune the audio before it ships the final version, this could useful for people working in noisy offices or places where if can be difficult to hear a conversation. Orosound’s Tilde earphones debuted on Kickstarter in October and the company plans to ship units to backers in May. For people who didn’t contribute funds to the cause, the device will be available this summer for $349.

Mona Lalwani contributed to this report.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Mohu teases its wireless TV antenna

One thing about cord-cutting and switching to antenna-delivered TV is that for some people, they just can’t get good signal where their TV is. Mohu’s new AirWave antenna solves that by making it wireless. The $150 device just need to plug into power so that it can catch TV broadcasts, transcode them and stream the video via WiFi to its apps on platforms like Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, iOS, Android or web browser.

We couldn’t get all of the details tonight at the CES Unveiled event, but it should hit shelves in the spring.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: Mohu

The whole point of this wearable is to put you to sleep

2breathe’s sleep inducer is a companion app, wearable and lovely panpipe melody maker. While the company comes from a background in blood pressure lowering devices, its new bedtime wearable is all about putting you to sleep — and keeping you snoozing. (That’s apparently pretty important.)

The wearable, which attaches around your waist, picks up on your breathing and transmits your respiration patterns to your smartphone — which is next to your bed, right? Your phone then gives out guidance in the form of smooth, lilting melodic tones to prolong exhalation and reduce brain activity and, thus, make you sleepy.

The app keeps a record of your nightly sleeping patterns, which are naturally tied to your breathing. The idea for the gadget came from the fact that the company’s blood pressure reducing device was inadvertently improving the sleep for around 90 percent of users — and putting users to sleep before they could benefit from the blood pressure-reducing part. The team decided to adopt these breathing algorithms and aim them precisely at improving sleep.

The app offers two functions: inducing sleep, like I described above, and maintaining sleep, which was apparently the biggest demand from testers when the company tried out the product in Japan. The company is also working on a Bluetooth pillow speaker to ensure your karmic tones for breathing guidance aren’t annoying your partner in bed.

The Sleep Inducer is on sale now on Amazon, priced at $180.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: 2Breathe

Amazon Fire TV Edition televisions put its box in the big screen

Earlier today Amazon announced that Seiki, Element Electronics and Westinghouse will sell TVs with its Fire TV experience built-in, and tonight we got to see them in action. As promised, the televisions are packing the latest version of the Fire TV software, with Alexa voice commands plus the usual apps and tweaks. What they add to it are wrinkles needed for TVs, plus the convenience of not having to switch inputs all the time.

If you want to watch a Blu-ray for example, just speak the command into its remote and it’s done, no input number needed. We also got a look at the channel guide, which mixes and matches content from broadcast and streaming. These look like decent alternatives to other value-priced smart TVs with Roku or Android aboard, although there’s no word yet on release date or price.

Lousy sommeliers can let D-vine pour the perfect glass of wine

Wine, what’s not to like? Well, plenty if you serve it wrong or, gasp, serve it with the wrong food. No one wants to be the guy that turns up with a warm chardonnay for your fancy chuck steak dinner. Enter D-vine, a smart wine dispenser that not only serves up perfectly chilled tipple, but will help you pair it with food, and even order more plonk when you’re running low. This is the future, and we like it.

D-vine isn’t new to the game. The company already had been showing an early version of its smart wine dispenser at CES last year. Over the last 12 months, though, there have been some useful upgrades, especially for the wine-dumb among us. These include a large touchscreen with easy to navigate menus (perfect for once you’ve got a little rosy-cheeked). The main options are for the afore-mentioned food pairing, but there’s added details like the history of the wine, and video clips from 10-vins (the company behind D-vine, “dix vins” it’s confusing) in-house oenologist.

You might be thinking that you’ve got this far in life just serving red at room temperature, and chilling a white. That’s fair, but 10-Vins, goal is simple: to help you enjoy a glass of wine anytime you want, but served how a sommelier would do in a restaurant.

I fell on my sword and tried a glass of shiraz at room temperature, and then one that had passed through the D-vine’s cooling and airing mechanism (it’s a long fancy pipe). The difference between the two is immediately clear. The untreated wine was warmer (obviously), heavier in taste and more alcoholic smelling. The wine that had gone through the machine was fragrant, much easier on the palette, and just generally more quaffable.

There are a few things to consider before you get one for your next dinner party though. The price of the screenless machine starts at around $1,000 — enough to stock up your cellar in and of itself. The version with the panel and companion app will be considerably more. Then there’s the price of each 10 CL tube of wine (one glass’s worth) which is $5. Not pricey for a glass of wine in a bar, but it will soon add up when you have some friends over (which will happen if you have one of these).

While the process of chilling and pouring the wine takes less than a minute, if your party if full of thirsty resellers, it’s not the ideal set up. 10-vin recommends it’s more suitable for a party of about four.

So, it’s not entirely practical, and not the most affordable, but if you love wine and technology this should be singing to you pretty hard right now. At the very least, you can expect to see a few of these popping up behind the bar at certain establishments. 10-vin says there are orders from multiple bistros right now, and pre-orders for us, the public, have just opened up now. You’ll just have to wait until after summer before it lands in your kitchen.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

DJI gives its Osmo Mobile stabilizer a fresh silver look

DJI’s Osmo Mobile is still a relatively new product, considering it was only announced toward the end of last year. Even so, everyone (or everything, in this case) deserves a fresh look, and that’s exactly what DJI is doing with its smartphone stabilizer. The company is showing off a silver model (with white accents) of the Osmo Mobile at CES 2017, which will be available later this month. Other than the different color though, nothing else has changed compared to the original — including the $299 price.

To complement this, DJI is has also added a “Studio Mode” to the Osmo Mobile’s companion app, DJI Go. These features are designed to give your selfies a boost, by smoothing out your skin tones and making your face look smaller or thinner. Yup, just what we needed. Studio Mode worked as intended for the few minutes I tried it, so you may want to think about that if you care enough to make your selfie game strong (er?).

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.