Dal calcolo della percentuale di grasso corporeo alla rilevazione dello stress e dell’umore: con Halo Amazon entra nel campo dei wearable puntando al benessere psico-sociale
Amazon entra nel mercato dei wearable con un activity tracker molto particolare: si chiama Halo e in realtà è la porta d’ingresso a una nuova serie di servizi offerti dal colosso tech grazie a una massiccia dose di intelligenza artificiale. The purpose of Halo, according to Amazon, is to increase our "social wellbeing"
Already this highlights that Amazon, while entering a market where there are already heavy names like Google-Fitbit and Apple, is going to do it by aiming at something that others do not currently do: use the data collected by the tracker to calculate the mental and social wellbeing of the user and not just to tell him how many calories he burns doing physical activity or how many steps and stairs he has done in a day. Fitbit is starting to enter this field, with the new Sense smartwatch that can detect stress, but the playing field is still a huge prairie to conquer.
Amazon Halo: how it's made
Halo is a smart band with a minimalist design, without any screen: it only has sensors and the data detected can be viewed via the app on smartphones. It integrates an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart rate sensor, two microphones that can be turned off by pressing the only button on the device and an LED that indicates when Halo is working. Halo is water resistant up to 5 atmospheres.
Amazon Halo: the body scan
One of the things that can do Amazon Halo thanks to its sensors is the three-dimensional scan of our body. It starts with a photo of us, a selfie without clothes that is processed by complex AI algorithms. Then the processed data are combined with those detected over time by Halo's sensors, to provide as a result our percentage of fat mass and that of lean mass.
Amazon Halo: psycho-social health
Halo's microphones listen to our voice and Amazon's algorithms, from the tone and other parameters, tell us if we are stressed, sad, happy. Receiving a notification when we are too stressed, according to Amazon, helps us not only to do something about the problem but also to deal with others in the most correct way, thus increasing the quality of our social relationships.
Amazon Halo: privacy
It is clear, therefore, that Halo collects and processes an enormous amount of sensitive data of those who use it. That's why Amazon immediately reassures all those who are worried about their privacy: the data sent to Amazon is encrypted, you can delete it whenever you want and audio recordings to calculate stress and mood are processed directly by the device and are not sent to Amazon's servers.