All posts tagged: wearable devices

World Cup Fever Study tracks how football viewing stress impacts fan’s bodies

World Cup Fever Study tracks how football viewing stress impacts fan’s bodies

Published by Jenni Sidey

Crowds rise, voices sharpen, and a match can turn on a single kick. Now a team at Bielefeld University wants to know exactly what those moments do to the body. Its Football Fever Study, launched for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, is recruiting supporters of all national teams to track how match events affect heart rate and stress levels. The project uses smartwatch data to follow what happens during games, then compares those bodily changes with what is unfolding on the pitch. The appeal is broad by design. Anyone using a device from one of 13 supported brands can take part. The study records heart rate, stress, movement and sleep automatically through the watch, and the researchers say the data are collected anonymously and in line with data protection rules. That reach has widened quickly. When the study opened on 28 May, only Garmin devices were compatible. Since then, the team has added 12 more brands: Apple Watch, Google Pixel Watch, Samsung Health, Withings, Fitbit, Oura, Polar, Amazfit, Coros, Whoop, Xiaomi Mi Fitness and Wahoo. …

New ultrasound sticker tracks fetal health in real time

New ultrasound sticker tracks fetal health in real time

Published by Jenni Sidey

The device could transform care for high-risk pregnancies, especially for conditions linked to poor blood flow and slow fetal growth. Unlike standard ultrasound exams that provide only brief snapshots, the new patch delivers continuous information while attached to the mother’s abdomen. The research involved testing the device in dozens of pregnant women. Scientists say the technology could help physicians detect serious complications earlier and make faster decisions when fetal health begins to decline. “There’s nothing similar to our device on the market or in the scientific literature,” said senior study author Sheng Xu, PhD, professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford Medicine. Overview of the UPatch. (CREDIT: Nature Biotechnology) Why Current Pregnancy Monitoring Falls Short Pregnancy complications tied to poor blood flow affect millions of families worldwide. One major condition, called intrauterine growth restriction, affects about 10% of pregnancies. In these cases, babies grow too slowly because they do not receive enough oxygen or nutrients through the placenta and umbilical cord. Doctors currently rely on Doppler ultrasound scans and cardiotocography to monitor fetal …

Wearable polygraph tracks hidden stress signals without wires

Wearable polygraph tracks hidden stress signals without wires

Published by Jenni Sidey

Stress can live in your body before your mind has words for it. Your heart shifts. Your breathing changes. Sweat glands wake up. Blood flow and skin temperature move in quiet patterns that can say something is wrong. Northwestern University engineers have now built a small wireless device that listens to those signals at once. The soft, bandage-like sensor sticks to the chest and works like a wearable polygraph. But it is not designed to catch lies. It is built to detect stress, pain and discomfort without wires, blood tests or saliva samples. The device measures heart activity, breathing, sweat response, blood flow and temperature. Together, those signals offer a fuller view of how the body reacts under pressure. “Sometimes, the body manifests signs of stress before a person is consciously aware of it,” said Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, who led the device development. Wireless, skin-interfaced multimodal system for continuous psychophysiological monitoring. (CREDIT: Science Advances) A Softer Way To Measure Stress The project began with a request from pediatricians at Ann & Robert H. Lurie …

Reprogrammable artificial muscle can change its shape, recover from damage, and even be reused

Reprogrammable artificial muscle can change its shape, recover from damage, and even be reused

Published by Jenni Sidey

Soft robots have long promised something rigid machines cannot easily deliver. They offer the ability to bend, flex, and handle the messy unpredictability of the real world. However, there has been a catch. Once many artificial muscles are built, they are stuck with the motions they were designed to make. A research team in South Korea says it has found a way around that problem. They created an artificial muscle that can be reshaped during use, recover after damage, and even have part of its material reused in another device. This advance could push soft robotics closer to systems that behave less like disposable tools. Furthermore, the systems may become more like adaptable machines. The work came from a joint team led by Prof. Jeong-Yun Sun of Seoul National University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Prof. Ho-Young Kim of the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering also led the team. The study appears in Science Advances. Yun Hyeok Lee, Seungwon Moon, and Min-gyu Lee served as first and co-first authors. Schematic of an rDEA and …