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- Verily would seek to market connected shoes that detect falls
Verily would seek to market connected shoes that detect falls
Verily, Google’s life science affiliate of Alphabet, is working on a connected shoe concept that can monitor weight, movement, and detect the fall of the wearer. The goal of Verily smart health shoe is to equip shoes with different sensors to monitor the movements, weight and falls of the person wearing them.
Such shoes could be used by older people to detect a fall. A feature now integrated into the new Apple Watch Series 4 that suggests the existence of a niche to exploit. In addition, the movement and weight tracking can be used to detect a lack of activity and be backed by an accompanying application for fitness. Formerly Google Life Sciences, Verily became a subsidiary of Alphabet in 2015. She also works on an electronic spoon capable of reducing the tremors of sick people and a contact lens that can improve vision.
Verily smart health shoe
The idea would be to control the weight supported and the movements, in order to be able to detect the falls. In such a case, an alert would be sent to a privileged contact. Still according to CNBC, Verily would be looking for a partner to work on this project and ultimately market it. In addition to the risk of falling, these shoes that would also serve as a scale, could alert on sudden weight gain. Seniors are obviously the first concerned by this project.
This project, as ambitious as it is, is however not so original since other companies have already worked on the subject, like the French start-up E-vone, which already proposes a connected shoe with detection of fall Automatic and geolocation both indoors and outdoors.
However, this shoe would be just one example of a multitude of projects related to medical equipment. Among those Verily has already communicated include “smart” lenses or cutlery for people with Parkinson’s disease.
In early January 2019, Verily announced that he had raised $ 1 billion in a fundraiser led by the Silver Lake fund. This contribution should in particular allow it to invest in strategic partnerships or acquire companies. Verily would be looking for partners to co-develop and market connected shoes.
While Verily has paused her connected diabetes lens project with Novartis, the former Google Life Sciences has partnered with Nikon, Sanofi and GSK.