i3 - May/June 2017 - 13

Tech

By Veronica A. Lancaster

PIPE LINE

The New
Working Group

Keep Calm, Check
Your Wearable

With this new focus on
stress management through
technology, CTA's Health &
Fitness Technology standardization committee just
launched the Consumer
Stress Monitoring Devices
Working Group. This new
working group is focused
on creating definitions and
performance standards for
consumer stress monitoring
technologies. Led by Ray
Krasinski, director of standardization at Philips, the
working group's first project
will be to create a standard
that defines terms related to
indicators relevant to stress
monitoring technologies.
This could lead to performance standards to measure
stress-related characteristics.
The Consumer Stress
Monitoring Working Group
is the latest effort under
health & fitness technology,
joining other standardization
efforts for consumer sleep
monitoring technology,
physical activity monitoring
technology, as well as interoperability for consumer
EEG data exchange.

Let's face it. We are a nation of stressed-out Americans.
We juggle work and home life, keeping many balls in the
air at once. While our always-connected technology is
increasing our availability and productivity it also impacts
our stress levels. The good news is technology also can
help to monitor and manage our stress.
The American Psychological Association's 2017
survey of how stress impacts American's health and
well-being includes a focus of how technology and
social media impacts stress levels. The survey
provides insight into our tech ownership and connectivity and found that 43 percent of Americans
constantly check their emails, texts and social media
accounts, and 18 percent believe the use of technology is a very or somewhat significant source of stress.
Why not turn the tables and use technology to
monitor stress? Health and fitness technology
manufacturers are doing just that. We have the
ability to track our steps, calorie intake, heart
rate and sleep, so it makes sense that we
should observe our stress levels. Companies
are diving into tracking stress through various measures helping us engage in our
overall well-being.

GET YOUR CALM ON
Spire

Fitbit's Charge 2

From the company of the same name, Spire is a wearable with
a focus on tracking breathing patterns to promote calm and decreasing stress. Spire tracks breathing patterns to identify when a user is
experiencing tension, is focused, or is in a state of calm by measuring
the expansion and contraction of the torso when inhaling and exhaling. Spire's app provides guidance to assist the user in destressing
through guidance on the user's breathing data. The app provides
real-time feedback to allow the user to better control breathing, but
also provides mindfulness and meditation techniques. spire.com

Diving into mindfulness by including a new feature called "Relax," Fitbit's
Charge 2 includes a five minute guided session to help you focus on deep
breathing techniques. The Charge 2 determines the most comfortable
breathing rate by measuring heart rate. The user gets biofeedback, animations and vibrations to help focus on inhaling and exhaling, providing feedback on how well the user did following the breathing exercise. fitbit.com

C TA . t e c h / i 3

LEARN MORE: visit standards.CTA.tech
or contact vlancaster@CTA.tech.
MAY/JUNE 2017

http://www.fitbit.com http://standards.CTA.tech http://www.spire.com http://cta.tech/i3

i3 - May/June 2017

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