Google’s love affair with with smart wearables continues with its latest one aimed specifically at medical patients.
On Tuesday, Google (GOOG) unveiled to Bloomberg a new health tracking band developed by Google X — the research arm headed by company co-founder Sergey Brin. The band can be used in clinical trials and drug tests, and will provide physicians with minute-by-minute data on patients. It can measure pulse, heart rhythm, skin temperature, light exposure and noise levels.
Google and many other companies have released dozens of consumer-grade fitness tracking bands in the past few years, but people have generally not worn these reliably enough for medical tracking. Conrad’s team hopes that an extra-accurate band can help provide better data for researchers and physicians.
This isn’t Google X’s first foray into medical devices — the division is working on a smart contact lens that could help diabetic patients monitor glucose levels, and last year it acquired Lift Labs, a startup developing a motored spoon for people suffering from tremors.