Amazon introduces Halo fitness bracelet with focus on health measurements

Amazon has released its first fitness bracelet, under the name Halo Band. The device is accompanied by software to measure the health of the user, which includes voice analysis and calculation of the fat percentage.

The Halo Band does not have a screen on board, so health measurements must be read via a linked smartphone. Support for Android and iOS is built-in. Amazon has equipped the fitness bracelet with an accelerometer, a heart rate monitor, two microphones and an LED. Despite the presence of two microphones, Amazon has not built in support for the Alexa voice service.

The device takes measurements in different ways; the user’s activities are tracked, sleep quality can be measured and it is possible to measure body fat percentage using the smartphone camera. To do this, a 3d image of the body is made via a number of photos, after which calculations are done by Amazon’s software. According to the manufacturer, this is just as accurate as a fat percentage measurement at the general practitioner.

It is also possible to have the voice analyzed via the built-in microphones. For example, the Halo software can recognize stress in the voice, and Amazon says the feature should help users better understand how they appear to other people.

There is also built-in support for Labs, a component where third parties can offer their own measurements, exercises or challenges through the bracelet. For example, there are all kinds of exercises from health organizations that can be turned on.

Amazon is the first to release the Halo Band in the United States, where it is still in an early access program for the time being. The bracelet then costs $ 65 instead of the usual $ 100, which includes a six-month subscription to the Halo service. After that, it costs $ 4 per month. Without a Halo subscription, users can only count steps, analyze sleep patterns and measure heart rate. It is not yet known when the Halo Band will come to Europe.