Amazon may be working on an Alexa-enabled device that can track sleep and detect sleep apnea, according to a Business Insider report.
Citing anonymous sources and an internal Amazon document, Business Insider says the device is the size of a person’s palm and looks like a hexagonal pad with a metal wire base. It must be placed on a person’s bedside table. The interesting thing is that the device is supposed to be non-contact, using millimeter wave radar to track breathing and movement during sleep and to detect if someone may have sleep apnea. The device is also likely to connect to other devices, as well as have a companion app for notifications. Internally, the project is called “Brahms”, in honor of the composer Johannes Brahms. You know, the guy famous for writing lullabies, possibly because he too, suffered from obstructive sleep apnea.
The report goes on to note that last year, Amazon expanded the team responsible for building this device and plans to build a “sleep analysis” program that goes beyond sleep apnea.
Gizmodo contacted Amazon about the Business Insider report, but did not receive an immediate response.
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If true, this is not terribly surprising news. In the past few months, Amazon has repeatedly signaled that it is interested in expanding its health and wearable technology business. Since November, Amazon launched its Amazon pharmacy service, fitness monitoring features added for your echo buttons, and also launched areola, your first fitness tracker.
The fact that Amazon may target sleep apnea also makes sense. Sleep tracking devices are not new and, to differentiate themselves, Amazon would likely offer a feature that is currently not available. Of the medical conditions that health and wearable technology may be able to detect, sleep apnea is still at stake, affects an estimate 22 million Americansand it is not particularly easy to officially diagnose. Apple claimed its bet on atrial fibrillation through an ECG app in 2018 with the Apple Watch Series 4 – and it took until 2020 for Fitbit and Samsung to recover. Samsung has focused heavily on monitoring blood pressure. Meanwhile, Fitbit has been working for years on the possibility of detecting sleep apnea, starting with the introduction of SpO2 sensors in its Ionic smart watch. However, it was not until the beginning of 2020 when it finally launched its estimated oxygen variation metric. At that time, Fitbit noticed that it was seeking FDA authorization for a sleep apnea detection feature. Withings also announced his ScanWatch smartwatch last year, which also claimed to detect sleep apnea, although it is still pending FDA approval. Here we are, a year later, and crickets.
In addition, sleep tracking has become an increasingly desirable feature, although general accuracy questions. Apple finally added native sleep tracking with watchOS 7 in 2020. Usable sleep tracking focused on recovery, like Shout and the Oura Ring Besides that grabbed headlines last year, partly because these devices were being used in studies to see if they could detect covid-19. In any case, the global sleep tracking devices market is expected to grow almost 16% to $ 43.5 billion in 2026. You know that Amazon wants a piece of it.