Health gadgets are hot sellers in pandemic
Fitness-tracking gadgets are selling out, home exercise classes have never been more popular and industrial robot designers are pivoting to making sanitation bots. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a seismic wave of health awareness and anxiety, which is energizing a new category of virus-fighting tech.
The fear of infection has accelerated the adoption of apps and wearables as a means to feel better protected. “Having accurate and immediate feedback about our body temperature, blood pressure and other health signals helps to restore people’s sense of control,” said Andy Yap, a social psychologist at the INSEAD business school.
Users, insurers and health-care providers are all seeing the benefit of health gadgets. That’s galvanizing the development of new devices by startups and gadget outfits in Asia, where the novel coronavirus first struck.
The Withings Thermo is a contactless thermometer that uses 16 sensors to take more than 4,000 measurements in 2 seconds — which it then syncs to a mobile app. It costs $99.95, but nobody can buy one until mid-April because inventory was depleted two weeks ago, according to the company.
Thermometer fever
Until the start of this year, CrucialTec Co. used to give away its thumb-sized thermometer dongle as a gift to clients. That all changed when “orders came pouring in after the virus outbreak,” said President Jay Yim, and the South Korean company’s now ramping up production with the goal of making “more than 500,000 within the first half of this year.”
Local governments in China, retailers in Japan and wholesalers in the U.S. are all putting in orders for the $65 Temon thermometer, and Yim expects Chinese smartphone makers to come out with prototype devices with the technology built in this fall. Sister company CrucialTrak, which sells the module, has seen orders for its touchless biometric ID solutions — facial, vein and iris scanning — rise fivefold after the initial outbreak.
Robot cleaning
Youibot Robotics Technologies Co. took 18 days to design and build a humanheight robot that can sanitize rooms using two ultraviolet lights as well as measure the body temperature of passers-by. The Shenzhen startup is looking to sell more than 200 of these robots in the first half of this year, said Cody Zhang, founder and CEO.
“A robot that fights virus pandemics is something new, but we are prepared because it was our goal to bring robotic equipment to emerging sectors,” said Zhang, who was born in 1992.
Bhrugu Pange, managing director at global consultants AArete, expects the surge in usage will lead to a domino effect producing lasting change.