Supercapacitors power real time health tag vibration alerts

8th January 2018

CAP-XX Ltd

Lanna Deamer

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Developer of supercapacitors that deliver power to support/replace batteries, CAP-XX has announced that Spire has incorporated CAP-XX Thinline supercapacitors into the Spire Health Tag to provide the power needed for delivering real time wellness vibration alerts to consumers. Offloading this power role to the thin, flat supercapacitor allows Spire to keep the battery small to achieve the ultra-thin form factor of its wearable fitness biosensor that attaches to clothes once, can be washed as normal, and needs no charging.

Spire will demonstrate its Spire Health Tag at CES booth 43706.

The tag’s 3V coin cell battery continuously trickle charges the CAP-XX Thinline HA114 supercapacitor (0.8mm thin, 120 millifarads, 130 milli-Ohms), which then provides the peak power (100 milliamps initially, dropping to 40 milliamps for 400 milliseconds) for driving the motor that delivers vibration alerts that consumers can set to help manage stress or monitor their heart rate.

Spire Health Tag aims to disappear unless it has something important to say in the moment. The tags use advanced algorithms, deep learning and proprietary respiratory sensors to provide personalized, real time health guidance for sleep, stress and daily activity by continuously analysing breath and heart rate inflection points.

Users set their goals in the accompanying mobile app’s stay active, reduce stress, sleep better, get fit, stay calm and heart health programs. Spire’s Health Insights Engine monitors patterns and then suggests actions to help users toward their goals, either on the app, or via physical vibration alerts for monitoring more critical situations like an athlete’s heart rate or potential panic attacks.

Users set their own thresholds and frequencies for their vibration alerts. If Spire detects bio-signals related to stress or another specific health variable in the user’s breathing pattern, it sends a vibration alert.

The supercapacitor’s low leakage current (less than 1µA) helps maximise the non-replaceable coin cell battery’s life, which will last about 18 months. Users can return expired tags to Spire and get a discount on replacements, and Spire will recycle and reuse all components and materials.

The tags are to ship in March and are available for pre-order at $99 (three pack), $199 (eight pack), or $299 (15 pack).