Bringing open source to wearables

Lua’s efficient syntax streamlines the development process, augments Angel Sensor’s ultra-low energy consumption, and ultimately provides greater flexibility to developers, maximising the potential for a new generation of health and IoT apps.

Angel Sensor wristbands are built to generate innovation in the mobile health space and IoT world. To date, the company has released two models of wristbands - the original Angel Sensor and Angel Sensor M1. Both devices monitor heart rate, skin temperature, activity, calories and sleep quality. The first in the maker series, the M1, is designed to run apps in Lua. With this capacity, Angel Sensor will be able to host third party apps, algorithms and services in real time.

Lua is a scripting language typically used in multi-player games, IT and academic research. Today, most embedded devices execute hundreds of thousands of lines of low level code in C or C++. In comparison, fully fledged apps for Angel Sensor, using Lua’s language, may contain as little as a few hundred lines of code.

“Lua is an incredibly versatile language, and being able to run it on our ultra-low energy wearable platform is unprecedented,” commented co-founder and CTO of Angel Sensor, Eugene Jorov. “We are confident that by supporting Lua, we will make the new Angel Sensor irresistible to health app developers and researchers. Looking ahead to 2016, we plan to switch our application model entirely to Lua with the intention that developers use it to build IoT devices from scratch.”