USA – Amazon has unveiled a new bedside sleep-tracking device, Halo Rise, expanding its lineup of consumer health devices beyond wristbands for the first time.
Amazon’s sleep-sensing gadget is debuting at a time when the tech industry has come under scrutiny over the amount of personal data companies collect and how that information is protected.
Amazon, which has faced scrutiny over its handling of consumer data, quickly offered assurances that the information in the Halo Rise device will be kept safe — saying the “health data is encrypted in transit and at rest in the cloud and is automatically deleted after 10 days.”
Amazon also says the data always stays on the device until a sleep session is initiated, and that it won’t sell health data or use such information for marketing, product recommendations, or advertising.
Halo Rise uses a radar sensor and low-power radio signals to detect the small movements and patterns — including the subtle rise and fall of a blanket as a person breathes — that indicate different stages of sleep, providing a sleep score and detailed hypnogram charting each night’s sleep in the Halo smartphone app.
The Halo Rise would be the latest device in Amazon’s Halo line, which includes a fitness tracker that can track physical activity and sleeping patterns.
Amazon noted the device can connect with its virtual assistant, Alexa, and allow users to wake up to their favorite songs, and a light that “simulates the colors and gradual brightening of a sunrise.”
Halo Rise is scheduled to be released later this year in the United States for US$139.99. It includes a six-month Amazon Halo membership (normally US$3.99/month), which comes with content and programs for improving sleep, in addition to other health and exercise-related features.
The Halo Rise’s launch comes as sleep tracking has become a bigger area of focus for tech companies.
Apple, for example, brought the ability to monitor different stages of sleep to the Apple Watch with its WatchOS 9 software update, which launched on Sept. 12.
Fitbit and Samsung both launched sleep analysis features over the past year that examine long-term patterns and issue an animal mascot to symbolize the user’s sleep.
And Google, which owns Fitbit, built sleep tracking into its second-generation Nest Hub from 2021. That device similarly uses contactless radar to observe stages of sleep, but it’s meant to be a multifunctional smart home device too.
That’s unlike the Halo Rise, which was only designed with sleep in mind. While the lack of a microphone is comforting from a privacy standpoint, it also means the Halo Rise can’t detect snoring or coughing like the Nest Hub.
The new device highlights the company’s ever-growing move to integrate its technology in consumers’ lives, and broaden its reach into wellness.
Its healthcare ambitions have grown over the years, seen most recently in its planned US$3.9 billion acquisition of the primary care organization One Medical.
The deal is currently under review by the Federal Trade Commission.
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