Amazon is expanding its presence in the wellness market with the $140 Halo Rise, a new in-bed sleep tracker shipping later this year that doubles as a sunrise alarm clock. The launch comes after Amazon released its first Halo fitness tracker in 2020 and its sequel, called the Halo View, in 2021. It’s also another sign that Amazon and other tech giants are trying to fix the way we sleep.
The Halo Rise is designed to be an alternative to your Halo Band for those who prefer not to wear a wristband or smartwatch during the night but still want to monitor their sleep. Because it sits on your nightstand instead of your body, it can also gather information about environmental factors that might be affecting your sleep, according to Amazon.
The Halo Rise has no cameras or microphones. Instead, it uses low-energy sensors to detect the micro-movements that occur as you breathe. Amazon then uses machine learning to translate those movements into sleep stages and displays that data in the Halo app. The company says Halo Rise’s sleep algorithm has been trained and validated against polysomnography, the test commonly used by doctors to observe sleep patterns.
Also read: Amazon announced the Halo Rise during its annual fall product launch event on Wednesday, during which it also announced the Kindle Scribe, Fire TV Omni QLED, three new Echo Dot smart speakers and more .
Price: $35 Release date: November 2022
Alexa Voice Remote Pro’s secret weapon is the ability to locate your device with a voice command. It also has a motion-activated backlight and buttons you can program to open specific apps or execute Alexa commands.
Price: $140 Release date: Q4 2022
Designed to be an alternative to Amazon’s Halo Band for those who prefer not to wear a wristband or smartwatch at night, but still want to monitor their sleep, the Rise is a sunrise alarm clock with sensors that capture information about your movement and environment.
The launch of Halo Rise comes as sleep tracking has become a bigger focus area 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 was released on September 12. Both Fitbit and Samsung released sleep analytics features in the past year that look at long-term patterns. and cast an animal pet to symbolize the user’s sleep.
And Google, which owns Fitbit, incorporated sleep tracking into its second-generation Nest Hub starting in 2021. This device also uses contactless radar to track sleep stages, but it also needs to be a smart home device. smart multifunctional This is 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.
Amazon’s sleep-sensing gadget debuts at a time when the tech industry has come under scrutiny over how much personal data companies collect and how that information is protected. Amazon says Halo Rise sends breathing patterns and micromovements to the cloud where they are translated into sleep stages, but that data is encrypted in transit and in the cloud and automatically deleted after 10 days. Amazon also says that the data always remains on the device until a sleep session is initiated, and that it will not sell health data or use that information for marketing, product recommendations, or advertising.
Halo Rise owners will also be able to download and delete their health data just like with the Halo Band. Amazon says the device is trained to scan only the closest person and not other people or pets in the same bed. According to Amazon, Halo Rise’s algorithms are only trained to detect sleep and will not detect any other activity in the bedroom.
Now playing: Watch this: Watch all the products announced at Amazon’s device event
9:35
In terms of sleep-related metrics that the Halo Rise can muster, there’s not much that sets it apart from Amazon’s Halo Bands. Like Amazon’s wearables, it can tell you how long you’ve spent in certain stages of sleep and provide a sleep score that assesses your sleep quality. It also includes a six-month subscription to Amazon Halo, which normally costs $4 a month.
One of the biggest advantages of using the Halo Rise over the Halo Band, according to Amazon, is that you don’t need to wear anything to sleep to get that data. Unlike bands, the Halo Rise can also detect certain elements of your environment, such as humidity, temperature and light, that can make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Amazon has not said whether it plans to create new metrics or insights based on data from both Halo Rise and Halo Band.
Halo Rise can monitor sleep stages as well as environmental factors such as light and humidity.
Amazon
Because the Halo Rise is meant to be placed on the bedside table, it also doubles as an alarm clock and wake-up light. Amazon says it should wake you up at the optimal time based on your sleep stages. In addition to the environmental sensors mentioned above, the Halo Rise also includes a digital clock with physical buttons and a small speaker for the alarm. The wake-up light consists of 300 lux LEDs in the shape of a semicircle.
There’s no built-in Alexa functionality, as the Halo Rise was designed specifically for sleep. But if you have an Echo, you can pair it with the Halo Rise so you can ask Alexa how you slept or incorporate the Rise into your bedtime routine.
Releasing a device like the Halo Rise not only helps Amazon compete more closely with rivals like Google and Apple, but could also give the company an even stronger foothold at home. According to Strategy Analytics, Amazon accounted for 28.2% of the global smart speaker and smart display market as of the first quarter of 2022. Google is Amazon’s closest competitor, with 17.2% of the market during the same time period.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical or health advice. Always consult a doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you have about a medical condition or health goals.