Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Fashionable Bracelet Named Olive Alerts You When You’re Stressed Out and Recommends Ways to Calm Down

Is high stress getting you down? Well, a new wearable tech product named “Olive” may be just what the doctor ordered.

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Billed as “an intelligent bracelet that helps you manage stress,” Olive is designed with tiny sensors that monitor heart rate, skin conductance, skin temperature, sleeping patterns and muscle tension.

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The bracelet can even interact with your smartphone to analyze lifestyle activities through the calendar, locator and other data.

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If Olive finds the user to be in a stressful situation, it not only nudges the user with gentle taps (haptic feedback) or LED lights, but also recommends simple de-stressing exercises and strategies to bring the body back into balance.

It can be synced with a smartphone or operated in standalone mode. In the photo at the top of this post, a smartphone displays Olive's monitoring of a user's heart rate and body temperature while offering a personalized "Good morning" greeting and giving an overall stress rating of "9.1 Stellar."

The bracelets come in a number of materials, colors, textures and styles, including a special Heirloom Edition in 18-karat gold. The standard version is expected to retail for $150. The Heirloom Edition sells for $1,000.

The Olive team, led by founder and CEO Hiro Ellis, designed the bracelet to be unobtrusive and beautiful, while having the ability to be dressed up or down to reflect the user’s personality or the occasion.

Olive is currently undergoing a crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo.com with the original aim of raising $100,000 before November 9. As of yesterday, the Olive team had already raised $108,749 from 741 funders. See the campaign here…

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Olive comes with a standard USB charger, and there’s an optional upgrade to a Pedestal Charger that holds the bracelet upright.

Olive, which is expected to go into production in the summer of 2015, is just one in a wave of new products in the burgeoning wearable tech market.

• In February, we introduced you to the Cuff, a line of high-tech jewelry that could instantly alert your “protective circle” of a potential emergency while transmitting a map of your exact location.

• In June, we reviewed Ringly, a “smart” ring designed to blink or vibrate depending on whether you’re receiving a call, push notification or reminder.

• In August, we brought you the QBracelet, stylish wristwear that doubles as a back-up battery for your smartphone.

• And in September, we showed you the new Apple Watch that promises to manage your fitness, monitor your heartbeat, plan your diet, check your stocks, connect with social media, give you directions, unlock the door of your hotel room — and even tell you the time.

We can only imagine what will come next.

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