The largest retailer in the world is debuting a smartwatch that tracks users’ emotions and vital signs.
Amazon announced on Thursday the introduction of its Halo product, a $99.99 wristband that uses a person’s camera to calculate body fat and includes a microphone to monitor the expressiveness of a user’s voice.
The band also includes a heart rate monitor, a temperature sensor, and an accelerometer that can help track sleep patterns and steps taken throughout the day.
Amazon officials said data will be encrypted to protect a user’s privacy and added that the Halo band would not undergo testing from the Food and Drug Administration because the band “is not a medical device.” A subscription to the service will cost users $3.99 per month, and an early-market version of the Halo band was released Thursday.
The Halo band connects to an app on a user’s phone, where a prompt instructs users to upload four photos of their body (preferably in underwear) to model a full-body physical image of the user. The four photos are sent to Amazon servers, where employees create a 3D rendering of the user’s body. Amazon officials said that the images are then deleted from their servers.
The Halo band will include a microphone dedicated to listening to the sound of a user’s voice throughout the day. Users are prompted to read a line of text when first activating the voice tone feature, which allows the band to model a user’s passive voice. Amazon will compile the different tones in a person’s voice based on rhythm, intensity, pitch, and tempo throughout the day and apply labels such as hesitant, confused, elated, apologetic, happy, worried, and affectionate that users can review at a later time.
The microphone can be turned off at any time, and Amazon said that all personal data will be accessible and deletable at a person’s request. Although this is not Amazon’s first foray into the healthcare market, it is its first wearable offering and is expected to compete with the Apple Watch.
