Amazon launches Amazon Halo Band that detects body fat, listens to you

Amazon today entered into the fitness smartwatch market with a new Amazon Halo Band and a dedicated subscription service to help customers improve their health and wellness.

The new smart band features a suite of AI-powered health insights via the new Amazon Halo app. Maulik Majmudar, Principal Medical Officer, Amazon Halo, said "We are using Amazon's deep expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer customers a new way to discover, adopt, and maintain personalized wellness habits".

"Amazon Halo combines the latest medical science, highly accurate data via the Halo Band sensors, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence to offer a more comprehensive approach to improving your health and wellness," he added.

Amazon Halo Band

Amazon Halo Band, which doesn't have a screen like smartwatches and fitness trackers, has a small sensor capsule which includes an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart rate monitor, two microphones, an LED indicator light, and a button to turn mic on or off. Amazon Halo Band is also water-resistant and its battery lasts for up to seven days. Customers can choose from three fabric band colours, with additional fabric and silicone sport bands available in 15 colours.

Amazon Halo app

The new Amazon Halo app has features like activity and sleep tracking. It also suggests a list of personalised challenges, experiments, and workouts for users and will detect tone and determine how positive you sound.

Apart from that, the new band will monitor your body weight using a machine learning tool. Users can measure their body fat percentage at home and the company claims that the results are accurate and more reliable than the home scales.

On user privacy and security, Amazon said, "Multiple layers of privacy and security are built into the service to keep data safe and in customers' control". Users can download or delete their data at any time directly from the app.

Amazon Halo is currently available only in the US and is priced at $64.99 for 6 months of Halo membership. The Halo app is available on iOS and Android.

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