A London startup has announced a $200 bracelet that can tell you how happy you are
Vinaya
The Shoreditch-based company, which has raised $3 million from a range of big-name investors, including Bebo cofounder Michael Birch and former Index Ventures investor Robin Klein, makes fashionable wearable devices that send you subtle alerts and help you leave your smartphone in your pocket.
Founded as Kovert Designs in 2013, Vinaya has previously made vibrating rings, necklaces, and bracelets.
The company believes people are finding it difficult to hear their own thoughts and emotions in today's "always on" world.
Kate Unsworth, cofounder and CEO of Vinaya, told Business Insider: "What we're doing [with Zenta] is profiling people very specifically and helping them to understand their own physiological responses to situations.
"The purpose of this [Zenta] is to collect data from all different aspects of your life. So not just your biometrics (heart rate variability, electrodermal activity, and blood oxygen levels) but also how many emails are you sending? Who to? How much time to you spend on social media? How many meetings do you have a day? Who are you spending your time with? [We] cross-reference all of those data points with your location, the weather, which emojis you use. Over time, it will build up a profile of you and your own emotional responses to situations."
Vinaya
The insights from the Zenta device are delivered to the user through a paired app on their smartphone, which is underpinned by an analytics platform that the company has been making for the last 18 months, according to Unsworth. The app takes the data collected by the Zenta wristband and plots it on what Vinaya calls an "emotion index" to determine the user's "emotional state."
Zenta has an RRP of $199 (£135) but it can be bought for $99 (£67) via the company's 20-day Indiegogo campaign, which it launched on Wednesday with the hope of raising over $100,000.
However, those that want to get their hands on a Zenta will have to wait almost a year, with products not shipping until March 2017.
Like many other technology startups, Vinaya is aiming to take advantage of machine learning and AI. The company says that its machine learning algorithms build up a profile of the wearer over time, helping them to understand what impacts them most in their daily lives.
Vinaya envisions that people will take these insights and use them to structure their lives in a way that increases productivity and happiness, while reducing stress.
Vinaya said Zenta features will include:
- Visual emotion sharing
- Stress, happiness, and mood tracking
- Activity tracking
- Sleep tracking
- Interactive breathing and mindfulness exercises
- Notification management
- Contactless payments
- Unique bio identification
- Mensturation/fertility tracking
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