IIT-Madras startup developing wearable tracker to fast detect COVID-19

An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras-incubated startup Muse Wearables is developing a wrist-based tracker with skin temperature, heart rate and SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation) sensing which can continuously track these body vitals remotely that will help in early diagnosis of COVID-19 symptoms.

The tracker is Bluetooth-enabled and can be connected to the mobile phone via an app called the 'Muse Health App'. The user vitals and activity data are stored on the phone as well as a remote server.

Priced at around Rs 3,500, the new wearable product will soon be deployed in the market for consumers across all the 70 countries that the startup currently sells in.

The startup hopes to be able to bring out the first batch of finalised products in the next 20 days.

The tracker can get notifications from the Aarogya Setu App and raise an alert to the user when he enters a COVID containment zone.

According to the Institute, Muse Wearables has already completed product design for the tracker and are now working on finalizing and fabricating the product.

Muse Wearables was incubated by IIT Madras Incubation Cell.

"They have quickly mobilised and repurposed their offerings in response to the situation and are striving to make a positive contribution to the nation's anti-virus efforts," Dr Tamaswati Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, IIT Madras Incubation Cell, said in a statement.

The wearable tracker's major objective is to enable remote detection of COVID-19 and Monitoring of COVID-19 patients by providing a low-cost solution that is accessible to everyone.

The unique features of the product include remote monitoring of patient vitals by doctors and experts, automatic alerts and emergency response system if a user's vitals are out of range, It also includes automatic activity tracking (steps, calories, distance), automatic sleep tracking and long battery life (up to 4 weeks on a single charge).

Users can raise an Emergency Alert (SOS) in case of any difficulty and the alert raised when body temperature is higher than the threshold. Alerts are also raised when SpO2 levels are too low or when the user is entering into a COVID containment area.