Last month, we compiled a list of 9 companies that had new takes on self-tracking and were crowdfunding on Indiegogo. The list included Push, an armband that tracks force instead of just activity level, Angel, an open source activity tracker that lets the developer decide what the device should do, and TellSpec, a spectrometer-enabled food tracker.
Push passed its goal of $80,000 by $54,000 and Angel passed its goal of $100,000 by over $200,000, but besides Push, Angel and Tellspec, the rest of the companies on the last roundup did not reach their funding goals.
Since then, five other health products have been added to Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Many examples on this list also utilize different methods for health tracking and awareness, like a sensor that tracks sitting time instead of activity time and an algorithm that gets information from texting instead of an app to track nutrition.
ScanZ says it understands its user's skin, and that it can answer the three questions everyone with a blemish asks. One, 'when will it go away?', two, 'what should I do to make it go away faster', and three, 'if the user doesn't have a pimple, will he or she break out?' The system uses a device that scans the user's face and a companion app that answers these questions for the user. Algorithms within the app are based off Mayo Clinic's algorithms, which, ScanZ says, "mirror a dermatologist's process of solving skin problems." Users can track the progress of their blemishes on the app and also be prepared for what may happen in the future.
During the crowdfunding campaign, ScanZ is offering the device for $199, which is $50 off its retail price.
Instead of testing fitness through activity and nutrition, Skulpt Aim gives users a measurement of fat percentage and quality of muscle for biceps, triceps, abs, and thighs. The system includes a scanning device that users place on different parts of the body and a companion app that generates the information about the muscle located there. The device measures muscle quality by sending a "current" through the user's muscle and seeing how it flows. This indicates the muscle's strength and definition, according to the company.
Skulpt Aim is offering its product for $99, half off its planned retail price, for those who buy it through the Indiegogo campaign.
Until the crowdfunding campaign, Chronic Wellness Tracker was a website the aimed to help people with heart disease, diabetes, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders, and other chronic conditions. Because of the website's growth, the company decided to launch an app for iOS devices, but needs the Indiegogo campaign to help finance its development. The website offers people with chronic conditions a space to log their symptoms daily so that over time they can see trends in their progress over time. The company hopes to include navigation features, biometric data, a symptom log and results of tracking on the app.
Instead of tracking when a user is active, Rise tracks when a user is sitting. The device fits into a user's pocket and will send information to a companion app about the user's sitting trends. Users can compete with co-workers or friends to sit less and thus feel healthier, the company said. Rise also provides users with goals to reach and reminders from the app to do other things besides sit throughout the day.
The device costs $39 and people who order it through the campaign will get it early.
Using TextCalories is almost entirely a texting experience. People use their phones to text what they are eating, what they weigh and how much they are exercising. A program takes all the information and creates charts online for users to look at when they have time. The company aims to help users avoid searching through hundreds of foods in a database, and instead just send a quick summary of foods to the allotted phone number. TextCalories! also lets the user send pictures of food to the blog. The company will use the money from the crowdfunding campaign to build better algorithms and databases for the product.
