Michal Ždanský Apple continues to strengthen the ranks among health and fitness experts. Last week, information surfaced that Dr. Michael O'Reilly of Masimo, an expert in measuring pulse and blood oxygen levels, had joined the company in July. Now the server 9to5Mac came with the information that Apple managed to acquire another expert in the field of healthcare. He is Roy JEM Raymann of Philips Research.
This company deals with sleep research and its monitoring at a non-pharmaceutical level. Raymann himself founded the Phillips Sleep Experience Laboratory, where research is conducted on various aspects of sleep and monitoring. Projects he has been involved in include, for example, sleep modification through means other than medical devices. Furthermore, he also participated in the research of wearable sensors on the body and their miniaturization.
Sleep monitoring in conjunction with a smart alarm clock is one of the popular functions of some fitness bracelets, such as FitBit. If Apple really plans to monitor biometric features on a large scale and record them in the app Healthbook in iOS 8, as suggested by previous speculations coming from sources 9to5Mac, tracking the progress of sleep with a smart alarm could be one of the key functions, at least in the area of health.
Since the experts are being hired only recently, it shows that the project Apple is working on is far from complete. Although it is expected that Apple should introduce a smart watch or bracelet this year, but according to these indications, it will be in the second half of 2014 at the earliest. If the device is to be closely connected with the iPhone, the most logical thing would be to present it together with the new generation of the phone. Likewise, iOS 8 will be officially launched at that time, which is supposed to be of fundamental importance for the recording of biometric functions.
