Wearable device maker Jawbone announced that the company is looking into developing ingestible sensors, wearables that will be in the users' bloodstream. CEO Hosain Rahman says that once the sensor is swallowed, it would be able to analyse and collect the necessary data from your body.
There are already a huge variety of wearable devices available in the market. They may come in the form of eyeglasses, watches, fitness bands and even smaller pieces that can be attached to clothing. Wearables perform different functions all intended to cater to users' needs to track personal data. But now, a new kind of wearable may not even be seen, or even worn.
According to a report from Mashable, the ingestibles are sensors that "pass through you", and by doing so, collect data from within. Rahman further explains that the wearable device has an unspoken role. No matter how much data it contains, the device will not be able to tell precisely what state its user is in.
"No matter how smart my thermostat is, it has no idea if I'm hot or cold," Rahman said. The CEO believes that devices can do more in terms of data tracking. Hence, Jawbone is working into making such wearables that can go deeper, literally and figuratively. The swallowable sensors will be able to analyse collected data, accoiding to a report from New York Magazine. There may be shorter-term ingestibles which users can "pass" after a certain period of time, and there may also be those which will stick around the bloodstream for long.
Rahman further explains that there's a corresponding app for pretty much anything and everything, but none of them are able to tell users what they really need. "What I really want it to do is know I'm in this mood, and the lights should go here, or that I'm in this state, and I want the temperature there or I'm going to bed and I want the temperature to go here, " Rahman said. The CEO believes that wearables are going to be "at the center" of such a development.
Jawbone is not the only company working on smart pills. Google has been reported to be developing ingestibles that detect diseases on a cellular level. The FDA has also already approved swallowable in 2012. The ingestibles are currently available only in the medical realm. Who knows, maybe one day people will be able to get them at Best Buy.
