Weartech-Comms / Bluetooth / Wireless

More lifestyle coaching than mere wearable devices, Cloudtag has launched its Cloudtag Track frictionless, wearable device, developed in collaboration with imec, the nanoelectronics research centre.
The fitness tracker combines fitness and health monitoring with design, it says, for fitness and the care, cure and prevention cycle by providing immediate access to medical data and personalised feedback.
imec developed algorithms for the medical technology company’s wearable sensor devices that enable accurate monitoring of physiological parameters. Cloudtag Track is its first wearable multi-sensor device. It is light and small, yet integrates a proprietary algorithm that retrieves physiological parameters with what the company claims is “an exceptionally high level of accuracy”. The algorithm recognises activity, measures energy expenditure, heart rate and other physiological data.

Smartphones and wearables can be used to authenticate IoT devices, home-automation applications, and secure data storage via Bluetooth Smart technology. STMicroelectronics and ClevX, an IP developer for portable storage and mobile device manufacturers have announced what they believe is the world’s first DataLock-secured encrypted portable storage media with Bluetooth Smart wireless user-authentication.
For the first time, users can interact with secure portable storage (full-disk, XTS-AES 256bit encryption) from smartphones or wearable devices where all user data on the drive is encrypted and can be locked or unlocked using single- or multi-factor authentication. The technology is suited for healthcare, home automation and security, secure-access control systems, and portable data storage.
Luca Difalco, VP of marketing, STMicroelectronics’ Americas region said: “While we’re demonstrating the capability in an easy-to-use hardware-encrypted secure USB-Drive, the elegance and versatility of the solution is provided by an application that we can add to our BlueNRG device to make lock-down security accessible via Bluetooth Smart.”
The two companies have reference designs for secure portable storage media, including flash, hard-disk, and solid-state disk drives. They use ST’s Bluetooth Smart chips (BlueNRG) and low power STM32L0 MCUs and are immediately available for licensing and partnerships, including both ST/ClevX-based hardware and firmware in addition to the related smartphone and wearables apps.
The reference designs are OS-host agnostic. USB drives with the DataLock BT technology operate across all computer platforms and embedded systems while providing various easy-to-use security layers (including a wireless lock/unlock mechanism, phone as an authentication factor, phone + PIN, or phone + PIN + userID/location/time). The reference designs support USB Remote Management, for corporate deployments and remote password resets, drive disabling and erasing, and successful implementation of corporate-wide policies.
Lev Bolotin, Founder/CEO, ClevX, LLC notes: “Using ST and ClevX technologies, the DataLock BT Security solution protects data on a USB. . . Consumers, healthcare workers, mobile professionals, and corporations can improve their productivity and security on-the-go by using their phones to authenticate themselves to their USB drives and change security options, as required.”

TE Connectivity’s USB Type-C receptacle is available from Mouser Electronics.
The mid-mount connector provides data, power, and audio/video connectivity and transmission functions. The receptacle complies with USB Type-C specifications and is small enough for handheld devices yet robust enough for industrial applications, says the company.
It features a reversible mating interface designed to accept a plug in any direction and supports a variety of protocols and, with the use of adapters, is backwards-compatible to HDMI, VGA, DisplayPort and other types of connections from the single USB Type-C port. The connector supports scalable power charging, delivering up to 100W at 20V, and meets USB 3.1 protocols, giving it high throughput speeds up to 10Gbit/s plus backward-compatibility with USB 3.1 Gen 1, Gen 2 and USB 2.0.
It also features enhanced EMI shielding on the receptacle shell to help eliminate unwanted leakage and offers additional connector board retention features compared to the industry standard footprint. The receptacle can be used in factory automation, power chargers, medical devices, automotive infotainment systems, smartphones, tablets and wearable devices.
http://www.mouser.com/new/teconnectors/te-connectivity-usb-type-c/

Two Bluetooth ICs with built-in Flash ROM, one with the option of integrated NFC Tag functionality, have been announced by Toshiba. The TC35676FTG/FSG IC and TC35675XBG have been designed for use in wearable devices, healthcare devices, smart phone accessories, sensors, remote controllers, beacons, and toys.