
Welcome to this week's And finally, the place to find out what else has been happening in the world of wearables.
Hitting the headlines this week, a photograph appears on Instagram that could have given us our first look at the Apple Watch Series 5 leak, a new Casio smartwatch that finally gets heart rate monitoring skills and news that the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is already n the works.
Read more: Best smartwatches to buy
Read on, though, if you still need another hit of news - we've rounded up some of the lighter and smaller stories from the last week. Of course, keep an eye on our dedicated news page for all the stories as they appear.
Huami confirms Amazfit Smart Sports Watch 3 is coming soon
Huami has had a busy 2019 so far, showcasing a host of new wearables, from the Amazfit Verge 2 and the next generation Amazfit Bip. Now, via a Weibo post, Huami's VP has shared a render (image above) of its next wearable, the Amazfit Smart Sports Watch 3.
The watch looks very much like it's imitating the design of the Apple Watch Series 4. There aren't any details yet confirmed about its tracking abilities or design, beyond this image, but we expect these to follow in due course.
At the moment, Amazfit's new watch is set to be unveiled in China on 27 August, but we're hopeful that IFA could see an announcement about European releases for it and some of Huami's other devices.
Check out our pick of the best cheap smartwatches to buy right now.
Huawei launches a fitness tracker just for ballers in China
Huawei has detailed its latest sport-specific tracker, the Huawei Band 4e Basketball Wizard Edition, perhaps our favourite device name of the year so far.
The tracker has a 14-day battery life, and is a straightforward iteration on last year's Band 3e, itself a lower-spec version of the impressive Band 3. With stylish fabric straps and the option to clip the band onto your clothes or shoes, it can show notifications from your paired phone alongside its tracking features.
If you're into your basketball, you'll like the new “Basketball Data Monitoring” function, which Huawei says can track data such as vertical jump, flight time, maximum sprint speed, and bounce number, all of which sound pretty great.
Have a read of our list of the best budget fitness trackers right now.
Stick-on smart patch could show the future of wearable tracking
A team of brains from Stanford University have detailed a wearable patch it's developed that could be a huge breakthrough for health monitoring.
Looking like a semi-transparent sticking plaster, the patch can track movement, heart rate, and breathing and does all of it without any wires, batteries or even circuits. Don't ask us how, just trust that it works.
The scientists are calling the patch Bodynet, and it transfers its data to a receiver by RFID through an ingenious antenna made out of metallic ink. This receiver then uses Bluetooth to send the data on to a smartphone or computer as desired. With a patch like this hardly inconveniencing the wearer at all, this could be a hint at the future of lightweight tracking tech.
The team are aiming to track sweat and temperature with the patch next, and to explore possible uses in the medical field.
We spoke to startup Humm about its memory-boosting smart patch.
Wearable monitor could help predict outbursts in people with autism
A team from Northeaster University has come up with an interesting tracker device that could help people with autism and their caregivers to mitigate the downsides of outbursts.
To help people with autism communicate their distress to their carer before an outburst arrives, the tracker monitors a person’s heart rate, skin temperature, sweat production and arm movements. It then maps these data points against a clock to predict outbursts one minute ahead of time, with an 84% rate of accuracy. That minute can help carers to soothe the person in question, or to remove the provocation entirely.
It's great to see a wearable tracker potentially helping families and individuals to improve their lives and wellbeing like this.
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