What is Embr Wave?
Designed by MIT-trained scientists, the Embr Wave is a wearable that's literally like no other. Rather than taking calls, delivering electric shocks, counting steps or just telling the time, Embr Wave promises to act as a body thermostat: warming you up, or cooling you down with a single press.
Of course, it's not a boiler/air conditioner unit: that would be both expensive to operate, and would eat through batteries like no portable hardware since the Game Gear. Rather, this tricks your brain with direct conductive heating or cooling on the skin. You know when you have a hot drink in the cold and you feel warmer? It's a bit like that.
It's “We were frustrated by always being too cold in a laboratory with too much air conditioning,”, Embr Wave's David Cohen-Tanugi tells me via email. “After winning the MADMEC competition at MIT, we received hundreds of emails from people who are perpetually bothered by temperature when everybody else is comfortable. Since then, our project has been backed by Bose Ventures and Intel Capital.”
“When you activate a warming or cooling session, Embr Wave changes temperature on your wrist, delivering waves of thermal relief for 3-5 minutes, which is usually long enough for you to stop thinking about the temperature,” he continues. “Embr Wave is powered by a rechargeable battery, and lasts 25 sessions or more on a single charge.
“Our main challenge was to develop a product that would provide powerful enough sensations of warmth and cold in an attractive wearable form factor. In order to do this, we had combine disciplines as diverse as biomedical engineering, product design, mechanical engineering, psychology, and neuroscience.”
“Attractive,” is of course a subjective viewpoint – but when I ask if the bulkiness of it could be reduced in future iterations, I'm met with disagreement that it needs it. “We're proud of how much we've been able to shrink down the technology, and we think customers will like it too.” Fair enough.
Why should I care?
Maybe you don't right now, but next time you feel a bit too chilly because the office air conditioning is on too high (my Alphr colleagues definitely know what I'm talking about), then you'll definitely long for something like this on your wrist.
And even if you don't, you have to say that this is the kind of madcap, outside the box thinking that Kickstarter was made for. Bravo Embr Wave.
How much and when would I get it?
Of course, admiring the inventiveness of something and stumping up cash to be the first in line to have one delivered are two very different things, and the price may be a bar to some interested parties. Right now, you can get an Embr Wave for $219 (~£167) – that's 27% off the final retail price ($299 or around £228).
Designed by MIT-trained scientists, the Embr Wave is a wearable that's literally like no other. Rather than taking calls, delivering electric shocks, counting steps or just telling the time, Embr Wave promises to act as a body thermostat: warming you up, or cooling you down with a single press.
Of course, it's not a boiler/air conditioner unit: that would be both expensive to operate, and would eat through batteries like no portable hardware since the Game Gear. Rather, this tricks your brain with direct conductive heating or cooling on the skin. You know when you have a hot drink in the cold and you feel warmer? It's a bit like that.
It's “We were frustrated by always being too cold in a laboratory with too much air conditioning,”, Embr Wave's David Cohen-Tanugi tells me via email. “After winning the MADMEC competition at MIT, we received hundreds of emails from people who are perpetually bothered by temperature when everybody else is comfortable. Since then, our project has been backed by Bose Ventures and Intel Capital.”
“When you activate a warming or cooling session, Embr Wave changes temperature on your wrist, delivering waves of thermal relief for 3-5 minutes, which is usually long enough for you to stop thinking about the temperature,” he continues. “Embr Wave is powered by a rechargeable battery, and lasts 25 sessions or more on a single charge.
“Our main challenge was to develop a product that would provide powerful enough sensations of warmth and cold in an attractive wearable form factor. In order to do this, we had combine disciplines as diverse as biomedical engineering, product design, mechanical engineering, psychology, and neuroscience.”
“Attractive,” is of course a subjective viewpoint – but when I ask if the bulkiness of it could be reduced in future iterations, I'm met with disagreement that it needs it. “We're proud of how much we've been able to shrink down the technology, and we think customers will like it too.” Fair enough.
Why should I care?
Maybe you don't right now, but next time you feel a bit too chilly because the office air conditioning is on too high (my Alphr colleagues definitely know what I'm talking about), then you'll definitely long for something like this on your wrist.
And even if you don't, you have to say that this is the kind of madcap, outside the box thinking that Kickstarter was made for. Bravo Embr Wave.
How much and when would I get it?
Of course, admiring the inventiveness of something and stumping up cash to be the first in line to have one delivered are two very different things, and the price may be a bar to some interested parties. Right now, you can get an Embr Wave for $219 (~£167) – that's 27% off the final retail price ($299 or around £228).
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