Jawbone Is Building a new Health Tracker…That You Can Swallow

Jawbone Is Building a new Health Tracker…That You Can Swallow

You’ve probably heard of ‘wearables’ by now, a term used to describe electronic devices commonly worn on the wrist to track sleep patterns or count steps.

Up next in health tracking? How about, ‘ingestibles’.

According to Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman, the company is diligently working on ingestible health sensors. Currently, Jawbone manufactures a line of fitness trackers worn on the wrist under the name Jawbone Up.

As a man who’d know the business, he sees concerns in the wearables market, as the industry struggles to convince people to rock health trackers on their wrists. Rahman believes letting users ingest devices that “pass through you” and others that live within one’s bloodstream could be the answer.

The goal would be to collect intimate details about how efficient—or inefficient—various body parts are functioning. Rahman described a scenario where something like a bloodstream sensor could monitor blood alcohol level, preventing the person from using a vehicle if they’re over the limit.

If this all sounds like something from the Jetsons, it isn’t the first time tech like this has been explored. Mega-company Google revealed last year it was working on a pill that’s capable of detecting diseases, such as cancer, at the cellular level. There’s also the FDA-approved Proteus Ingestible Sensor, and the PillCam COLON, both ingestible tech devices.

Having said that, we’re still years away from seeing ingestible trackers reach the mainstream consumer market, but the idea is clearly gaining momentum.

Photo credit: Syda Productions/Shutterstock

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