Amazon unveils the Halo Rise: A sleep sensor gadget and sunrise alarm clock

Amazon is expanding its presence in the wellness market with the $140 Halo Rise, a new nighttime sleep tracker shipping later this year that doubles as a sunrise alarm clock. The launch comes after Amazon released its first Halo fitness tracker back in 2020 and its sequel called the Halo viewin 2021. It’s also another sign that Amazon and other tech giants are trying to improve the way we sleep.

The Halo Rise is designed as an alternative to its Halo Band for those who prefer not to wear a bracelet or smartwatch overnight but still want to monitor their sleep. Because it sits on your bedside table instead of on your body, Amazon says it can also collect information about environmental factors that could affect your sleep.

The Halo Rise has no cameras or microphones. Instead, it uses low-power sensors to detect micro-movements that occur when you breathe. Amazon then uses machine learning to translate those movements into sleep stages and displays those insights in the Halo app. The company says the Halo Rise’s sleep algorithm has been trained and validated using polysomnography, the test doctors typically use to observe sleep patterns.

Also read: Amazon announced the Halo Rise during its annual fall product launch event on Wednesday, which also announced the Kindle Scribethe Fire TV Omni QLEDthree new echo point smart speakers & much more.

Price: $35
Release date: November 2022

The Alexa Voice Remote Pro’s secret weapon is its ability to locate the device with a voice command. It also has a motion-activated backlight and buttons that you can program to open specific apps or run Alexa commands.

Price: $140
Release date: Q4 2022

Intended as an alternative to Amazon’s Halo Band for those who prefer not to wear a bracelet or smartwatch overnight but still want to monitor their sleep, the Rise is a sunrise alarm clock with sensors that capture information about your movement and surroundings.

The launch of Halo Rise comes as sleep tracking has become a larger area of ​​focus for tech companies. Apple, for example, brought with it the ability to monitor different stages of sleep with its Apple Watch Watch OS 9 Software update launched on September 12th. Fitbit and Samsung Both launched sleep analysis features last year that examine long-term patterns and issue an animal mascot to symbolize the user’s sleep.

And Google, which owns Fitbit, has built sleep tracking into its device Second generation Nest Hub from 2021. This device also uses contactless radar to monitor sleep stages, but it is also said to be a multifunctional smart home device. This is unlike the Halo Rise, which was designed just for sleep. While the lack of a microphone is reassuring from a privacy perspective, it also means the Halo Rise can’t detect snoring or coughing like the Nest Hub.

Amazon’s sleep detection device debuts at a time when the tech industry is under scrutiny for the amount of personal data it holds collect data companies and how this information is protected. According to Amazon, the Halo Rise sends breathing patterns and micro-movements to the cloud where they’re translated into sleep stages, but that data is encrypted in transit and in the cloud and automatically deleted after 10 days. Amazon also says the data always stays on the device until a sleep session is initiated, and it doesn’t sell health data or use such information for marketing, product recommendations, or advertising.

Halo Rise owners can download and delete their health data in the same way as the Halo Band. According to Amazon, the device is trained to only analyze the person closest to it and not other people or pets in the same bed. The Halo Rise’s algorithms are only trained to detect sleep, according to Amazon, and won’t detect any other activity in the bedroom.

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In terms of the sleep-related metrics the Halo Rise can collect, there’s not much that sets it apart from Amazon’s Halo Bands. Like Amazon’s wearables, it can determine how much time you’ve spent in certain stages of sleep and provide a sleep score that evaluates sleep quality. It also includes a six-month membership to Amazon Halo, which typically costs $4 per month.

One of the biggest advantages of using the Halo Rise over the Halo Band, according to Amazon, is that you don’t have to wear anything to sleep to get that data. Unlike the bands, the Halo Rise can also detect certain elements of your environment, like humidity, temperature, and light, that could make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Amazon hasn’t said if it plans to create new metrics or insights based on data from both Halo Rise and Halo Band.

Because the Halo Rise is meant to be placed on your bedside table, it doubles as an alarm clock and wake-up light. According to Amazon, it should wake you up at the optimal time based on your sleep stages. In addition to the environmental sensors already mentioned, the Halo Rise also includes a digital clock with physical buttons and a small speaker for the alarm. The wake-up light consists of 300 lux LEDs in the shape of a semicircle.

There is not any integrated Alexa functionality because the Halo Rise was designed specifically for sleep. But if you own an Echo, you can pair it with the Halo Rise so you can ask Alexa how you slept or incorporate the Rise into a bedtime routine.

The launch of a device like Halo Rise not only helps Amazon compete more closely with rivals like Google and Apple, but could also give the company an even stronger foothold at home. According to Strategy Analytics, Amazon accounted for 28.2% of the global smart speaker and smart display market in the first quarter of 2022. Google is Amazon’s closest competitor, claiming 17.2% of the market over the same period.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions about a medical condition or health goals.