Rohan Dixit and Nathanael Wolfe want the people of the world to feel less stress. They say that chronic stress can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke by up to fifty percent. They have developed Lief, a smart patch that fights stress, and are running a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a first production run of parts. The Lief monitors your heart rate and breathing to determine when you feel stressed, and then sends soothing vibrations to alert you to the stressors and become calm.
Lief is a training device, intended to monitor and train your resistance to stress using heart rate variability (HRV). Low HRV can be linked to anxiety, distraction and lessened performance. The device itself consists of an ECG heart sensor, a 3-axis accelerometer, two haptic vibration motors and multicolor LEDs for biofeedback, medical grade silicone skin, and stickers that connect the patch to your body.
The battery inside Lief needs an hour to charge and can be used for up to a week before recharging. Bluetooth Low Energy allows the device to sync with the app and can store up to a week’s worth of data at one time. Device Firmware Upgrade mode lets the Lief’s software automatically update when needed. Heart Rate Variability, breath speed, heart rate, mood, though record, movement, and downtime can all be measure using Lief and tracked through the Apple and Android compatible app.
As an engineering project Lief looks incredible. There’s a lot of discussion on the page about the prototypes and development of the device along with early adapter testimonials and scientific theory behind the mindfulness exercises. Even though the patch is silicone and small my brain still shivers a little thinking about something attached to my chest all day. The other big turnoff for me is the idea that eight weeks of stickers are included for the Lief device, I wouldn’t trust myself to continually order new sets of stickers and commit to long term use of the device. Lief has blown past its $50,000 funding goal and will be fully funded on January 17. First units are expected to ship in June 2017.