iWatch Team Gets Even Bigger

Not long ago we reported that the upcoming smartwatch from Apple, the iWatch, is very likely to include biosensors judging by the latest wave of hirings from Apple. In that article we talked about Ravi Narasimhan which worked for Vital Connect before being hired by Apple and Nancy Dougherty which worked at Sano Intelligence before being hired by Apple. Based on their previous work experience we deduced that the Cupertino based giant might have a few surprises in store for us when the iWatch is going to be released this year (at least according to rumors it is going to be released this year).

We know that the team working on Apple’s upcoming smartwatch is pretty big and consists of many specialists in covering a wide range of fields. Joining them is Roy J.E.M Raymann who previously worked at Philips Research. Roy J.E.M Raymann is an expert on Sleep Research, Ambulatory Monitoring, Psychophysiology, Performance Measures, Thermoregulation, Circadian Physiology and Sleep Enhancement. He also has experience working on wearable devices related to the aforementioned fields. That leaves us thinking about his contribution to the iWatch… might the iWatch include some innovative sleep related features?

As we said, Roy J.E.M Raymann previously worked at Philips Research as senior scientist. At Philips Research he was project lead on Sleep and Thermoregulation and he also did research on sleep related activities. He also founded the Philips Sleep Experience Laboratory and worked as consultant for many projects (including light and performance, sleep and activity monitoring, etc). As you can notice, his worked generally involves sleep research and monitoring. If indeed Apple will include a sleep tracking function in its upcoming smartwatch, it will be very interesting to see what it offers over competing smartwatches and apps that offer sleep tracking. Of course, a sleep tracking solution integrated in a smartwatch will be more enticing for users than just buying a dedicated device, so maybe Apple is going for the Fitbit market. Back to Roy J.E.M Raymann, this is what mentions:

Senior Scientist

Philips Research

November 2008 – December 2013 (5 years 2 months)

Sleep Research
Brain, Body and Behavior group

Sleep Thought leader for Consumer Lifestyle Sleep Research Program. Steering and coordinating the portfolio for Innovation for non-medical problem sleep.

Project lead on Sleep and Thermoregulation, both fundamental science and applied science.

Supervising research on sleep and vigilance, sleep and coffee, powernapping, GSR and sleep, vigilance and light exposure and non-PSG sleep classification.

Founder of the Philips Sleep Experience Laboratory, a non-clinical sleep research facility.

Consultant for projects on light and performance, sleep and activity monitoring, measuring temperature, sleep in babies, sleep in psychiatric disorders, sleep phenotyping, sleep enhancement and sleep and breathing.

Member of the Sleep Core Team to align research activities accross business sectors

His CV is very impressive, considering all of the experience he has in the field of sleep research. He also has a Ph.D. in Interaction between sleep and thermoregulation at the Netherlands Institute for Neurosciences: “Ground breaking research on the interaction between sleep, alertness and thermoregulation. Solid evidence that by applying mild skin warming to humans, sleep-pressure, sleep quality and alertness could be altered. Finished with thesis entitled “Mild skin warming, a non-pharmacological way to modulate sleep and vigilance” in 2013. Supervised by Prof. Dr. Eus van Someren“. For his Ph.D., Roy J.E.M Raymann also built “a sleep laboratory from scratch, executed rigorous 24 experimental protocols” and improved his skills on “patient handling and sleep scoring“. His experience in sleep research is another plus for the iWatch team and in the end for us as it seems that we are going to get a very innovative product, drastically different (in a good way) than Samsung’s last year released smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Gear which was met negatively by both critics and consumers.

At the beginning of 2014 Roy J.E.M Raymann left the research division of Philips, his departure being confirmed by the Dutch tech company. Before being a senior scientist at Philips Research, Roy J.E.M Raymann worked for many companies, including the Dutch Sleep Wake Society,  TNO Defence – Security and Safety where he was a scientist responsible for human performance research. This is all in his LinkedIn profile:

Secretary

Dutch Sleep Wake Society

December 2007 – December 2010 (3 years 1 month)

Secretary of the Executive Board of the NSWO.

Scientist

TNO Defence, Security and Safety

May 2006 – October 2008 (2 years 6 months)

Human Performance Research

Conducting and coordinating research on sleep, thermoregulation and wearable physiological sensor. Main application target were sportsmen and soldiers. Gained experience in working with climate chambers.
More specific topics covered: Performance during anxiety and physical exercise, wearable sensors for soldiers, training protocols to prevent frostbite, thermoregulation while driving, vigilance and thermal comfort in the mid east climate, sleep during cold, thermal properties of preventive clothing and taking part in the BCI work for the BrainGain consortium. Collaboration with Prof. Dr. Hein Daanen, Drs. Pierre Valk, Dr. Ries Simons and Dr. Jan van Erp.

There are many fitness trackers on the market that include sleep tracking functions. One of the most famous fitness tracker to include this feature is the Fitbit tracker, which uses a 3D accelerometer to know when the user moves. Besides including the usual fitness tracking functions (such as steps taken, the distance walked, calories burned, floors climbed, activity duration and intensity) it also includes sleep tracking functions such as how long it takes the user to fall asleep, how often he or she wake up during the night, and how long the user is actually asleep. In time it will gather data so the user can analyze his sleep pattern and understand where the problem is (if there is one). Modern fitness tracker with sleep tracking functions can also wake the user via vibrations, without waking up other people. Besides all the fitness trackers with sleep tracking functions, there are also many iOS apps that offer sleep tracking though they are not as efficient as a fitness tracker that you wear all the time. And that is why the iWatch is the perfect choice for sleep tracking, as it is a wearable device, just like any fitness tracker on the market.

As we reported not long ago, Apple assembled a numerous team of specialists for its upcoming smartwatch, the iWatch. However, the interesting part comes from the fact that these specialists cover a wide range of fields, from medical biosensors, glucose sensors, blood analyzing patches to sleep research and tracking. That is why we are very interested to see which of these features will find their way into the iWatch, a new type of product (a smartwatch) from Apple that is rumroed to be released this year. There are also rumors about an app that Apple is developing code named Healthbook. The app is going to monitor and track various fitness and health statistics such as heart rate, blood pressure etc. We can see this app becoming a very important part of the upcoming iWatch, especially if it will include health and sleep monitoring features.

Besides medical biosensors specialists Ravi Narasimhan from Vital Connect and Nancy Dougherty from Sano Intelligence (which we talked about in a previous article) and sleep tracking specialist Roy J.E.M Raymann which we talked about in this article, Apple also hired medical expert Michael O’Reilly last year in the Summer. Michael O’Reilly previously worked at Masimo Corporation (“a global medical technology company that develops and manufactures innovative noninvasive patient monitoring technologies, including medical devices and a wide array of sensors“) as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer. At Masimo, Michael O’Reilly worked on many devices, among which there is the iSpO2 Pulse Oximeter. Masimo’s iSpO2 Pulse Oximeter can measure oxygen saturation and pulse rate during movement and it can also connect to your iPhone via a 30-pin dock connector (which is why it is only compatible with the iPhone 4S or below, but not with the iPhone 5 and higher, which uses a Lighting conenctor). Thus you can save and analyze the data that the iSpO2 Pulse Oximeter records. You can . As we mentioned, the iSpO2 Pulse Oximeter is one of the products that Michael O’Reilly worked on at Masimo. This is from :

Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, Chief Medical Officer

Masimo Corporation

January 2008 – July 2013 (5 years 7 months) Irvine, CA

As we mentioned above, Michael O’Reilly was hired by Apple in the Summer of 2013 (more specifically, in August, according to unnamed sources), so his hiring is not exactly new news. However, we mentioned him because he is part of the iWatch team and as the others mentioned in this article, he is from the medical field. The new news is that apparently Michael O’Reilly is not working only on the iWatch but he is also working on other projects for Apple. What kind of projects, we can only guess, but they are likely related to his field of activity. We can’t wait to see what Apple has in store for us this year. If you have any theories about other new type of products, besides the iWatch, that Apple could launch this year, leave us a comment in the dedicated section below.