LAS VEGAS—Wellness tech abounds at CES. At this year’s tech convention, I saw devices that promise to combat loneliness, detect life-threatening food allergens, prevent hip fractures, track perimenopause symptoms, smooth wrinkles, and more.
I’m no stranger to health tech–I use the Peloton Cross Training Bike+ and the Tonal 2 to work out, an Apple Watch to track my fitness, and a smart scale to monitor my body fat and weight. I have air purifiers in every room of my home, a Nest Hub beside my bed to assess my sleep, and a Perfectly Snug Smart Topper on my mattress to stay cool at night.
Needless to say, I’m all about optimizing my health with the help of technology, and if you are too, read on for the best wellness tech I saw at CES this year.
Peri
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
Winner of the official Best Wellness Tech category at CES, Peri is a small wearable that sticks to your torso and tracks perimenopause symptoms, including anxiety, hot flashes, menstrual changes, night sweats, and sleep disturbances. Peri’s companion app offers personalized AI-powered insights to help you understand your symptoms and make informed decisions about how to manage them—whether that’s through conservative measures alone, such as diet, exercise, and vitamins, or pharmaceutical treatments like antidepressants or hormone therapy. Peri is available for preorder now for $449 and is expected to start shipping after CES.
Tombot Jennie
(Credit: Beth Skwarecki)
Designed for seniors with dementia, Tombot’s Jennie is a realistic emotional support robot puppy that responds to your affection. It’s packed with sensors and motors, allowing it to turn its head to meet your gaze with its expressive puppy dog eyes, bark when you ask if it wants a treat, and wag its tail when you pet it. Show attendees, including myself, were charmed, and seniors at a memory care facility my colleagues visited also loved Jennie, securing the robot dog a win in our Best Age Tech category at CES. Tombot first introduced Jennie as a concept in 2017, but it’s finally slated to launch this year, priced at $1,500.
Allergen Alert
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Winner of Best Startup at CES, the Allergen Alert is a portable device that detects the presence of the most common food allergens, including eggs, fish, gluten, milk, peanuts, sesame, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat. You place a sample of your food into a plastic test pouch, insert it into the machine, and the results will be displayed within two minutes via a built-in display and a companion app. The Allergen Alert is expected to launch this fall for $200. A subscription for six single-use test pouches will cost $25 per month.
Dephy Sidekick
(Credit: Allie Chartoff/Dephy)
Exoskeletons are a big trend at CES this year, and the best one I tried is the Dephy (pronounced “defy”) Sidekick. It’s a pair of proprietary sneakers featuring removable robotic calf muscles that strap around your legs, lifting your heels with every step to make walking easier. Our pick for top assistive tech at CES, the Sidekick analyzes your gait for the first few steps before the battery assistance kicks on with a slight jolt. It doesn’t help with standing, just walking, but I can see this being very useful for sightseeing tours and trips to Disney, for instance, where you can log upwards of 20,000 steps or more in a single day. Meanwhile, those with mobility limitations may find it helpful for everyday activities, such as walking the dog or going to the grocery store. The Sidekick has just gone on sale for $4,500 and is expected to start shipping on January 25.
Smart Hip Guardian
(Credit: Steve Clark/Smart Hip Guardian)
Some 350,000 hip fractures occur in the US every year, and typically result in a significant loss of mobility, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. The Smart Hip Guardian is a belt for seniors that uses sensor data and software algorithms to detect falls and automatically deploy airbags to mitigate the impact. It promises to inflate 0.2 seconds before impact, providing protective padding around the midsection to prevent hip fractures. I tried it on a prototype at CES, and it was surprisingly comfortable. The Smart Hip Guardian is expected to launch this year, priced at $799.90 for a pack of two.
SunBooster
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
If you spend long hours behind a computer screen, the SunBooster promises to help you keep your mood in check. About the size of an external webcam, the SunBooster attaches to the top of your laptop screen or monitor and emits near-infrared (NIR) light, offering similar health benefits as natural sunlight, but indoors.
“Near-infrared light stimulates energy production in the cells, so it really energizes the body, and it has all kinds of health benefits—both physical and mental,” Anne Berends, CEO, CTO, and cofounder of Amsterdam-based SunLED Life Science, the company behind the device, told me. It’s different than red light, which doesn’t penetrate as deep, and is more of a cosmetic and anti-aging solution.
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NIR is invisible to the human eye, so the SunBooster won’t distract you, and the device automatically turns off once you’ve received your daily dose. The SunBooster is expected to launch in the US in April for $249.
Petal
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
Petal is a health tracker that sits inside your bra. It uses bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), similar to a smart scale, to measure body mass index (BMI), breathing, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV, an indicator of stress), and even promises to assess your breast tissue. I tried it on at CES and found it extremely comfortable, even more so than a smartwatch or smart ring. It feels the same as any removable bra pad insert.
Because it sits right over your heart, it purports to be more accurate than wrist- or finger-based trackers. Anand Janefalkar, founder and CEO of JanoLife, the company behind Petal, says the product’s foundational AI is based on breast MRIs. “The goal of the company is to do early anomaly detection for the heart, as well as breast cancer,” Janefalkar said.
After seeing the Petal at CES, I’m frankly surprised it took this long for a bra-based health tracker to be invented. Petal is available for preorder now and is expected to start shipping on May 1 in honor of Women’s Health Month. It costs $199, or $149 if you preorder. Like smart scales that use BIA, Petal is not recommended for those who are pregnant or have implanted medical devices.
Sensate
(Credit: Vanessa Camozzi)
Thanks to Sensate, I found zen on the hectic CES show floor. A non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation device, Sensate sits on your chest and offers gentle, soothing vibrations to reduce anxiety and stress. It emits infrasonic (low-frequency) sound waves via bone conduction and purports to improve digestion, heart health, and breathing rate by calming the nervous system. The device is paired with a companion app, which offers a library of relaxing sounds for your Sensate sessions. Even amidst the chaos of CES, Sensate helped me enter a meditative state. It’s available now, starting at $369.
Tonino Lamborghini SuperBrain Edition
Wearing the Frenz Brainband (Credit: Kimi Doan)
The Frenz Brainband is a wearable that tracks your brainwaves and uses AI-powered audio to lull you to sleep. People have been raving about it for years, calling it a cure for insomnia, but the design always dissuaded me from giving it a try. When I heard that Earable Neuroscience, the company behind Frenz, is teaming up with Italy’s Tonino Lamborghini for a new design, I finally decided to find out what the hype is all about, and I’m highly impressed.
I met up with Earable Neuroscience Chief Innovation Officer Kimi Doan, who let me try the Frenz Brainband (pictured above), which is made of a squishy material and is a lot more comfortable than expected. She showed me a mock-up of the new version developed in partnership with Tonino Lamborghini, dubbed the SuperBrain Edition. They’re still finalizing the design, so I can’t share a photo of it, but it’s black, with a 3D geometric design and gold accents. I can attest that the SuperBrain Edition is a lot more stylish than the gray Frenz Brainband, and I’d actually wear it out in public.
The SuperBrain Edition features the same core technology as the Frenz Brainband and offers exclusive access to a new Focus mode for assessing daytime cognition. A companion app tracks your real-time Focus score, which increases when you’re alert and decreases when you’re relaxed. During the demo, my Focus score indeed went down when I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, or laughed, and went up when my mind started to race. Doan says the device can help you train your brain to focus or relax on command, and alternate between these two states as fast as possible, improving the elasticity of your mind.
The Frenz Braindband sleep wearable is available now for $680. The SuperBrain Edition, featuring a new design and insights into both sleep and focus, is expected to be unveiled in March and launched in June for $1,999.
L’Oréal LED Face Mask
(Credit: Faith Chihil)
Skin care enthusiasts I spoke to are going wild over the new LED Face Mask prototype L’Oréal debuted at CES. The super-thin silicone device sits directly on your skin like a sheet mask, delivering targeted red and NIR light to target fine lines, sagging, and uneven tone. It promises to “visibly firm and smooth skin while evening skin tone,” according to a press release. I can’t attest to whether it actually works, but I’m willing to give it a try, especially if it costs less than Botox, which can run upward of $1,000 or more for a full-face treatment. L’Oréal hasn’t yet shared pricing information, and doesn’t expect to launch the mask until next year.
About Our Expert
Angela Moscaritolo
Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics
Experience
I’m PCMag’s managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I’m also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
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