MonBaby

At CES 2015, you couldn’t swing a car seat without hitting another baby monitor, or so it seemed. Lots of companies view this as a prime wearable Health Tech target, and many had their own particular take on the problem. One of the most interesting aspects of the BabyMon is that it does not come with a sock or a strap or any other bit of clothing. Instead, it is designed to attach securely to the clothing that your baby is wearing already. There’s no problem with different sizes or growing too big for the device.

Another important part of the design is that the BabyMon does not try to monitor everything. The sensor tracks breathing rate, heart rate, body position, and movement. That’s it. It uses Bluetooth LE to communicate with an app running on your smartphone, and the low power demand means that the standard coin battery should last up to two months, according to the company. The app can be configured to only issue alerts for the conditions you want. For example, with newborns, you might want to be alerted when they roll onto their stomachs, but not once they get older. The system can even detect falls, so you can be alerted if your child has climbed out of the crib.

The system support both iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. The company has sold out of its first production run which will ship in February. You can pre-order a unit from the next batch for $169 on the company website; those are scheduled to ship in April.