Do you have a hankering to create your own wearable Health Tech devices? If you’ve got that MAKER spirit, then Arduino has some good news for you; at Maker Faire Rome, the company previewed the Arduino Gemma which is the product of a collaboration with Adafruit on its original and slightly larger Gemma microcontroller. The complete device is only 27 mm in diameter (slightly bigger than one inch diameter). Arduino will start shipping the new version later this fall, but the Adafruit device is priced at an attractive $7.95.
The device is only a couple millimeters larger than a quarter, yet it packs an 8 MHz ATtiny85 processor with 8 KB of flash memory. It has three digital I/O pins and one analog input channel. It operates on 150 mA of 3.3 volt DC power, and has a USB connector so that it can be programmed with an Arduino IDE.
The tiny, lightweight, and low-cost package brings wearable technology design within reach of the hobbyist and experimenter. It makes an excellent platform for creating all sorts of concepts, including those addressing, fitness, health, and medical applications.
