可穿戴设备新趋势：彻底进入身体

一说到可穿戴设备，大多数人都会想到苹果手表或健身追踪器FitBit这种戴在手腕上的硬件。当然，有些公司的产品更具创意，比如用来监测睡眠质量的智能戒指和智能项链，可以当手机扬声器使用的智能手包等等。不过，最新一波面向女性的可穿戴设备走得更远——正在进入我们的身体。

女性可穿戴技术公司Chiaro的联合创始人兼CEO塔妮娅•波勒尔表示：“一些人谈论的‘自我量化’，是能够被追踪的最后一个领域。”该公司首个产品是一款名为Elvie的盆底肌锻炼追踪器。波勒尔表示，广大女性经常会忽视盆底肌，或者对这个部位不够了解。如今，每三个女性当中就有一人存在盆底肌方面的问题，其中又有很多人平时不做骨盆运动。

波勒尔解释道：“很多女性知道她们需要做骨盆运动，但她们不知道自己做得对不对，也不知道是否有效。”通过连接智能手机应用，Elvie可以探测到一名女性做骨盆运动的方式是否正确，并可以追踪通过这项锻炼所取得的进步。

亚历山大•亚希利是该公司另一名创始人，他也是健身追踪器Jawbone的董事长和创始人。波勒尔表示，亚希利在Chiaro的身份一开始只是投资人，后来他意识到可穿戴设备在女性健康领域大有可为，于是亲自参与了公司的创办历程。

根据波勒尔估算，用于防止小便失禁（这也是盆底肌无力导致的问题之一）的产品的市场规模达1700万美元，这还不包括那些只是单纯地想提高性爱质量和健康水平的女性。自从Chiaro于2013年8月成立以来，该公司已经获得300万美元融资，其投资人包括谷歌地图联合创始人拉尔斯•拉斯姆森。

When we think about wearables, most of us imagine the Apple Watch, or the fitness tracker FitBit—hardware that is worn on our wrists. Of course, some companies have gotten more creative, with smartrings, necklaces that track your sleep, and clutches that double as phone speakers. But a new wave of wearables for women is going even further: inside our bodies.

“When people talk about the ‘quantified self,’ this is the final frontier of what can be tracked,” says Tania Boler, co-founder and CEO of Chiaro, a women’s wearable tech company. Chiaro’s first product is Elvie, an exercise tracker for the pelvic floor, which Boler says is largely ignored and misunderstood. One in three women have pelvic floor problems, yet many are deterred from doing Kegel exercises.

“A lot of women know they need to do them, but they can’t tell whether they’re doing them correctly and they don’t know if it’s working,” she explains. Linked to a smartphone app, Elvie can sense whether a woman is doing Kegels correctly and track her progress with the exercises.

Boler’s co-founder is Alexander Asseily, the chairman and founder of fitness tracker Jawbone. Asseily initially came on board as an investor, but later became a founder when he recognized the size of the market opportunity for wearables in the women’s health space, Boler says.

Boler puts the market for products to prevent accidental leakage—one of the problems associated with a weak pelvic floor—at $17 million. And that doesn’t factor in women who are looking to have better sex or simply be healthier. The company has raised $3 million in funding since launching in August 2013, and includes Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps, among its investors.

另一个重要的女性可穿戴设备市场是生育生殖领域，蒙大拿州博尔德市的Kindara公司是这个市场上最大的初创公司之一，目前已经谋得近700万美元融资。这家公司由凯瑟琳•比克奈尔和威廉•萨克斯夫妇创办，不过现在由萨克斯一个人领导。萨克斯对生育健康领域非常有激情。他表示：“这是一件美好而神奇的事，没有人真正了解。”

Kindara公司旗舰产品Wink，是一款可以根据生理温度测定女性排卵期，并且能够连接智能手机的生育温度计。这款产品对于想怀孕的女性非常有吸引力，当然，它对那些想通过安全期避孕的女性也同样具有吸引力。萨克斯表示：“我们正在解决一个极具价值的问题，还有什么事情比决定一个人类是否降生更重要呢？”

Another major area of opportunity for women’s health wearables is in reproductive health and fertility. One of the biggest players in the space is Boulder-based Kindara, which has raised nearly $7 million from investors so far. Co-founded by husband-and-wife team Katherine Bicknell and William Sacks, it is now being led by Sacks alone, who is passionate about fertility. “It’s this beautiful, magical thing, and no one really knows a thing about it,” he says.

Kindara’s flagship product is the Wink, a fertility thermometer that links to a smartphone and tracks a woman’s fertility cycle over time. The product appeals to women who want to get pregnant, of course, but also to those who use fertility awareness to avoid it, says Sacks. “We’re solving a really high-value problem. What’s more important than whether or not another human being born or not born?”

随着性爱玩具变得愈发智能，女性的性健康领域正在经历颠覆性创新。和前些年的震动棒相比，一些最新型的性爱玩具倒是与FitBit有更多的相似点。比如Vibease和OhMiBod等公司生产的性爱玩具都可以连接到智能手机上，使女性对她们的“自娱自乐”体验有了前所未有的控制权——不管是由她们自己控制，还是把控制权交到其伴侣手上。

OhMiBod公司联合创始人苏琪•邓纳姆表示，这项技术将与女人的性趣齐头并进。“我们认为，这些产品能真正提高女性的性生活质量。”她指出，可穿戴设备和智能手机应用可以帮助女人了解自己的性喜好，并能将这些知识分享给她们的伴侣。OhMiBod的应用还包含一个“性高潮日志”功能（相当于MyFitnessPal，只不过它记录的是性高潮）。可穿戴设备Vibease则能够和智能手机上的“性幻想小说”同步震动。OhMiBod的老板是邓纳姆和她的丈夫，Vibease目前已经筹得价值11.1万美元的种子资金。

Women’s sexual health is also being disrupted, with sex toys getting much smarter: The newest models have more in common with the FitBit than with the vibrators of years past. Companies like Vibease andOhMiBod link toys to smart phone apps, allowing women to have unprecedented control over their experiences—whether that means being in control themselves, or handing the reins over to a partner.

Suki Dunham, co-founder of OhMiBod, says that tech and women’s sexuality go hand in hand. “We believe that these products can truly augment a woman’s love life,” she says, noting that apps and wearable can help women learn about their own sexuality and share that knowledge with a partner. For example, the OhMiBod app includes a journal function for orgasms (thinkMyFitnessPal, except for sex). The Vibease, which is completely wearable, has an option to have the toy sync to a “fantasy story” on a smartphone. While OhMiBod is co-owned by Dunham and her husband, Vibease has raised $111,000 in seed funding so far.