Nordic Semiconductor announces that Chinese wearable health technology startup, VVFly Electronics, is using Nordic nRF51822 Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) to provide Bluetooth® Smart (formerly known as Bluetooth low energy) wireless communications with smartphones in what VVFly claims is the world’s first ear-worn snore detection and prevention device.
In operation, the VVFly Intelligent Snore Stopper is supplied in an ear-worn hearing aid form-factor and is said to detect when a user starts snoring by using a sophisticated combination of sound and bone vibration signal detection and analysis.
When snoring is detected, the device will start to gently vibrate and ‘speak’ to the snorer gently telling them to stop. If snoring continues to be detected, the intensity of vibration and loudness of the spoken communication will gradually increase until the user stops snoring by moving slightly or subconsciously responds to the spoken instructions.
VVFly claims that this method will typically stop the user snoring without actually waking them up (and this effect is said to increase as the user becomes more familiarized with the use of the device over time), and so preserve sleep quality.
The Intelligent Snore Stopper is also designed to work in conjunction with a free partner app running on any Bluetooth Smart Ready smartphone (or tablet) that by continuously recording sleep data also acts as a sleep quality monitor that can demonstrate improvements from using the device.
