A neck patch that monitors respiratory sounds may help manage asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by detecting symptom flareups in real time, without compromising patient privacy. Asthma and COPD are two of the most common chronic respiratory diseases. In Europe, the combined prevalence is about 10 percent of the general population. In Canada, an estimated 3.8 million people experience asthma and two million people experience COPD. The chronic nature of asthma and COPD requires continuous disease monitoring and management.

Mumbai: Apple will have a 78% market share in Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered hearables, a market which itself will grow over 2500% annually in 2017, a Counterpoint AI Based Wearables Market forecast for calendar year 2017 said Thursday. "Major growth in the segment is driven by the hearable market which includes devices like Apple AirPods, Beats and Bragi Dash. It is a natural path for other competitors to integrate their AI solutions across their own as well as third party wearables," Karn Chauhan, analyst at Counterpoint said. The study added that AI-powered wearables will grow 376% annually in 2017 to reach 60 million units, with AI enabled smartwatches to contribute 42% of the market, encouraging key players in the segment to adopt AI. The report suggested that the growth in wearable and hearable market will be driven by proliferation of Amazon's Alexa into third party hardware from smartwatches such as Martian and hearables like ONvocal with hearables contributing to 50% of the AI-powered wearables in 2017. The research highlighted that activity trackers with AI will witness a growth of 545% in 2017 and will contribute to 4% of the total AI based wearable market.

As a Las Vegas native who enjoys watching boxing and has always cursed the exorbitant cost of entry to fights at the MGM Grand, when an invitation to a CES event at Top Rank Boxing Gym appeared in my email inbox, I immediately RSVPed. Top Rank is a legendary boxing promoter, and its gym is where some of the greatest fighters have trained. So I went to the gym after a day of canned press conferences from the world's biggest tech companies to see featherweight Francisco Esparza, a local champion, throw punches in the ring. Esparza was demonstrating a new wearable device from French startup Piq Sport Intelligence, who partnered with 100-year-old boxing gear maker Everlast to develop what it calls Robot Blue. Piq's Robot Blue is a sensor-packed nanocomputer that a boxer or mixed-martial arts fighter slips into a wrap, which is then placed around the hand or the top of the glove.

Swarm intelligence has made some impressive predictions on horse racing this season, by correctly placing the top four Kentucky Derby finishers last month. This might affect bookies but what about horses? If an "artificial" intelligence can benefit betting, can it help keep a horse healthy and performing well? A French startup called Arionea thinks so. The company is betting big that artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) will revolutionize the racetrack -- with the help of a new device dubbed the Equimetre.