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Health & Fitness

Mother and Child: The Next Frontier in Wearable Tech

This Boston start-up's WiFi onesie is just the start of the baby tech boom.

Mimo baby monitor Credit:

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At this point, technology has infused nearly every corner of our lives. Teens use iPads in middle school, grandparents know how to Skype, and wearable fitness trackers are trending towards ubiquity. But there is one area where technical innovations are still in their infancy: parenting.

That’s why Boston-based company Rest Devices is reinventing the baby monitor. The company’s first product—a “smart” baby onesie (or "kimono") called the Mimo—is nothing like your parents' baby monitor. Instead of simply relaying audio, Mimo tracks your infant’s respiration, skin temperature, body position, and activity level.

This data is transmitted to your smartphone via a small, WiFi-enabled plastic turtle that snaps into the side of the Mimo. A free app lets you monitor the data, as well as listen in on your baby from an entirely different location.

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“What we’re trying to do is bring technology to parents and parenting in general, because it hasn’t happened much in the past 20 years,” says Dulcie Madden, the CEO and Founder of Rest Devices.

“What we’re trying to do is bring technology to parents and parenting in general, because it hasn’t happened much in the past 20 years.”

She might be onto something. With the explosion of WiFi-enabled gadgets, smart appliances, and the internet of things, it makes sense that the world of baby-tech is also ready for a re-boot.

“There’s a lot of really simple things that you can do that have been happening in the general technology sphere that just haven’t been brought to moms in general... it’s just no one’s built anything yet,” says Madden.

For Rest Devices, and the baby-tech market in general, products like the Mimo are just the beginning: Mechanized strollers, WiFi-connected baby bottles, and even smart diapers are in the works.

“We also have a concept and a prototype for a pretty cool baby mobile, and we’re looking at potty training as well,” says Madden. “Everyone’s really excited about potty training.”

Now that would be really revolutionary.

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