Tech Talk S02 E05: Akai Music Production Center, Fitbit Oxygen Level Monitoring, Hand Warmers for the Military

Akai is back in the limelight again. And hand warmers may soon be a thing of the past for those of you in the colder regions of the country. We’ve found some interesting updates to the product world, so stick with us through the latest version of LA NPDT Tech Talk where we bring you the latest in science and technology and keep you tuned in the newest gadgets and product innovations across the globe.

Join LA New Product Development Team for the most recent, up-to-date tech news each week, as we explore the latest and greatest. Now, let’s get to today’s news.

New Music Production Center

Back in 1988, Akai rolled out their very first Music Production Center, forever, changing the way music is produced. Now, almost 32 years later, their latest version, the MPC One is set to hit stores. The standalone music workstation is a more compact version of its predecessors, with many of the signature features you are used to seeing. It boasts the 16 velocity and pressure-sensitive pads, network connectivity, MIDI input and output, a 7-inch multi touch display, and it is integrated with Splice.

Some other features include four touch-sensitive rotaries that can manipulate sound, four CV jacks, USB flash, and SD card storage. The MPC One also has Air FX plugins for music mixing and mastering. It goes on sale in February for $699..

The Race for Blood Oxygen Monitoring on smartwatches has been won by Fitbit.

Fitbit has officially activated the blood oxygen monitoring feature on its devices. As of Wednesday, January 15, blood oxygen saturation information started appearing on the Versa, Versa 2 and Versa Lite, and also the Ionic and Charge 3 devices. The Fitbit devices have sensors on the back that can give users an estimate of the oxygen levels in their bloodstream, which can be useful in detecting sleep apnea by finding variations in your breathing while you sleep. As of now, Fitbit is the only wearables company that has activated this feature on any of their devices. Apple has a patent out for this same functionality but has not yet activated it on any of their devices.

When winter comes, we start to bring out our mittens to keep our hands warm, but that may soon change. Wearing gloves doesn’t work well when you are trying to load ammo into your gun or save someone’s life out in the field. Gloves restrict these movements too much, but when you take off your gloves, you lose dexterity in your hands.

The solution? The US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine is working on a solution that will keep hands warm by heating the forearms. Our hands and feet stay warm by our body sending warm blood to them through natural circulation, so by heating the blood in the forearms, our hands will stay warm through our circulation processes. The biggest challenges for this project are a power supply small enough for someone to carry with them for long distances, and being able to get as much heat as possible to the forearm without losing it to the environment. A prototype is in the works and should be ready for testing soon.

And while the military isn’t expected to use this technology for a couple of years yet, a civilian version is expected soon after the military release. This could be a game-changer for people working outside in cold weather.

That’s it for today’s Tech Talk.Stay tuned next week for more developments in the product world. Thank you to our new listeners for joining us this week!