August International is a UK-based international company that leads the research, development and supply of consumer electronic products with the latest technology and advanced features. The company has been committed to researching new telehealth technology which can be applied to remote patient monitoring and developed a series of mobile IoT smart wearable devices that can be used to monitor vital signs of people in a remote location.
It's latest product is the E2 Vital Sign Smart Watch, branded as "Audar Watch" for the retail market. A health-focused smartwatch, that comes with built-in internet connectivity provided with the integrated 1NCE Industrial eSIM, supporting internet use and data transmission over the entire lifetime of the device via Low Power NB-IoT and LTE-M cellular technologies.

Background

The first commercial model carries the most advanced vital sign sensors for accurate measurements of heart rate, blood oxygen, body temperature, and blood pressure trends.

Automatic and continuous monitoring of heart rate, body temperature, blood oxygen, blood pressure trends. Direct access to the internet via low-power NB-IoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) or LTE-M technology with no need to connect the watch via an additional smartphone. A key differentiator to other smartwatches. Family members and care workers can view health conditions of the device wearer in a remote location using the CareMate App is another differentiator to other smartwatches. A SOS button to call emergency aid followed by a location and voice message call to preset telephone numbers to ensure that family members and care workers are alerted. A data security engine built-in to protect privacy of health conditions of the device users. The data can be used for remote healthcare services including remote patient monitoring, digital diagnostics, and therapeutics.

Challenge

Unlike other smartwatches on the market, the E2 comes with built-in cellular connectivity without the need to communicate via a separate smartphone nearby or leaving the search for a suitable provider to the customer. While it can communicate via bluetooth and a smartphone as backup, the device is actually designed to communicate fully autonomously consuming only very little energy which allows for long battery runtimes.  That calls for a broadly available low-power integrated communication technology.

1NCE Solution

The 1NCE IoT Lifetime Flat can meet all of these challenges. For a small one-off payment, it delivers 10 years of connectivity over all available bearer technologies. In this case, LTE-M or NB-IoT is used which is already available in more than 30 countries worldwide including UK, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and the US. In addition, the simple cost structure allows hardware developers to calculate very easily the costs for connectivity into the final product. Allowing business cases to scale right from the start.