This week’s Smart Health round up features the latest news developments for a long-rumored smartwatch, fresh funds for a wearable tech health startup, and trackers that do more than count steps.

Apple postpones iWatch until 2015

Fanboys around the world were hopeful for Apple, Inc. to unveil its rumored iWatch next month, but they may have to wait a lot longer as the release has been reportedly pushed back to 2015.

KGI Securities PLC analyst Ming-Chi Kuo described the iWatch as a game-changing entrant in the smartwatch market, considering the level of difficulty involved in its component and system design, manufacturing and integration between hardware and software. It’s because of these challenges from component suppliers that the iWatch may have been pushed back for release next year.

Despite the delay, fanboys still have something to look forward to, as the iWatch is said to be laced with more health sensors than originally expected. This could be Apple’s way of extending the opportunity to better connect the rumored iWatch to the company’s integrated software platform for managing personal data, HealthKit.

Wearable Intelligence raises $8M in funding

Wearable Intelligence, Inc., a company that’s turning Google Inc.’s Glass into a business and healthcare tool, has raised about $8 million in a round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.  Barry Eggers from Lightspeed will be joining co-founders Yan-David Erlich and Ryan Junee as the third member of Wearable Intelligence’s board of directors. Before this round, it has raised a seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Initialized Capital and Subtraction Capital.

runScribe

There are many fitness trackers that you can clip on your clothes and shoes, wear on your wrist and around your neck, to track steps, heartbeats, flights of stairs climbed and distance covered. But few trackers provide insight to how your body really works.

Scribe Labs, Inc. aims to deliver more meaningful workout data with the use of runScribe, a small device that clips to the back of the heel of your shoes. Unlike other fitness trackers, it features a 9-axis kinematic sensor with integrated motion processor that allows it to make thousands of calculations for every stride and reports on 13 detailed kinematic metrics including stride length, stride rate, contact time, foot strike type, swing excursion, stance excursion, max pronation velocity, pronation excursion, impact peak Gs, and braking peak Gs.

The information gathered allows the wearer to better analyze how his foot works when wearing different types of shoes, training on different terrains, and even those training for long or high jumps can benefit from runScribe. The device is currently on Kickstarter Inc. and has surpassed its $50,000 funding goal with 23 more days to go.

Beneufit’s pdFit kit

Beneufit Inc. has a system that includes an app and wireless sensors that aims to help those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease better manage their condition.  Called the pdFIT, the kit features wireless sensors for heart rate and cycling cadence, and an app that helps coach people so they can perform scientifically-validated exercise protocols that have been shown to be associated to reduce symptoms of the disease as well as delay its progression.

The smartphone app delivers real-time feedback, but users can also see their progress via the web-accessible Beneufit Dashboard, which stores workouts and analyzes performance for each session.