This week’s Smart Health roundup features a tracker that zaps you into shape, a health tracker for the whole family and entertaining new technology that corrects eyesight.

Pavlok

With dozens of specialized health trackers available on the market, Pavlok hopes to be the last wearable gadget you’ll ever need to help you get in shape.

Named after Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, known for his works in classical conditioning with dogs to salivate when a bell rings, Pavlok is the brainchild of blogger Maneesh Sethi.  Hoping to shake the daily distractions keeping him from working out, Sethi posted a job on Craigslist Inc. looking for a woman who would slap him everytime he opened his Facebook account, a job that paid $8 an hour.  Sethi claimed that his productivity quadrupled since he hired the said woman, so he now wants to share his success via Pavlok, a device that shocks the wearer whenever a task or goal is not met.

Pavlok has an accelerometer that tracks steps, activities, and sleep patterns; uses Bluetooth 4.0; is smart enough to know the user is actually wearing the device; has real-time haptic feedback via sounds, vibrations, LEDs that acts as a trigger to motivate or notify the wearer; and if the wearer is as stubborn as hell, it shoots 30 to 340 volts of electric current to get the person moving.

Pavlok is pre-selling for $249.99 for the Alpha Prototype, but if you don’t mind waiting until 2015, the device only costs $149.99.

Sync Smartband

ActvContent delivers a smartband that not only tracks your children’s whereabouts, but also doubles as a fitness and sleep tracker, and a health keeper.

Dubbed the Sync smartband, it uses hypoallergenic TPU rubber, has a water-resistant design, features a 3-axis low energy accelerometer, a temperature sensor, LED low battery indicator, and uses a CR2032 coin cell battery that lasts two to three months.

The device communicates via Bluetooth Low Energy, which can be used to track the kids. A parent can set a digital zone so when a kid leaves that space,  the parent is immediately alerted.

A family can also use Sync to set and track fitness goals for each member.  As a sleep tracker, you can follow in real time rapid eye movement patterns.  Gathered data can be tracked and shared across social media apps, and the health keeper allows you to make emergency contacts available as well as make important health data such as food and medication allergies retrievable via the My Sync console.

Sync is an active project on Indiegogo and is close to reaching its $50,000 funding goal with 27 days more to go.

Display technology that corrects visual aberrations

As a kid, you were probably warned not to sit too close to the television as it could damage your eyesight, but Microsoft Corp. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  (MIT) researchers are collaborating on display technology that could one day eradicate the need for corrective lenses.

In a white paper, the researchers demonstrate how developing a special type of screen could lead to the correction of poor eyesight.  The technology has two parts: software that uses algorithm that alters an image based on a person’s corrective lense prescription, and a light filter that goes in front of a display.  Based on a person’s prescription, the algorithm alters the light from each individual pixel on the display and passes it through a small hole in the filter. This results in a sharper image because of the filtered light that passes through the special screen.

The researchers hope the algorithm can predict how a user’s eye will respond to whatever is shown on-screen to be able to produce images that are sharp and clear for the viewer.

Despite the benefits this type of technology will deliver for those with poor eyesight, it will probably be years before this becomes available in the market for everyday consumers. Microsoft and MIT must overcome a number of challenges, including the limitations of a viewer’s prescription and distance from the screen.

image via Pavlok