A year after being banned, Lora DiCarlo returns to CES with new sex toys

It’s amazing what can happen in just one year. After being banned from the Consumer Electronics Show last year, sex tech startup Lora DiCarlo is debuting two new sex toys on the show floor. Even more, both of these new products, Baci and Onda, have received an CES Honoree Innovation award.

All three of Lora DiCarlo’s devices use microrobotics technology to mimic human touch. While Osé is designed to help produce a blended orgasm, Onda is specific to the G-spot and Baci is specific to the clitoris.

These awards are thanks to a full 180 for the Consumer Technology Association, the organizers of CES. In July, CTA announced its plans to allow sex tech startups to participate and compete for awards as part of the health and wellness category on a one-year trial bias. That came after the CTA royally messed up with sex tech company Lora DiCarlo last year. The CTA revoked an innovation award from the company, which is developing a hands-free device that uses biomimicry and robotics to help women achieve a blended orgasm by simultaneously stimulating the G-spot and the clitoris. In May, CTA re-awarded the company and apologized.

As Lora DiCarlo founder Lora Haddock previously told me at TC Disrupt 2019, that snub did the company a big favor in terms of company awareness. Late last year, Lora DiCarlo started pre-sales for its first product, Osé. Already, the company has generated $3 million in revenue, with $1.5 million generated in just the first 36 hours of launch.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 03: Lora DiCarlo Founder & CEO Lora Haddock speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 at Moscone Convention Center on October 03, 2019 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

“Following last year’s incident having the Innovation Award rescinded and reinstated for Osé, we became change agents, initiating a critical public conversation about gender equity and creating a safer and more inclusive environment for all CES attendees,” Lora DiCarlo founder Lora Haddock said in a statement. “After learning more about our products and our mission, people have come to realize that sexual wellness is an important part of overall well-being. This year, we are at CES to continue to reshape how people think about sex tech. It’s not about the technology. It’s not about the orgasm. It’s about how tech-enhanced experiences can lead to a greater sense of wellness, including improved sleep, reduced stress, and better mood.”

My colleague Brian Heater will catch up with Haddock this week at CES to hear more, so be on the lookout for that.

This brain-training wearable promises better sleep

CES 2020 is the year of sleep tech. I called it a few months ago, and now that the announcements are starting to trickle out, I’m re-staking that claim. Technology has played an important role in completely destroying my sleep cycle.. Yet somehow, it appears to be my only hope of saving it.

URGONight seems to be one of the more interesting takes on the space. Though it does overlap pretty significantly with the Muse S headband that was also literally just announced this very minute (I know, I wrote that story, too). The hook to this specific neurofeedback headband (a phrase I knew I would be writing at some point in 2020) is that it’s designed for daytime use for sleep training.

The headband is designed to be used for 20 minutes a day, three days a week. It has two electrodes that detect brain activity. Wearers can view their brain feedback in real-time, via the Android/iOS app. There are a bunch of different exercises, including growing leaves on trees and drawing patterns. The idea is to essentially train your brain to sleep better.

“Just as you can train your body to run faster, jump higher, swim further or become more flexible, clinical studies have shown neurofeedback therapy can help people learn how to improve the quality of their sleep,” founder Guirec said in a release. “The technology has been used in clinical sleep centers around the world for decades and now with URGOnight, we are making it more fun and accessible and conveniently usable in the comfort of the home.”

It’s interesting, for sure. I certainly can’t speak to the product’s efficacy — or any of the science here (though “sleep spindles” are a real thing, according to a very quick Google search I just did). I’m willing to give anything a shot at this point, though. You can, too, in Q2. Though it’s gonna cost you $500.

Muse’s innovative meditation headband gets a softer, sleepier version

Maybe you remember the Muse Softband from last year’s CES. Honestly, probably you don’t. I do, but only because A. I was there and B. I actually really liked the company’s regular version. I’m still pretty skeptical about the concept of using meditation to jumpstart mindfulness, but the Muse 2 makes a compelling case for hardware as a means of quieting one’s thoughts.

After a year of silence, the rebranded Muse S is ready to launch. I like the name. It beats Softband, in that it doesn’t sound like a Japanese investment firm. “S” is for “soft” and also “sleep” — two elements that obviously go hand in hand. It’s also “s” for “savvy move on Muse’s part,” as sleep tech is all the rage this CES. And certainly meditation and sleep go hand in hand.

The fabric headband offers similar “biofeedback-enhanced meditation,” measuring brainwaves to determine where your concentration is at. Sleep is added to the mix, as well, designed to be worn for five or so minutes a night before trying to get to sleep. The system pairs up with the Muse app, which features “Go-to-Sleep Journeys” — essentially guided sleep meditations. Unlike some comparable sleep masks, however, the headphones aren’t built in.

Instead, you pair it with your headphones and put your phone away. Comfort levels will vary, of course, depending on your headphones. The sounds are impacted in real-time based on biofeedback including brain activity, movement and heart rate, adjusting the soundtrack accordingly. Compelling for sure. I’ve got it on good authority that there’s a unit waiting for me back at home. Sadly, it didn’t get to me in time — would have been nice for CES hell week.

Anyway, review soon, probably. For the rest of you, the Muse S is currently available for $350 through Muse’s site and Amazon. The Muse meditation app runs $13 a month.

Waverly Labs’ new wearable translater arrives in April at $200

There are a lot of companies trying to do this. And understandably so. It’s a really cool thing to do — and if someone can really crack it, there’s a lot of money to be made. For a years now, Waverly Labs has been among the more interesting startups in the real-time translation space — and perhaps even more significantly, it’s actually had a product on the market for a while now.

This week at CES, the New York-based startup announced the availability of its latest commercial offering. Announced back in May as part of a crowdfunding/presale campaign, Ambassador will be available or sale in April, priced at $200. Like most headphones, the Ambassador is sold two ears at a time, though the idea here is to put one over your own ear and hand one off to another speaker.

Converse is one of three of the device’s modes, letting users engage in a two-way conversation using a single smartphone. The device listens and translates in real-time. There’s also a Listen mode, which automatically, well, Listen to anyone within an eight foot range and Lecture mode, which speaks live translations through a connected handset.

The system is capable of translating 20 languages and 42 dialect (which I will not be writing out here), feature a two mic array, with up to four units able to communicate with a single smartphone at once.

The company’s first device managed $5 million in pre-sales and has since shipped 40,000 units — not to shabby for a first-ten startup project. The Ambassador, meanwhile, has generate a solid, but less impressive $500,000 so far. The company’s got plenty of competition, including startups like Timekettle and behemoths like Google, which is due to release a new take on Pixelbuds later this year.

Withings says its latest watch can detect sleep apnea

Sure to be the next big battlefield for wrist-worn wearables, Withings today announced sleep apnea detection for its latest smartwatch. The company notes in press materials for the newly announced ScanWatch, that eight out of 10 people with the serious sleeping condition aren’t aware that they have it.

It’s not a full-fledged medical device, of course, but the prevalence of such a feature could go a ways toward helping the more than 18 million Americans who suffer from the condition (according to numbers I just looked up from the National Sleep Foundation).

The system uses an on-board SpO2 sensor that transmits a light was into blood vessels. The system takes measurements throughout the night, nothing when wearers aren’t getting enough oxygen. That, in turn, can point to sleep apnea as a root cause. Left untreated, it can lead to a whole slew of problems, including stroke and heart failure.

It’s an issue a number of different manufacturers are looking to address with wearables. Fitbit, notably, has publicly outlined its intentions to bring such functionality to its devices. The company has conducted public studies, but has yet to offer a firm timeline.

Like other recent devices, the ScanWatch also includes detection of irregular heart rhythm like AFib, through an on-board ECG scanner. Like past Withings watches, this one’s a hybrid, featuring an analog face, coupled with a small display that offers up health feedback, notifications and the like.

It will arrive in Q2, priced at $249.

HP will start integrating Tile tracking into laptops

Here’s one those “why didn’t they do this sooner” deals. HP just announced at CES that it will be the first PC company to integrate Tile’s tracking technology directly into its laptops. The company’s Elite Dragonfly line will be the first get the technology, with a model dropping some point during Q1 of this year.

The biggest winner of the deal here is Bay Area-based Tile. People who purchase laptops with the technology built in will need to download the Tile app order to track missing laptops. Likely it will only be available in a handful of systems to start, but as HP integrates it into more to differentiate devices, that’s a big potential for a lot more installs.

The app can be used to note the last place the laptop was seen and locate devices even when the system is not connected to a WiFi network or powered down. Once it goes beyond bluetooth range, Tile’s finding network kicks in. Likely, however, it will mostly be used in those moments when you’re scrambling to leave the house in the money and can’t find your laptop under a pile of dirty laundry — a hypothetical that I have clearly never experienced.

The finding range should be akin to that of the standalone Tile units. The system will also feature a similar ringing feature to help locate misplaced systems. HP apparently conducted a survey in which some 72 percent of people said the ability to find a lost or misplaced laptop would be “very or extremely valuable,” which, fair enough.

No word on pricing, though Elite Dragonfly is one of the company’s pricier models, starting at $1,500, so it seems unlikely the new feature will add much of a premium.

TypingDNA raises $7M Series A led by Google's Gradient Ventures for its service that enables companies to identify people by how they type (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
TypingDNA raises $7M Series A led by Google's Gradient Ventures for its service that enables companies to identify people by how they type  —  TypingDNA, a four-year-old, 18-person startup that was founded in Bucharest, Romania and more recently moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York …