Siren Care, a diabetic health tracking startup, has created smart socks to detect inflammation in realtime for diabetic patients using temperature sensors fitted in the fabric of the socks.
Ran Ma, the co-founder of the startup, was developing biomass to grow back damaged skin while at Northwestern University when she started learning ways to treat a diabetic patient's feet, Tech Crunch reported. She later came up with the idea of making a wearable technology capable of tracking and preventing foot injuries.
These socks are a perfect fit for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients who are prone to foot swelling, among other foot issues, which can lead to some serious problems such as infection or amputation of the foot if not checked. The smart socks are capable of detecting such issues with the help of built-in sensors, Ma and her co-founder Veronica Tran explained.
The socks are comfortable, machine-washable and monitor the wearer's feet 24/7, the startup said on its official Siren Care website. Since the socks are fitted with temperature sensors, they constantly check the temperature of the foot and store the data on the mobile app, cloud and the socks themselves. Any injury to the foot immediately sends an alert to the app so that the user can check his/her foot.
"It could be something as simple as you have a shoelace tucked into your shoe and don't feel it and you can get an injury from that," Ma said.
Also, each sock is integrated with a full battery that lasts for six months. The socks are in work mode when one is wearing them and go into deep sleep mode once taken off.
Before Siren, many other startups have sought to detect diabetic foot injuries in other ways. SurroSense Rx is one such startup that made a wireless shoe. The PressureGuardian from Tillges Technologies is another boot designed for similar purposes. But Siren's socks are expected to win the competition because of many reasons that include the socks being closer to the skin than a foot pad in a shoe.
Siren has plans to take the SirenSmart technology further from temperature detection and fit other sensors and electronics including moisture sensors, pressure sensors, and light sensors.
Siren will start shipping its socks in the spring, but it can be pre-ordered now. Siren will send each customer a pair of seven socks (one for every day of the week) every six months.