- 4 hours ago
From fitness trackers to neural interfaces that monitor our bodies, flag early warning signs, and support people living with complex conditions, health technology is redefining how we optimize our well-being. For millions, including those with disabilities, this shift is already expanding autonomy and redefining what independence looks like. But as these tools edge closer to clinical territory, where does wellness end and medicine begin? Who owns the data our bodies generate? And how do we ensure these innovations are designed for everyone — not just the healthy and the wealthy?
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TechTranscript
00:20Good afternoon, everybody. Hi to the panelists. My name is Phineas Rueckert. I'm a Paris-based
00:27investigative journalist focusing on the intersection, let's say, between technology
00:33and humanity, to put it very broadly. I'm really happy to be here to present this next panel,
00:39from wearables to implants, the new well-being frontier. For those of you who are in the past
00:46panel, which I was also moderating, welcome back. And to those of you who have just joined us,
00:52I see that a lot have, welcome. So over the next 40 minutes, we're going to be looking at the
01:01new
01:01frontiers of health and well-being through a very specific lens, which is the lens of wearables
01:06and implants. And sort of the key question that's guiding this session is, you know, where do tech
01:13and human wellness collide? And where are these technologies headed? So we'll start with a sort
01:19of introductions of the different panelists, the work that you're doing, and the sort of problems,
01:26if we can call problems, or the sort of questions that you're trying to answer. Then we'll talk a
01:30little bit more about sort of some of the questions about data, about regulation. And then finally,
01:36we'll talk a little bit about where this is all heading. It's all moving very fast, as probably every
01:40panel, everything is moving very fast at VivaTech. So I will start by letting the panelists introduce
01:47themselves and maybe go from left to right here. So first, we have Jean Saler, who leads research
01:56and development on smart eyewear sensing solutions. I see you have the glasses here with you at
02:02Essilor Luxottica. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about Essilor Luxottica?
02:08Sure. So nice to meet you. I'm happy to be there first. So my role is to work on the
02:16research and
02:17development, and particularly on the wearable part. So smart eyewear for us. Basically, our mission
02:23within the group is to, I would say, to empower the humans. By empowering humans, I mean, leveraging all our
02:34assets, like the iconic brands we have, the strong position, because regarding the health market, we have roughly 500
02:43million of wearers that we are addressing every year. And also, of course, putting into our science inside this
02:53eyewear to make it smart. So smart eyewear is quite a huge domain. And today, probably I will more focus
03:03on
03:03my own job, which is regarding the sensing solutions, because the eyewear is quite unique device on the head,
03:12and it's a way to collect biomarkers, data, and environmental data.
03:17Very interesting, and very excited to hear more about that.
03:20But Benedikt Kurz manages health and business development for Europe, Middle East, and North
03:26Africa at Garmin. I hope I got that correct. Could you introduce yourself and tell us about the work
03:31that you're doing over at Garmin?
03:32Yeah, happy to. So my name is Benedikt Kurz. I'm heading our business development efforts for Garmin
03:39Health. Garmin Health is a platform built on an ecosystem where we help partners to use these
03:47lovely devices that we do to make some of their challenges go away. So that means we are working
03:56in different industries such as insurances, research clinical trials, but also in the gym and fitness
04:03world. And then we facilitate access to insights from these devices so they can make a change within
04:11these organizations. So imagine you have an insurance app that is unfortunately pretty boring
04:20because no one's using it. Through a challenge or a gamification approach based on the insights and
04:26the information from our devices, we can make that fun engagement and turn the narrative around from,
04:32for example, in the health insurance world from a sick care over to a preventative care approach.
04:41So that's what we do across multiple different industries and verticals.
04:45Great. Thank you. So moving on to Carolina Aguilar, the CEO and founder of InBrain Neuroelectronics.
04:54So now we're really going into the implants of the panel. Could you tell us a little bit about InBrain?
05:00Sure. We are using semiconductors materials and graphene to deliver the next generation of brain
05:08computer interfaces. It's an implant in the brain or on the chest, a platform that we use for central
05:17nervous system applications with a first indication in Parkinson's disease, but also to manage through
05:24the peripheral nervous system, the organs of our body. So we have effectively a therapeutic target for
05:31every organ with the promise to teach the nervous system to self repair. So it's a smart system that
05:40actually can operate autonomously in the future. And we have partners like Merck in Europe, but also
05:47Mayo Clinic in the US and a recent collaboration with Microsoft on the data side.
05:52Great. And finally, on the right hand side, we've got Matt Sanders, who probably works for a company
05:59you have heard of, Meta. But I would like, more so than describing what Meta is, I would like to
06:06just tell us a little bit about your work on accessibility and impact in your role there.
06:11Great. Thank you. Yeah, I don't think I need to introduce Meta. But of course, one of the things that
06:17Meta has been really focused on over the last few years is the next, focused on the next computing
06:23platform through the metaverse, virtual reality, augmented reality. And so the bit of the business
06:29that I work in is in our wearables, our wearables division. I'm modeling our Ray-Ban Meta Oakleys today,
06:38built obviously, in conjunction with Essilor Luxottica, a brilliant French, Italian, European brand,
06:45which is often overlooked. Actually, I think that this big next computing platform is being built
06:51right here in Europe. But the thing I'm focused on in my day to day is the social impact that
06:59we can
06:59achieve through this technology. If you have an ambition to build the next computing platform,
07:05you should know how that is going to change society for the better, right? So the way that we really
07:11see
07:12they're starting to impact on people is those with disabilities who are able to now connect with
07:19the world and receive live information around the world through a wearable and through something that
07:24they wear paired with AI that can give them real-time information about what they're seeing and how
07:31they're navigating the world. So I'm really excited and really privileged to work with some of those
07:35communities. And I suspect we might talk a bit more about that as we go. That is a perfect pivot.
07:40Thank you for that. So yeah, the first thing that I think that we're going to cover here is the
07:46question of accessibility and access. I think there's this general feeling, this general impression of
07:53wearables and implants as something that's for the healthy and the wealthy. It's something very
07:58inaccessible to the majority of people around. I think all of you in different ways are using these
08:04technologies as a way to address some sort of pain point, inequality or disadvantage. So I'd like to
08:11hear a little bit more about sort of who are the populations that you are designing for and how are
08:16they involved in working through this with you?
08:22So maybe from the government health perspective, what we do is we go through the providers that we have,
08:28right? So imagine back to the example of an insurance that is basically just looking into
08:38the data that they currently have from electronic health records and so on. With the insights from
08:42wearables, they can basically start into preventative care and look and kind of have a mind shift into
08:49what can we do to help people earlier to understand insights and then build on this to drive change into
08:58more healthy habits, formating more healthy habits for less cure cost, basically. Because as we all know,
09:07the healthcare system as we have it will not be able to be financed in the future, right? So what
09:13we
09:13what we want to do is we want to give partners the ability to already build future-proof solutions
09:21through the access to this information. Yeah, maybe on our side, we hear a lot about augmenting
09:30humans. And when we look at healthy humans that could be augmented, I find less less than a billion,
09:38let's say, you know, our known Elon Musk is always talking about that population, but that population will
09:47have to pay out of the pocket a treatment like that. And again, there's only a very small pool of
09:53people that will actually be able to do that. However, when we look at the therapeutic side,
09:59one out of three people have a neurological-related disorder, this is like three billion over three
10:06billion. So we found the opportunity to actually restore function is where we focus. And again,
10:15we have one neural system, we call it the body's operating system. We know about central and
10:21peripheral nervous system, but at the end, it works all together. So decoding that operating system
10:27and being able to restore that function is what we are aiming for and what we are making great strides
10:33on.
10:35Matt or John, it sounds like you are actually quite working together on this.
10:38Yeah. Now, just something that rings a bell for me, anticipating the thing and addressing
10:45wearable from my own perspective, but the wearable as soon as possible also to solve some potential
10:53issue. I'm just taking an example of the myopia. You probably know that myopia is an incredible
11:00increasing, particularly in Asia. We have developed lenses, stellar-stellar lenses that is slowing down
11:08the myopia evolution. But of course, it makes sense only if the kid is wearing it.
11:15And as we are starting at six years old, having a way to understand the behavior of the kids and
11:23try to
11:24help him, to empower him, empower the kids and the parents to improve behavior and make sure that
11:31reducing as much as possible the myopia is something more than just the vision. It's really on the health
11:37domain. So that's why I have just a sample here. But we have started, we are commercializing a product
11:46now for kids, which is tracking the wearing time. It's called the Stelest Man glasses.
11:54It's very simple to use, no button, no camera, no mic, no etc. And it gives also the insights,
12:02information to the eye care professional, to the parents, to adopt a better behavior.
12:08I don't know if Matt, do you want to add to this?
12:10Yeah, if you don't mind, I'd like to just take one step back. Because I think to really understand
12:15why these glasses are turning into such a power accessibility device and why we're investing
12:21so much in working with those communities. I think you actually have to understand,
12:24what is it about wearables that is driving so many companies? It's not just Meta, but
12:29lots of companies now are thinking that wearables is going to be the future way that we interact with
12:35technology. For me, I think there's two things that make the wearable a really powerful way to interact
12:41with AI and technology. The first is, if you think about the history of technology, we, as humans,
12:48have spent the last sort of 70 years or so adapting our bodies to the tech that is created for
12:54us.
12:54So we all have sort of sore backs because we hunch over computers like this and we walk around cities
13:00gazing at these little like glowing palms in our hands. And actually, I think what is great about
13:06wearable is this is the first sort of technological revolution where the tech is adapting to us,
13:12rather than us having to adapt our bodies to the tech. The other thing is that as a glasses wearer,
13:20so I put on my, I wear everyday glasses. I can see many people here do. The first thing I
13:25do every
13:26morning is I put on my glasses and then I forget that they're there. And the glasses actually just sort
13:32of recede into the background and they are the device through which I interact with the world,
13:36through which I see all of you, other people. And I think there's this real hunger in tech now. It
13:42feels sort of wrong to say this at a tech conference, but the average person looks at their phone, I
13:47think, 166 times a day. And I think there is a sense now that actually we want tech to recede.
13:54And I think we're moving towards interfaces that are invisible. So if you take those two things,
14:01technology that adapts to the human and technology that recedes into the background,
14:05I think you can immediately see why those with accessibility needs are going to be so well
14:10served by this technology. I think that's a really interesting point that you bring up. And one of
14:16the questions is, to what extent are these technologies, are we designing them to be forgotten
14:23about? And I think that for the most part is very much a good thing. We're less on our phones,
14:29we're not fiddling with something on our glasses. Of course, there are questions that I come up
14:35about that. If at a certain point we forget too much, can we go too far in the other direction?
14:41And so I'd be curious to hear about also the safeguards that are being put in place to make
14:46sure that, and we'll talk a little bit about the data, but even just in terms of these technologies,
14:52to making sure that they are always serving the populations that they were designed for and not
14:57going too far. I mean, obviously with AI, we often talk about, is AI going to become super intelligent
15:01and take over? I don't think this is going to happen with glasses or implants, but I think
15:07people would be worried about that. So what are you doing to ensure that people are not
15:12having these concerns and to address those?
15:16Yeah. Maybe I can start. In our case, I completely agree. Technology that is invisible,
15:23in our case is implantable, and technology that senses and adapts to our body. In our case, we read
15:30and write into the nervous system to restore a function. So naturally, it is something that becomes
15:38part of your body because it's going to help you functioning, and therefore it's actually
15:45diagnosing and treating real-time without you knowing. And that carries a lot of responsibility.
15:51And it just starts from every company first, but there is a medical device regulation that is
16:00actually the guardian also of these class three devices, it's our call, which is very clear about
16:07what are their responsibilities for each party and who the data belongs to. In our case,
16:14in implantable devices is the patient is the owner of the data. And if one day they want to remove,
16:20they can remove it. But I think there's also an ethical part, that responsibility that companies carry,
16:28that is also very important. And it's evolving with time, not in the core principles, but on the
16:36possibilities that are expanding with Genetic AI and AI in general, right? I hope it helps.
16:48So to get to your question, I think, about working with communities, it's sort of fundamental, I think, that the
16:55best features come out of the communities that they serve rather than vice versa. So I don't know if
17:04anyone is familiar with the history of the glasses, but they started out as a product called Ray-Ban Stories.
17:10They had no AI in them, they were just cameras in glasses. We as a company are about human connection,
17:16and we thought, hey, actually, if you could film iView videos and upload it quickly to Instagram,
17:21that would be cool. We had a hackathon. As a company, we often have hackathons design our products,
17:27and it was actually a blind employee at Meta who said, hmm, if you take those and put AI in,
17:34the AI will be able to tell me what I'm looking at. And so they built a prototype, and that
17:40has now become
17:40this mainstream mass market product that is selling at roughly the trajectory of some of the most
17:48successful consumer electronics at all time. If you imagine being a blind person and reaching
17:53around in your cupboards for a can, if you pick up a can of peas or a can of beans,
18:00they feel exactly
18:01the same in your hands, exactly the same. And you might have to eat five cans of peas before you
18:06get
18:07the beans you want. Whereas now the AI can just say, yes, that's a can of peas in your hands.
18:13But there are now so many applications of that for the general population. If I'm in a restaurant
18:18in Paris, I don't speak French, sadly, and say, hey, Meta, like translate this menu into English.
18:24Incredible. And actually some of the most successful electronic products have actually started life
18:29as an accessibility device. The remote control was designed for those with low mobility. It's now in
18:34every home. The typewriter was designed for blind people to be able to write now in every home on
18:41every device that we use. So I'm totally convinced that actually we work with the the blind and low
18:48vision and the disability community because it matters and it's the right thing to do. But they are
18:53also showing us the way for products that I think are going to become are going to be keep growing
18:59and
18:59getting bigger for all of us. So sort of linked to this, you know, one of the questions that I
19:07wanted
19:07to ask all of you is is sort of the integration of these wearables into into our daily lives and
19:13also
19:13sort of the interface with in this case, for example, you know, medical professionals, doctors,
19:20researchers, researchers, etc. You know, in in each of your different cases of what you're working on,
19:26how are the, you know, the the the findings, the the technologies that are being developed,
19:34being shared with or in some way used by researchers, doctors, medical professionals to also try to address
19:43some of maybe the root causes of some of these these issues that we're talking about? Is this something that,
19:47you know, is also part of this this discussion? Yeah, so so maybe from from our perspective,
19:54an open ecosystem is kind of the key to the success, right? So when we work with with partners like
20:00King's College to tackle pregnancy diabetes, to understand the need of this to have an underserved
20:10community in terms of the the research gender gap that we still see, unfortunately,
20:17we want to make sure that this information gets to as many people as possible, right? So we have a
20:23research database that incorporates all the research that is done with Garmin devices so that other
20:30researchers don't have to start from scratch to to actually see what's already been done with the devices
20:35that that that we love so much. So this is kind of my crucial element is to being able to
20:42share such
20:42information across these communities for the greater good.
20:49I can comment. This is key. I don't know if you know, but in Africa, there's only one percent of
20:58pacemakers,
20:59the simple medical device that is implanted in patients because the lack of cardiologists in some
21:04areas. I think that it's not that AI is going to substitute those clinicians, but it's going to help,
21:11especially in in areas when when they are known and where people are suffering. So I think,
21:17for instance, in our case, we are training the algorithms to be able to be interrogated and
21:23diagnose and treat, as I said. So if you have a tremor on the right hand, you can say,
21:28hey, I have a tremor on my right hand. Can you try to fix it? And this is always at
21:33the beginning
21:33going to be supervised by the neurologist. But at some point, if we are able to prove that safety,
21:40if everything evolves as we think it's going to evolve, this is also the greatest companion
21:47at the clinician level to actually get to those places where actually there's no care or times when
21:55there's nobody available for that care. And you can do it at home in a way that the system can
22:01can help you treat real time and in a personalized way a particular symptom.
22:08And that's really interesting. And I think, you know, there is this sort of positive feedback loop
22:14that's going on between, you know, the doctors and the patients and the researchers and the companies.
22:20You know, I think, you know, one concern or question people might have is, okay, so there's
22:27oodles of data that's also being collected. Maybe this is not even true, but I think people often
22:32have that impression. So, you know, the question would be, with these wearables, with these implants,
22:37is data being collected? If so, you know, who does the data belong to? And what is done with it,
22:44you know, if in the case of like an acquisition or something like that? And, you know, are these
22:49topics that you're also thinking through and working with policymakers to address and to sort of
22:56go out in front of?
22:59I think Carolina already answered a bit of that because, of course, data ownership is at the
23:07patient level. The patient only, the patient is owning his own data. With some consent, eventually,
23:16you can use them, of course. And our job is to make sure that the end user, the patient is
23:23in any
23:24time able to change the content and get his data. And that's also, for me, the regulations, some
23:34some laws depending on the zone, but there are some laws and we must apply it. Yeah.
23:42I mean, I think this is absolutely fundamental, really vital question for us as a whole tech
23:48industry. Actually, we want people to buy and use our products because we think they bring so many
23:53great advantages and can change people's lives. But you can't do that if people don't trust
23:58the products that you're building. And so our approach is that, A, you should have choices over
24:05how and when and why you share data. And secondly, you should be able to keep the data that you
24:14capture
24:15private on the glasses. So things that you capture stay on the glasses unless you choose to share it.
24:21The other important aspect of this, and I think this is really interesting,
24:26is that tech needs to move with society. And if society, societal expectations sort of move ahead
24:32of tech, that's where you, or vice versa, that's where you run into problems. We have designed these
24:39with privacy sort of baked in from the start. There is, I'm not going to do it now, but if
24:43I were to take
24:44a photo using the glasses, there is a light on the front that flashes to indicate that the device
24:50is recording. We thought that was important because lots of people yet don't know that
24:57sunglasses now carry cameras for that sort of interaction. If you think about the early days
25:03of the smartphone, actually most smartphones came with a little click sound, a shutter sound,
25:09when it took a photo. That doesn't exist now on most smartphones because society has actually moved on
25:15and now understands because every phone is a smartphone and every smartphone in the world has
25:19a camera on it. So I think it's a great example of how tech needs to move with society. And
25:27I think
25:28you need, when tech is novel and new, you need those additional safeguards, which is why we have
25:34that safeguard over and above what you would get on a smartphone.
25:39Yeah, no, I very much agree that it's really important to be thinking about these things and
25:45looking ahead of them. And I'm thinking in France, for example, if you record a phone call,
25:51I'm a journalist, if you record a phone call in France, there'll be a little voice that will say to
25:56both sides of the phone call, this phone call is being recorded, because otherwise you could just
26:00get, you know, get anyone on record without them ever having agreed to it or being aware.
26:07Another important topic related to wearables and implants is still costs. So, you know,
26:15cost and accessibility. And we talked a little bit about this at the beginning.
26:18But, you know, I think that wearables are often thought of as being inaccessible to the large
26:24majority of people. Could you go through, first of all, is, you know, is that true? Or is this
26:30becoming already democratized and available to a wider audience or a wider, you know, user base?
26:36And if so, do you see that continuing as, like we said, this becomes more and more commonplace?
26:44I mean, the cost of the product itself, and I think we have this from a comment to have
26:50some people are now targeting specifically only the out-of-pocket population first, right? So,
26:56and I think that's wrong, mostly because if we look from a cost perspective into a lot of societies and
27:03how much we're spending to keep a broken healthcare system running, if we start looking into this cost
27:12factors and do it a bit smarter to have more understanding and, for example, remote patient
27:18monitoring, seeing how much cheaper it is to, and I bring you an example, let's say you or your
27:26loved ones suffer from Parkinson's disease. One way to cope with this is a medication plan. And what
27:34your doctor will probably do is they will give you a template plan, because that's all they can do.
27:40When they bring in a wearable, for example, and the insights from the wearable, they can see the
27:45severity of the tremor and put that in real time into an app or into a companion that then has
27:52a
27:52smart and personalized way to that treatment and that care, right? So this cost saving alone would over
27:59time easily pay off the cost of the innovation in the beginning. And if we scale this to a lot
28:07of other
28:08um, both from coming from like mental all the way into, um, um, musculoskeletal diseases and so on,
28:16we can actually take that burden away from the healthcare system and use that cost that currently
28:22is generated and probably even less of that into a more smarter and more preventative care solution.
28:30I think everyone wants to jump in.
28:32Oh, maybe Jean.
28:33Well, I was going to, um, maybe just push back slightly on the premise there because, um,
28:40undoubtedly, like cost is a barrier for, for any technology that is definitely true.
28:44But actually often when I speak to people with disabilities, actually, the first thing I get is
28:48surprised at how affordable, um, how affordable the pair of glasses that I'm wearing is. And that's
28:54because there's two ways to build assistive tech. So there are companies which, which are brilliant,
28:59building for very small populations, very specific applications. And by its nature, that market is
29:06therefore really small. So people with disabilities are actually used to the tech that they need being
29:11really expensive. So when you get a device that comes along that is actually built for everyone. Um,
29:17so the market is so much bigger. It is by definition going to be cheaper because it's a mass market
29:22product. Um, so I think there is, I think the challenge to companies that are building tech
29:28like this should be, how are you actually building your mass market product product so that everyone
29:34can use it? Like how are you baking accessibility in at the start? Because that's how you get products
29:39that are affordable. That's obviously a very different model to companies that are building
29:43for a very niche specific market. But I think that's really important.
29:47Yeah. And if I may, it really depends on what kind of product we are speaking about.
29:51If I come back to my myopia and the Stelest Smart Glasses, uh, when we are speaking about cost,
29:58talking about cost is not just a price. Uh, we are speaking about health, medical device,
30:03and, uh, how much you pay to slow down your myopia. Oh, okay. Your myopia evolution. Um,
30:12myopia is just not only, uh, a way to correct your vision. Uh, we have solutions that is slowing down
30:20this evolution and, uh, it's a way to, uh, avoid the blindness, a way to avoid glaucoma, a lot of,
30:28uh,
30:29vision issue. So I think the surprise should be, uh, not just with money, with dollars or euro at the
30:37end.
30:38Exactly. There's the, the upfront cost, but then there's also all of the savings and health.
30:42Um, uh, maybe in the, in the implants, I don't know if this, if this, this compares,
30:46if this is also something that you're thinking about, uh, it seems more like a more involved
30:51operation, I guess, so to speak. So, you know, how are you dealing with the questions of cost?
30:56Yeah. So first of all, we are an operate, we are operating in a regulated environment where actually
31:02there are cost, um, buckets or let's say tax, um, where you usually fit. And then if you want a
31:10higher price for that particular product, it's always combined with a clinical study that shows
31:17a higher effectiveness and usually, uh, less invasiveness, for instance. Um, so that is very
31:25well-defined. Now, I think there's a next level where actually companies, we should also be
31:30responsible in whatever we can in reducing the cost burden in the healthcare system and not just
31:37trying to get higher and higher in premium prices. Um, and, and for instance, one of the things we're
31:42looking into is in the future a payment, not per the device, but by the outcomes that the device
31:49generate in order to decrease that cost. And for instance, we have risk, um, stratification
31:56algorithms that can tell, okay, there's a hundred or thousand red patients, but there's 20,000 green
32:03patients. They don't need to come that year for a follow-up visit. So, you know, now we treat everybody
32:09the same. Everybody comes to the, you know, same three month follow-up or six month follow-up. Well,
32:14maybe there are happy patients that don't need any follow-up in one or two years, but
32:19there's 100 that really need to be really taken care of. So I think putting systems like that,
32:25that alert when it's necessary and, you know, relax where it's not is, is part of the
32:32responsibility that we carry. Yeah. It's a sort of like congestion pricing or something
32:36of that nature. Um, we've got about five more minutes. You have not, you do not all have to leave
32:41despite the announcement. And we have five more minutes and I did want to talk a little bit with
32:45all of you and sort of hear your perspectives on the future of these fields. I know none of you,
32:50you know, are, are, are, have, have, have a crystal ball to be able to predict exactly where this is
32:55going. But what we are seeing is, uh, the wearables are getting, are getting smaller, more subtle, but
33:00they're also becoming more widespread and they're also, uh, addressing or, or, or being, being given
33:05to populations that like we said, um, are the most actually in, uh, in need of them. Um, so, you
33:12know,
33:12um, what comes next? Um, are there, um, are there big changes coming in this field or is it going
33:20to be
33:20more of, not more of the same, but, but you know, uh, um, you know, uh, a refining of, of
33:25what already
33:26exists? How do you, how do you see wearables and, and implanted technology moving in the, in the next
33:31five, 10, 15 years? I know it's a big question. Well, I, I'm not allowed to, uh, to give all
33:39the
33:39secrets we have, but, uh, we have a belief within the SILOR Exotica is that probably the, the next,
33:45uh, smart product wearable will be the smart eyewear. After the smartphone, smart watch, the smart
33:51eyewear as a great place today, uh, to, uh, for, for a lot of purpose. And if we come back
33:58to the health
33:58or wellness applications, um, this is the entry point, the eye is the entry point of the global
34:04health, uh, of the, of the wearer. And, uh, it's so well exposed to everything that I'm more than
34:11convinced, uh, that, uh, we will have great next product, uh, in the coming years. And I'm sure
34:18they will be presented here. You will be able to see them. This is how we keep getting you to
34:24come
34:24back to VivaTech. I mean, um, from, from our perspective, we, it's probably difficult to,
34:32to see what's, what's coming in 10 years. That's, um, I'm still hoping for flying cars by myself,
34:37but outside of this, um, when we look back into what, what was in 2016, um, just sticking to the
34:46healthcare world, um, being able to detect AFib, um, is basically just sitting here and putting my hand
34:52on my watch would have been unthinkable. What would also been, um, would have also been pretty
35:00difficult to imagine back then would have been that my doctor actually tells me to get a smart
35:05watch. Um, if I have a heart, if I have a cardiovascular disease, right? So that's something,
35:11um, where we looking a bit back in time, um, see that technology emerged so rapidly.
35:17And with the use of, of all this great insights that we can generate from the devices and applying
35:22AI to it, um, there's so much more to come. What we are excited about is that fine interaction
35:32with the neural system to teach the neural system to self repair. And I give you an example today,
35:38if there is a person without an arm with an amputee, actually, um, sometimes these people have,
35:45um, phantom pain, meaning they don't have the limb, but still they feel a lot of pain
35:50and you can teach the brain to filter that pain and not to feel it anymore. Um, but if you
35:57could
35:57actually get that back and teach the system to rewire some of those neural areas, you can actually get
36:05completely rid of that particular symptom or, you know, prevent because there would be also
36:10prediction built into, into what we are, um, knowing about the neural system. So I think
36:16we are at the, at the fourth industrial revolution at the convergence of advanced materials, semiconductors,
36:24AI, biology, that is teaching a breakthrough steps into the understanding of, of the body's operating
36:31system, which a huge implication for our health and longevity.
36:36Um, we've got about two minutes left. Do you have a, maybe a final, a final thought, Matt?
36:40I'll do my best to bring us home. And what an amazing, it's not like a painless
36:43future. Like that's, that's like, I don't know how to follow that. So inspiring. Um,
36:48I think my prediction, uh, would be sort of actually where I started, which is that I think for all
36:53the
36:53talk about, um, AI, um, somehow, um, sort of, uh, separating humans or removing humans from processes,
37:01I actually think that the marriage of artificial intelligence and wearable technology is actually
37:07going to allow AI to foster more meaningful human connection already, just small things like being
37:13able to talk to someone on the phone and hands-free and use my hands as I naturally would. I
37:19know I
37:19sound more authentic and more real when I'm having a conversation through a wearable than with a machine
37:25clamped, um, to my ear or what being able to, um, being able to have a conversation with someone
37:30who speaks another language where it's both being interpreted to us and it feels entirely
37:34natural and instinctive. I think, um, I think that is the future, like richer, more authentic
37:40human connection where the tech recedes and becomes invisible.
37:46Great. Well, that's, I think a really nice, did you have maybe anything to add?
37:49No, just maybe to emphasize on this, what I, what we currently see, and probably that's the same
37:54thing in the whole tech industry, uh, people generally don't need more data. They need better
38:01insights into this data, right? So as you said, right, so understanding someone, um, who doesn't
38:06speak your language, um, understanding what the body signal that my smartphone just senses means to me,
38:12um, and then probably being able to detect something earlier, um, having more, also less,
38:20um, uh, less frightening results when I just Google a symptom, but having actual
38:25and meaningful insights, um, that's where, where we see the future.
38:30Thank you to all the panelists and thank you for, for your attention. Um, uh, this has been really
38:35fascinating conversation and, and, um, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. Thank you.
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