Intel is recalling its fitness watches: Stop using your watch and return it immediately.

Parent Cafe
1

“Intel issued a safety recall for its Basis-brand fitness watches on Wednesday, warning that the gadgets could cause blistering or burns and urging customers to return them immediately.” …

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/intel-recalling-fitness-watches-important-232913831.html

2

Duh. Intel is not the first one to get such complaints. No wonder why… these gadgets shine some sort of a light onto the skin in order ro measure the heartrate. I wonder how many of these gadget makers actually did a mini “clinical trial” of sorts to see whether a particular wavelength and intensity would be damaging to human skin - prior to incorporating the light source into their device.

3

Bunsen just like tsa radiation scanners are “safe” trust us.

Um…no!

4

@bunsenburner:
Is it the light doing that, or is it the batteries heating up and causing the burns?

5

Could be both! You gotta power the light source… It has to be on almost constantly to sample HR. Then you might end up with a hot battery. In either case, should have tried it extensively prior to going on the mass market.

(Dear autocorrect, why is it so difficult for you to write “then”?)

6

The article said they tried a software fix, which lends credence to the light thing, it could be they tried to cycle it or something and it didn’t work.