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Wearable technology sleep sensors may not be as accurate as you think

A new study has revealed that many gadgets overestimate the number of hours wearers are sleeping.

As 2016 gets off to a new start and people begin their resolutions, many are using wearable technology to help them to try to get in shape, improve their fitness, lose weight, or achieve better overall health.

As a part of that, many users of wearables have been tracking their sleeping habits through their gadgets.

That said, a new study has now suggested that the promises made by wearable technology to help you to measure the length of a night’s sleep may not be accurate at all. The research showed that devices, which primarily included Fitbit and Jawbone gadgets, were overestimating the number of hours of sleep people were actually receiving. This study was conducted as a review of 22 other published studies that used these device for this purpose.

Many of the articles found the wearable technology could accurately complete their measuring functions.

Sleep wasn’t the only issue that was pointed out in this research. Both the Fitbit and Jawbone devices were shown in many of the articles to be able to complete the counting tasks in a lab as well as in the field. However, there was only a single study that had actually looked into the capability for Fitbit to measure distance. What it found was that Fitbit was programmed to overestimate a slower speed and would underestimate a faster speed. This could cause the results to be skewed.

The accelerometry was a central component for measuring the wearer’s physical activity. The study indicated a strong link between slower and faster motion and inaccurate results. Moreover, when conducting an assessment of several comparative analyses of the wearable tech devices, the researchers determined that the wearables from both brands were underestimating calorie levels while they were overestimating the number of hours a user was sleeping.

The outcome of the new study was, therefore, that while these devices are relatively precise when it came to functioning as a pedometer that would count steps, they may not be nearly as accurate in their ability to calculate the number of calories that are burned or the number of hours of sleep an individual may be receiving.

Samsung’s mobile payments service to launch in the US soon

Samsung Pay is set to come to the United States in the coming months

Samsung Pay, Samsung’s new mobile payments service, is expected to launch in the United States in the coming months. The service was first launched in South Korea in 2015, where Samsung has been testing the service and fine tuning its features. Samsung Pay is set to compete with other mobile payments services in the U.S., particularly those coming from Google and Apple. The company is confident, however, that the service will appeal to U.S. consumers, especially as new features are being introduced.

New mobile payments service will be available on a variety of mobile devices

Recently, Samsung announced that its mobile payments service will be available on non-flagship devices, which are not equipped with NFC technology. NFC has become the backbone of mobile commerce, allowing digital information to be transmitted over short distances. In the past, the lack of NFC-enabled mobile devices made it difficult for consumers to make mobile payments, but device makers have brought numerous devices equipped with NFC technology to the global market, expanding the reach of mobile payments.

Samsung Pay will support Magnetic Secure Transmission technology

Samsung Pay is, of course, not a copy of other payment services. The service features support of Magnetic Secure Transmission, which is why consumers do not need NFC-enabled devices to make use of it. This technology allows Samsung Pay to work in a way similar to existing debit and credit cards. Samsung believes that this feature can be expanded to make mobile payments more convenient for consumers throughout the United States.

Security will continue to be a challenge for those involved in mobile payments

One of the challenges Samsung will have to overcome to find success in the U.S. is security. Many consumers have shown caution regarding mobile payments because of security risks, as they fear that their financial information may be exploited by malicious parties. Samsung, and other companies, have been working to address security issues, particularly through the use of biometric technology, which leverages biological information, such as a fingerprint, to secure consumer information.

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