Startup working on glucose measurement device that doesn’t require a skin prick

Echo Labs Prototype

A company called Echo Labs is working on a novel wearable that promises to go beyond the capabilities of current wrist-worn devices. Beyond step tracking, Echo Labs’ product will be able to analyze a wearer’s bloodstream to monitor human body vital signs such as glucose levels, according to a Forbes report.

Two years in the making, the device does its magic by measuring light frequency in blood molecules to determine PH and oxygen levels as well as blood pressure, a wearer’s hydration level and even CO2 in the blood stream. The underlying algorithm taps electromagnetic waves via human tissue to measure light frequency that reveals blood molecule concentration.

However, according to the company’s founders, Elad Ferber and Pierre-Jean Cobut, they are still nowhere close to a final product. That, however, hasn’t stopped interested partners and buyers from asking questions whether and how they will be able to implement Echo Labs’ tech into their products.

If Ferber and Cobut manage to pull this off in a timely fashion, their product could be the first-ever glucose measurement device not requiring a skin prick for blood measurement.

“We wanted to provide users with real insights with things that they can act on,” Cobut told Forbes. “We had to start by measuring data that’s insightful in nature.”

A recent Visiongain report says this year could be the “breakthrough” year for consumer adoption of fitness and mHealth wearables, with the global wearables market projected to hit $16.1 billion by the end of 2015 as a long expected mass market acceptance is achieved.