Welt smart belt is like an Apple Watch for your waist

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Welt2
This belt will monitor your increasingly girth.
Photo: Welt

CES 2019 bug Forget your wrist. The new location for wearable devices is clearly your waist, at least according to Korean wearables company Welt. At CES 2019, the startup unveiled its smart belt, which promises to track physical activity, measure your expanding waistline, and even perform Apple Watch-style fall detection.

The Welt smart belt does this using a bevy of sensors and a Bluetooth connection. The data gathered is sent to a connected mobile device such as an iPhone.

The comparisons with Apple Watch don’t stop with the fall-detection feature, either. The belt will reportedly prompt you to get up when you’ve been sitting down too long. It will also push you to exercise.

And, unlike the Apple Watch, it can actually keep tabs on your physical form. The waist wearable correlates your exercise data with how tight or loose the smart belt fits. There’s no Apple Watch Series 4-style ECG reader, though.

Welt smart belt: A wearable for your waist

“Welt takes the health tech industry to an entirely new level with its customized plans for fitness goals,” said Welt CEO and co-founder, Sean Kang, in a statement. “We will demonstrate many of our new software updates, including the fall-risk assessment that can help the elderly or consumers who are at risk of falls.”

The Welt smart belt is reportedly already available to buy in Korea and Japan. However, CES 2019 marks its official launch in the United States.

Could this be the next iteration of wearable technology? Hey, at the very least, it’s not the weirdest wearable we’ve seen at this year’s big consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.

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