From the Wall Street Journal:
The giant Procter & Gamble Co. last week
demonstrated what it calls the "World's First Available Interactive Electric
Toothbrush." It links with a smartphone and records brushing habits, while an
app gives mouth-care tips alongside news headlines.
"There are people who are very passionately waiting
for it," says Michael Cohen-Dumani, associate marketing director for P&G's
Oral-B electric toothbrush business.
"I truly believe that 10 years from now," he says,
"it's going to be hard to think you didn't have something like it."
Not everyone is champing at the bit. "It's one of
those things you think are great at first but never actually buy," says Karina
Clarke, a 34-year-old Paris real-estate agent. The idea, she says, seems like "a
microwave you put in your mouth."
This race to wire the world's jaws is playing out in one of
tech's buzziest arenas: the so-called Internet of things. Giants like Google Inc., which recently
bought a networked-thermostat maker called Nest, are investing, as are smaller
startups. New products include smart socks (to measure running form) and
connected water bottles (to gather water-consumption data.)
"We're just at the beginning of seeing a bunch of
really ridiculous products that tie pretty much anything to a smartphone," says
Stacey Higginbotham, who writes about the Internet of things for tech website
Gigaom.
Kolibree is betting on sensors and analytics to
improve the daily oral-hygiene ritual. Its sonic toothbrush, called the
Kolibree, includes nine motion sensors and an algorithm designed by five
mathematicians to identify which quadrant of the mouth a user is brushing, Mr.
Serval says.
Kolibree is designing its brush so anyone, from
dentists to game developers, can build applications that tap into its data. "We
are kind of geeks going into the dental industry," Mr. Serval says. "We want to
use data to reinvent the way people brush their teeth."
P&G is leaning on its history. The company's
Oral-B brand offered its first electric toothbrush in 1963. The mobile app with
P&G's toothbrush—it will be part of the Oral-B SmartSeries line—tells avid
users how long to spend on each corner of the mouth.
P&G says its will be the first connected electric
brush available to consumers. "Our competitors have some prototypes," says Mr.
Cohen-Dumani, "and we are excited to see how they come along."
Competition among Web-enabled toothbrushes is set to
continue.
No comments:
Post a Comment