Description
Think of Airo as a wellness tracker and AI therapist. The watch-style wearable is designed to detect elevated anxiety and stress levels, and then counsel you through bringing them back down, and achieving some relief. Over time, Airo intends its feedback, data, and breathing exercises to teach you how to conquer your stress management.
Airo monitors your nervous system, which basically means that rather than tracking straight heart rate, it collects data on heart rate variability (HRV), and feeds that information into “sophisticated algorithms.” Not all individual heart beats are even; that is, if your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, it doesn’t mean each beat lasts 1 second. HRV is a measure of the beat-to-beat differences in heart rate, which Airo says varies based on the activity of your sympathetic (“fight-or-flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) nervous systems.
When your body responds to stressors, anything from exercise and fatigue to traffic and rough job interview, the sympathetic nervous system amps up. If the parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t activate to calm it back down soon enough, stress builds, and develops to the point that its impact is negative. You feel anxious and unwell.
When Airo detects you’ve reached this state, the wrist piece vibrates. And message pops up on the accompanying Airo app, something like, “Dude, looks like you’re getting anxious. Should we try something to relax?” At that point, you’ll have the option either to let Airo guide you through a breathing exercise to help reset your state of mind, or tell it to STFU as you rip it off and chuck it at the care that just cut you off.
Airo stores all of its HRV tracking data to learn about your habits and triggers, and to provide advice and exercises specific to your body and routine. After a while of working with the app and figuring out what helps you, the hope is that you’ll be able to roll through your proven de-stressing steps on your own whenever you feel Airo buzz.
