Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derek@Zeo on December 15, 2009 at 12:44am

Hi Bigsky - glad to hear you've found Zeo helpful for the last 6 months. Thanks for sharing!

And hi again Jan - The audio downloads are available in our sleep information center here: http://bit.ly/smtMa (and are part of the relaxation step of coaching) - they should work with iTunes. :) I look forward to hearing your thoughts if you give Zeo a try.

Sleep Well!
-Derek@Zeo
[Derek@myZeo.com]

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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on December 15, 2009 at 10:30am

Derek has the Zeo been used with a PSG to test it's accuracy? If so do you have the results? How does it differentiate between sleep stages by only monitoring the frontal portion (Fp), temporal (T), and occipital (O) regions of the brain? Just wondering because the Fp and T are not used in a sleep montage in your standard PSG. Does it register arousals. Are your advisors certified in sleep? Are your advisors PAP users?

Please do not think that I am asking you these questions to knock what could be an invaluable tool. We are having some trouble with actigraphy in my lab. Our current system utilizes a graph diary that has to be written out by the pt. This is a 2 week process. Most do not even open their paperwork until the day of their appointment. Others are scheduled last minute. Anyway we are only getting the data on a small percentage of patients. This is my need. Can your product fill it? Can you sell me on it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actigraphy#The_actigraph_unit

http://www.aasmnet.org/Articles.aspx?id=344

How is yours better than this one?

http://www.actiwatch.respironics.com/?gclid=CNL-9cvg2J4CFaM45QodhD_PrA

This one?

http://www.theactigraph.com/

There are quite a few Ipods on the market right now. How is yours different?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel P. Bronson on December 15, 2009 at 11:23am

I think this is outstanding. Once the holidays are over, and I can reasonably afford it, I'll buy one of these. Between this, a ResMed AutoSet II, and a recording pulse-oximeter, my bedroom will be a (non-FDA approved!) sleep lab. Sweet.

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Permalink Reply by 99 on December 15, 2009 at 1:58pm

do you require a rubber hammer as backup to complete your non fda sleep lab

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Permalink Reply by Daniel P. Bronson on December 15, 2009 at 10:38pm

I prefer good old-fashioned metal. None of this newfangled rubber for my skull.

99 said:

do you require a rubber hammer as backup to complete your non fda sleep lab

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Permalink Reply by Derek@Zeo on December 16, 2009 at 9:29am

Hi Rock,

The questions are welcome! My apologies for not responding to your first post.

Zeo is the first (and only) consumer technology that allows users to see their sleep quality (i.e. sleep phases) throughout the night. I say 'consumer' since Zeo is not a medical device and is not intended for the diagnosis or treatment of sleep disorders. As such, it does not identify or report arousals. It is more geared towards allowing users to analyze the quality and quantity if their sleep, and provides education so they can make informed, sustainable changes to their lifestyle routines.

Zeo’s technology has been scientifically tested to demonstrate its accuracy at phasing sleep. As part of these tests its accuracy was compared to an actigraph, which can only determine sleep versus wake. The results of those validations were presented at conferences in the US and Europe. We have also assembled a great scientific advisory board. You can find these validations and information on our board members here: http://www.myzeo.com/pages/52_for_health_professionals.cfm

If you are interested in learning more from our health professionals team, feel free to shoot them an email at research@myZeo.com.

Regards,
-Derek@Zeo
[Derek@myZeo.com]

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Permalink Reply by Daniel P. Bronson on December 16, 2009 at 9:47am

Hi, Derek. I have some further questions.

Absent a platform-native application to visualize the data, the spreadsheet functionality is critical. While I laud your efforts to skirt the whole platform issue by opting for a web app, you must understand that for many potential customers, there isn't always an internet. Also, in the (hopefully unlikely) event of your company being unsuccessful, and the website vanishing, suddenly all your customers would be left with devices of limited usefulness. Could you go into some more detail about this function? How does it work? What is the interchange file format, csv?

Also, in discussing the device with others, someone brought up the advisability of having a wireless transmitter in close proximity to one's brain for 8 hours a day. Whether or not there is any scientific merit to the idea that this is dangerous, there will always be people who are concerned about it. Without resorting to marketing-speak (like 'it radiates 1/1000th the energy of a cell phone') could you quantify the RF output? What frequency band does it transmit on?

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Permalink Reply by Derek@Zeo on December 16, 2009 at 12:12pm

Hi Daniel -

Thanks for the questions. There are a few layers to the reply, so forgive me for the long-winded response...

Regarding the data download: this feature came about as a result of feedback from our early users. After you've uploaded your data to our website, you can simply download that information into a .CSV file, which is a format that can be opened by any typical spreadsheet application (e.g. Excel). We talk about the genesis of this feature on a blog post here: http://blog.myzeo.com/download-your-zeo-sleep-data-to-excel/

This blog post sparked a conversation around an offline version of the software and data privacy, which we address in the post that we just put up today: http://blog.myzeo.com/personal-data-privacy-and-zeo/

While I understand your concern about us being a small company, I hope that our online engagement and appearances in places like the Today Show (http://bit.ly/4J0X7U) and the WSJ (http://bit.ly/168NuM) inspire confidence that we're a committed company that is growing fast and is here to stay.

You also ask an important conversation about Zeo's safety. I'm going to give the full response for the benefit of others that may not have seen this come up elsewhere, and I'll also address your question specifically...

I’d start by saying that the entire product, including the headband, has been laboratory tested and complies with all standards for digital and wireless devices. More specifically, Zeo meets or exceeds US and international standards for safety including the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the European Commission (which oversees the CE mark) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).

More towards answering your question- in order to meet these standards, Zeo was required to undergo a standard test for the human body’s absorption of radio waves emitted by the headband. The emission level was and is so low that the test was not able to be applied (in fact it is twenty-five times lower than the minimum level for the test). To put it another way, the Zeo Headband emits one one-thousandth the radio wave energy of a common cell phone.

To be more specific, the headband transmits at 24Hz on a 2.4GHz frequency band, with a max power output slightly over 1 milliwatt. This is similar to most household appliances and wireless networks.

Thanks again,
Derek@Zeo
[Derek@myZeo.com]

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Permalink Reply by Daniel P. Bronson on December 16, 2009 at 12:33pm

Excellent response! I wish you guys all the luck, and very much hope your company stays around for a good long while.

So, the only real sticking point for me at the moment is the absolute requirement for web connectivity. I'd say that 90% of my life is deeply and thoroughly wired, so most of the time it would not be an issue. However, should I wish to use the device while traveling, and my travel takes me somewhere without internet connectivity, I'm basically out of luck.

This is a problem, but I don't think it will prevent me from buying one in the not-too-distant future.

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Permalink Reply by Jan on December 16, 2009 at 4:37pm

OK-- geek that I am, I just bought one. If folks are interested, I'll post about it once I receive and start using it.

Thanks for your help, Derek.

Jan

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Permalink Reply by Jan on December 16, 2009 at 9:58pm

Well, a closet geek...or at least an early adopter for stuff. Though I do sometimes get myself in trouble on the bleeding edge...

;-)

j n k said:

GEEK!

( j/k)

:-)

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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on December 17, 2009 at 2:57pm

Derek would Zeo be willing to give up one of these units for some in lab experiments? I would like to compare it to a PSG. The only way to truly measure it's accuracy would be to where the unit during a PSG. I would also like to see if it could be used for our actigraphy situation.

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