Nest has tried to hide his identity as a buyer of a promising start-up for health

More and more technology companies are blurring the line between gadgets and health devices. The new Apple Watch Series 4 will eventually make electrocardiograms. Fitbit has just announced a physical coaching program tailored to the health care sector, which aims to "improve wellness, disease management and prevention." Google recently updated its Google Fit software to reward users. year, it seems that Nest also has ambitious plans for the healthcare sector.

As reported by GeekWire, communications between Senosis employees – a health surveillance start-up that Nest was quietly picking up – and the University of Washington (where Senosis was founded) clearly indicate that the company has something to make. We initially thought that Google had made the acquisition, but in fact it was Nest.

"It turns out that Nest is a lot more secret than the rest of Google or Alphabet. They seem to be particularly sensitive in this situation because they do not want people to know that they are embarking on a new business line, digital health, until they are ready to announce publicly. " said Shwetak Patel, co-founder of Senosis. send an email to a leader of the university's innovation center. Employees were asked to write "Google" and not Nest on redemption forms.

Senosis has developed three health apps that use the built-in sensors of a smartphone to monitor different health attributes. HemaApp can measure the hemoglobin level of a user with the help of a phone camera. Another could check for jaundice in newborns. And the last one allowed the microphone of a phone to act like a spirometer to diagnose asthma when people entered it. None of these technologies had been approved by the FDA when Nest bought Senosis, but the company said GeekWire that he had started the process.

When Nest called, the university was proud to have entered the market and wanted to say the same thing to the world. But Google has asked the Senosis team not to mention Nest or to make the agreement known before a health-focused product is finally sent to consumers. He wanted to make sure that the deal was as unobtrusive as possible, which seems to have worked for a year and did not get much attention. GeekWire got the exchanges between Senosis and UW through a request for public records.

"We do not want UW to issue a press release or other official communication regarding the acquisition, as this will likely cause the Senosis team to be distracted from incoming investigations and open the door to Internet searches. Website of the WA Secretary of State to discover the identity of the acquirer, "wrote one of Google's lawyers. "If a Nest health product does not use the licensed technology, an independent press release regarding Nest's acquisition of (Senosis) could again negatively affect our product deployment."

Until now, such a product has not been published yet. In July, CNBC reported that Nest had discussions with seniors' housing centers about integrating its product line into their facilities. A smartwatch capable of detecting when you fell is helpful, yes, and if a smart video camera could recognize the same thing when it was directed at older users who choose to live independently? You know, at least until the Alphabet Verily unit discovers how to help people live forever. According to CNBC, Nest also came up with the idea of ​​using its motion sensors to turn on the lights automatically when people wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

The big question is how Nest's meeting with Google could have had an impact on the health plans of the first. Maybe we'll learn more about the new Nest material this fall. For the moment at least, the company is sticking to the traditional products of the smart home.