Welcome to the Embrace Beta
Dear Embrace supporters,
We’re very happy to share with you the news of the first Embrace shipment! Some of the earliest supporters among you have already received the beta version of the watch, and more will receive it in the upcoming weeks. We’re proud of this milestone and what it means for the Embrace development, as we’re going to explain in this post.
The past two months in Empatica
The past two months have been intense: the entire team worked crazy hard integrating all the pieces that make up the Embrace. Here’s the bird’s eye: electronics, firmware, data transmission, bluetooth connectivity, algorithms, automatic reconnection, status updates, alert delivery, app development and testing, secure data logging and transmission. All these pieces are tied together, and testing each of them was a momentous effort. We tested both internally in our lab and with families we have been working with.
Although some aspects still need polishing, it is time to get feedback from some of you, who have been so patient waiting for so long. While we’re proud of the results we have achieved so far, the feedback we will receive from you is as important as all the work that we have done to date.
The Embrace Beta program
The Embrace beta program is an enrollment-based test of our product. It allows us to test the response from everyday, unsupervised use. A beta product is not the final device and should be evaluated and used as such. Our main focus for this beta testing was the Embrace Alert System. Being the most critical piece in our architecture, we want to make it right as soon as possible.
Being the most uncompromising judges of our work, we know there are still many things that need to be improved. Yet we are moving steadily towards the delivery of the final product and our supporters will have a key role in that direction. In fact, you will help us shape the way the product will be finalized and shipped to everybody.
The Beta program has several stages: each new shipment will draw on the improvements that come from the previous one. We expect this will last from 4 to 8 weeks, during which production will continue. The Embrace we are shipping is not yet a medical device. Embrace is not intended for use in diagnosing, curing, mitigating, treating, preventing or monitoring diseases. While we progress with the Beta program, we are also working hard on a series of FDA filings. We already passed all the necessary safety and electrical tests, and we are in good shape organizing our filing package, although there is still a lot of documenting to do.
Next shipments
We know that many of you are wondering about the exact date of their shipment. Our plan depends on the successful outcome of the beta program. In the next weeks we will check that the device is ready to move forward and be shipped to everybody. We are going to include a bigger number of supporters week after week.
Please make sure to complete your Empatica Account if you want to be considered for the next beta shipments. If you don’t find the email that invited you to create your Empatica Account, don’t worry: go to http://myembrace.empatica.com/create-account-request, insert the same email address you have placed your order with and you will receive an email containing the link to create your account.
Remember that you don’t need to contact Empatica’s support to check the status of your order. Through your orders page of the Empatica Account you can always check the fulfillment status of your order.
As a final remark, thank you for your patience. While we keep working hard on advance production and on your feedback, we hope the news of the first shipments will encourage all our supporters to appreciate the progress.
A big hug from the Empatica Team
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Dear friends, we have important news to share! We’ve sent the first shipment of the Embrace Beta to some of our early…
Posted by Empatica on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
