Amazon has won permission to monitor your sleep using radar
Elaine Thompson/AP Photo
- The FCC gave Amazon permission to make a device that can remotely monitor people's sleep.
- The device will use radar to track a person's sleep, per Amazon's FCC filing.
- Insider reported in January that Amazon was working on a sleep-apnea device.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Amazon has won permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make a device that can monitor people's sleep using radar, Bloomberg first reported.
The FCC approval document, published Friday, said Amazon's description of its proposed device included "Radar Sensors to enable touchless control of device features and functions."
It also said the device would be stationary, and Amazon "plans to use the radar's capability of capturing motion in a three-dimensional space to enable contactless sleep tracing functionalities."
Amazon filed for the FCC's permission to develop its device in June, and said radar would help it monitor sleep "with a higher degree of resolution and location precision than would otherwise be achievable."
"The use of Radar Sensors in sleep tracking could improve awareness and management of sleep hygiene, which in turn could produce significant health benefits for many Americans," Amazon said in its June filing.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment on exactly what kind of a device it's making.
Insider's Eugene Kim reported in January this year that Amazon was building an Alexa-enabled device for monitoring sleep apnea, internally codenamed "Brahms." Amazon did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider on whether its FCC permission was linked to Brahms.
This wouldn't be the first health-monitoring device Amazon has released. In August 2020 it released the "Amazon Halo," a wearable fitness-monitoring watch that claims to accurately judge the wearer's emotional state from their voice, as well as calculating body fat.
The company has also developed biometric tech for its physical stores. Some Whole Foods outlets - Whole Foods is owned by Amazon - allow shoppers to pay by scanning their palms.