Year 1 Pilots

Award: Jiani Zeng, co-founder and CPO of Butlr wins 2025 McKnight’s Women of Distinction award in the Commercial Excellence category

The technology designed by Zeng has been key in improving senior living and care operations, helping staff members effectively monitor residents through motion detection, enabling them to respond quickly to acute health risks without compromising resident privacy.Forster Stubbs, McKnight Senior Living The work of Jiani Zeng, a Chinese designer, researcher, and co-founder and chief product officer of Butlr Technologies, often takes place in the background, but the results always end up at the forefront. Thanks in part to her efforts, Butlr is the first company to fuse artificial intelligence and body heat sensing technology to provide insights into how humans use indoor space for living and working while ensuring anonymity. This technology has significant applications in the senior living and care sector and helped earn Zeng a 2025 McKnight’s Women of Distinction award in the Commercial Excellence…

Continue ReadingAward: Jiani Zeng, co-founder and CPO of Butlr wins 2025 McKnight’s Women of Distinction award in the Commercial Excellence category

Strategic Partnership: Synseer Partners with MindMics to Deliver Real-Time Heart Health Insights Through Everyday In-ear Devices

CAMBRIDGE, MA – May 29, 2025 — synseer, a leader in personalized health optimization, has announced a strategic collaboration with MindMics, the pioneer of in-ear infrasonic hemodynography (IH). Through this partnership, Synseer will integrate the MindMics Heart Health Platform into its intelligent wellness ecosystem—bringing real-time heart health insights directly to its users. “The integration of MindMics’ Heart Health Platform is a powerful addition to synseer’s mission of enabling real-time, data-driven wellness,” said John Martino II, CEO of synseer. “Our users will now have access to high-fidelity health data that was previously only available in clinical environments—empowering smarter decisions, every day.” MindMics’ patented technology captures low-frequency acoustic biosignals from within the ear canal, enabling non-invasive tracking of vital heart health metrics—including heart rate, heart rate variability, and physiological states related to stress and recovery. These clinically…

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Publication: Returning Individualized Wearable Sensor Results to Older Adult Research Participants: A Pilot Study

Authors: Shelby L Bachman, Krista S Leonard-Corzo, Jennifer M Blankenship, Michael A Busa, Corinna Serviente, Matthew W Limoges, Robert T Marcotte, Ieuan Clay, Kate Lyden Abstract Background: Wearable sensors that monitor physical behaviors are increasingly adopted in clinical research. Older adult research participants have expressed interest in tracking and receiving feedback on their physical behaviors. Simultaneously, researchers and clinical trial sponsors are interested in returning results to participants, but the question of how to return individual study results derived from research-grade wearable sensors remains unanswered. In this study, we (1) assessed the feasibility of returning individual physical behavior results to older adult research participants and (2) obtained participant feedback on the returned results. Methods: Older adult participants (N = 20; ages 67-96) underwent 14 days of remote monitoring with 2 wearable sensors. We then used a semiautomated…

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Publication: ACM 2024 Conference Proceeds – Development of a One Dollar Blood Pressure Monitor

Authors: Yinan Xuan, Ava J. Fascetti, Colin Barry, Edward J. Wang Abstract BPClip is an ultra-low-cost cuffless blood pressure monitor. As a universal smartphone attachment, BPClip leverages the computational imaging power of smartphones to perform oscillometry based blood pressure measurements. This paper examines different design considerations in BPClip's development. The cost and accuracy of blood pressure measurements are the central design goals. Both requirements are achieved with the initial prototype that achieves a 0.80 USD material cost and a mean absolute error of 8.72 and 5.49 mmHg for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively. Since a main motivator to develop BPClip is making blood pressure monitoring more accessible, usability is also central to the design. User studies were conducted throughout the design process to inform the most intuitive and accessible design features. In this paper,…

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Award: Gold Winner at McKnight’s Tech Awards in Falls Prevention, Management or Detection Category

The Gold went to Butlr and Ranagard Community for “Butlr: AI for earlier intervention.” By passively monitoring movement patterns via thermal sensors, Butlr Care alerts staff members when residents need assistance. The sensors detect movement but are purposely designed to be unable to capture any personally identifiable information. At Ranagard Community, 2,500 Butlr sensors were installed across 700 apartments. The return on investment has been evident in time and cost savings, increased revenue, better use of staff and a reduction in falls. Source: https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/gurwin-takes-best-of-show-as-2024-mcknights-tech-awards-honors-dozens-of-winners/

Continue ReadingAward: Gold Winner at McKnight’s Tech Awards in Falls Prevention, Management or Detection Category

Funding: $38 million in Series B funding secured with an emphasis on growth in the senior living community sector

“Our focus for this strategic funding is to continue to support enterprise customers and meet the strong demand for our technology in senior care.”Honghao Deng, CEO and co-founder, Butlr Burlingame, Calif. – August 26, 2024 – Butlr, a physical AI (PAI) startup, today announced $38M in Series B funding to meet the increasing demand for its sensors and anonymous data that can be used in any building to better understand how humans interact in a space. This results in more collaborative, energy efficient and safer buildings where people work and live. Butlr’s primary customers are in senior living communities and workplaces, with a growing interest among brick-and-mortar retailers. To date, the company has raised $68 million with Foundry as the lead investor for Series B.   An MIT Media Lab spinout, Butlr has patented the combination…

Continue ReadingFunding: $38 million in Series B funding secured with an emphasis on growth in the senior living community sector

Poster Presentation: Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) 2024

Title: Enhancing Mental and Cognitive Fitness Monitoring via Vocal Biomarkers: Applications for Military Personnel Authors: Erik Larsen, Olivia Murton, Xinyu Song, Dale Joachim, Lindsey Venesky, Sam Murdock, Bonnie Wong, Brad Dickerson Abstract:  Maintaining the mental and cognitive fitness of military personnel is critical to ensuring peak operational readiness. Traditional methods like self-reported questionnaires and clinical interviews are often hindered by subjectivity, time constraints, and the stigma surrounding mental health. Vocal biomarkers offer a breakthrough, enabling an unobtrusive, secure, and real-time assessment of mental and cognitive states using readily available smart devices.  Our research validates the effectiveness of vocal biomarkers in remotely monitoring mental and cognitive shifts, including those associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cognitive impairment, as well as real-time cognitive effort. This technology, deployable across consumer electronics and wearables without the need for network…

Continue ReadingPoster Presentation: Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) 2024