Hiyd’s 7-gram health tracker attaches to watches with microsuction

Hiyd is developing a slim health-tracking sensor that attaches to the back of a watch using microsuction, without magnets or adhesive. Founder Salah Batroukh told TechCrunch the design is intended for people who want health tracking without changing the watch they wear.

Batroukh described microsuction as textured silicone with tiny pockets that create suction when pressed against a surface. He said it holds against sideways forces but can be removed with a little prying, and that the material is 0.3 mm thick. The sensor itself is 2.7 mm thick and weighs 7 grams, according to Batroukh.

He said the device tracks heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep stages, movement, calories burned and estimated VO2 max, then syncs with an iOS or Android app. Hiyd is also collecting and labeling activity data to train its AI. The company is working to add nutrition tracking to the app, with the aim of relating eating habits to sleep quality or workout performance.

Batroukh spent about 7 years as a manufacturing design engineer at Apple. Hiyd’s other founders are CTO Omar Shakir and software lead Mahamad Charawi. The startup is among the top 20 companies competing at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield on Wednesday. It plans to launch a Kickstarter in November; more than 16,000 people have made deposits to secure its first units.