New health tech tracks your sun exposure

Tracking your activity during the day to help promote a healthy lifestyle is being adapted to help with another aspect of staying healthy.

A new wrist-based health tracking device, June, has been released onto the market to help users track their sun exposure and make suggestions on how you can best protect your skin. Pair the device with the iOS app (there isn’t yet Android compatibility), answer a short questionnaire on your hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, reactions to sun expose and others and the tracker begins to monitor how long you’ve been in the sun, make suggestions on what type of sun protection you should be wearing and warns you when you’re in danger of sun burns.

The idea is not new. There are other stick-on patches which track sun exposure and wrist trackers for the same purpose, but like the FitBit and other fitness trackers which have popularized the industry, June looks nice, like a piece of jewelry. It was designed by French jewelry designer, Camille Toupet.

Though it isn’t specifically marketed at athletes, tech writer Jennifer Jolly took it on an hour-long a run and didn’t seem to have any qualms.

The June comes with two band styles: leather or silicone. There are three colour options: platinum, gunmetal and gold.

Netatmo, the company that developed the new UV tracker, has been described as an “internet of things,” tech company and is also known for their personal weather station app.