3 COVID-Conscious Tech Products For Back To Work And Travel

Check out a few of this year’s innovative products launched at CES 2021, from working safer with Targus’ 2Office Antimicrobial Backpack and UV-C LED Disinfection Light to the BioIntelliSense BioButton medical-grade wearable device created for COVID-19 symptom monitoring.

For many organizations returning to work safely—whether it’s during or after the pandemic—means having the right equipment, the right technology, and of course the best practices in place.

At this year’s all-digital CES event, tech companies and entrepreneurs kicked off the new year with innovative products that enable safe return to work, school, and travel in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are a few COVID-conscious products unveiled at CES 2021:

Targus, a leading global supplier of mobile computing cases and accessories, introduced its new reimagined product line-up—designed for today’s new work environments—from working safer with anti-microbial-protected backpacks and disinfecting LEDs, to working anywhere with flexible tablet cases and docking stations.

“Our customers have been telling us that they need to work up to make sure that they have a clean environment because once you have a clean environment people feel that it’s safe to go in to,” David Dorantes, director of product marketing for the Americas at Targus, told CRNtv. “So then that’s part of why our thinking is, ‘How do we address all of those microbes that are in all the different touchpoints in the workplace?’ All of those microbes in the workplace need to be addressed, so we attacked that with antimicrobial treatments that are infused in our products, or we actively kill them through using UV-C technology.”

Targus also won a CES 2021 Innovation Award for its UV-C LED Disinfection Light to further support a healthy working environment.

“The UV light uses the C-band in the UV spectrum, and that band what it does is it destroys microorganisms by entering into the DNA and breaking down the DNA; what that does is it allows it to no longer function and it eventually dies,” said Dorantes.

And what you’ll have is a 99 percent disinfection rate, he added.

Now BioIntelliSense, a continuous health monitoring and clinical intelligence company, was named CES 2021 “Best Of Innovation Awards” Honoree for the BioButton medical-grade wearable device and data services.

The “Best of Innovation” award is given to only the highest-rated product in each category.

“BioIntelliSense was very proud to introduce and launch the BioButton and the BioButton was really the first medical device in the world to be able to make continuous measurements of vital signs, what we call, ‘multi-parameter vital signs monitoring,’ and CES was the perfect place to showcase that,” said Dr. James Mault, founder and CEO of BioIntelliSense.

Mault told CRNtv that it was at the end of 2019 when the biotechnology company had been rolling out its FDA-cleared BioSticker on-body sensor—nationwide—that the global COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“We were in the right place at the right time for an unfortunate reason, but [the BioSticker] became instrumental in helping monitor and care for patients who had COVID,” said Mault. “But at the same time as we got more attention for the BioSticker device, we had employer groups and travel destinations, and even universities wanting to be able to leverage this type of technology to screen and monitor people who might have COVID, and so we developed the BioButton literally on the fly this last summer and launched it with CES.”

So as millions of people have been screened and tested, Mault said the emerging research shows that even a COVID test has a very high false negative rate… revealing how challenging it is to detect the risk of COVID-19 infections early.

“So when we started to talk about wearables, wearables have one incredible benefit and that is the ability to passively monitor on a continuous basis. So it’s all about the data,” said Mault.

Tune in to CRNtv to learn more about what went behind the design for these COVID-conscious tech products.