Current Events > Your heart rate monitor was likely developed by a fucking furry

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.pcmag.com/news/your-smartwatchs-heart-rate-monitor-was-developed-by-a-furry

Twenty years ago, heart rate monitors were single-purpose, dedicated devices focused on health and fitness. Today theyre incredibly common and built into just about every major fitness tracker and smartwatch, thanks to the development of the optical heart rate sensor. Theres a good chance youre wearing one now, but heres something you probably didnt know about the technology: It was invented by a furry.
David Benaron, MD, is a biochemist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He studied at Harvard and MIT, taught at Stanford, and has founded and served in the C-suites of multiple biotech companies. He developed the sensor that enables heart rate monitoring on wearables like smartwatches, and has made advances in the field of optical blood-oxygen monitoring as well.
Hes also a cheetah named Spottacus and a regular at furry conventions, often kitted out head-to-toe in a fursuit.
In case you're unaware, a furry is an enthusiast of role-playing an anthropomorphic animal-person. We should note here that fursuiters are a specific subgroup among furries. Not every furry actually dresses up like a big fluffy animal for conventions and gatherings, which is a common misconception; that specific type of furry is known as a "fursuiter."
Spottacus
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got on my radar through Twitter. I have several friends who are furries with online presences, and one retweeted Spottacus talking about green light heart rate sensors a few weeks ago, which piqued my interest. Obviously, simply claiming to have invented such a technology is easy to do on social media, so I reached out to him regarding his research and then dug into records to confirm what he told me.
Of course, technology and consumer-ready electronics are almost never a single step between conception and execution, and Dr. Benaron's work is a particular link in a chain of advances that have led to the ubiquity of smartwatch heart rate trackers. However, his specific research at Stanford seems to be a particularly important step in the evolution of the bulky chest bands and red light/infrared heart rate monitors to what we much more commonly wear now.
Dr. Benaron's Technical History
Dr. Benaron attended graduate school at Harvard and MIT in their Health Studies and Technology programs, and he received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School with a specialization in medical devices. He later joined Stanford's Department of Pediatrics' Neonatal and Developmental Medicine division, where he taught and researched for over a decade. Dr. Benaron founded Stanford's biophotonics lab, which made numerous advances (and made mice glow
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in the process).
He invented the green light oxygen monitor
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in 2005. It uses green light to measure oxygen in the bloodstream, a different process from the conventional pulse oximeter's (invented in 1978 by Dr. William New, another Stanford professor) use of red light. This green light-based sensor is the underlying technology that drives heart rate monitoring features in consumer devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers.
Dr. Benaron founded multiple biotech companies, including Spectros
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, a firm that specializes in medical sensors. He also served as Jawbone's Chief Medical Officer before the company's dissolution. He is currently Chief Medical Officer at all.health
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and both Strategic Director and interim CEO of Mor Digital Pharmacy.
Dr. Benaron's Furry History
Dr. Benaron assumed the name Spottacus in the 90s, joining the then-fledgling furry community. At his friends' suggestion, he attended his first furry convention, Further Confusion, in the early aughts. He has since been active in furry communities. He chose the name "Spottacus" as a play on the name "Spartacus" said in a Brooklyn accent, and because he tends to favor spotted cats.
Despite his name, Spottacus' first fursuit was of a wolf. He does not create his own fursuits, but commissions other experts in the field to build them. His fursuits often use 3D printed materials and custom fur manufactured by National Fiber Technology (NFT, founded long before non-fungible tokens were coined). He currently owns 46 fursuits.
Spottacus produced an art installation, "Soulmates," at Burning Man 2019. It consisted of six art pieces illustrated by different furry artists, printed on six-foot-tall cloth sections and suspended on illuminated tubing frames.
Spottacus currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has an animal sanctuary permit for his home, and has three pet cats, including an African serval named Jabari.

but heres something you probably didnt know about the technology: It was invented by a furry.

Spottacus is a great name

So? Furries are people, too.

they don't want to be though

It's speculated that some of America's top heart surgeons and STEM experts are furries. The sort of money blowing around in the furry community is way too much for a bunch of terminally online channers.