New wearable targets brain‑circulation monitoring Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, has launched **Temple**, a health‑wearable that sits on the forehead over the superficial temporal artery. In company‑run treadmill tests the device recorded a **heart‑rate error of 1.18 beats per minute**, beating the Apple Watch (1.94 bpm) and WHOOP (3.14 bpm). Temple also captures **jaw‑muscle activity**, which could help identify eating, chewing or clenching patterns.
How Temple differs from existing trackers Most consumer wearables are worn on the wrist or finger, locations that can be affected by temperature, stress and movement. The forehead provides a relatively protected site; the skin is thin and the underlying artery is less prone to peripheral vasoconstriction. This anatomical advantage is why pulse‑oximeters sometimes switch to the forehead when finger readings become unreliable.
Ambitious claims about cerebral blood flow Temple’s developers argue that, because the superficial temporal artery connects to branches of the internal carotid system, signals from the temple could reveal information about **cerebral circulation**. Scientific literature confirms that blockages in the internal carotid can alter flow in superficial arteries such as the supratrochlear artery. However, experts note that scalp blood flow is heavily influenced by heat, exercise and stress, making it difficult to isolate the subtle patterns that would indicate brain‑artery activity.
AI as the proposed solution The company’s bet is that advanced **artificial‑intelligence algorithms** will eventually tease out meaningful patterns from the noisy scalp signals. AI has already extracted health insights from retinal images, suggesting a plausible pathway, but no peer‑reviewed study has yet demonstrated reliable brain‑circulation readings from a forehead sensor.
Voice capture via skull vibrations Another forward‑looking feature is the ability to pick up the wearer’s voice through **skull vibrations**, filtering out ambient conversation. Combined with physiological data, this could give personal AI assistants richer context about a user’s body and environment. The technology remains in prototype form and has not been independently validated.
Industry and medical community response Critics argue that Temple should be transparent about what it can **actually measure today**—primarily heart rate and jaw‑muscle activity—rather than implying current capability to monitor brain blood flow. The medical community stresses that wellness products, unlike pharmaceuticals, lack the regulatory pressure to undergo large‑scale randomised trials, but they still need clear evidence of safety and measurable benefit.
Outlook If Temple can substantiate its AI‑driven claims with rigorous data, it could carve a niche beyond traditional fitness trackers. Until then, consumers should treat its brain‑circulation promises as **potential, not proven**, and evaluate the device on the basis of its demonstrated heart‑rate accuracy and safety.
--- *The author’s perspective reflects personal experience as a physician‑entrepreneur and does not represent the editorial stance of NEWZA.*