Lifee2015 - 2018

Lifee

IoT Health Tracker for Children

Healthcare / Gaming / Hardware

Units Shipped: 1000+
Schools Deployed: 10+

Lifee was my own company, and the product was a game the child happened to wear. Most activity bands measure; this one fed a creature that levelled up when a child ran around, and let them challenge their friends with it. I designed the circuit, wrote the firmware, built the apps, set up the production line and took it through CE certification.

The point was the game, not the step count

The bracelet earns points for movement and spends them in the app, on a creature that gains levels and currencies. That was a deliberate position against a market full of bands that report numbers at you: make it fun and let the exercise be the by-product. In 2016 the regional SKAPA Framtidens Innovatör prize went to the four of us at Lifee, and the jury's citation named the gamification specifically.

The Lifee app game screen: a creature with an XP bar and earned currencies

From circuit to enclosure, then through a reflow oven at the university

A custom PCB carrying BLE, battery management and an accelerometer, designed alongside the enclosure it had to fit inside. The first prototypes were assembled by hand and run through an IR reflow oven at Linköping University, the cheapest way to find out whether a board you drew actually works.

Inside an IR reflow oven, a board being profiled with a taped thermocouple

Firmware that can be updated after the product has left

Embedded firmware on FreeRTOS with a BLE stack, and over-the-air updates working across both mobile platforms. On a wearable sold to schools, a bug you cannot fix remotely is a bug you fix by post. The apps are React Native for iOS and Android, with a custom native BLE module written to talk to the bracelet.

Finished Lifee bracelet, an LED module set into a blue silicone strap

A production line needs software too

I built a Linux-based test suite for production and an Electron flash-and-test tool simple enough that both the internal team and the external assembly house could run it without an engineer present. Then I set up the line itself and managed assembly, testing and shipping of 1000+ units.

CE the long way round

The BLE design was chip-down rather than a pre-certified module, so there was nothing to inherit and the product needed a full radio sweep for EMC and radio compliance. I led that, and the App Store and Google Play releases with it. The bracelets went into schools, which is where a wearable for children has to survive contact with actual children.

What I owned

Founder & Technical Lead

Designed the hardware from circuit to enclosure
Developed embedded firmware with FreeRTOS and BLE stack
Built React Native app with custom BLE module for iOS & Android
Implemented OTA firmware updates across both platforms
Established Linux/PC-based testing suite for production
Led CE certification and production line setup
Managed assembly, testing, and shipping of 1000+ units

Hardware Design / Embedded C / FreeRTOS / BLE / React Native / OTA Updates / Linux / IoT

All projects

BLE and storage redesign

Sparv Embedded

Wearable ECG Monitor Hardware Redesign

System Developer & Hardware Engineer

Hardware Design / PCB Design / Embedded C / BLE +2

50+ stations delivered

Mud Masters

Real-time scoring system for GYMRACE fitness competitions

Principal Engineer

Raspberry Pi / Node.js / TypeScript / React +5

Zero idle compute cost

Pugstorm

Automated CI/CD Platform for Unity Game Studio

Principal Engineer

GitHub Actions / AWS / EC2 / S3 +6

Next step

Tell me what you're building

Send me a short description of the problem and I'll tell you whether I'm the right fit, what it would cost, and how long it would take. No pitch deck.

Email me Call +46 70 753 73 78

Email: elinor@wigertztech.se
Phone: +46 70 753 73 78
LinkedIn: elinorwigertz