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The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas kicked off yesterday, but recipients of this year's annual CES Innovations Awards have already been announced.

As in past years, one of the award categories includes innovations in health and wellness. Like last year, hearing aids were notable in the list of award recipients. Both Able Planet Incorporated and Starkey Laboratories, Inc. won the award again for their technologically advanced and nearly invisible hearing devices.

Also notable were a number of personal fitness trackers likely designed to give Jawbone UP and FitBit a little more competition. Basis Science has combined a number of different sensors, including heart rate and temperature sensors, and of course an accelerometer, all into a chic and attractive watch that doesn't look like it came from an episode of Star Trek. Oregon Scientific's Gaiam boasts of being the thinnest heart rate monitor on the market and the only one that uses a touch screen to navigate. Finally, if fitness tracking is all good, but you're burdened with yet another device to wear, New Balance and iHome have integrated their fitness tracker in a set of earbuds. Its NB639 Fitness Evolved Headphones contain an inline unit that contains an accelerometer and finger heart rate monitor. Your stats are audibly spoken to you without interrupting your music being pumped through the NB639′s high-quality tweeters.

• Link: CES 2012 Innovations Honorees
• Medgadget Flashback: Medical Devices Honored at CES 2011

This post also appears on medGadget, an Atlantic partner site.