As I understand it, it’s going to be a closed loop system in the sense that the CGM will be allowed to directly control the pump, but (though I don’t think this was covered in the talk) it doesn’t administer both glucagon and insulin, just insulin. One of the co-founders is using the DIY closed-loop system that was posted about here on TUD a couple of weeks back. I’ll see if I can find the link. I was impressed at the time because the system as proposed would occupy an important niche between a full-blown AP like the iLet and others, which I think are going to be extremely expensive and difficult to obtain for a lot of us, and a more limited solution that would nevertheless be a huge improvement over the standard pumps we have now.
Two things stood out. One is that they aren’t just trying to make a new gadget; rather they are looking at the whole business model of how these things are distributed and resupplied from top to bottom. They are trying to make that system more streamlined and affordable–kind of a subscription service model (could be good or bad–a lot depends on the details. But they seem to be approaching it from the right mindset–which leads to the other standout for me, which is that these are the guys who have acquired all of Asante’s assets, including the Snap insulin pump, and plan to build on that as the core of their physical device. So those of us orphaned when Assante was shuttered may have another chance at a pump that incorporates the Snap and takes it to the next level. I had one for about 4 months this year, and loved it. It still had drawbacks but it was far more user-centered in its design than virtually all of the others, and Bigfoot seems to embrace a similar outlook–much more in tune with what we expect from the rest of the digital ecology these days. I just hope they can avoid whatever crevasse did in Assante.
On edit: Here’s the TUD discussion: Are the DIY Artificial Pancreas Folks Outlaws? - #8 by hljp
And here’s the article that prompted it (which I just noticed is actually quite a bit older–June 2014):