Wearable Technology: Yay or Nay?
In today’s digital age, everything around us is starting to get digitized. In recent years, wearable technology is getting bigger and greater. We have approached a new era where people are now exposed to wearable technology and slowly understanding what it is all about and adapting to these ‘new cool stuff’. To explain what wearable technology is, allow me to first introduce the bigger umbrella internet of things.
The concept of connecting any device (so long as it has an on/off switch) to the Internet and to other connected devices. IoT is a giant network of connected things and people, all of which, collect and share data about the way they are used and about the environment around them. This includes everything from mobile phones, washing machines, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of.
Wearable technology (AKA wearables)
A category of electronic devices that can be worn as accessories, embedded in clothing, implanted in the user's body. The devices are hands-free gadgets with practical uses, powered by microprocessors and enhanced with the ability to send and receive data via the Internet.
I believe many of us have heard of and roughly know of a few wearables. However, many people (including myself) do not put much attention on them as our knowledge in this area is very superficial and we do not really see how these devices brings value to our daily lives. Let me help us to better understand wearables through the 3 categories of wearable technology below.
1. Health
Wearable health technology is said to be the wearable technology that almost EVERYBODY knows! Many will be familiar with devices such as FitBit and Apple Watch.
Essentially, these wrist-worn devices help users to keep track of various health aspects such as:
· Step counts
· Sleep quality
· Exercise duration
· Calories burnt
· Heart rate monitor
Tracking our health on a daily basis, helps us the better understand our body and achieve our fitness and health goals. It provides users the convenience of accessing their individual health data any time anywhere, without having to go for a health check-up. Having said that, these health data are very simple basic ones that can’t tell users of serious health issues that can only be analysed through a proper doctor’s full body check-up. Instead, it serves more as a monitor of one’s health.
Of course, aside from the health aspect (which is the main feature of these devices), these devices allow users to connect them with their mobile phones to act as mini-display screen to achieve many other functions.
For instance, when connected to mobile devices, these wearables are able to:
· Tell time
· Track location via GPS
· Make payment through e-credit/debit cards
· Receive calls, messages & notifications
· Browsing & controlling music playlist/soundtracks
2. Beauty
Over the years, the beauty industry has been working hard at research and development (R&D), trying to incorporate technology into beauty. This sector is prime for IoT as everyone has different skin conditions and the collection of such data enables brands to not only customize products based on consumers’ skin conditions and needs, but also target their products at the right consumers. I would say that, based on my observations, there are more and more beauty devices appearing in the market, such as the LED light therapy mask, Optimizer Voyage Tri-Light Glasses and electric facial cleansers. As for wearables in the beauty scene, not many are available in the market, the only one that has garnered quite a bit of media attention is the La Roche-Posay My Skin Track UV.
Basically, this is a mini Ultraviolet (UV) tracker that can be clipped onto clothing or worn as necklace or bracelet. This tracker uses light emitting diode (LED) as a detector to capture UV light. This energy will be read by transferring data from the sensor to users’ phones using Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology. Based on users’ UV exposure and environmental factors like pollution, pollen and humidity, the tracker’s companion app uses an intelligent algorithm backed by over 25 scientific publications to warn them when their environmental exposure is at a level recognized to contribute to their specific skin concern.
The app will then provide personalized advice and product recommendations to help users protect their skin against harmful UV rays and harsh environmental conditions and to ultimately improve the user’s skin condition.
3. Lifestyle
For most people, earpieces are quite an essential to their daily lives, especially when commuting. These few years, ear-pods have been popularized among people, particularly the millennial. Despite its hefty price tag, people are still willing to buy them as they solve the problems that comes along with wired-earpieces and also bring their unique advantages to the table.
General benefits of ear-pods:
· User experience is often destroyed when having to deal with tangled wires
· Wires are fragile and break easily, causing the common 1-sided damaged problem
· Most come with charging cases
· Provides convenience due to its wire-free design
· Some are waterproof or/and noise cancelling
Ear-buds alone are not really considered wearables, however smart ear-pods like the Samsung Gear IconX are. Aside from all the great benefits that the normal ear-pods provide, the Samsung Gear IconX ear-buds also allow users to track their health and fitness like pulse oximetry, blood pressure, steps taken, heart rate monitor and calories burnt via biometrics.
Using these biometric data gathered and syncing with users’ smartphones, these ear-pods can provide real-time fitness coaching including detecting user’s exhaustion level to provide pacing advice and giving feedback on their running technique. Such ear-buds up the game for all the other ear-buds in the market, as they not just serve as an audio device, but also a simple health tracker.
The debate on whether we really need such wearable technology and whether wearables bring more harm than good is very individual. I believe wearables with health technology are great invention to help people monitor their health. Whereas for wearables like virtual reality (VR) headsets, I personally don’t think it’s for everyone and feel that they do not serve an intended purpose to the community, other than to improve gaming experience for some. Hopefully after reading this far, you will have a better understanding of wearables!
Cheers,
Dayna.T
