How Wearable Technology is Impacting our Lives

Wearable Technology Is The New Businesses

Wearable technology, also known as fashionable technology, is the electronics that can be donned and possess the ability to execute a variety of programs like computing, communication, sensing, etc.

It is currently amongst the most happening things around the world and continues to grow in the elite markets in particular. You can spot a chunk of people wearing fitness-tracking bands, smart-watches, smart-glasses like google glasses, and many more manufactured by different companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Garmin. The craze is similar to that of smartphones and tablets. This indicates that the businesses will seemingly be benefiting from it to the core.

The field experts believe that there will be an 80% rise in wearable devices between the years 2017-2021. As per the study, more than 300 wearable devices were found in the market in the year 2015, and 2017 is a year that witnessed a tremendous increase in the manufacturing of wearable devices like smartwatches, fitness, and other activity trackers, navigation tools, smart glasses, virtual reality tools and communication gadgets by various companies. Presently, these devices are on the verge of advancing technology, functionality, and size.

Comparatively, the wearable markets are at a constant hype from that of the smartphone market due to which it is expected that 2017-2021 will be a period where there will be a rapid increase in the global enterprise wearable market from $220 million to $12 billion approximately.

The wearable electronics market has the ability to link together billions of objects right from the tiny bracelet to the powerful cars globally by the year 2021. Thanks to the technology that via its aid it is possible for us to be in touch with the world like never before.

Wearables in Health and Fitness

The technology giants are planning to design a future of wearable technology that assures to benefit people by helping them save their pockets, entertaining them, and providing a healthier life to live.

A recent shift by tech companies in the health and fitness of their consumers has popped up numerous wearable devices – from fitness bands or fitness trackers that monitor activity and sleep patterns to Bluetooth hearing aids and flexible patches that can detect body temperature, hydration level, heart rate, brainwave and muscle bio-signals from the human body.

These devices, with their unique features like analytics, on one hand, allow customers to keep a track of their health and on the other hand facilitate healthcare organizations to ameliorate patients’ health as well as to reduce their healthcare delivery charges by providing them with Remote Patient Monitoring (RPE) which takes them out of the conventional clinical setting.

The analysis provided by the personal devices can be useful not only to the insurers and employers in managing health, healthcare costs, and fitness issues but also to the pharmaceutical and life science companies in running more robust clinical trials and capturing data to support outcomes-based reimbursement. It seems that today’s consumers rely more on these fitness devices or fitness trackers as they strikingly believe that it can lead to the improvement of their health.

Wearable Tech and Preventative Healthcare

What opportunities will drive the adoption of wearable fitness trackers?

Wearable Technology Preventative Healthcare
Wearable Technology Preventative Healthcare Infographic

Infographic Source: TechnologyAdvice

Infographic Transcript

  • 25.1% of adults use either a fitness tracker or smartphone app to track their health, weight, or exercise. 74.9% do not use these devices.
  • Lack of interest 27.2% and concerns over cost 17.7% are the most common reasons for not tracking fitness or health.
  • 48.2% of non-tracking adults said they would use a fitness tracking device provided by their physician.
  • 57.1% said that the possibility of lower health insurance premiums would make them more likely to use a fitness tracking device.
  • 44.2% said that better healthcare advice from their physician would be an incentive to use a fitness tracking device.

Wearables in Military and Emergency Services

Wearable technologies are now greatly dealing with military life. Its usage in the military forces is daily expanding to a wide range. Right from walkie-talkie units and the night vision goggles, common in military agencies, to the mini-portable computers and mobile phones, are magnificently improving the connectivity among soldiers.

Presently, soldiers can be provided with wearable technologies like wristwatches, armed bands, modified headgears, goggles, or even fingerings with tiny sensors designed for specific purposes.

Wearable technologies are thriving in rescue services like Police, Fire, and Ambulance. These bodies have now started using smart clothes to accomplish various purposes.

In certain parts of the country, the UK police forces have started using head-mounted cameras and Personal Data Assistants (PDA) similar to the in-car video recording system to record activities like interrogating suspects and witnesses. Products like monitors of chemical exposure levels and biophysical status that ensure environmental safety are also highly desirable.

Wearables in Fashion and Lifestyle

Wearable in Fashion and Lifestyle - Alta HR FitBit
Wearable in Fashion and Lifestyle – Alta HR FitBit

With the transition from function to fashion, numerous brands are impelled to infiltrate into the world of wearables. Fashion designers are looking for ways to fuse fashion with technology, such as Swarovski’s painfully stylish fitness tracker, Ralph Lauren’s high-tech Polo tee shirt, Fossil’s activity tracker, and Will.i.am’s collaboration with Gucci all aim to give a tinge of design to wearables.

Additionally, Various existing brands are working towards their products to stay in vogue. Fitbit and Jawbone prefer fashion over everything else, which is apparent with the recent launch of their product – fine wristbands resembling more to a bracelet than a fitness accessory and providing the desirable functions at the same time.

There has been a rise in smart accessories and jewellery sales in the recent past, with fashionable statement pieces serving multiple purposes, including enhancing the wearers’ lifestyles.

The boxy screen watches with a cell from yesteryear’s are no more in demand; instead the market today is witnessing various patterns incorporated with technology in a more trendy way.

This increase in the use of wearables has flourished. The market is a great way, with hundreds of iterations flooding crowdfunding platforms globally.

Undoubtedly, consumers are concerned about the impact wearable technology will have on their personal information privacy and security. However, this concern has to be constantly dealt with by the manufacturers and companies that undertake wearable technology by opening new avenues that will serve multiple purposes without users sacrificing their security.

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