In a short span of time, wearable devices have managed to garner a position of significance in the consumer electronics market as a new means of addressing the needs of many industries.
The benefit of wearable devices, worn directly on or loosely attached to a person in the form of eyeglasses, wristwatch, wristband, a ring, a badge, jewelry, shoe, or clothing, is obvious. They are small, worn discreetly in any environment, personalized, and capable of being integrated into any communication networks, facilitating remote monitoring.
Wearable devices can be classified by function, appearance, body closeness, and other parameters. In this article, we’ll examine them based on their features and capabilities.
1. Smartwatch
Smartwatches are computerized devices or small computers designed to be worn on your wrist with improved communications functionality. Most smartwatch models are mobile-based. Some operate as smartphone-paired devices and offer an additional screen to inform the wearer of new notifications such as messages received, calling, or calendar records. Manufacturers continue to develop their products, adding features such as waterproof frames, global navigation (GPS), and fitness/health tracking capabilities. Smartwatches can now be used to capture and analyze hand gestures like smoking or other operations, adding reliable, sensitive inertial sensors.
2. Smart Eyewear
The optical head-mounted displays (OHMDs), head-up displays (HUDs), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and smart lenses also use a range of wearable devices, smart glasses or smart glasses. Despite differences in functionality and design, all smart glasses can be divided into two groups: those paired by a smartphone needed to view smartphone images or separate images requiring a wired connection to the source device. Smart glass displays can be monocular if both pictures are displayed for one eye or binocular.
3. Fitness Tracker
Fitness trackers are commonly used on the wrist, chest, and ear and have been designed to monitor and track outdoor sports activities and measure gym-related metrics such as running speed and running distance, exhalation, pulse rate, and sleeping habits. Some studies in several activity trackers examined and measured their accuracy and reliability during counting.
The conclusion was that some trackers perform well indoors, providing valid results, while others are better suited for outdoor activities. Researchers suggest trackers provide health empowerment to users and may encourage kids to exercise more. Professional soccer teams in Europe and the U.S. used the activity tracker miCoach produced by Adidas to quantify player physical performance.
4. Smart Clothing
Although smart clothing is similar to other types of wearables, it includes a wide range of wearables, from sports and sportswear (smart sharks and sportswear) to chest straps, medical clothing, wear monitoring, military clothing, and e-textiles. Intelligent clothes include a variety of items, although typically shirts, socks, yoga pants, shoes, secret cameras bow ties, helmets and caps with different sensors and features.
Wearable smart biometric devices have attracted the attention of golf, soccer, athletics, racing, basketball and baseball sports leaders and are already using wearables to monitor players ‘ physical conditions during training and improve team performance to reduce injuries. Smart clothing has enormous potential for firefighters, building sites, and transportation.
5. Wearable Camera
Unlike conventional cameras, the user-friendly design, mobility, and flexibility of wearable cameras attracted consumer interest. These cameras are excited by being suitable for creating first-person videos and photos in real-time. Two types of wearable cameras are used: small cameras that can be fitted or even worn in the ear or fitted with caps or helmets, and larger cameras with fitting attachments. Some researchers showed the importance of wearable cameras for fall detection and ecological surveillance.
6. Wearable Medical Device
A wearable medical device usually consists of one or more biosensors to monitor various physiological data for disease prevention and early diagnosis. Digital health-wearable equipment is generally grouped with other wearable equipment such as activity monitors, smart clothes, and patches to help collect relevant patient health data using non-invasive device sensors.
If you’re interested in picking one up for yourself, have a read through Hotrate’s fitness tracker guide to get all the information you’ll need.
