Tag: productivity

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Top 5 Unexpected Benefits of Wearable Technology

While wearables offer many benefits we’re familiar with, like helping us stay in shape, they have some underrated, surprising advantages. Even the devices you already know and love can impact your life positively in more ways than you expect.

This article is 100% good news, no flavor enhancer needed.

Benefit #1. Improved mental health.

The overabundance of technology is often cited as a source of stress, but many wearables benefit a user by reducing their stress levels.

 

For example, wearables can help alleviate anxiety. A device like Senstone Scripter minimizes your time online without sacrificing productivity, so you can take a break from the notifications and still get things done.

 

Fitness bracelets calm you down just by providing real-time statistics on your vitals, which makes you feel in control. In the long run, they help you make better lifestyle decisions, which again impacts mental well-being.

Breathing patterns is another thing wearable tech can track and notify you about. This can be used for breathing exercise and stress monitoring.

Benefit #2. Better posture.

 

Counting steps is one thing, but did you know wearables can correct your posture? This particular market is a diverse niche that offers many good options: from a gadget that vibrates when you start slouching to posture trackers that send detailed statistics to your phone. Whatever you choose, your back is going to thank you.


Benefit #3. Enhanced learning.

Wearable technology is a boon to educators because it gives them more options. VR and AR are especially useful in the classroom. They allow for truly interactive lessons, which gives students a better grasp on scientific concepts.

Voice-to-text wearables are another helpful innovation, and we have covered them in more detail here.

Benefit #4. Healthier relationships.

 

Another benefit of wearable technology that might surprise you is this: it can help you maintain a healthy relationship.

Again, this might seem counterintuitive to some people. We are used to computers and phones taking away from our family time, and a promise to solve this problem with more technology seems suspicious. And yet, wearables have succeeded.

Some of them make communication easier. Others are designed for couples, like the device that lets you feel your partner’s heartbeat in real time. “Friendship lamps” are a thing as well, a concept that is both incredibly neat and heart-warming.

 

And, of course, we have to mention virtual reality. With VR, you get to share a virtual space with another person. You can talk, explore the interactive environment, and play video games together. Physical distance doesn’t matter.

 

Benefit #5. Environmental awareness.

 

Wearables can help our planet in a number of creative ways, raising awareness on a personal level and actually making an impact. For instance, there is a cotton apron that captures carbon dioxide. There are also CO₂ tracker wristbands, and nothing makes climate change a more pressing issue than watching your carbon dioxide meter go haywire in the middle of the street.

 

To sum up, wearable technology is expanding. It’s gone beyond basic fitness bands. Now we can use its advantages, such as mobility, to solve problems in new, unconventional ways.

 

And you know what? Unconventional is our speciality. This article has been brought to you by Senstone. Check out this homepage to learn more about cutting edge wearables. Follow us on social media or contact us at team@senstone.io if you have any questions. Stay cool!

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How Do Wearables Connect to Your Smartphone?

Have you ever wondered how wearables connect to a smartphone? How do they “know” to send data to your phone specifically? What type of connection do they use? How does it work? Read on, and we’ll do our best to answer these questions.

 

Why Do Wearables Connect to Other Devices?

 

Before we get into how wearables connect to smartphones, let’s establish why they need to connect to your phone at all.

Unlike your laptop, most wearables are highly specialized. That means they were designed to perform only a certain amount of functions. For example, Senstone is a wearable voice-to-text recorder. Its functions are: 1) record audio on demand, 2) store the recordings, 3) make sure audio is transferred to the cloud storage and processed by artificial intelligence. As you can see, step 3 relegates the data to a more generalist and powerful machine.

 

This “division of labor” is what makes wearables so efficient. They connect to other devices and access their computing power. The ability to connect is a core feature, and wearables rely on it a lot.

  • Notifications are sent and received.
  • Commands allow you to control other devices.
  • Data is collected for storage and analysis. This is how you get your activity stats in real time.
  • More functions, such as AI spell checking, can be accessed by sending the data for processing to another computer.

In short, wearables really do need to connect to other devices. And your phone is perfect for the job!

Wearables & Wireless Connection(s)

 

We’ve come closer to answering the original question: how do wearables connect to smartphones? The reason why people ask this a lot is because they cannot see a visible proof of connection, i. e. wires.

 

Wireless technology shaped wearables as we know them. There would be no wireless headphones without a way for them to receive the music they are supposed to play.

With the many types of wearables we have today, there are several different technologies used to connect a gadget to your phone.

  • Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Bluetooth Classic. These two standards are the most common ways for your wearable to connect to your phone. Devices supporting Bluetooth connect using ultra-high frequency radio waves. You need to enable Bluetooth on  both devices and pair them so that they automatically exchange data when nearby. The BLE standard is cheaper and better suited for low-power gadgets, and this is why most Bluetooth wearables run BLE.
  • Wi-Fi. Some wearables can connect to your smartphone via the regular Wi-Fi. This allows for a greater range and faster data transfer speeds. To connect your wearable to your smartphone via Wi-Fi, you usually need to connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network and  then pair them.
  • Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a short-range technology that allows for contactless communication between two devices in very close proximity (4 cm or less). Some wearables have NFC capabilities, allowing you to pair them with your smartphone by simply holding the devices close together. Contactless payments is the usual reason for running NFC on a wearable.
  • ANT+. An ultra-low-power protocol. Unlike others on the list, ANT is meant for sports wearables.

Some wearables can use more than one protocol. The specific methods of connectivity will heavily depend on the make and model of wearable and smartphone, so you can always refer to the user manual for more information on how to connect your gadgets.


This post has been brought to you by Senstone. As a company, we have been actively contributing to wearable technology for years. You can visit our homepage – or read another article about cutting-edge inventions and trends. Stay cool!

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Inclusive Design in Tech: Top 5 Examples

If you’re looking for examples of inclusive design, you might be surprised to learn that many features we now take for granted were invented with the goal to promote inclusivity. In this article, we showcase some of them to illustrate just how deeply inclusivity has impacted the world of tech.

 

Inclusive Design Vs. Universal Design

 

Before we start listing examples of inclusive design, there is one more thing. Inclusive design does not equal universal design. The latter is aimed at the average user. In fact, universal design removes any possible adjustments that could be made for a certain audience (size, shape, even color) to make the item usable to as many people as possible.

 

On the other hand, inclusive design improves the product for a specific subset of consumers while representing as many of those subsets as possible. Most manufacturers do their best to combine both principles. You could even argue that inclusiveness is a different approach to universal.

 

Here are top 5 examples of inclusive design in tech.

1. Transcription & Voice Input

 

There are many reasons why a person can find it hard to input text via conventional means. Voice technology is one of the best ways to ensure typing is accessible to everyone.

Speech-to-text has become the staple of many apps, both general-purpose (Google Keyboard) and specialized (Senstone). While the former focuses on simple texts and commands, the latter is capable of smart editing and formatting.

All in all, artificial intelligence has made voice input a full-fledged alternative to regular typing.

2. Support For Non-English Symbols

 

This inclusivity feature is especially important because it helps people from around the world access products and services developed with English language in mind.

Many surnames feature hyphens, apostrophes, and/or various diacritics. Some full names are simply too long if you only account for English (for example, Picasso is short for Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso). Not to mention the Roman script is not the only one in the world.

3. Font Size

 

One of the most common inclusivity features is font size adjustment. According to WHO, more than 2 billion people suffer some form of vision impairment, so it’s safe to say the demand is high.

 

Bigger text allows to reduce eye strain, helping your eyesight in the long run and preventing the discomfort caused by squinting. And those who only wear glasses or contacts on special occasions can avoid reaching for their glasses every time they’d like to check a notification.

4. Automatic Subtitling

 

Automatic subtitles is another great instance of inclusive design. YouTube, for example, is famous for its instant speech-to-text and translation of video subtitles. While the quality is pretty great as of now, it just keeps getting better as Google improves and upgrades the software.

Subtitles are important for many people, most of all for the hard of hearing. But they are also helpful if you have trouble understanding the language or simply watch your videos on mute.

5. Color Adjustments

 

Inclusive design examples encompass certain options that can completely alter the experience. Color blindness mode is one of them. Be it a web browser or a video game, letting users adjust the colors to their liking is a good idea. 1 in 12 men are color blind, so the number of consumers who process visuals differently is always significant. For many of them, the regular color scheme can render the product unusable.



This article has been brought to you by Senstone Inc. We are dedicated to making advanced technology accessible to everyone regardless of age and technical know-how. Visit our homepage at senstone.io to learn more.

 

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HoloLens in the U.S. Army: Failed?

Although Microsoft has successfully adapted its HoloLens for the military, it seems something has gone wrong in the recent months. When Joe Biden signed the $1.75 trillion government funding bill, it became clear that the Army’s request for another batch of the Microsoft headsets had been denied.

 

Why? Has the whole idea been scrapped? What’s going on?

 

Augmented Reality Warfare

 

HoloLens and the military are not an unusual pairing by any means, nor is it unexpected. Microsoft Inc. and the U.S. army have been making deals since 2018 – this much has been made public. The corporation reworked its “civilian” HoloLens headset into Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) suited for the battlefield. It brought Microsoft a contract that could be worth the whopping $21.8 billion.

 

According to the news, IVAS’ primary purpose is displaying data such as low-light vision, mission data, location map, and other parameters. The goal is to increase situational awareness of a soldier, in transit or dismounted. Of course, a wearable like that is also going to be very useful for training and simulation…

 

Provided it makes the cut.

 

In October 2022, a leaked report caused quite a stir describing multiple shortcomings of the updated HoloLens as field tested by thousands of U.S. soldiers over the course of (at least) two years. According to the report, testers experienced nausea and headaches in addition to eye strain, and the symptoms persisted for hours. The glowing display was visible enough from outside that it could have “gotten us killed” in real life combat.

 

And so the Congress has ostensibly reacted to these findings. When the Army requested $400 million to buy 6,900 modified HoloLens headsets from Microsoft in 2023, the answer was “no”.

 

The Future of IVAS

 

Despite the difficulties and “low acceptance”, the HoloLens military tests are going to continue. Instead of the above-mentioned $400 million, the Congress approved $40 million to spend on the 1.2 version of the headset. And shortly before that, $125 million were allocated to spend on fixing the old model’s weak spots.

 

The new HoloLens for the Army promises an updated form factor (less of a helmet and more of a goggles), presumably to make the device less conspicuous. A range of improvements to the display aim to remove the negative symptoms experienced by the wearer. There is even talk about integrating IVAS to the Bradley platform, making the soldier retain their connection to the vehicle upon dismount and see what the Bradley sensors see when inside the car.

 

One thing is clear: the military needs wearable AR goggles. All the data gathered by sensors has to be delivered to the unit on site as efficiently as possible. The old-timey radios no longer suffice. We’re looking at yet another cutting edge technology entering the military.


This article has been brought to you by Senstone Inc. If you want to learn about wearable technology and its impact, visit our homepage or follow us on social media. Your productivity is our mission.

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Wearables in Healthcare: Becoming the New Normal

As technology improves, wearables in healthcare are becoming more and more popular. This is hardly surprising. From monitoring vitals around the clock to making the documentation process easier on practitioners, wearable technology affords some unique benefits.

 

Healthcare in Real Time

 

One of the main contributions wearables are currently making to healthcare is health monitoring. You no longer have to confine a person to the bed and hook them up to clunky machinery to get the necessary data.

 

  • heart rate
  • heart rhythm
  • blood oxygen saturation
  • breathing
  • sleep patterns
  • blood pressure
  • movement (walking, running, fall)

All these (and more) can be measured using a smart watch. Days, weeks, and months of statistical data help correctly assess the wearer’s health. And you don’t need to lend out expensive apparatus; watches are available at any tech store.

 

A frequently asked question about health wearables is whether they are accurate enough to be used for treating and diagnosing diseases. These doubts are still here because we remember all too well the first generations of wearable tech.

 

Luckily, things have gotten much, much better during the decade. Now doctors can rely on wearables for recording vitals, and there are even ECG watches approved by the FDA.

 

Wearables For the Doctor

 

A less obvious application of wearables in healthcare would be catering to the medical practitioners themselves.

 

Since the paperwork has been abandoned in lieu of electronic records (EHR), there is a lot of typing going on at the hospitals. Some information needs to be memorised before it can be recorded. For the doctors who use regular notebooks, their notes have to be transferred into the computer. According to a study, American doctors waste two-thirds of their time filling out forms.

 

Wearable recorders converting speech to text on the fly have emerged as the high-tech solution to the problem. 

 

Devices like Senstone Scripter allow physicians to record a patient’s data once – and transfer it between devices instantly while the AI makes sure there will be no spelling mistakes.

 

Although some smartphone apps can be used to a similar effect, wearables have the advantage of being hands-free. 

 

Their other strong point is the lack of intrusive notifications. You are free to concentrate on one task at a time and enter a state of deep focus. 

 

A wearable recorder has long battery life, too; a doctor doesn’t have to juggle texting, calls, and recording trying to make the phone last longer.



In conclusion, wearables and healthcare seem to have found each other. The former have improved to the point where a store-bought product can be used to reliably monitor health conditions. The latter has been successfully implementing wearable technology for years. Cardiology is the field most well-known for its application of wearables, but we can see other fields (like neurology) catching up to it already.

 

Stay productive!

 

This article has been brought to you by Senstone, a company working to make note-taking a seamless and effortless experience – anywhere, anytime. If you want to learn more, visit our home page or follow us on social media.

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How to Write a Biography (Using a Voice Recorder)

Biographies and autobiographies remain popular, and ‘how to write a biography’ is a surprisingly common search – along with people asking how to outline a book. Asking questions is important, especially when you’ve only just dipped your toes into the whole writing business.

 

While the ‘traditional’ approaches to writing are still going strong, these days we have some good alternatives which might suit you more than pen and paper (or hands and keyboard).

 

One of the alternative writing methods, in our opinion, is especially convenient for biography creators; using a voice recorder to capture and automatically transcribe your work.

 

Here is why we think you should definitely give it a shot.

 

It’s a Kind of Magic

 

Even if you’re wondering how to write a biography and not, say, an epic poem, you still have a lot in common with the ancients. The first biographies were composed in the form of tales to be recited; there was no way to record them. Even The Iliad in all its 15,600 lines glory spent at least five centuries as folk songs. Performers added and subtracted from it as they saw fit.

 

What we’re hinting at is the long-forgotten principle ready to make a return: it’s okay to create text without writing down a single word.

 

And unlike the Ancient Greek rhapsodes, you don’t have to memorise your book by heart.

 

Voice technology is one of the greatest opportunities for authors, especially if the idea is to publish a biography, and modern recorders are very much like a personal secretary. Scripter offers accuracy as high as 99% for English; a far cry from what we had to deal with just a decade ago.

 

The features we’re looking at:

  • automatic transcription, also known as speech-to-text
  • flexibility, i.e. the recording device has to be portable
  • automatic syntax (commas, paragraphs)
  • safe storage
  • synchronisation across devices

 

You are going to need:

  • a recording device (or a specialised app)
  • …and that’s it

 

Biographical Writing & Voice Tech: Made for Each Other

 

So how to write a biography in a way that would exploit all of the advantages offered by voice technology?

 

  1. If you’ve done your research, you don’t need to take peeks at the outline. There can be no surprises. The eagles are not going to swoop in and pick up your character from the peak of Mount Doom. You’re safe from plot holes. This means you can write (speak) in little chunks, bits and pieces. Start anywhere, compile later.

 

  1. Biographies and flowery prose live in different realms. When writing a biography, you can write more or less as you speak. Voice technology is perfect for capturing the natural flow of thought.

 

  1. You can write anywhere. The best ideas often have the worst timing possible. Take a walk – and write. Keep driving – and write. Lie in bed – and write. Pacing often helps us think – and of course voice-to-text lets you write while pacing.

 

To sum up, speaking to the imaginary reader is better than staring at the cursor. The illusion of communication gets your mind to speed up!

 

For writers, one of the best options on the market is Senstone Scripter (app and/or recording device). It’s tailored to assist content creators, doesn’t rely on the internet connection, and allows you to avoid the common distractions.

 

If you’d like to know more about Senstone Scripter and voice technology, visit our home page. Voice technology for lightning fast note taking is what we’re good at!

 

To browse our website for more articles like this one, check out our blog.

 

Good look with your writing!

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25 Best Productivity Quotes for Work and Life

In case you’d like get motivated, we have hand-picked 25 productivity quotes from people who achieved success in their field. We believe just a few words at the right time can go a long way when it comes to productivity and inspiration.

 

So here it is: 25 quotes by the people who changed the world, each and every one revealing the secret to their productivity.

 

  1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.

Albert Einstein, physicist

 

  1. Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table, close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.

Anne Lamont, writer and productivity expert

 

  1. Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States

 

  1. The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.

Steven Pressfield, author

 

  1. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

 

  1. The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Stephen Covey, educator and entrepreneur

 

  1. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Aristotle, philosopher

 

  1. Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Dale Carnegie, writer and lecturer

 

  1. It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.

Nathan W. Morris, productivity and business coach, author

 

  1. Every day that I procrastinate, every day that I sit stagnant in fear, every day that I fail to better myself, someone else out there with the same goals and dreams as me is doing the exact opposite.

Noel DeJesus, author and combat veteran

 

  1. No work is insignificant.

Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist

 

  1. You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it “done”.

David Allen, prolific author and productivity consult

 

  1. What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50%.

Susan Cain, writer and lecturer

 

  1. Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade.

Rudyard Kipling, author

 

  1. Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.

Roy T. Bennett, author

 

  1. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

Jim Ryun, athlete and politician

 

  1. Every champion was once a contender that didn’t give up.

Gabby Douglas, Olympic champion in gymnastics

 

  1. If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.

Elizabeth Gilbert, journalist

 

  1. The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.

Bruce Lee, actor and martial artist

 

  1. Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.

Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist

 

  1. The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States

 

  1. Nothing will work unless you do.

Maya Angelou, author and activist

 

  1. If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Winston Churchill, politician and writer

 

  1. The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.

Tom Peters, business management expert

 

  1. The big secret in life is that there is no secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.

Oprah Winfrey, talk show host and producer

 

As you can see, focus and effort are essential for productivity. We hope these quotes have given you the motivation to create something amazing.

 

This page was brought to you by Senstone. To learn more about productivity in the age of distractions, check out our homepage.

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Social Media vs. Productivity

Unpopular opinion: you can have a Facebook account and get things done. Productivity should not come at the cost of deleting social media.

 

Use social media and stay productive: is it even possible?

 

It seems these days, people are sharing strong sentiments about social media platforms – either love or cancel them. At least that’s what you see across the internet, which many believe is a true reflection of the real world – but wait a second. Is it?

 

First and foremost, a social media platform is a tool. Like any other instrument, people can use it to build or destroy – or both simultaneously. 

 

Secondly, social media can create community and bring joy. At the same time, they can also be detrimental to productivity and mental health. As you can see, it’s complicated.

 

Before participating on a social media platform, think about your intentions and define the purpose of your engagement. Does this platform serve your needs? Furthermore, can it support your goals without setting you back?

 

Social media can create connections

Social media can impede productivity
  • Keep in touch with family, friends, and co-workers
  • Shrink attention span and heighten ADHD
  • Connect with people from other environments
  • Distract you from your purpose with notifications
  • Create a front-row seat to the public opinion
  • Drive anxiety and depression
  • Entertain
  • Fuel procrastination from participating in real life

 

The platform designers build distractions into the user experience. A single notification can disrupt the deep focus needed for productivity. For example, when scrolling Facebook, each post distracts from the previous one. Moreover, automated content moves at warp speed, which forces us to multi-task to stay engaged. This gives the social media platform control of tired minds and drives behavior, therefore it’s not good for your brain (to say the least).

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

 

In 2016 Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University, published a game-changing book, entitled “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.” Newport describes digital minimalism as a philosophy of technology used when users focus their online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support the things they value while happily missing out on everything else.

 

How can we apply digital minimalism to our lives to digitally detox – even a little, increase productivity, and enjoy social media?

 

  • Sacrifice the “anxious” digital entertainment. Social media uses gamification for you to “play” the platform by jumping between tags, headlines, cat photos, alerts, laughter, pain, fear, joy, anger, and invisibility.

 

  • Unsubscribe! Go through your list of subscriptions, because it’s ‘Marie Kondo’ time!  

 

  • Calendar your social media viewing and sending. Many websites and apps provide the option to schedule posts and updates.

 

  • Turn off Notifications (all the way or almost). Social media now lets audiences control notifications. In the app settings, select which type of notifications to allow and which type to trash. Then choose the times of day to receive notifications.  

 

  • Imagine unrelated clicks are paid.  Finally, our lifehack of the day: imagine you buy every idle click for $5, while the “free” clicks are reserved for your job. It is an excellent technique because, with it, you can see your priorities clear as day. Are you ready to pay $5 to watch a 10-seconds-long cat video? Do you want to like a funny GIF that bad?

 

To sum up, increasing productivity in the age of integrated work and personal life requires the intentional use of social media. With intention, feel the results of digitally detoxing when leaving behind social media anxiety.

 

More articles that might interest you:

6 Tips To Double Your Productivity With Remote Work

Break the Dopamine Cycle With Scripter