Tag: scripter voice assistant

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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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The Digital Divide & Why We Should Fight It

Our world is facing another challenge: the so-called digital divide. This term is used to describe the growing technological disparity between certain countries or social strata, the gap in technology access between the richer areas and those who didn’t luck out.

 

The divide can be caused by several factors:

  • Physical location. Lack of imported gadgets or parts, low economic development, remote and/or inaccessible regions, isolated economies, little to no infrastructure all contribute to the digital divide.
  • Low income. Many people cannot use new technology simply because they cannot afford it. 24% of adult people with household incomes below $30,000/year don’t own a smartphone. 40% of those with lower incomes don’t have home broadband services or don’t own a PC. Location influences income also, with certain regions being poorer and/or experiencing low purchasing power.
  • Low literacy. College graduates have a much better grasp on tech due to their education, and they usually own more gadgets.
  • Low motivation. Some people possess the necessary income and education to use the full potential of technology, but choose not to. Mostly this is due to the lack of motivation (“I don’t need it”) and age (“This is too different from what I’m used to”). Luckily, there are one-button gadgets like Senstone Scripter, but they are far and few.

All of the above can be countered with policies, reforms, and awareness campaigns. While such sweeping measures can seem too drastic, they are completely justified.



Why Closing the Digital Divide Is Worth the Effort

The digital divide concerns everyone, even those who don’t experience its immediate effects. Since the industry has become globalized, with supply chains spanning the entire planet, a physically distant event or phenomenon can influence the unsuspecting citizens around the globe.

Let’s consider a city that experiences a bad case of digital divide, such as the lack of internet access. It creates all sorts of problems for the state:

  • problems implementing digital solutions such as eID, remote education, billing, mobile banking
  • creating a real-life divide between those who can access technology and those who can’t
  • fewer citizens can become skilled workers
  • low income cycle: cannot afford new technology – cannot make money using it – cannot afford new technology

uninformed voters are easier to manipulate into supporting backwards and/or harmful policies

 

 

Reversing the trend will bring a lot of benefits to the tech industry of the city and, by extension, the rest of the world.

  • more clients
  • more demand
  • more skilled workers
  • more opportunities


The community will directly profit from the policies aiming to close the digital divide, and the effects are going to last for generations.

  • better education
  • higher income
  • job opportunities
  • easier communication

Everybody wins.

 

How to Bridge the Digital Divide?

The digital divide is a relatively recent trend, and governments and companies are only just starting to catch up with reality.

In the US, policies are being implemented to ensure access to the broadband internet for all Americans. The issues are mostly local, with rural and tribal areas overrepresented in the statistics, and the percent of Americans without broadband access ranges between 6 and 12% depending on the study.

 

The US solution can be boiled down to a few bullet points:

  • federal programs that help cover the cost of communication services
  • broadband service discounts
  • promoting mobile and satellite internet
  • avoid unnecessary regulation of ISPs
  • e-learning vouchers for students

Other countries, like India, where the digital divide problem is much more severe (half the Indians don’t have access to broadband), have had moderate success when dealing with it. A lesson we can learn from them is simple: lack of systemic approach undermines all effort.

To conclude, it’s important to remember that the digital divide can be reversed, but fighting it has to become the business of policymakers. As regular netizens, we can do our best to draw attention to the problem and support the candidates who focus on communities and infrastructure.

 

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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Wearable Art Is Not What You Think

 

What Sophie de Oliveira Barata makes is wearable art, and she illustrates her point using pictures of her one-of-a-kind prosthetic limbs. Most of them are highly impractical: they are meant to be flaunted, shown off, photographed. Her creations bridge the gap between wearable gadgets and artwear.

 

She is not the only one who merges art with wearable technology.

 

The Kind of Art to Wear

 

Wearable art used to mean unique, imaginative clothing items. Not fashion but art coincidentally shaped like something to wear. While the basic definition still holds, the “clothing” part has been evolving, and technology is the usual suspect.

 

One of the first innovations to make it into the world of wearable art was the tiny, inconspicuous LED. It enabled fashion designers to incorporate light into their projects. Glowing dresses and body-turned-installation, predictably, followed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Maria Castellanos

 

But here’s a thing about art: it shrugs off function as well as mass production.

 

Mundane wearable devices like a fitness watch did not conquer the artwear scene. Wearable art is never mass produced. A limited edition wristband would not qualify as art as long as its primary functions remain telling time and counting steps instead of expressing an artistic concept. The line between art and ornament becomes pretty clear when approached (and surprisingly few do approach it).

 

The core hardware involved in wearables, however, has been adopted by the wearable art creators as soon as it entered the market.

 

The Kind of Wearables to Art Up

 

More and more, wearable technology becomes the vehicle for wearable art. These days it is responsible for all the moving, glowing, and interactive parts.

 

Cutting-edge microchips enabled Sophie de Oliveira Barata to make her prosthetic art reality. They also inspired the attendants of the International Conference on Art and Technology in the Spanish Bilbao.

 

Behnaz Farahi, an Iranian-born American architect and designer, used the occasion to present her wearable art in the form of “emotive fabric”. It changes shape in response to different stimuli and, being connected to the wearer through multiple sensors, can react to their emotions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Behnaz Farahi

 

Another spectacular example of wearable art is the project by Maria Castellanos and Alberto Valverde. Dubbed as “The Environment Dress”, it’s a peculiar-looking fashion statement that measures the level of intensity and aggression surrounding its wearer throughout the day. Temperature, noise, radiation, and even CO2 levels are fed into the sensors, making the dress emit light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Maria Castellanos

 

 

And if all of the above sounds interesting to you, annual events like the Technarte Conference (Spain), World of Wearable Art (New Zealand), or The Wearable Art Show (Canada) offer a real spread of wearable art – as well as art in technology, including 3D printed pieces.

 

This article has been brought to you by Senstone. We make stylish and functional wearables for busy people. Check out the homepage to learn more about our wearable speech-to-text recorder. Follow us for more news about the world of wearables.

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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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New Trend: Voice Recognition in Education

Using voice recognition in education, especially advanced learning, is a relatively recent development. Voice technology has progressed incredibly fast during the last few years, and what used to be cutting-edge experimental software is now commonplace.

 

Pretty much everyone these days uses a smartphone capable of speech processing. You can not only look up things on the internet using voice input but also communicate with the AI such as Google Assistant.

 

With voice recognition algorithms getting better and more libraries appearing on the market, educational apps are starting to dip their toes into the sea of opportunities that is voice tech.

 

Make Education More Accessible

 

Voice recognition in education gets a lot of attention lately, and for a good reason. For some people, it can be a neat way to take notes. For others, it opens the classroom door.

 

People with certain disabilities (dyslexia in one example) often find it difficult to take notes or do homework, because it involves typing and/or writing. This is where speech-to-text enters the stage. Transcription makes previously difficult tasks come naturally and boosts academic performance.

 

A beneficial side effect is that seeing the words appear on the screen during dictation can help students with reading and writing deficits to better grasp the relationship between letter and sound.

 

As for the students with conditions that affect mobility, voice recognition can be the only means of writing/typing available to them.

 

For deaf students, voice recognition is used to visualise speech using speech-to-text conversion. Again, this can be their only option.

 

Always Learning

 

Education welcomes individual approach, and voice recognition makes it easy in many areas.

 

So far the most popular application of speech processing is foreign language learning, especially learning pronunciation.

 

The student is prompted to repeat after a recording. If the pronunciation doesn’t match, the computer gives feedback and prompts the student again. Basically, this is the (dramatically) improved language lab – the lab that can fit in your pocket.

 

Apps like Rosetta Stone, ELSA Speak, and many others are very good at teaching pronunciation by using speech recognition to identify mistakes. This opens horizons to the people who cannot afford language courses, feel like they need more than lessons can offer – or prefer their learning bite-sized.

 

Implementing Voice Recognition in Education

 

With voice technology showing good results in a classroom setting, implementation is the next logical step.

 

Luckily, voice processing doesn’t require specialised equipment. A regular computer is all you need. Software, on the other hand, needs to be installed, and most of it is heavily licensed.

 

At this stage, awareness is the real challenge. Free licences for schools and universities, special learning programs, and voice technology options for disabled students would become far more accessible if teachers and learners knew about and asked for them.

 

Raising awareness about voice technology in education is an important task. As a company developing speech-to-text note-taking solutions, we hope more people experience the advantages voice technology can offer. To learn more about us, visit the Senstone homepage.

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Why Note-Taking Apps Are a Big Deal

Few people realise their favourite note-taking app is constantly vying for their attention. In the world where everyone takes digital notes, becoming and staying the preferred app for daily notes capture is very profitable. You become the second brain for millions of users.

 

The Invisible Competition

 

Developing a note-taking app is an underappreciated art form. You have to keep the app familiar and simple – and also make it unique in a way that is useful. It’s quite a challenge.

 

Still, a lot of techie are up for the task. In fact, you probably underestimate just how many! More than a hundred note apps are available just for Android.

 

Although most developers start making their own note-taking app to scratch an itch (write the book you want to read), profit is an obvious consideration. This creates competition, especially when it comes to stand-alone apps; although pre-installed apps can compete and subsequently fall from grace too.

 

Note-taking apps compete in the following aspects:

  • input speed
  • user-friendly interface
  • privacy
  • specialised features
  • pricing

These categories can overlap, but in general they are a decent representation of how customers make their choice. If an app is considered the best at multiple categories, more people will click ‘Install’. The more downloads you have, the larger amount of people will stay loyal to your product – provided their expectations are fulfilled.

 

The stakes are high, because most people use one note-taking app for everything.

 

An Unexpected Way to Make the World a Better Place

 

If you venture out into the wild and ask the public which note-taking app they prefer, the answers are going to vary. But if you look closely, you might notice a pattern.

 

The best apps are made by the developers who listen to feedback. Their apps cater to the target audience by staying on top of things in the chosen category. Fast apps optimise in favour of speed. Cross-platform apps add support for new platforms. Privacy-focused apps work to stay secure. And so on, and so forth.

 

Sensitivity to feedback benefits both user and product. This is how we get innovative solutions like Senstone Scripter.

 

And while profit makes note-taking apps a big deal to their creators (Evernote’s revenue reached $109.8M in 2021), there is another important aspect to developing such software.

 

Note-taking apps have a huge impact on productivity. They store large amounts of personal data. Billions of people rely on them for work and leisure. Specific features, like speech-to-text or synchronisation could make or break your day.

 

They could make or break the day for a company.

 

This is why users are so cautious about their choices. Handing everything from grocery lists to business strategies to a third-party app is an act of trust.



This article was brought to you by Senstone.

 

Hoping to help busy people around the globe take better notes, Senstone developed a wearable voice recorder capable of instant speech-to-text conversion. 99% transcription accuracy helps professionals streamline their work, and artificial intelligence takes care of spell-checking and organising notes. Senstone Scripter: your productivity is our mission.