Wearables are everywhere these days, and examples of wearable technology available to the customer range from digital wrist watches to ‘smart’ jewellery and fashion accessories. This trend is well past what we would call a fad; there is no longer a doubt wearables are here to stay.
In the Palm of Your Hand
Wearable technology had few examples until recently and used to be little more than a concept – simply because computers used to be pretty unwieldy up until a couple of decades ago.
Before the 1950s, all computers were operating using vacuum tubes. A vacuum tube in ENIAC, one of the most advanced computing machines of the time, was 6.9 centimetres (2 ¾”) tall; there were thousands of them! ENIAC took up a large room.
In the 1950s vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors, and these were replaced by the integrated circuits as soon as 1960. An integrated circuit is tiny, nanometres in size, and contains a huge number of transistors. This number is growing with each new generation of electronic chips. We have gone from 1,000 transistors in the 1970 Intel 4004 microchip to 50,000,000,000 in Apple A13 (iPhone 11 Pro) in 2020.
“Moore’s Law: the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years.”
Just like the smartphone that fits in your pocket performs better than the best laptop of 2006, your smartwatch could easily outperform Ferranti Mark 1.
The further technology evolves, the smaller powerful gadgets get, to the point where they eventually become wearables.
Magic Rings, Superhero Costumes, and Artificial Intelligence
As of 2022, examples of wearable technology include everything from lockets that can verify your identity to rings that keep track of your heartbeat. Here are the five products to illustrate just how useful wearables can be.
This wearable device can record speech and automatically transcribe voice into text, using artificial intelligence to make sense of your notes. You can use it to keep track of things at work and/or at home. The accuracy of speech-to-text conversion is at 99%, and the battery lasts between one and two weeks depending on usage. Senstone Scripter supports 12 languages. It’s small and versatile, which is perfect for day-to-day tasks.
Prevention Circul+ is a smart ring designed to help you monitor your health. Blood oxygen, heartbeat, sleep, temperature, calories, steps – all of these are tracked by a single accessory. You can access the detailed metrics via the app on your smartphone at any time. Another pro to this wearable: it’s cheaper than other wellness rings.
Unlike most, TESLASUIT is a full-body wearable, a suit combined with VR goggles. Sending electrical impulses to your body, the suit can make you feel touch, impact, and a range of temperatures. It can be used to train professionals in various fields, diagnose and treat patients, or play video games.
Fitbit has gone mainstream, and the Versa 3 watch delivers what we expect from Fitbit – and more. It tracks your sleep pattern, breathing, pulse, blood pressure, counts your steps, and displays time. While smart rings like Prevention Circul+ focus on the health aspect of your well-being, Fitbit is all about fitness. (Although if you crave a next-gen tech experience, you might want to wait for a couple of months for Versa 4.)
HIS does exactly what it says on the tin: a wireless controller you can wear on your finger. Its uses are not limited to computers, however, and you can have it act as a pointer or remote controller. You don’t even have to move your wrist, just the index finger.
The showcase above is no way conclusive, and if you look closely, you can find examples of wearable technology pretty much everywhere.
- health and well-being
- fitness
- sports
- technology and office work
- entertainment
- business
- content creation
Every year more and more people use wearables daily. The chips are getting smaller. The materials get cheaper – and more reliable.
Your productivity is our mission. If you want to know more about how Senstone approaches wearable technology, visit the homepage.
