Chronic sleep deficiency. Text neck. Eye strain. Addiction to technology has created health problems you may not have thought you’d deal with until much later in life. Although you’ll read a lot about these issues, technology wasn’t designed to make humanity worse. Recent developments are promising a better world.
Medical Marvels
Wearable tech is innovating health care, from prevention of diseases to patient care. In its early stages, the technology was applied to monitor patient activities with consistency. Some examples include collecting data on heart rate, vital signs, and posture.
These days, some wearable devices can perform the following impressive functions:
- Detect breast cancer and send the information to a lab
- Monitor brain activity and muscle function for analysis
- Track symptoms of Parkinson’s and transmit data to a health care professional
- Monitor walking patterns of older adults to detect and prevent falls or seizures
- Monitor communication patterns to improve parent-child relationship
Wearable tech isn’t just concerned with the physical condition of patients. Some devices also help manage stress, monitoring body temperature, heartbeat, and blood pressure.
With the rapid development in technology, wearable devices for medical and health care are also built for security. Devices need to comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. HIPAA compliance provides the standard for protecting sensitive patient information.
Fit for Business
An innovative device doesn’t just serve an altruistic purpose. With unprecedented access and reach to consumers, wearable tech can also offer commercial opportunities. From a fitness tracker watch to a contactless payment ring, these super cool devices become a wellspring of data. Data which a digital marketing firm could use to inform its online strategies and gain favorable results.
Voice search trend, customer personalization, and ad targeting in wearable tech all have crucial implications for marketing a business.
An Inclusive Community
One other impressive application of wearable tech involves the lives of those with physical disabilities. The deaf community, in particular, have something to celebrate with the introduction of the Sound Shirt.
The Sound Shirt is a kind of jacket or vest featuring 16 sensors planted in the fabric. These sensors allow wearers to feel a range of sounds in different parts of their bodies; i.e., the back may feel the heavy bass of a drum whereas the arms may feel the rhythm of a guitar.
The high-tech shirt uses smart fabrics, so you won’t see wires. Thin and conductive fabrics allow the wearable “device” to be soft and comfortable. Because it could work as part of a wardrobe, it could be worn at concerts and dance clubs.
Of course, technology like this doesn’t come cheap. Designed and developed by a London-based company, the Sound Shirt retails at $3,673.
The race to wearable technology may have slightly fizzled with Google Glass’s failure to entice the market. The company is giving it another go with a new version of the AR specs, marketing it to businesses with a better camera, better processor, and better battery life.
Google’s second foray into the market and the continued development of astonishing devices will mean that wearable tech will be part of everyday life much sooner.
