September 11, 2014

How Wearable Devices Are Changing Our Lives

It was a time when computational devices were occupying our desks with chunky and immovable heavy systems. Then came the laptops which brought some mobility in our lives, and later inspired device designers and engineers to bring on computational powers in hand-held devices like phones and PDAs. When Apple released the first iPhone, a wave of incredibility spread across the globe that saw the general public readily adapting these new tech-toys in their lives. And thus, the technology evolved so to spend lesser efforts in interacting and computing with them. Now, in this new age, technology producers are consistently pushing devices which can be worn and become a part of the daily lifestyle of the humans.

Why We Need Wearable Devices

With spread of smartphones and tablets, we gained much mobility for our computers and our interaction with them through touch became almost for 24 X 7-time log. Unfortunately, with their conveniences there came along some limitations in completely attaching the mobile devices with us. The biggest being to pull out the smartphone when we have to do anything, and many a times missing important notifications in some busy moments when we actually needed them. Such was the experience of technology that we humans began to want for instant notifications of the events happening around us, our social circles, and the world alike. And thus, wearable technologies got introduced, which keep us in contact with our interests all round the clock – even when we are asleep.

Kinds of Wearable Devices

The advent of technology has brought along a wide array of smart wearable devices in all shapes, sizes and forms such as:

Smart Eyewear or Glasses
Heads-Up-Display Devices (HUD)
Smart Watches
Smart Bandages and Belts for tracking health and fitness
Smart Clothing
Wearable Scanners
Navigational devices, and many more

Image Source: blog.hbs.edu

Many devices work independently like smart glasses, while some are in combination with smartphones. If we imagine that how these wearable devices can change our lives, there are infinite possibilities to say, but what would be occurred in far or near futures is not certain. Let’s take some of the examples of these devices on granted and see the possibilities and contexts of use-cases where our lives would impact the most.

Google Glass

This the first device, that has triggered the wave of wearable devices. Technically, Glass has almost everything that a smartphone has, except you can’t make a call, but this too is soon being negated with the coming versions of Glass. Additionally, it has a projector, a touch pad instead of touch screen, voice recognition, and keep our heads up all the time which allows our hands to do more meaningful things in our lives. It has a see-though display which does not distract the user at all.

This device opens the all windows of Augmented Reality (AR), overlapping virtual images over the real life. You can find your destination with easy turn-by-turn navigation overlapped on the road in front of you without asking anyone to guide you. Furthermore, you have all the historic peculiarities of the place you are visiting right in front of your eyes at that very moment. Thus, you don’t need any reference material with you or any human guide at all, move safely from place to place.

If you are on a beautiful location, and would like to share its views with your friends and family back home Glass relays the visual imagery to them from your vantage point. Glass even empowers you to browse through a catalog of things at a shop without moving an inch and buying them there and then without waiting in long and boring shopping queues.

Smart Watches & Wrist Bands

Another form of wearable technology that adds real value to our lives is smart watches and wrist bands that help us tracking our fitness and monitoring health through multitudes of sensors. You can monitor your heartbeats, skin temperature, oxygen level, calorie consumption, blood sugar level, and various types of physiological parameters by combining these wearable devices with smartphone apps. Apple and Motorola have enthusiastically jumped onto the bandwagon by launching their smart wearable devices.

Athletes and gym enthusiasts are increasingly using smart bracelets to monitor their health, fitness, sleep cycles and diets. There are even wearable devices which take tracking health to another level by adding Bio-electronic chips to cure chronic back/spinal pains by releasing mild electric currents.

Smart Clothes

Similarly, the same health sensors can be fit into clothes like T-shirt and inner wear in order to monitor health and fitness parameters remotely. Such devices become lifesaving partners to the aged people and people suffering from chronic or acute diseases by alarming medical emergency personnel in case of emergencies.

Image Source: icgeeks.org

All in all, the wearable technologies are gaining popularity and acceptance with the consumers for making their lives more convenient and worthwhile.