Is Wearable Tech the 6th Sense? Once again, we find ourselves at the cusp of a technological revolution. Or rather, the next step in what has been an ongoing technical revolution since the Internet went live back in the early 90s. Telephones became cell phones and computers went from heavy bulky machines wired to one another to everything being included behind a single monitor. Now we’re seeing the next big stage – wearables. As Wearable Tech gets more sophisticated, we will see the eventual migration from smartphones to wearables. But what about now? What can the clever entrepreneur do to take advantage of the current trends in Wearable? Good news – a lot. You don’t even need to get involved with the hardware; All these new Wearables will need apps so users interact with their device! Wearable tech is already taking over many industries – not just the World of Fitness. Everything from the Medical industry to Child Care is benefiting from this growth in the Internet of Things and Wearable Tech. Let’s take a look at the industries using relying on Wearable tech, and how it helps companies grow. Noise Reduction Wearables to reduce urban noise pollution are in growing demand. If you’ve spent any time in a large population center, you know how overwhelming the noise can be. From traffic to millions of people having conversations, the sound generated by a city is enormous and only getting louder. Beyond their applicability to the average person, Wearables for noise pollution are of huge value to professions involving excess noise. Airline workers, construction workers, metropolitan cab drivers: all stand to benefit greatly from this trend. Further connections via apps to Smart Watches or other wearables can make this product even more useful and customizable. Sonata is currently one of the world’s largest producers of hearing aids, but they see their future in this arena. They believe creating smart devices that intelligently filter out background noise is wearing the money is headed; you willing to bet against the experts? Contact us today and we can get started on your own wearable app immediately. Fitness Venerable Wearable Companies like Fitbit (which went public for a whopping market valuation of $6 billion) deserve a nod for the part they played in getting Wearable Tech to what we have today. There is almost no other industry using wearable tech better than that of Physical Fitness. Fitness Wearables have long been able to collect biometrics from their users, as well as tracking distance traveled and other general fitness information. A Wearable’s ability to monitor heart rate, breathing, Blood Oxygen Levels and take your temperature, make them an invaluable tool to the fitness fiend. They allow you to track your body in real-time and to ensure that you are pushing yourself to the right level. But recent advances in the tech have created new avenues of growth within the industry of fitness. For instance, Wearables are now able to monitor body movement in excruciating detail. This neat little piece of tech is being applied throughout different fitness activities to create a Smart Coach. This Coach monitors you closer than a real coach ever could, correcting movements and motions in real-time. With an app, users could easily record their movements with the Coach’s corrections to study later. Already, this tech is being used in boxing gloves to provide exceptionally accurate feedback on technique and style; it’s also being used in Yoga instruction, Swimming, and many other sports or activities. But the applications of Wearables in Physical Fitness naturally segues into our next industry: That of Medicine. Health Care Health Care has, arguably, benefitted from improved technologies more than almost any other industry. Improvements in robotics allowing surgeons to conduct minute surgeries, as well as VR/AR technologies used to train up-and-coming med students, have led to millions of saved lives. And Wearable tech is no different; the applications of wearable tech are immense, so immense in fact that we have to tackle this in categories. • Replacement Limbs (and organs) With Wearable tech and the Internet of Things, communication between devices is a simple thing. This feature can be (and is) leveraged to provide real-time monitoring of replacement limbs and organs. Doctors can monitor pacemakers, see if a replacement leg is operating to expectations and may eventually be capable of monitoring the rejection or acceptance of a replacement organ. • Disease Wearables can help Diabetics monitor insulin levels, can put asthmatics in control of their blood oxygen levels, and allow heart patients the ability to watch their pulse, in real time. • Impairment Just recently, there have been a slew of different announced projects to help the visually impaired “see.” The biggest of these comes from the automaker Toyota – don’t worry it’s not a car! It’s a headset that can help guide blind users through public areas (parks, malls, etc) safely. And it does not just help for the blind; just recently, the FDA approved a powered-exosuit that helps quadriplegic and paraplegic people walk again. Child Care How about a pacifier that monitors how well an infant is breathing while recording other vitals? Or a Diaper that can monitor eliminations for infection (gross, but useful)? The point is that Wearable tech is making headway in parenting, augmenting traditional child-rearing practices with improved technologies. Parents can now be “Smart Parents” (and no I can’t wait to tell my own folks that it was too bad they weren’t “smart”!), monitoring their child’s health in real-time, while decreasing stress and misdiagnosing. Your Wearable Tech App Developers Apps are really a catchall for a program that enables human-computer interaction. As such, Wearable tech needs apps so people can use them; this is where we come in. We build apps of all sorts – thousands of them in fact. We have built for Wearable gadgets and know what it takes to make a Wearable Tech App succeed. Get in touch with Tech Director, Raj for a free hour of consultation and 25% off your first project. You can reach us by phone at 408.805.0495 or by email.