Wearables

A wearable tracking collar created by Cambridge Industrial Design (CID) is enabling farmers to locate exactly where their dairy cattle are, helping better manage grazing patterns and milk yields. Commissioned by True North Technologies, the collar is part of a pan-European project that also involves Teagasc (the Irish government agricultural research agency), Institute d’Laval in France and Agroscope, Switzerland.

Kokoon is the first headphone comfortable enough to be slept in and smart enough to know how and when to adjust music as users fall asleep and wake. Audio is one of the best ways to help us relax and switch off naturally. Sleep clinics prescribe thousands of audio based techniques daily and millions of us use audio to relax each day. For the first time we can listen to our music, audiobooks or sleep techniques comfortably in bed without fear that...

YouTube and BBC iPlayer content can now be controlled using the power of your thoughts. MindRDR TV, developed by This Place, is a thought interface which connects Neurosky’s EEG brainwave sensor to popular video platforms. Organisations are experimenting with this technology to explore its potential, which could include making TV more accessible.

  The ever growing market for wearble technologies now features a bikini that prevents the wearer from getting sunburnt. The Connected Bikini, from Spinali Design, features an embedded sensor which warns the user when they have spent too much time in the sun.

Valtronic will attend IMAPS’ advanced technology workshop on Electronic Packaging for Wearable Electronics, scheduled to take place at the Doubletree Suites in Austin, from 15th to 16th June 2015. Valtronic team members will highlight Compendium Solutions, an implant and physiological connectivity platform that focuses upon miniaturisation of electronics due to the small nature of today’s wearables.

Wearable technology is part of a megatrend involving integration of electronics into every aspect of our surroundings. Our most immediate surroundings - our clothing, watches and even our bodies themselves - are a key part of this. Features such as sensors, actuators, processors, interfaces and all that is needed to support and power them are being integrated onto and into the body with unprecedented reach and volumes.

Smart wristbands powered by the MediaTek MT2502 solution allow monitoring of a range of health parameters and detection of falls. With partners Hutcabb and 37 Degrees, MediaTek develops connected health solutions for sports and elderly care.  

Using programmes developed by NASA, Pennsylvania startup Narbis has introduced a revolutionary pair of glasses, which uses sensors to track the wearer's brain activity. These signals are sent to the lenses of the glasses, which darken when brain performance slips and clear when the brain is focused and concentrating.

The smartwatch market will grow from 3.6m unit shipments in 2014, to 101m shipments in 2020, according to a report released by IHS. Apple’s entry into the smartwatch market will benefit all suppliers as marketing raises consumer awareness and explains the benefits clearly. The Apple Watch will leave an enormous addressable market untapped, because it requires a modern iPhone and has a starting price of $349. 

The device, developed by research groups lead by Professor Takayasu Sakurai, Institute of Industrial Science, and Professor Takao Someya, Graduate School of Engineering, both University of Tokyo, combines a flexible amorphous silicon solar panel, piezoelectric speaker, temperature sensor, and power supply circuit created with organic components in a single flexible, wearable package.