Wearable Apps: An Overview of a New App Ecosystem

You must have heard someone mention wearable technology, but do you know what exactly it means?

What is wearable technology?

Wearable technology is a general term for a group of devices — including fitness trackers and smartwatches — that you can wear all day. These gadgets can actually connect with devices, such as computers and smartphones, which means they are able to do a number of amazing things.

Types of wearables

Smartwatches
Fitness trackers
Sport watches
Head-mounted displays
VR
AR/smart glasses
Hearables
Consumer health

4 ways wearable technology can improve our life

Wearable Technology Keeps Us Fit

It goes without saying that wearable technology seeks to improve users’ lives in more ways than one. Millions of people around the world are taking advantage of the technology to stay fit and in good shape. One of today’s top health-driven wearable gadgets is the FitBit Flex. The bracelet comes with numerous monitoring features to help you create objectives and improve your fitness. This device helps you track your activity levels, your sleep cycle, and your food intake while checking your progress and setting objectives. The gadget keeps a watch on your physical activity by tracking your steps, calories burned, or the distance you travel during a day.

Enterprise Situational Awareness

Situational awareness (SA) is the process of gathering information from across your organization, creating it into usable intelligence, and spreading it efficiently so your employees comprehend how to make good decisions to keep your organization, its assets, and its employees safe and secure.

These technologies are likely to revolutionize disaster recovery and emergency response by letting emergency services access more information while vigorously conducting their critical tasks. Providing key information can provide critical information for decision-makers. During an incident that requires portrayal of the incident command system approach; many of the decisions are made based on face-to-face or radio-based reports. Information from wearables could decrease imprecisions caused by inappropriately communicated information and provide precise situational awareness.

The Growth of Wearable Devices

Although wearable technology and devices may seem like a new trend, in reality they have been around for quite some time.

Tech giants IBM and Olympus are considered to be the trailblazers in the realm of wearable technology. As far back as 1999, the companies released the PC Eye-Trek, which essentially bears a number of similarities with Google Glass, a wearable computer designed by the search engine behemoth to include an optical, head-mounted display. Developed to mimic much of the same functionality that is expected of a traditional computer, Google Glass also falls into a category called augmented reality because it is intended to provide people information about the world around them as they travel through their daily lives.

Samsung, another technology giant, also came up with the Samsung Galaxy Gear around eight years ago, which epitomized another daring step forward for the format. The Galaxy Gear is designed to replicate and occasionally complement the functionality of a conventional smartphone.

Challenges in Wearable Devices

There are a number of problems relating to wearable devices that need to be dealt with for such devices to become mainstream, including:

Power management
Technological reliance created by augmented reality and automatic processing
Advances in software architecture to compensate for the challenges of navigating on such small-screen interfaces
Adequate security from threat actors with the potential to control the data stores on the device

But with safety and other risks addressed, the hands-free and location-reliant processes of wearable computing devices could result in a number of applications. For instance, the devices could provide new capabilities for those requiring high-tech agility and connectivity in the field, such as emergency workers, search-and-rescue teams, warehouse staffs or anyone on the move. The systems also make it possible to track people, such as nurses carrying out rounds or emergency workers in the field.

Every new technology has an outline and detection phases in its life cycle, including wearable devices. A new catalyst that will forward the life cycle of wearable devices is the overview of 5G, that will provide more bandwidth and open the gates for many choices like real-time monitoring of health and several apps working simultaneously.

There will be times when customers will question the objective and use of such devices, and some people will discard them altogether. But the potential of wearable devices is too much to overlook, and one can ignore their benefits to one’s own detriment. If previous experience with the commonplace importance of smartphones is any sign, then the future of wearable devices is just as positive.

Future of Wearable Technology

The world has certainly enjoyed improved technological advancement which has enhanced our quality of life. Major fields of endeavor such as the healthcare and transportation sectors, and even the Fintech industry, continue to grow phenomenally, with the future looking bright and promising. One mainly striking innovation which is slowly becoming omnipresent is wearable technology, leading to the enhanced demand for wearable app developers.

The usage of wearable technology has seen a stellar rise in the last two decades. There’s no doubt that smart watches, VR and AR technology, smart jackets and a wide variety of other gadgets have become an indispensable part of our lives. And this can be gauged from colossal investment being made in the wearable technology market.