The coming rise of the wearable device

If the noughties was the decade of the meteoric rise of the mobile communication device (tablets and phones) then the teens will be the decade of the meteoric rise of the “wearables” – and you can quote me on that.   For those not familiar with the concept of wearables it is the blanket term for technology warn on or carried on the outside of the body.  Wearables are related to but different from the emerging embedded and ingested devices that are both just at the start of their development cycles. 

Now wearables are nothing new, we have been living with the modern version of the wearable since the introduction of the digital watch.  However, what encourages me to make such bold statements about the future of wearables is that it just seems as though their moment has truly arrived.  Why?  Well the recent advantages in several technological areas such as Tech Portability (size and robustness), Data Analytics and Mobile Access seem to have paved the way for the creatives to begin the process of using wearables to refashion our lives with the same kind of scale and impact as they were refashioned by mobiles and tablets.  Woohoo.

Of particular interest to me, is not so much the frivolous fashion applications e.g. T-shirts that go a different shade depending on your mood or even the miniaturised wrist worn Samsungs, Sonys and soon to be apple devices but the multiple potential business applications.  My sense is that wearables will undoubtedly change the way we work and live.

Here are a few possible application areas:

Health and safety in the workplace

This is perhaps the best explored area to date and a land of opportunity for wearable developers.   Multiple applications have already been identified and some are already developed.  Today’s workers can already have their stress levels, blood pressure and postures measured (and corrected) and coming soon will be all manner of additional services and devices assessing our physical state at work.  These will include our general levels of alertness, stress, sobriety, health and energy.  A sub group of these devices, which is already gaining exposure, will focus on our ability to safely operate machinery (including company cars).  These devices will provide a composite service that monitors both our physical state and our technical capability as determined by how the machinery responds to our commands/touch.

This should in theory reduce the risk of accident and ill health at work and put us as the workers into a more competent and productive space.

Healthcare provision and health insurance

Of course a closely related branch of wearable devices to the health and safety workplace monitors described above will be the personal healthcare wearable devices that we will choose to wear in order to provide a) the medical professionals that we are interacting with an in depth and up to date view of our key metabolic indicators and b) to provide ourselves and/or the emergency services with a range of specific early warning monitors that activate at the first sign of heart attack/stroke/major accident etc.   These devices are already changing the way that companies offer health insurance with reductions in premiums becoming more and more likely for those that can prove (through the info provided from healthcare wearables) that they are living a healthy lifestyle.   They will of course transform the way GPs “see” patients, enabling them to conduct appointments remotely.  This of course is very good news for all those of us who find it nearly impossible to book a standard appointment at a time that suits us.  Wearable infection monitors could also enable companies to send home infectious employees at the first onset of infection reducing general germ spread and safeguarding overall workforce health.  Obviously this would be very “Big Brother” and intrusive but really quite logical and sensible and probably a step too far.

Facilities management through location monitoring

Just like the marine biologists tagging a school of whales to study their behavioural patterns it will also be possible to tag the entire workforce to study their behavioural patterns and building usage patterns.  The ability to tag and monitor the workforce and its patterns of usage within a building would enable a company to deduce all sorts of information that could prove useful.  Which areas of a building are utilised the most? Are these the areas that will require the most heating and maintenance?  How much desk space/room space is utilised in real-time?  Should overflow facilities be provided?  Where do people gather to talk?  Are there enough quiet areas etc, etc?

This is of course an extension of the work being done on developing smart homes/smart buildings.  What is interesting is when the users of the buildings are themselves monitored and add to the richness of the data available to the facilities managers.

Access & Security (ID &V)

A closely related area is that of the use of wearable devices to act as access, security or ID and Verification instruments.  Whilst this is clearly already a part of modern life through the wearing of ID badges and building passes the ability to have an attractive and personal “ID bracelet/dog tag” that operates via NFC technology would be appealing.  There is much more that can be imagined in this space but it’s all pretty much based on the same basic ideas that any “worn” identifier needs to be matched by a second identifier if the security needs to be anything more than basic.

Sales Effectiveness

This next idea is a bit of an imaginary leap.  I want you to imagine yourself as a salesperson asking a client to wear a monitoring device whilst you are walking them through the process of making a significant purchase (car, house, loan etc).  The reason you are doing this is to be able to prove to the industry regulators that when you sold that particular good or service that the customer was alert, sober and not under undue duress.   Too far?  Well, given the increasing need to demonstrate good sales behaviours in many industries this may not be really that far-fetched.  Meanwhile, closer to the here and now there are a growing number of wearables that are already being used to monitor interactions and train new staff (including cameras or voice recorders).  These can only get more sophisticated.

To conclude, it seems to me that it is not so much technology that is now the impediment to the rapid development of wearables but rather our imagination and eye for an application.  As a result I think I can look forward to seeing a massive surge in the quality and quantity of wearable devices and applications throughout the rest of the decade.  Bring it on.