The Future Of Wearable Technology
Wearable technology is one of the most exciting new developments to hit the fitness industry in the last few years. Watches, wristbands, glasses, trainers and even jewelry are no longer just what they seem. All of these everyday items and more are being made ‘smart’, so that they can capture a wealth of data about our bodies and how they interact with the world around us.
Wearable technology has been around in one form or another for a few years now and has already had a big impact on many peoples lives, but like all things tech it is evolving at a rapid rate. So what will wearable technology look like over the next few years? It’s impossible to guess what amazing advancements are being made in labs all over the world, but there are several trends emerging that give us some clues.
Here are the ones we see having the biggest impact:
More Efficiency
Just like most current technology, the majority of wearable technology is powered by batteries. And just like everything else, the battery performance tends to leave a lot to be desired. Technology such as solar cells in clothing, devices that store kinetic energy from your everyday movements and even jewelry or clothing that can capture and store the heat from your body as energy are some of the exciting things that are going to power wearables in the future.
Multipurpose
Right now because wearables are still relatively new, consumers are happy with a device that will just perform one or two functions such as tracking steps or monitoring heart rate. As wearable technology continues to develop though, this will not be enough. With every new release more features are packed in and consumers are getting accustomed to expecting more and more from their wearable devices. In the near future expect to see wearables that pack the feature set of 3 or 4 current devices into one slick package.
Smaller and Smaller
We are used to the fact that all technology gets smaller and more efficient every year and wearable technology is no different. In a few years time you will look back at the size of your smartwatch or the cumbersome heart rate monitor you used to wear and will laugh at how chunky they were. Incredible new technologies such as biometric garments and nano technology mean that wearable technology of the future could be nothing more than an invisible layer blended into your clothing or microscopic dots or films that you add to your accessories.
Multipoint
Companies are already coming up with amazing ways to utilise the raw data that is collected from current wearable technology like your smartwatch, smartphone and activity tracker. Using this data to tell you useful but simple things such as your average heart rate or body temperature during a workout is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the insights that could be gained from combining the data from all the sensors in all your devices such as the gyroscope, accelerometer, gps, body temperature and heart rate. Combined they provide an absolute treasure trove of information about your body and the way it reacts with the world around you. In the future expect to see creative and innovative uses for of all this combined data to create a fascinating and holistic view of your body that was never before possible.
Accurate
If you have used any kind of wearable technology over the last couple of years then you have probably noticed that one area of the technology that still leaves a lot to be desired is accuracy. The simple fact is that when manufacturers try to create wearable devices that include complex and delicate sensors in tiny devices at a very low cost, then accuracy suffers. Huge companies with R&D budgets in the billions of dollars are working on this though, so in the near future expect to see devices that are smaller, more feature packed AND more accurate.
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