Researchers developing ‘smart textiles’ to help improve lives of Parkinson’s disease patients

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A biomedical engineering professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and his team of students are exploring a technique that will help improve the lives of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Along with his team, Kunal Mankodiya, director of URI’s Wearable Biosensing Laboratory, is researching how to transform gloves, socks, clothing and even shoes into high-tech items that will make people with Parkinson’s disease healthier.

The research focuses on...

By Wearable Tech, 01 November 2016, 0 comments. Categories: Clothing & Textiles, Health Monitoring, Health & Wellness, IoT.

Enterprise wearable scanner shipments to hit almost 22 million by 2021

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Wearable devices were pictured predominantly as fitness trackers by many among us; but now these gadgets have moved out of the gym and entered into offices in the form of wearable scanners. The adoption of these gadgets has seen a tremendous growth all these years and is expected to soar more in the future.

A recently published report titled ‘Enterprise Wearable Scanner and Reader Technologies’, from ABI Research illustrates the rapid expansion of the worldwide wearable...

By Wearable Tech, 27 September 2016, 0 comments. Categories: Enterprise, IoT, Workplace.

Cutting through the hype and noise – what’s the real deal with wearables?

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These days, it can be hard to keep up with not just the number of techno buzzwords that have invaded our consciousness – infotainment, wearables, Internet of Things –  but what’s really behind the hype. Don’t misunderstand – there are a lot of exciting developments in these areas that are making their way into consumer products, as you’ll see shortly. But when technical terms keep popping up over and over, they...

By Sri Peruvemba, 16 September 2016, 0 comments. Categories: Devices, IoT.

IoT and wearable devices: How standardisation is helping to drive market adoption

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It’s predicted that as part of the IoT, connected devices could grow to reach 50 billion by 2020 - and a lot of that growth will be attributed to wearable technology. The medical industry and healthcare providers have been at the forefront of utilising wearable technology to monitor trends, assess medications, and adjust therapies based on behavioural patterns and data collection from wearable devices.

Still, there are a lot of other potential applications emerging in the wearable devices...

By Bill Ash, 26 April 2016, 0 comments. Categories: IoT, Regulation, Standards.

Voice control your Volvo using the Microsoft Band 2

(Image Credit: Volvo)

Microsoft and Volvo have been keeping busy in the connected car space, and have announced their work together on a system which allows for the control of your Volvo car using the Microsoft Band 2 wearable. In fact, going by CES this year, the whole technology industry has been looking for however they can get their name in this rapidly-growing space. 

Klas Bendrik, Senior Vice President and Group Chief Information Officer at Volvo Car Group, says: “When...

By Ryan Daws, 05 January 2016, 0 comments. Categories: Applications, Apps, Devices, Home Automation, IoT, Smartwatches.

Dialog Semiconductor supports WeChat protocol for wearables

(Image Credit: Dialog Semiconductor)

Dialog Semiconductor's latest SmartBond development kit now includes profile support for WeChat's communication protocol.

The support for WeChat's protocol was announced with the launch of the company's WeChat SDK, which enables developers to add Bluetooth connectivity between wearables and WeChat apps or other IoT devices.

“Dialog is committed to supporting our customers’ continued growth and innovation into exciting...

By Wearable Tech, 08 December 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Connectivity, Devices, IoT.

Wearable security under spotlight as researchers fire Bluetooth IoT privacy warning

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To ensure the connectivity of wearable devices, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) appears to be the way to go – with limited computing power, the clue is in the name. Yet a recent post from Context Information Security has fired a warning shot over privacy issues in the BLE protocol.

Titled ‘The emergence of Bluetooth Low Energy’, the post addresses how scanning for devices running off BLE...

By James Bourne, 27 May 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Connectivity, IoT, Privacy, Security.

Majority of US consumers want to control health with connected devices, report finds

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A report published by A&D Medical of more than 2000 US adults has found more than half (56%) of respondents want to monitor their health with connected health devices that automatically send information to their doctors.

The potential of wearable technology, connected devices all powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) is here to stay – and according to A&D, consumers are increasingly looking for buy-in. Blood pressure (37%) was the most popular test respondents wanted to...

By James Bourne, 20 January 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Fitness, Health & Wellness, IoT.

Wearable devices could put you behind bars

The wearable sector is seeing its growth fuelled by fitness devices which are able to track our location, heart rate, and even specific movements. This of course has led to security and privacy concerns, but what if your device could end up putting you away for some time in the slammer?

It’s not much of a surprise that law enforcement want access to the data from our devices and cloud services as we live increasingly digital lives.

A personal injury lawyer in Canada has used data from a Fitbit smartwatch to...

By Ryan Daws, 08 December 2014, 0 comments. Categories: Data & Analytics, Health Monitoring, IoT, Privacy, Security, Smartwatches, Trackers.

GfK: 420k wearables were sold in the UK this year

Research firm GfK has revealed that over 420,000 wearables were sold in the UK from January through to September 2014. During this period, the total value of the smart devices sold is expected to be in excess of an eye-watering £51 million ($82 million.)

Despite this, the firm believes wearables are far from becoming mass market. Anne Giulianotti, GfK, says: “There’s no question wearable activity trackers have caught on – but with a small percentage of the population....

By Ryan Daws, 24 October 2014, 0 comments. Categories: Android, Devices, IoT, Research, Smartwatches.

Cortus unveils new low power 32-bit processor core for IoT and wearable devices

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There are two main challenges with developing for wearable devices; creating a seamless user experience, and getting enough processing power to enable the seamless user experience you’ve created.

Cortus, a French company which creates low-power IP cores, has announced the first in a new family of products based on its v2 instruction set, specifically targeting sensors, wearables, and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The first release is the APS23, which has a...

By James Bourne, 07 October 2014, 0 comments. Categories: Bluetooth, Developers, IoT.

Why a new approach to software licensing is essential in the Internet of Things

By Jeff Kaplan, managing director, THINKstrategies

The hottest topic in the tech industry is the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) – the idea that nearly every object and device will be connected via high speed networks in the not too distant future. These connected things will produce valuable information which will enable companies to better understand how their products and services are being used so they can better serve their customers, and be in a better position to gain a competitive...

By SafeNet, 01 September 2014, 0 comments. Categories: IoT, Opinion.

HP report highlights security vulnerabilities in IoT-enabled devices

Research from HP of 10 Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices has found on average 25 security flaws per unit, including denial of service and Heartbleed.

The research, alongside Symantec’s study of wearable devices last week, pours cold water on widespread usage of wearables in the enterprise markets.

“A couple of security concerns on a single device such as a mobile phone...

By James Bourne, 11 August 2014, 0 comments. Categories: IoT, Research, Workplace.