Wearable Technology

Thermoelectric cooling, heating, and harvesting is partly a great success now, partly to be a success later. First to analyze this big picture is the new IDTechEx report, "Thermoelectric Cooling, Heating, Harvesting: 90 Companies' Achievements and Strategies Appraised with Roadmap 2022-2042".

Using accelerometers -- the equivalent of pedometers, or Fitbits -- a team of scientists studied the detailed movement behavior and related energetic costs in a troop of 25 baboons. The study is the first to gain ultra-high resolution data on movement and energetics of a group of wild primates.

DIFT is the Deutsche Institute für Textil und Faserforschung (German Institute for Textiles and Fabrics). IDTechEx caught up with staff scientist Dr Reinhold Schneider regarding their work on e-textiles.

Engineers have developed a soft and stretchy ultrasound patch that can be worn on the skin to monitor blood flow through major arteries and veins deep inside a person's body.

With shark bites increasing in countries like Australia, scientists say the use of personal electronic deterrents is an effective way to prevent future deaths and injuries which could save the lives of up to 1063 Australians along the coastline over the next 50 years.

Nextiles announced a newly designed software development kit that will enable any existing application to access Nextiles' software platform and leverage its novel human movement analytics to build custom algorithms and partner-specific metrics.

Researchers have developed nanoscale sensors that could be injected into the body to noninvasively track brain activity using light. The approach could one day offer a new way to study the brain or assess patients' brain functioning without the need for surgery or implanted devices.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) refers to a range of technologies and services that allow for the monitoring of a patient's health status, typically when they are outside of typical health delivery settings.

A new robotic neck brace may help doctors analyze the impact of cancer treatments on the neck mobility of patients and guide their recovery.

Electronic skin patches represent one wearable technology product type that is well suited for physiological monitoring. Over the last 18 months, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven a worldwide concerted effort to explore and revise our approaches to patient monitoring and infectious disease management. As with other wearable devices, electronic skin patch products have evolved significantly over this period of time.

A new wearable device turns the touch of a finger into a source of power for small electronics and sensors. Engineers developed a thin, flexible strip that can be worn on a fingertip and generate small amounts of electricity when a person's finger sweats or presses on it.

Thursday 29 July 2021 - Thermoelectric Harvesting: New Directions, New Backers. Ten billion-dollar business awaits when thermoelectric energy harvester research is redirected. Learn some of the lessons of failure, the emerging new opportunities and the parameters that must be optimised to address them.

Researchers have spent nearly two decades trying to develop skin-like integrated circuits that can be stretched, folded, bent and twisted - working all the while - and then snap back without fail, every time. Such circuits presage a day of wearable and implantable products, but one hurdle has always stood in the way.

IDTechEx interviewed Seiichi Karatsu, Atsushi Iwasaki, Daisuke Takahashi and Masanori Yamamoto from Kyocera about their activities in haptics, including their HAPTIVITY products and their latest work on haptics within in mold electronics.

A host of batteryless solutions have recently been announced. The rapid increase in adoption of batteryless solutions is tracked in the IDTechEx report, "Battery Elimination in Electronics: Market Impact IoT, 6G, Healthcare, Wearables 2021-2041".

Researchers have developed a patch that plants can "wear" to monitor continuously for plant diseases or other stresses, such as crop damage or extreme heat.

Forecasts from IDTechEx report "E-Textiles 2021-2031: Technologies, Markets and Players"

Researchers have developed a new process for producing movable, self-adjusting materials systems with standard 3D-printers. These systems can undergo complex shape changes, contracting and expanding under the influence of moisture in a pre-programmed manner.