Wearable Technology

In February 2022, the White House issued an updated list of critical and emerging technologies that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), and National Security Council (NSC) have identified as being important for US national security. Numerous technology areas have been featured, including advanced manufacturing, hypersonics, biotechnologies, and artificial intelligence. Of these, IDTechEx has highlighted which areas to watch and why exactly the White House has shortlisted them as critical technologies.

Scientists have developed an inexpensive way to transform an ordinary shirt into an electronic smart shirt—one able to monitor and adjust body temperature or even allow the wearer to apply heat to a sore shoulder or back. All from a design printed on the fabric of the shirt or any other piece of clothing.

Researchers have developed self-healing, biodegradable, 3D-printed materials that could be used in the development of realistic artificial hands and other soft robotics applications.

Our face can unlock a smartphone, provide access to a secure building and speed up passport control at airports, verifying our identity for numerous purposes. An international team of researchers has taken facial recognition technology to the next level, using a person's expression to manipulate objects in a virtual reality setting without the use of a handheld controller or touchpad.

New research from physicists will 'significantly advance' the new technology area of liquid electronics, enhancing the functionality and sustainability of potential applications in printed electronics, wearable health monitors and even batteries.

Engineers have developed a new technique for making wearable sensors that enables medical researchers to prototype test new designs much faster and at a far lower cost than existing methods.

A first-of-its-kind study using haptic/touch sensation feedback, electromyogram control and an innovative wearable soft robotic armband could just be a game changer for users of prosthetic hands who have long awaited advances in dexterity. Findings from the study could catalyze a paradigm shift in the way current and future artificial hands are controlled by limb-absent people.

The human body responds to stress, from the everyday to the extreme, by producing a hormone called cortisol. To date, it has been impractical to measure cortisol as a way to potentially identify conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress, in which levels of the hormone are elevated. Cortisol levels traditionally have been evaluated through blood samples by professional labs, and while those measurements can be useful for diagnosing certain diseases, they fail to capture changes in cortisol levels over time.

Researchers have developed a 46-inch woven display with smart sensors, energy harvesting and storage integrated directly into the fabric.

Jade Bird Display (JBD) is a Shanghai-based developer and manufacturer of microLED microdisplays and projection engines which are mainly targeted at augmented reality (AR) devices. The company operates on a fab model and manufactures high pixel density (>5000PPI) polychrome and monochrome displays and light engines — its solutions are currently in several commercially available AR devices. JBD displays are also suited for use in HUDs, sports optics, holographic sights, and 3D printing, but this profile concentrates on AR.

Addoptics is a Rotterdam-based company that uses 3D printed molds to produce cast resin reflective and refractive optics. This process enables complex optic geometries, allows quick turnarounds for prototyping and is scalable to small production runs.

Wearable electronic devices, particularly sensors designed to recover bioinformation - body temperature, blood pressure, respiratory patterns, etc. - have become an increasingly important research subject. No matter the intended use of a portable health monitoring system, one key challenge is the delivery of the wearable sensor itself; a hard, inflexible, uncomfortable sensor is less effective simply because the user may not be willing or able wear it for extended periods of time.

Company overview of TriLite, the world's smallest projection display

Smartwatches, fitness trackers and other Internet of Things devices could get a significant boost to their "battery" life thanks to new, environmentally friendly energy research.

Comau and IUVO are developing an innovative wearable robotics solution to improve the ergonomics of operators engaged in manually moving loads at Esselunga, a leading large-scale retail trade company.

For the first time, researchers have found a cost-effective and convenient way to apply a silver-based antimicrobial clear coating to new or existing textiles. Their method uses polyphenols, commonly found in food items notorious for staining clothes such as wine and chocolate. A range of textile types can be treated by the researchers' method, and items can be washed multiple times without losing the antimicrobial and therefore anti-odor property.

IDTechEx interviewed Head of Vitality Programme Tom Davis in November 2021 to find out more about Vitality's adoption of wearables, and what future role the technology could have within the industry.

In 2020, more than 2,000 U.S. service members experienced heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Such injuries pose a "significant and persistent threat to both the health of US military members and the effectiveness of military operations," according to a recent military health report. Young or inexperienced recruits are especially vulnerable.

Researchers have developed a new sensing technique based on graphene foam for the detection of glucose levels in the blood. Since it is a chemical sensor instead of being enzyme-based, the new technology is robust, has a long shelf-life and can be tuned to detect lower glucose concentrations than current systems.

Wearable technology is now way beyond the watch, but IDTechEx identifies these as the ones to watch.