Wearables – Impact Lab

Sentons launches smaller sensors that can turn any surface into virtual controls

October 28, 2021

Sentons has launched a new low-power and small sensor with an accompanying gesture engine to be used in wearables (including glasses, earbuds, watches, and fitness trackers) to create virtual controls to navigate apps and features on the devices themselves.

The SDSwave processor (model SNT8255) and gesture engine unlock a customizable, ergonomic user experience, while eliminating UX design restrictions that come from the limited real estate and tiny surfaces found on the displays of wearables. As an example, it can embed a force sensor in wireless earbuds.

“Wearable makers haven’t been able to deliver streamlined, sleek wearable devices with natural user interfaces because of the constraints that come with limited space,” Sentons CEO Jess Lee. “Moreover, traditional touch technologies not only respond to touch but also to water, making them impractical for use on wearables that are often outdoors and exposed to the elements. We’re excited to finally bring a solution to market that allows device designers to make use of even the tiniest surface to make it touch and force interactive. This outdoor and water-immune interactivity unlocks new user experiences and capabilities for wearables, something the industry has never seen before.”

Science & Technology News, Wearables

Forget Wearables: Future Washable Smart Clothes Powered By Wi-Fi Will Monitor Your Health

June 15, 2021

Purdue University engineers have developed a method to transform existing cloth items into battery-free wearables resistant to laundry. These smart clothes are powered wirelessly through a flexible, silk-based coil sewn on the textile.

In the near future, all your clothes will become smart. These smart cloths will outperform conventional passive garments, thanks to their miniaturized electronic circuits and sensors, which will allow you to seamlessly communicate with your phone, computer, car and other machines. This smart clothing will not only make you more productive but also check on your health status and even call for help if you suffer an accident. The reason why this smart clothing is not all over your closet yet is that the fabrication of this smart clothing is quite challenging, as clothes need to be periodically washed and electronics despise water.

Science & Technology News, Wearables

Wearable biofuel cells could generate electricity from sweat

April 26, 2021

Scientists develop biofuel cells that can power wearable electronics purely by using human sweat.

By Tokyo University of Science –

It cannot be denied that, over the past few decades, the miniaturization of electronic devices has taken huge strides.

Today, after pocket-size smartphones that could put old desktop computers to shame and a plethora of options for wireless connectivity, there is a particular type of device whose development has been steadily advancing: wearable biosensors.

These tiny devices are generally meant to be worn directly on the skin in order to measure specific biosignals and, by sending measurements wirelessly to smartphones or computers, keep track of the user’s health.

Although materials scientists have developed many types of flexible circuits and electrodes for wearable devices, it has been challenging to find an appropriate power source for wearable biosensors.

Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Science & Technology News, Wearables

This electronic patch can monitor, treat heart disease, say scientists

November 17, 2020

According to the scientists, while pacemakers and other implantable devices are used to monitor and treat irregular heartbeats, these are mostly made with rigid materials that can’t move to accommodate a beating heart.

The patch has been developed with rubbery electronic materials compatible with heart tissue

Researchers have developed a patch made from rubbery electronics that can be placed directly on the heart to collect information on its activity, temperature, and other indicators — an innovation that may help look out for cardiac arrest in vulnerable individuals.

According to the scientists, including those from the University of Houston (UH) in the US, while pacemakers and other implantable devices are used to monitor and treat irregular heartbeats, these are mostly made with rigid materials that can’t move to accommodate a beating heart.

Continue reading… “This electronic patch can monitor, treat heart disease, say scientists”

Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Science & Technology News, Wearables

Wearable sensors can be printed directly onto skin at room temperature

October 23, 2020

An example of the new wearable sensor developed at Penn State University

Flexible electronics have opened up some interesting possibilities when it comes to wearable sensors that can be applied to the skin, taking the form of tattoo-like films and sleeves that monitor various aspects of human health. Scientists at Penn State University have now developed one they say can be safely printed directly onto the skin, where it can track things like body temperature and blood oxygen levels, before being washed off once the job is done.

The new printable sensors build on earlier work by the same researchers, in which they developed flexible circuit boards for use in wearable sensors. But a key part of this process involved bonding some of the metallic components together at the kinds of temperatures not well tolerated by the human body, at around 572 °F (300 °C).

Continue reading… “Wearable sensors can be printed directly onto skin at room temperature”

3D Printer, new technology, Robots, Science & Technology News, Wearables

New silicone 3D printing opens up applications for robotics, medicine, wearables

September 12, 2020

The fabrication of soft devices is evolving further, with the completion of recent research performed by US scientists. With the results published in “3D printable tough silicone double networks,” the authors explain how soft materials can be fabricated with micron resolution for complex systems like robotics, as well as new types of wearables.

Soft materials are produced industrially for many applications, with soft matter deployed for shock absorption, conformal requirements, energy recapture and robotics, where devices must be able to deform. Cross-linked materials like silicone rubbers (more formally known as poly(dimethylsiloxanes)) are popular for use due to strong mechanical properties, and temperature and chemical resistance. Most methods for using such materials with traditional techniques like injection molding are extremely limited though, and only suitable for creating basic geometries.

Previous research has shown success with liquid silicone rubber material for 3D printing ink, yielding more complex shapes. Challenges have been noted, however, in terms of structures being printed with overhangs, as well as those with a “high aspect ratio structure,” due to lack of stability like “slumping” before curing. Other experimental techniques have resulted in a lack of resolution, inferior mechanical properties, or slower printing speed.

Continue reading… “New silicone 3D printing opens up applications for robotics, medicine, wearables”

Environment, mobile apps, new technology, Science & Technology News, Wearables

Sony’s wearable, pocket-sized air conditioner is finally available for sale!

July 16, 2020

Summer is not for everyone – sure it is nice when you are at the beach but is it nice to feel like you are being roasted like a turkey when its not Thanksgiving? I personally thrive in the snow but keeping on brand with being unprecedented like 2020, I have found myself in lockdown in India which means I am currently dealing with a hot, humid, tropical climate and it feels like I am an iPhone on 1% battery. What people like me need is Sony’s Reon Pocket air conditioner, which is FINALLY on sale, to keep us cool, calm, and collected!

A portable, wearable, air conditioner is no more a thing of futuristic TV shows. The Reon Pocket is a smartphone-controlled personal gadget that was designed to be compact and cool. It works using thermoelectric cooling and can cool the user’s body temperature by 13 degrees celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) and raise your temperature by about 8 degrees Celsius (about 14 degrees Fahrenheit). Reon sits on the base of your neck in a special undershirt designed for it. It uses the Peltier effect which means a temperature difference is created by applying a voltage between two electrodes connected to a sample of semiconductor material. The heat is absorbed or emitted when you pass an electrical current across a junction to either lower your temperature or increase it without bulk or noise.

It is sleek, minimal and comfortable as a piece of wearable tech. Like any smart device of our times, Reon’s functions can be controlled via Bluetooth. Set to the desired temperature using the mobile app which also features an automatic mode. It only weighs 85 grams and can be charged with the common USB-C port. The only downside is that the battery lasts for just two hours on a single charge but that is enough time for you to run all errands or enjoy a picnic before you start to melt.

Continue reading… “Sony’s wearable, pocket-sized air conditioner is finally available for sale!”

Breakthrough Thinking, Coronavirus, Healthcare, Science & Technology News, Wearables

Sweat-analyzing patch could help spot biomarkers linked to COVID-19

April 30, 2020

When you think about wearable tech, chances are that your mind goes to a device like the Apple Watch long before it does the Band-Aid-style smart patch developed by Epicore Biosystems. But the company, which spun out of Northwestern University’s Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics and professor John A. Rogers’ laboratory, has been hard at work creating sweat-sensing smart patches which could be used to help measure sweat components in athletes and a variety of other individuals — and could even have potential application for medical use in helping keep tabs on crucial biomarkers for patients suffering from COVID-19.

“We have [created] two versions of the wearable sensor patch in development suitable across different applications,” Roozbeh Ghaffari, Epicore’s CEO and co-founder, told Digital Trends. “One is a color-changing wearable microfluidics patch used by athletes. The other is a Bluetooth-enabled patch that tracks the sweat biomarkers of workers in construction, on oil rigs, and in factories, plus other physically intense occupations — for the ‘industrial athletes.’”

Continue reading… “Sweat-analyzing patch could help spot biomarkers linked to COVID-19”

Clothing, Engineering, new technology, Science & Technology News, Wearables

Smart Socks with textile pressure sensors, that can be washed

April 29, 2020

Fraunhofer textile sensor

Flexible mechanical sensors that can be bonded or sewn into woven or knitted fabrics have been developed by German research lab Fraunhofer ISC.

Deformation, force and pressure can be measured, and strains up to 100% (doubling length) can be endured.

It is an elastomer film with flexible electrodes on both sides. Electrode patterning can be used to create an array of sensors. Silicone rubber is the preferred elastomer, with chemical cross-linking allowing hardness to be tuned.

“The textile-integrated sensors are washable, show a high wearing comfort and are reasonable in price,” said the lab. “They are applicable in medical devices, for preventing bed sores or for localising the pressure distribution in shoes, for example. They can also support personal training by measuring the posture via the clothes, or as an input device for game and fitness device controlling.”

Continue reading… “Smart Socks with textile pressure sensors, that can be washed”

Aviation, Engineering, Science & Technology News, Wearables

A jetpack company just reached a major milestone in our quest to fly like Iron Man

February 25, 2020

Watch this man fly in a jet-powered suit

(CNN)We may be closer to seeing a real-life Iron Man suit than you think.

The team at Jetman Dubai built a jet-powered wingsuit and say they just reached a major milestone with it — a pilot took off from the ground and then transitioned into a high-altitude flight.

The achievement occurred last Friday, when Jetman pilot Vince Reffett took off from a standing start on the runway at Skydive Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and then flew up to nearly 6,000 feet in altitude. He demonstrated the ability to hover, stop, turn and maneuver.

Continue reading… “A jetpack company just reached a major milestone in our quest to fly like Iron Man”

Clothing, communication, Science & Technology News, Wearables

These ‘smart clothes’ conduct Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to link all your gadgets at once, and can boost your battery life by 1,000 times

February 23, 2020

The clothes can be washed, dried and ironed as with regular garments.

In recent years, wearable devices like smartwatches have become increasingly popular among those who want to keep track of their personal health and fitness.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore invented clothing that conducts Bluetooth and WiFi to connect all your different gadgets, turning the wearer into a pseudo-human circuit board.

The conductive material on the clothing is made from stainless steel in comb-shaped strips attached to the outer surface of the clothing, and can still be washed like any normal clothing.

The team is eventually looking to commercialize the meta-material, particularly in the athletics and healthcare industries where body performance and health monitoring are so important.

Continue reading… “These ‘smart clothes’ conduct Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to link all your gadgets at once, and can boost your battery life by 1,000 times”

Great New Product, privacy, Science & Technology News, Wearables

There’s a privacy bracelet that jams smart speakers and, hell yeah, bring it

February 23, 2020

Smart speakers are creepy recording devices that eavesdrop on unsuspecting people. A new piece of custom technology offers the chance to fight back.

Stylized as a cyberpunk bracelet, a “wearable jammer” was developed by a trio of professors at the University of Chicago. In addition to looking punk rock as all hell, the device emits ultrasonic noise that interferes with microphones’ ability to record yet is inaudible to humans.

Oh, and the professors — Ben Zhao, Heather Zheng, and assistant professor Pedro Lopes — published schematics online so the more technically proficient of you can make one at home.

Notably, this is neither the first time someone has made a microphone jammer nor the first time that ultrasound has been used to screw with smart speakers. This device is special, however, for reasons greater than just its bracelet style.

Continue reading… “There’s a privacy bracelet that jams smart speakers and, hell yeah, bring it”