Wearables

A potentially life-saving new wearable device is set to launch next month, which will give parents total peace of mind about their child’s whereabouts thanks to cutting-edge location technology. An Intel Quark processor is being used in the development of the Child Angel wearable device - a small, brightly coloured wristband that uses, GPS, GSM and Wi-Fi to deliver highly accurate location readings back to a parents’ smartphone.

Atmel Corporation has announced that the TomTom Spark GPS fitness watch includes the Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex M7-based MCU and the tinyAVR44A MCU. TomTom Spark also uses Atmel’s QTouch library software to control the touch interface in the 8-bit tinyAVR MCU. The combination of these ultra-low-power MCUs extends the battery life of the TomTom Spark to up to 10 hours in GPS mode.

In the smart home, many technologies exist to track how much energy a particular appliance is using but they do not tell you who actually flicked the switch. A wearable device developed at the University of Washington can sense what devices and vehicles the user interacts with throughout the day, which can help track that individual’s carbon footprint, enable smart home applications or even assist with care.

Nike was asked to collaborate on a movie 30 years ago that would feature scenes set in a futuristic world of 2015. That film was Back to the Future. In the film, Nike had self tying shoes that would suit the inhabitants of the future (21st October 2015 was the distant future in 1989). On this date (known as Back to the Future day), two days ago, the world went a little bit crazy. The internet was abuzz with Back to the Future references and pictu...

A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Engineering has developed a wearable liquid-based microfluidic tactile sensor that is small, thin, highly flexible and durable. Simple and cost-effective to produce, this novel device is very suitable for applications such as soft robotics, wearable consumer electronics, smart medical prosthetic devices, as well as real-time healthcare monitoring.

An artificial pancreas given to children and adults with type 1 diabetes going about their daily lives has been proven to work for 12 weeks, meaning the technology, developed at the University of Cambridge, can now offer a whole school term of extra freedom for children with the condition. 

Wireless headphones were an up and coming trend; now ear-free headphones are available. BATBAND is a piece of sound technology allowing users to privately listen to music or chosen sound as well as being able to hear the world around them. The ear-free heaphones work via bone conduction, consisting of transducers that emit sound waves perceived by the 'private' inner ear, freeing the 'social' outer ear.

Nordic Semiconductor has announced that a Swiss-engineered turnkey Bluetooth Smart smartwatch platform has employed Nordic nRF series wireless technology to allow any watch manufacturer to launch a smartwatch extension to their range without becoming RF engineering experts, or significantly impacting battery life for normal watch functionality use.

Broadcom has announced a GNSS chip for IoT and wearable devices. The advanced chip enables devices such as fitness bands to deliver pinpoint location while consuming minimal power and in some cases can eliminate the need for a separate MCU.

Wearable electronic devices are presenting new challenges to circuit protection technology, says Adam Chidley, European Product Manager, Avnet Abacus. The human body is one of the biggest enemies of circuit protection for modern portable electronic devices, because of ESD.