Wearables

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.

Toshiba Electronics Europe has announced the launch of TZ1041MBG, an application processor designed for use in wearable devices such as activity monitoring products, smart watches, bracelet and glasses-type devices. The IC is the latest addition to Toshiba’s ApP Lite TZ1000 family of solutions for the IoT. The TZ1041MBG meets increasing market demand for IoT devices able to support multiple external sensors. 

  The world’s first stretchable and conformable TFT driven LED display laminated into textiles has been demonstrated by researchers from Holst Centre (set up by TNO and imec), imec and CMST (imec’s associated lab at Ghent University).

imec, Holst Centre and the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) faculty of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have announced the introduction of a wireless EEG headset that can be worn comfortably and achieves a high-quality EEG signal. The headset enables effective brain-computer interfacing and can monitor emotions and mood in daily life situations using a smartphone application.

Since the advent of biometric authentication, a myriad of devices have been introduced in an attempt to replace traditional cash and cards, including fingerprint and iris scanners. Now there is a new method available using heartbeats. The Nymi Band is a secure, wearable authenticator that increases convenience and security through continuous, biometrically authenticated, proximity-based access control.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed an efficient algorithm that can interpret the wheezing of patients with breathing difficulties to give medical providers information about what’s happening in the lungs. The research is part of a larger, ongoing project to develop wearable smart medical sensors for monitoring, collecting and interpreting personal health data.

Despite the hype around wearable tech at the start of 2015, six months in to the year, mainstream adoption of wearable tech remains slow. Smartwatches, whilst widely available on the market, continue to be viewed as a smartphone peripheral, rather than a product in their own right. Meanwhile, Google’s high-profile Glass project has actually taken a step back, ending all sales of devices to the public.

TE Connectivity has announced that it has developed a proof of concept that allows traditional garment manufacturers to develop smart or connected textiles by easily integrating with the workspace and workflow used in traditional garment production. Through this process, garments produced can better survive the harsh conditions of normal wear, machine washing or dry cleaning.

  Underwear designed to protect male fertility against the EM radiation emitted by WiFi devices has been introduced by British scientist Joseph Perkins.