Wearable technology

Smaller hardware with increased functionality is boosting the adoption of wearable technology to promote wellbeing, health, and safety.

Whether in the form of smart watches, sport and fitness trackers, wearable health devices, or elderly and kid trackers, wearable technology has proven its potential to attract and satisfy a growing customer base.

Today, shrinking components, new functionality, and tighter integration are combining to make wearable devices more comfortable and more powerful, delivering increased value to their users.

Recent key technological developments benefiting wearable technology include:

• Ultra-low-power hardware components with aggressive power-save modes for maximum power autonomy and slim batteries
• SiP-based hardware components combining the small size of chip-based solutions with the ease of integration of modules
• Reliable position accuracy with concurrent reception of 4 GNSS constellations and unprecedented RF sensitivity when using a small antenna
• Location services that speed up positioning performance and eliminate zero position scenarios, even indoors
• Highly power-optimized cloud connectivity offering low-cost global coverage. 

Wearable technology examples

Wearable devices serve a growing number of use cases in consumer and professional applications. Smart watches help their users stay connected to the internet 24/7 and provide an always at hand interface, for example, for medical staff in hospitals. Sport and fitness trackers monitor user activity and output quantitative performance metrics, serving both everyday consumers and professional athletes. And smart glasses are paving the way for a wealth of augmented reality applications.

Wearable tracking devices are also seeing an uptick in adoption, with companies using them to track their staff to manage access control or lone workers operating in dangerous environments. Consumers have also embraced people trackers as a means of keeping an eye on vulnerable children and elderly individuals when they leave the home.

Medical use cases have also been among the first to benefit from wearable technology, be it to quantitatively monitor health parameters, transmit behavioral data to online cloud platforms, or administer drugs or other treatments. More recently, for example, wearable technology has been applied to monitor brain activity for the treatment of chronic pain.

Benefits of wearable IoT devices

Comfortable, user-friendly activity tracking

Comfortable body-worn devices can track physical activities, sleep, and various physiological parameters (heart rate, heart-rate variability, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, etc.) to assess health and wellbeing and visualize them on smartphone apps or online platforms.

Smart, medical-grade diagnostic and therapeutic devices

Connected medical-grade wearable devices with biosensors gather health data for early detection and diagnosis of pathologies, e.g., Parkinson’s disease, and deliver tailored therapeutic treatment based on real-time data, e.g., releasing insulin for those suffering from diabetes.

Simplified access control

Wearable IoT devices such as smart bracelets, smart watches, or lanyards identify and authenticate individuals in corporate environments to allow, deny, or limit their access to sensitive facilities with restricted access. 

Improved safety of lone workers

Featuring an emergency button and motion sensors capable of detecting falls, prolonged inactivity or abnormal physiological parameters, GPS-enabled wearables protect lone workers operating in isolated environments by manually or automatically transmitting geo-tagged distress signals in the event of an accident.

Tracking vulnerable individuals for peace of mind

GPS-enabled location trackers protect children, people suffering from disabilities, elderly individuals, and other vulnerable populations by monitoring their location, helping parents, relatives, and caregivers look after them.

Wearable technology solutions

Worn on the body 24/7, wearable devices need to respond to high user expectations in terms of comfort, ease of maintenance, and security.  

• Because they are typically battery-powered, wearable devices require power-optimized hardware and services to prolong power autonomy for low-maintenance, user-friendly operation.
• Positioning accuracy is essential, in particular for sport and fitness trackers used to asses the quality of athletic training.
• Users increasingly expect wearable devices to offer multiple wireless communication channels, including Bluetooth connectivity to their smartphones, Wi-Fi connectivity to offload data on the domestic network, and cellular connectivity for direct cloud connectivity.
• End-to-end security from the device to the cloud is essential to protect sensitive health and medical data gathered by wearable devices.
• Globally certified products simplify production and streamline logistics by serving all markets using a single device.

u-blox strengths for wearable technology

u-blox has proven its strengths and capabilities in this challenging applications with smart watches, health and fitness wearables, people trackers, and wearable medical devices.

• Our industry leading hardware and services deliver the security, accuracy, and reliability today’s sophisticated wearable solutions demand, with ultra-low-power positioning, wireless communication, and cloud connectivity.
• Form-factor and software compatible modules using different chip platforms supports reduces the risk in your supply chain by enabling second source components without increasing the design complexity
• Sourcing all key technology components out of one house simplifies purchasing, reduces risk, and speeds up time to market.
• Our solutions are designed to protect your customers’ privacy, e.g., by ensuring that no personal or patient data is stored in the device.
• Best-in-class patent coverage offers superior protection against litigation.
• We are a private Swiss company with manufacturing in Europe and in locations that are not the subject of current trade disputes.