Connecting the Threads

What was first used to protect humans from the outside elements is now monitoring our body's inside environment.

According to eMarketer.com, wearable usage will grow almost 60% in 2015 verses 2014. This year, almost 40 million U.S. adults will use wearables, including smartwatches and fitness trackers. And that's only 16% of the penetrable market. They expect that number double in two years with close to 82 million adults wearing something connected by 2018. Almost two in five internet users by 2019. You probably think that it'll be all those youngsters growing up with connected objects but over the next four years, older Americans will see the biggest growth with the flood of wearable health monitor devices. Don't fret, I'm sure that new outfit for special occasions will monitor something. These connected wearables will soon be able to cover our body.

Even with that growth, adults are still exploring the value of wearables, above the wow-cool factor, for the real benefit of the investment. With prices still high for many of these gadgets, the adoption will be slightly lower than the recent mad rush for smartphones and tablets. Yet like many new technologies, as sticker-shock drops, the adoption grows. In addition, as more apps are developed to work with this new wardrobe, more people are likely to use it...just like the mobile device market. After all, that's what these things are - mobile devices. And once that happens, the advertisers will be all over that segment, which is currently very sparse.

And what typically follows mass adoption of technology? Vulnerabilities and security risks.

More connected personal devices in the office means more enterprise security risks. Whether it be from smartwatches having access to sensitive corporate data or the lost bandwidth from all the updates and alerts sent to these devices. Corporate BYOD security policies could soon include smartwatch use or any other wearable that poses a risk to the organization. As Steven Wright says, 'Right now I'm having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time.' BYO2.0

And we haven't even touched on the lack of security being built into some of these devices.

From insulin pumps, to glucose meters to pacemakers, anything that is wireless enabled is vulnerable to attack. While the bad guys are always looking for an easy score, it could also be the disgruntled employee looking to fix someone's wagon. And when I say fix, I really mean break. There are also privacy concerns for those who might be wearing smart eyewear. That casual, always awkward conversation at the urinal now takes on new meaning. For highly sensitive meetings, there could be a clothes rack and changing station so someone doesn't need to strip down just to participate. Forget about spy pens with wireless mics, my shirt's logo has a camera weaved into the seam.

All is not lost though, as there will be plenty of top 10 lists guiding you so you do not become a social (real world) outcast. WT VOX has put together it's Top 10 Worst Wearable Tech Devices So Far list. From a tie that has a QR code built into its back, to smartwigs, selfie-hats and drum pants, they explore the wild gadgets that are clamoring to cover our body. And on the flip side, they also look at the 10 Wearables and IoT Companies To Watch In 2015. Here, you get a glimpse of the future of smart lighting, dealing with big data, new IoT chipsets, IoT cloud platforms and other entities focused on our networked society.

Hashtag: Amazing.

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Related:

• Wearable Usage Will Grow by Nearly 60% This Year
• The Dark Side of Wearable Tech Use
• Top 10 Worst Wearable Tech Devices So Far
• 10 Wearables and IoT Companies To Watch In 2015
• Wearables Head to Tail
• Oh, Is That The Internet You're Wearing?
• The Digital Dress Code
• IoT Influence on Society

Technorati Tags: wearables,iot,things,connected devices,security,privacy,silva

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Wearables Head to Tail

Have you sent Santa your list of all the wearables you'll want under the tree this year? Maybe you've asked for a fitness tracker, a health monitor or that fancy new smart watch. But don't stop there!

As we continue to integrate technology with our desire for self-improvement and lifestyle control, a slew of wearables - from arm bands to socks to bras to a dog tail-wagging monitor - will be clipped, adhered, buttoned, inserted, ingested or worn to gather our vitals, movement and lives as we toast 2015 goodbye.

Naughty or nice, if you're still unsure which wearables you want watching you, Fjord (part of Accenture Interactive) has a nifty infographic showing the multitude of gadgets for various body parts. From the head to upper body to wrists to feet to anywhere, our body has become both the controller and interface according to Fjord. Their research indicates that about 70% of wearables are intended to monitor our body in some way, with the remaining 23 percent designed for communication. 59% of these health-oriented devices monitor your health and 48 percent track fitness. Around 7% can help a person sleep better. Fjord predicts that wearable technology will become a growing trend for health care providers and digital applications for health care organizations have become a growing area of focus for Fjord.

On your head you can wear a smart cycling helmet which takes your pulse and reports it to a smartphone app or a brain activity measurement tool to help understand and improve focus.

On your upper body you can have a sensor and app tell you when you are slumping to improve posture or a t-shirt designed to capture biometrics or even the Microsoft Smart Bra designed to measure perspiration and heart rate in order to detect emotional triggers.

Of course for the wrist we got the smart watches and fitness trackers but there is also devices that can tell you about sun exposure, how much food you've eaten and calories burned during the feeding frenzy.

For your feet and pretty much anywhere on or in your body, there are smart socks that track your running technique with sensors around the ankle, sensors in the sole of shoes to measure motion parameters, gadget sensors that fit in your pocket for movement measurements and even second skin type materials that stick anywhere on the body and provides personalized health data on a variety of measurements. And if that's not enough, there are ingestible sensors that can monitor how much medicine is absorbed by the body and the PillCam that gives you a colonoscopy by having a light and two color video cameras within the pill.

Not to be left out, your pet is also pawing up their list and DogStar Life is working on building TailTalk, a tail-mounted sensor intended to track your dog's emotions based on tail movements. Built into this tail clip-on is an accelerometer and gyroscope so it knows the difference between happy tail-wagging when you walk in the door verses when the tail is tucked or standing at attention. The sensor then sends the information to an app that translates the movement data into emotions, telling you if your dog is stressed, happy or crazy thrilled.

And soon, I'm sure, there will be one that measures your significant other's reaction to the lame gift you got them. Like the evil eye death stare data isn't enough.

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Related

• INFOGRAPHIC: All The Wearables You Could Be Wearing Right Now
• Tail-monitoring gadget tries to sense your dog's emotions
• Are Ingestible Tracking Devices The Wearables Of The Future?
• Oh, Is That The Internet You're Wearing?
• The Digital Dress Code
• I Think, Therefore I am Connected
• IoT Influence on Society

Technorati Tags: iot,wearables,sensors,body,clothes,fitness,healthcare,silva

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IoT Influence on Society

”Things” and the applications/services that support them are changing the way we live. Wearables in the sports and health sectors will grow to nearly 170 million devices by 2017 — an annual growth rate of 41 percent. Specific to the enterprise, if you thought the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) craze was a headache, just wait until button cameras, smart watches, fitness trackers, and connected glasses are a daily occurrence in the office. Workplace wearables will be a huge challenge in the coming years as more devices, clothing and pretty much any 'thing' with a chip or sensor become commonplace in society.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in The Wearable Future report found that 77% of respondents thought that a top benefit of wearable technology is the potential to make employees more productive and efficient. If the technology is simple to use and integrates with other devices, that should boost productivity and lift profits. Industries that could benefit immediately from the wearable market include:

• Entertainment will be more 'immersive and fun'
• Social Media gets real time updates from clothes
• Gaming can be more visually and physically engaging
• Advertisers will also want that space someone’s back
• Healthcare will track vitals
• Retail could offer “pleasant, efficient” shopping experiences

Clothing is just one example of many. Organizations will also be able to manage assets and office building more efficiently. Imagine the connected home automation today, but geared toward commercial properties. Security, HVAC, assets, lighting, employee access and so forth is all handled by sensors and monitors. Smart cities are already being built with IoT on a metropolis scale. Energy, environment, street lights, sanitation, water supply, transportation and other civic related functions are all automatically controlled by meters.

The automotive industry is also taking advantage of sensors with self-driving cars, in car Wi-Fi, seamless integration with mobile phones, car to car communications, software updates and even their own in-car apps for streaming entertainment, navigation and other connected activities.

By all accounts, everything that is a noun – a person, place or thing – at some point, will have or wear a sensor/actuator/IP-chip that gathers some sort of data and all that traffic is headed for a data center somewhere. The digital society has emerged.

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Related

• The Digital Dress Code
• Is IoT Hype For Real?
• What are These "Things”?
• CloudExpo 2014: The DNS of Things
• Intelligent DNS Animated Whiteboard
• The Internet of Me, Myself & I

Technorati Tags: iot,things,wearables,sensors,clothes,society,silva,f5

 

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The Digital Dress Code

Coming to an office near you.

If you thought the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) craze was a headache, just wait until button cameras, smart watches, and spy glasses (already here) are a daily occurrence in the office. Workplace #Wearables will be a huge challenge in the coming years as more devices, clothing and pretty much any 'thing' with a chip or sensor become commonplace in our society. The device explosion with IoT (Internet of Things) will be much larger than any of these mobile phones we carry around.

A couple new reports examine the impact of IoT on businesses.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released a report on wearable technology after surveying 1,000 consumers, 314 of which use some form of wearable, as part of "The Wearable Future" report. Some key findings included that 77% of respondents thought that a top benefit of wearable technology is the potential to make employees more productive and efficient. Honestly, when I read that I immediately thought of my boss's hologram standing behind me in my home office watching my work. 70% expect that their office should allow the use of wearables...probably the same folks who wanted to bring their own tablet and 46% felt that organizations should fund wearables rather than the dreaded BYOD. The idea is that if the technology is simple to use and integrates with other devices, that should boost productivity and lift profits. Even so, there needs to be significant investment to ensure the camera shirt buttons can talk to Exchange, ya know.

The biggest concerns, according to PwC, include the risk of security breaches, invasion of privacy, tech dependence, having too many devices and on a more human level, not being able to relate to others or simply looking silly with all those attachments.

PwC also looked at the industries that will capitalize on the wearable market. Entertainment will be more 'immersive and fun'; Social Media gets more real time updates from your clothes; Gaming can be more visually and physically engaging; Advertisers will want the space on your back; Healthcare will track your vitals; and Retail could offer “pleasant, efficient” shopping experiences.

Business Insider recently released a report looking at the device growth They feel that by 2019, IoT devices will more than double the size of the smartphone, tablet, PC, wearable and connected car combined. That's huge. All the software, hardware, maintenance and management of IoT could add $1.7 trillion to the global economy by 2019. They also feel that the main benefit of IoT will be the efficiencies and cost savings by giving the user more control. But, there are sill few standards and even less compatibility so that needs work, not to mention the security risks inherent in these nouns. The processing power, storage, cameras, sensors and everything else will far surpass the USB-stick risks of years past, plus the potential of all this corporate data getting stored in personal clouds could spell big trouble.

And how are all these nouns going to found on the internet? DNS of course! Once all these various wearables hit the office, DNS will be the thing that allows us people to find them threads. I truly feel that DNS will be one of the most strained technologies as more connections happen in the office and will be discussing this trend at the ThingsExpo - which is part of SYS-CON Media's CloudExpo in Santa Clara this week.

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Related:

• Employees Excited, Concerned About Wearables in the Workplace
• Medical Devices: Safeguarding the Healthcare Revolution 
• How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
• The 'Internet of Things' Will Be The World's Most Massive Device Market And Save Companies Billions Of Dollars
• As Wearables Get Hot, These 6 Industries Are Poised to Capitalize
• Why the Internet of Things will turn data computing on its head
• My Sensored Family
• The Internet of...(Drum Roll Please)...Band-Aids?!?
• The Breach of Things

 

Technorati Tags: iot,things,wearables,workplace,sensors,silva,devices,byod,smart,f5,big data,privacy

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