The Role of Wearables in Healthcare

Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest subjects in the sector of technology yet it is not a new idea. The concept allows the equipping of all devices used by people in their daily life with wireless connections and identifiers in a bid to facilitate communication with each (Mario et al., 2018; Oprea et al., 2017). However, computers control and manage all these gadgets in the network to ensure successful interaction between systems. IoT has witnessed the invention of new applications such as wearables that have enhanced success in the healthcare as well as other sectors. Consequently, the paper will focus on assessing, describing and evaluating wearables and the technologies required to support them to function appropriately.

Wearables

Wearables are some of the technologies and machines experiencing explosive demand in the global markets in the 21st century. Multinationals such as Samsung and Google have invested extensively in producing and generating these devices to meet the growing market of consumers. From a technological perspective, the term refers to self-enclosed gadgets having sensors installed on them, worn by people to manage, diagnose, communicate and monitor the health of the wearer (Weber, 2016). The information obtained from the user is pre-processed to offer an insight into the user’s performance and conditions over a given period of monitoring session to permit health expert to learn a patient’s behavior (Mardonova & Choi, 2018). Therefore, IoT has enhanced the ability of doctors and other practitioners to check the improvement and performance of patients while at home, office or during a workout. The number of wearable devices has been increasing over the last few decades in a bid to fill the void where mistakes emanating from humans exist.

Components of Wearable Appliances

Wearable appliances have two major components, which include body sensors and wearable. The former refers to any gadget used to control and monitor various factors in a human body and transfer the required information to an assigned online storage program while the latter implies anything worn by an individual (Anand, Venkatesh & Kumar, 2016). A good example of body sensor is accelerometers and gyroscopes. The former often measure the motion of a particular item along the X and Y axes while the latter determines the 3D orientation built upon the system of angular momentum. The common wearables available to consumers in the market today include smartwatches such as iWatch, Samsung Galaxy gear; Google Glasses; and smart bracelets such as Fitbit, Garmin Vivosmart. The gadget has found application in the military technology particularly in nations with an advanced budget for naval services such as the US.

Platforms for Wearable Devices

A platform is one of the technologies that have supported the production and use of wearable devices. The development of an efficient and effective platform for the devices requires the understanding of machine language code. One of the advantages of an efficient stage for a wearable gadget is optimization of performance. For instance, Sony SmartWatch is supported by Android 4.0 OS and employs java programming language. However, the programmer cannot examine the built screen on the gadget but on a computer having a different emulator (Akshay et al., 2016). As a result, various wearables in the market today have different platforms that support their functionality and applicability. The stage depends on the function of the devices to the wearer. In conclusion, IoT is a concept that will transform the world of technology through the development of application such as wearables that enhance understand the performance and behavior of wearers.

References

Akshay, M. H., Ahn, M., Hong, S., Lee, S., & Lee, S. (2016). Wearable Device Control Platform Technology for Network Application Development, Mobile Information Systems, vol. 2016, https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/3038515.

Anand, M. A., Venkatesh, M. P., & Kumar, P. T. (2016). Wearable Healthcare technology- The regulatory perspective. International Journal of Drug Regulatory Affairs, 4(1), 1-5.

Mardonova, M., & Choi, Y. (2018). Review of wearable device technology and its application to the mining industry. Retrieved on May 3, 2018 from http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/3/547/pdf

Mario, J., Cedeño, V., Papinniemi, J., Hannola, L., & Donoghue, I. (2018). Developing Smart Services By Internet Of Things In Manufacturing Business. Logforum, 14(1), 59-71. doi:10.17270/J.LOG.2018.268

Oprea, S., Tudorica, B. G., Belciu, A., & Botha, I. (2017). Internet of Things, Challenges for Demand Side Management. Informatica Economica, 21(4), 59-72. doi:10.12948/issn14531305/21.4.2017.05

Weber, R. M. (2016). Internet of Things Becomes Next Big Thing. Journal Of Financial Service Professionals, 70(6), 43-46.