Definition of innovative wearable prototypes, benefits, risks, and trends.
The wearable devices are electronic gadgets designed and developed to be worn continuously on the body of a person or an animal. The wearable prototypes can capture, process, and transmit useful data.
All devices that capture, process, and transmit data are not wearables. To be considered a wearable product, it must be designed to be worn continuously.
For example, a pet food machine dispenses food, analyzes data, and shares it with the owners. It is not a wearable product because it is not designed to be worn by the animal.
The common functional goal of wearable products is to capture, process, and transmit data that can provide relevant information to users.
To achieve these functions in a wearable prototype, an architecture with three essential parts is required: Hardware, Firmware, and Software.
Sensors and actuators: This involves selecting components capable of capturing signals from the monitored human or animal. For example, heart rate monitors, temperature sensors, and acceleration sensors. The hardware of a wearable can also include actuators, which are components designed to “act” in different scenarios — for example, LED points and speakers.
Microcontroller: The microprocessor of a wearable product is responsible for processing the data collected by the sensors. It also manages data communication to ensure that the information is extracted from the device as efficiently as possible.
Communication modules: The hardware communication modules of wearable prototypes are the components responsible for enabling data exchange. They serve as the bridge that allows the captured and processed data to be accessed at the destination, whether in the cloud or on a smartphone.
Power supply and energy: The energy management of a wearable device is a critical aspect of its hardware design. Wearable prototypes are, by nature, portable. They must remain on the analyzed subject or animal, which makes ergonomics a key factor. Continuous measurement and data communication functions require a balance between functionality and energy consumption, which also represents a critical challenge in the process.
Firmware: The firmware or low-level software resides within the microprocessor. It is a program that maintains the operational logic and coordination of all the hardware components that make up the wearable prototype.
Wearable Applications: Wearable apps are intuitive interfaces designed to provide value to users, taking into account the data captured on-site by the wearable product.
Data processing tasks can be delegated to the firmware logic or handled by the wearable applications; this decision requires a case-by-case analysis.
The concept of wearable software also includes the necessary cloud configurations and communication software such as APIs, which are very common in this type of application.
Wearable smartwatches: Most smartwatches are wearable products capable of monitoring data such as physical activity, heart rate, oxygen levels, and sleep quality. Some of these parameters are measured through hardware sensors, while others are obtained by combining the captured signals.
Wearable bands: The well-known smartbands are wearable devices designed to continuously monitor activity and health parameters. In a society increasingly committed to personal care, this type of wearable has found a great opportunity.
Sports wearables: Sports wearable devices are a fusion between health monitoring and activity devices, although the most modern ones are capable of actively contributing to the user’s improvement in specific sports.
Safety wearables: The ability to include sensors and actuators in wearable prototypes has brought innovation focus to the development of wearable prototypes aimed at identifying risk situations among vulnerable groups, as well as responding through event communication and on-site alarms.
It is a wristband capable of monitoring basic activity and health parameters. As a key point of innovation, the smart band for padel analyzes players’ movements in real time, processes them, and generates personalized diagnostics and training routines to help improve their sports performance.
In this case, the wearable prototype manages an intelligent voice processing model capable of identifying personalized voice commands that classify certain events by their level of risk. Activating the alarm system with a single word triggers alerts and evidence collection, which both deters the event and preserves and transmits information about it.
Continuous-diagnosis-focused wearable products are becoming increasingly common. Continuous monitoring and the processing of increasingly structured data enable earlier and far more effective diagnoses.
These are ergonomic medical wearable products that allow the detection of temperature changes that may pose risks to patients, saving time and effort for medical staff while avoiding unnecessary discomfort for patients.
Some wearable products aim to detect falls caused by multiple factors, especially in epilepsy patients or older adults. We are currently familiar with wearable prototypes that not only focus on detecting and communicating the event but also, by continuously monitoring the user’s activity data, can identify physical behaviors and movement patterns that help predict a fall—allowing users to take corrective actions before the event occurs.
Monitoring heart function in different scenarios and times of the day is key to identifying abnormalities at very early stages. In addition to smart bands for monitoring health parameters, there are also more precise medical devices capable of not only monitoring but also processing and transmitting data in real time to healthcare professionals.
Choosing the right moment to go to the hospital in the final stage of pregnancy is not always intuitive, especially for first-time mothers. There are medical belts or elastic bands capable of measuring the baby’s heartbeat while also tracking the intensity of contractions. These devices can combine this data to identify and transmit alerts, allowing healthcare protocols to be activated when they are truly needed.
The footwear and sportswear industry is undergoing a major evolution with the development of textile wearable products. The integration of technology into fabrics has created the perfect scenario for textile wearable prototypes that measure health parameters and stimulate specific points to achieve highly effective corrective therapies.
The wearable prototype for analyzing anesthetized pets allows veterinarians to effectively monitor the animal’s state of unconsciousness during surgical procedures. This real-time monitoring enables safe and precise anesthesia dosing.
At Let’s Prototype we have developed a thermometer for pets that allows continuous monitoring of the animal’s physical activity, ambient temperature, and fur temperature. Processing this data is key to anticipating risk situations and alerting owners in time to prevent serious health issues for their pets.
Active participation in certain job positions can pose risks to people. These risks can be minimized through continuous monitoring of personal parameters or their immediate environment.
These are protective devices that, without losing their protective capabilities, can monitor risk situations, transmit the user’s location, and even measure the magnitude of the hazard before rescue personnel have reached the person.
Sensorized vests allow the measurement of temperature and the detection of certain toxins that could endanger people. These vests not only have the ability to measure and process signals but also communicate risk events to emergency services and predefined contacts.
Wearable devices measure and manage personal and sensitive information such as heart rate, location, physical activity, or oxygen saturation. This information is classified as high-risk data under data protection laws.
The development of wearable prototypes not only represents a technological challenge, but the decisions made throughout the innovation cycle are also critical for the future product and its adaptation to the current legal framework.
Wearable products measure signals, process information, and transmit it. Considering their core concept or functional principle, several risk points can be identified regarding data confidentiality and purpose. Data transmission and storage locations are the most vulnerable processes.
The data protection protocols for information captured, processed, and transmitted by wearable products are governed by the world’s most robust and restrictive data protection laws. During the engineering phase prior to the manufacturing of the wearable prototype, it is highly recommended to study the regulatory framework of:
The data protection law that applies to the European Union is undoubtedly the most restrictive one internationally.
Within this legal framework, a wearable product must ensure that users provide explicit consent for the collection, processing, and transmission of their data.
Wearable companies in Europe must guarantee the right to data deletion or the right to be forgotten, as well as ensure a secure technological architecture for data.
It is true that the American Data Protection Law is generally less restrictive than the European one. However, its regulations focus primarily on the handling of data that can be considered “medical information.”
In this regard, wearables that are intended to monitor medical information and process such data must be designed in accordance with these regulations.
California is the state within the U.S. that places the greatest emphasis on data protection. This is reflected in the CCPA, the well-known California Data Protection Law. This law shares similarities with the European Union’s approach, as it not only addresses critical aspects of protecting “health-related” data but also establishes restrictions regarding user data in general.
Without disregarding other relevant regulations that may affect the safe use of wearable devices—such as the CE marking and its equivalents in the United States—it is true that data processing represents one of the most current regulatory frameworks, focusing particularly on the operation of wearable devices.
The regulatory framework to be followed in a wearable prototype must be considered from the hardware design stage to the selection of security protocols implemented in low-level software (firmware) or in the wearable applications.
These are some highly recommended practices:
Many wearable product development companies lack in-house electronic design capabilities. This limitation often leads them to use preexisting hardware devices. The lack of control over the hardware frequently prevents achieving optimal solutions for the functions the wearable is designed to perform.
The value proposition of a wearable device must be clear and consistent. It is essential to capture only the specific data needed to obtain this information. Collecting more data than necessary increases the level of risk and regulatory requirements.
The selection of components and planning of the firmware programming process, as well as the wearable applications that users will interact with, must be designed to ensure maximum security while maintaining effective communication between them. Making poor choices at any of these levels (hardware or software) will result in persistent issues throughout the product’s lifecycle.
There is an ongoing debate regarding the possibility of patenting wearable products. Regardless of public protection, protective measures can be implemented from the wearable’s architecture—for example, by implementing a definitive firmware installation and update protocol through OTA protocols.
In all product development processes, skipping the prototyping phase without a thorough engineering study is a critical mistake. In the case of wearable prototypes, since there are many precedents, it is very common for inventors or startups to decide to skip the research and development stage.
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