This DIY sonar-assisted wearable helps the blind navigate

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Students design a new wearable to help the blind get around, serving as a supplement to aids like canes or guide dogs.

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While Batman may rely on projections in the night’s sky to get around, actual bats refer to echolocation to hear and communicate with one another. This concept inspired a team from Wake Forest University to devise a slick sonar device to help the visually-impaired navigate around much more easily.

Led by professors William Conner and Paul Pauca, the Makers created an Arduino LilyPad (ATmega168V) powered wrist-worn device, aptly named HELP (the Human Echo Location Partner), that would help those who are blind get around, serving as a supplement to commonplace aids like canes or guide dogs.

Based on the e-textile Arduino platform, the wearable device runs JAVA-like code, and features sonar distance sensors responsible for measuring the distance of objects and relaying this data to two smartphone vibrating motors. The frequency of vibrations is proportional to the distance from the detected object. In other words, the closer the detected object, the faster the motors vibrate.

In order to test their prototype, the team turned to a fellow student, who happens to be blind and walks about campus with a guide dog by her side. After initial use, the sophomore classmate found that it was very useful in helping her to determine whether the doors of buildings and classrooms were open or closed.

Seeing as it is still only in the proof-of-concept phase, next steps for the team include fine-tuning the device to make it smaller, more attractive, and of course, affordable. In fact, all of their parts and materials cost less than $60!

It’s certainly exciting to see how HELP impressively converged the natural GPS of bats with next-gen, Atmel based technology, all for a great cause. That’s what we call making a difference!

Report: Smart garments are set to explode in 2016

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50% of those considering buying a smart wristband will choose a smartwatch instead, says Gartner.

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According to Gartner’s most recent report, smart wristbands will decrease in popularity over the next year as consumers will migrate to more all-purpose smartwatch devices. However, the market for smart wristbands and other fitness monitors will experience a resurgence come 2016 because of versatile designs with lower-cost displays, as well as the arrival of smart garments.

While smart wristbands are expected to dip a bit from 70 million units in 2014 to 68.1 million devices in 2015, Gartner suggests this temporary decline in sales will be a result of an overlap in functionality between the bands, fitness monitors and smartwatches. 

“Smartwatches having retail prices of $149 or more will typically have the capability to track activity and have accelerometers and gyroscopes similar to their smart wristband cousins. The smartwatches differ from smart wristbands in that smartwatches need to display the time and have a user interface oriented around communication. However, some smart wristbands have the ability to display and send text messages,” explained Angela McIntyre, Gartner Research Director.

While these wrist-adorned devices will carry on, Gartner believes the emergence of less invasive devices, particularly smart garments, will potentially disrupt the wearables space. So much so that embedded clothing shipments are projected to rise from a mere 0.1 million units in 2014 to 26 million units in 2016.

For those unfamiliar with the territory, smart garments typically refer to items ranging from t-shirts with bio-sensing circuitry woven into its fibers — which may be able to monitor vital signs more accurately given its larger body surface area — to sensor-laden athletic shoes.

The research firm believes that this product category has the greatest potential for growth going forward because “the category is emerging from the testing phase and smart shirts are available to athletes and coaches of professional teams.” Take for instance, Ralph Lauren’s Polo Tech smart apparel collection which made quite the ‘racket’ at this year’s U.S. Open. In collaboration with OMSignal, the shirt was equipped with embedded sensors, including an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a heart rate monitor.

Aside from Polo’s latest breakthrough, Adidas miCoach and Under Armour’s E39 compression shirts, e-textiles have the ability to revolutionize the manner in which data is tracked and measured in healthcare, fitness, military and industrial settings. Writing for Forbes, Robert J. Szczerba recently highlighted an array of smart garment products that are either already or will soon be available:

1)  AiQ Smart Clothing Company produces a line of smart apparel, including conductive gloves for smudge-free touchscreen use, clothes that light up, clothes that give off evenly distributed heat, and even metal mesh clothing that shields the wearer from radiation.

2)  Designer Pauline Van Dongen offers a wearable solar clothing collection. Her coats and dresses integrate solar cells that can charge your smartphone, but be obscured with fabric when not in use.

3)  SmartSox help prevent amputations in diabetes patients who have lost sensation in their feet. They incorporate fiber optics and sensors to monitor temperature, pressure, and the angles of joints in the feet, and alert the wearer or caregiver of any developing problems.

4)  Exmobaby is smart clothing designed for newborn and infants. Sensors monitor vital signs and movement, and send this information to 3G and Bluetooth components that can issue appropriate alerts.

5)  Researchers at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid, Spain have developed an intelligent hospital gown that wirelessly measures body temperature, heart rate, patient location, and whether the patient is sitting, standing, lying down, walking, or running.

“Smart garments is the newest market out there. In 2014 there really are very few of these on the market. They’re more like betas, the few that are actually being sold. But that’s why we see such large growth,” McIntyre added.

This doesn’t take into account the countless number of soft electronics DIY projects either. Inspired to create their very own smart textiles, Makers have embraced various Atmel powered platforms specifically designed for wearable applications, including the Arduino Lilypad (ATmega328) and Adafruit’s FLORA (ATmega32U4), which can be easily daisy chained with various sensors for GPS, motion and light.

Interested in reading more? Check out the latest Gartner report in its entirety here.

Walk this way! Arki does more than just count steps

Arki — which recently made its Kickstarter debut — is a stylish wearable band that not only tracks a wearer’s daily activities, but seeks to improve posture along the way. In short, the device analyzes your steps, then vibrates if and when you aren’t standing tall. Guess this means that you may want to stop looking down at your phone while you walk.

According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, the average person takes anywhere between 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. That equates to nearly 115,000 miles — more than four times the circumference of the globe. However, are enough steps (pun intended!) being taken to maintain good posture and healthier lifestyles?

Aside from proper walking form, think of the 1,000-plus pedestrians injured annually while glancing at their mobile device. Just imagine, had the Arki been present, these epic fails (seen in the video below) may have been prevented…

The brainchild of Los Angeles and Seoul-based startup Zikto, the latest tech to adorn our wrists is powered by an Atmel | SMART SAM4LS ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller (MCU). Ariki offers all the classic activity tracker functions, however in a rather attractive and fashionable package. A popular complaint around fitness trackers is that they are bulky and not practical to wear in professional settings. However, the newly-unveiled device caters to everyone, from activity seekers to fashionistas, with its waterproof casing and interchangeable straps to match any ensemble.

While a number of competitive bands simply collect and display the number of steps taken and calories burnt, Arki actually shares quantified measurements of the quality of steps achieved by a users.

This is done through a function they call “Sound Walking,” which alarms wearers of their bad walking postures via haptic vibrations on a real-time basis. For instance, when users are peering down at their smartphone or putting a hand in a pocket while taking a stroll, the SAM4LS controlled gadget automatically senses an imbalance of their bodies and transmits a signal.

“Arki measures your swing speed, rotation angle with respect to gravity, transferred vibration from the feet and more. Based on these measurements, Arki learns your walking habits, such as looking at a smartphone while walking or putting a hand in a pocket,” a company rep explains.

Truth of the matter, no one has a perfectly balanced body and subsequently, left and right arm swings are never identical. As the team notes, Arki utilizes this imperfection to compare the two swings to determine the extent of a body’s imbalance, including shoulders, back and hips. Normally, a user would wear Arki on their preferred side; however, Zikto advises that once in a while, by switching arms, Arki can collect both arms’ swing data. As a result, the smart band can offer personal workout recommendations to improve and recalibrate your balance.

Unlock your computer with a flick of the wrist? In what may sound like something out of Minority Report, since each person’s gait is unique much like fingerprints, Arki is also capable of biometric authentication, meaning a user simply has to move his or her mouse back and forth while wearing Arki, and can access their device.

In addition to being extremely customizable and functional, Arki also works with smart home systems to sync wearer’s thermostats to complements their physical activity. “Once Arki detects you sleeping, your thermostat will turn down to your ideal temperature,” the team notes. This makes for more comfortable nights, and more importantly, lower electric bills.

Given the tremendous success of their Kickstarter campaign, Zikto has decided to also add call and SMS notifications to Arki’s interface.

Well into its crowdfunding campaign, the team has well exceeded its $100,000 pledge goal. Following Kickstarter, Zikto is planning to expand their business to a medical service in connection with hospitals by developing its own algorithm and utilizing big data. If all goes to schedule, Zikto hopes to ship the first batch of Arkis to all backers come early April 2015. Interested in learning more or walking correctly, stroll on over to its official page here.

Nixie is the first wearable camera that can fly

Remember the dronie? Recently, selfie-takers seeking to add a bit more creativity than their arm span allowed, began turning to drones like the ATmega8A Parrot AR.Drone to capture the moment. Now, a new wearable has emerged, which seems to be ripped straight from a Batman movie as with the flick of a wrist, the tiny device can take to the skies and record its surroundings.

If your selfies weren’t awesome enough, you’re in luck. A team of Makers have set out to take photography to whole new heights… literally.

Sure, smart watches bring smartphone features to wearers’ wrists, but can it fly freely and take video as it soars through the air? Stanford University researcher Christoph Kohstall, along with a team of engineers and designers, has formed a dream team to develop the Nixie. This wrist-mounded quadcopter hybrid just may hold the future of wearables, all while weighing less than a pound.

So, put away those camera-mounted helmets, selfie sticks and other contraptions, and slap the drone to your wrist. How it works is relatively simple. It sits on your wrist. You press a button. It takes off. Once it is a fair distance away, the drone turns around and captures a picture (or video) of you.

According to Kohstall, “You should be able with a gesture to tell the quadcopter to unfold. Then it’s going to take off from your wrist. It knows where you are, turns around, takes a picture of you, comes back. You can catch it from the air, [and] put it back on your wrist.”

The device is not designed to compete with the Apple’s iWatch or similar do-it-alls, but the team envisions the Nixie as a “personal photographer.” At the moment, the Nixie prototype is equipped with motion sensors that can detect the user’s location and respond to gestures-based commands before returning to the user to be extracted from mid-air and recalled back to the wrist.

Currently, there are three distinct modes of operation turn this flying device into the ultimate image-capturing robot.

“Panorama mode” sees the drone fly into the air and take 360-degree aerial images of the immediate surroundings. “Hover mode” allows Nixie to, you guessed it, hover above the surroundings and snap a series of shots. Lastly, “boomerang mode” has the flyer zoom off to a set distance from the wearer, take a picture, and then return to the user’s location. Serious due diligence on motion prediction algorithms and lightweight engineering have made these systems possible within the team’s desired specifications for Nixie. While other drones may feature similar functionality, its creators say that none promise the same level of portability or user friendliness.

“Quadcopters give you a new perspective you can’t get anywhere else,” says Jelena Jovanovic, Nixie’s project manager. “But it’s not really feasible to pilot a drone and keep doing what you’re doing.”

While the innovative device may not be embedded with an Atmel MCU, or even an Arduino for that matter, there is always version 2.0. (Right?) Nixie is still in prototype stages and there are a few challenges to be conquered before you see one at your local park. Though with the team’s impressive background and clear motivation, it wouldn’t be surprising if flying wearables like the Nixie became the norm in the near future.

This innovative idea was so impressive that it was awarded the top $500,000 prize in Intel’s Make It Wearable Challenge. For more information about the Nixie, fly on over to its official website for project updates.

MIT creates sensory fiction

They say stories can come to life, and well, one group of MIT students have taken that idiom to an entirely new level. The team of Makers has recently created a wearable book that uses networked sensors and actuators to create a sort of cyberpunk-like Neverending Story, blurring the line between the bodies of a reader and protagonist.

The sensory fiction project — which built around James Tiptree’s The Girl Who Was Plugged In — was designed by Felix Heibeck, Alexis Hope, Julie Legault and Sophia Brueckner in the context of MIT’s Science Fiction To Science Fabrication class.

“You feel this story in your gut,” Hope recently told FastCoDesign. “It is an amazing example of the power of fiction to make us feel and empathize with a protagonist. Because our imaginations and emotions were so strongly moved by this story, we wondered how we could heighten the experience.”

The “augmented book” portrays the scenery and sets the mood, while the wearable enables the reader to experience the protagonist’s physiological emotions unlike ever before.

According to LaBarre, the current sensory fiction prototype comprises a vest that plugs into a computerized copy of Tiptree’s novella. The vest — controlled by an [Atmel based] Arduino board — swells, contracts, vibrates, heats up or cools down as the pages of the book are turned.

Aside from 150 programmable LEDs to create ambient light based on changing setting and mood, the book/wearable support a number of outputs, including sound, a personal heating device to change skin temperature, vibration to influence heart rate, and a compression system to convey tightness or loosening through pressurized airbags.

“Traditionally, fiction creates and induces emotions and empathy through words and images… the Sensory Fiction author is provided with new means of conveying plot, mood, and emotion while still allowing space for the reader’s imagination. These tools can be wielded to create an immersive storytelling experience tailored to the reader,” the team writes.

Interested in learning more? You can read up on the whimsical Maker project here.

 

 

15 emerging technologies CIOs must watch through 2020

Aside from keeping the lights on and ensuring that all of the enterprise’s IT ducks are in a row, CIOs continually need to stay abreast of emerging technologies. According to a recent study from Forrester, CIOs that want to maintain their relevancy within an organization not only need to keep each these next-gen innovations on their immediate radar, but determine how to best apply that set of tech to stay competitive amidst the changes.

Forrester recommends CIOs adopt a customer-centric approach when making these decisions, in what the research firm dubs the “Age of the Customer.” What this means is that the CIO isn’t only required to become fully cognizant of the latest in mobile, social, big data and the cloud, but how and where the Internet of Things, wearable and other digital solutions fit into the bigger picture.

To assist these executives with the exponentially growing list of technologies and their potential applications in the business setting, Forrester has broken them down into to four main innovation groups. As the analysts note, here are the key 15 trends enterprise architects must watch over the five years.

Emerging business solutions enable new ways of doing business

1. Customer analytics solutions help firms deeply understand what their customers need and when they need it; emerging technology packages help firms develop a complete contextual view, without lots of custom plumbing.

2. Digital experience solutions offer a cockpit for managing the customer life cycle; these provide an integrated environment for firms to manage customers, content, segments, and offerings.

3. Customer-driven design solutions enable collaborative experience design with customers; experience designers will get a rich environment to learn, test, and iterate with more customer input.

4. Internet of Things solutions offer packaged business process and integration; combining sensors, networks, platforms, and integration will accelerate IoT value and speed implementation for specific business scenarios

Emerging interaction technologies create news ways to engage customers

5. Next-generation connectivity enables a wide range of new digital endpoints; very low-power wireless technology will expand the types of devices that can connect, while cutting costs dramatically.

6. Wearable technology creates many new information sources and displays; new gadgets are adding rich info collection or display on, in, and around the body, expanding digital reach.

7. Natural user interfaces offer new methods for interacting with computing experiences; beyond point, type, and touch, people will be able to talk, wink, wave, and be tapped.

Emerging aggregation and delivery technologies drive contextual engagement

8. Real-time sourcing and delivery technology brings insight to the point of decision; marketing and operations will have deeper contextual insight from fresh data for engagement.

9. Advanced analytics technology allows firms to cull deeper insight from more data; analysts and data science teams will get better and faster at teasing understanding from piles of diverse data.

10. Digital identity management technology helps firms and individuals control access across channels; employees and customers will more easily gain access to services they need or want, in line with the dynamic privacy and security concerns of our digital world.

11. Software acceleration platforms and tools help firms continuously deliver; firms will experiment with application development and delivery to maximize engagement and value.

Emerging infrastructure technology creates a powerful and agile foundation

12. Advanced silicon devices offer new levels of computing, energy efficiency, and sensors types; reductions in silicon device size will enable improvements through 2020, when limits appear.

13. Software-defined infrastructure will enable flexible, easy data center adjustments; abstracted hardware controlled by powerful software will create flexible, agile infrastructure.

14. Cloud integration tools will integrate apps and management across cloud and on-premises; hybrid architectures will become easier to design and operate as tools take shape.

15. Big data management technology provides a flexible, affordable foundation for insight; technology managers will embrace this software as the only affordable way to meet business demands for more insight from more data.

To read more, access the entire Forrester blog post and report here.

Report: Will the workplace lead wearable tech adoption?

A majority of adults are ready to embrace wearables in their workplace, though the U.S. remains behind in overall wearable adoption, a new survey by Kronos Incorporated has revealed. Currently, nearly three-quarters (73%) of adults believe wearable tech could benefit the workplace in at least one of three major ways: increasing efficiency, productivity, or safety.

As previously reported on Bits & Pieces, researchers expect more than 13 million wearable devices with embedded wireless connectivity to be integrated into wellness plans offered by businesses over the next five years. Meanwhile, analysts also anticipate that the workplace wearables market will reach 455 million devices by 2019, generating $46.5 billion of revenue worldwide.

On a global scale, workers cited smart headphones, smartwatches, and arm or wrist computing devices as the most useful in their workplaces. While 48% of U.S. adults believe that wearable technologies could benefit the workplace, this substantial percentage was the lowest out of all other regions: 96% in Mexico, 94% in China, 91% in India, 72% in Germany, 69% in Australia and France, and 66% in England.

“Countries where adults have adopted wearable technology for personal use appear to use wearables for work-related activities as well, and adoption of wearable technology is higher at work than for personal use across the board,” a statement from Kronos explained.

The poll found that when it came to daily wearable use, Americans were lagging behind with only 13% using a body-adorned devices in their personal lives. On the other end of the spectrum, China was by far the highest ranking region in this regard with just shy of 75% of adults using wearables, followed by India (72%) and Mexico (70%). The survey cited smart headphones and fitness monitors as popular wearable devices with large user disparities across the world. For example, only 5% of U.S. adults use smart headphones, as opposed to 61% of adults in China.

Furthermore, a whopping 82% of adults in India and Mexico, as well as 81% in China, have ever worn technologies like headsets, smart badges and barcode scanners for work-related activities, as have 56%of adults in Germany. However, only 20% of United States, 38 % of England., 43% of Australia, and 45% of France adults have used a wearable device for work-related activities.

While the survey revealed several keys to wearable adoption among employees, one in particular was efficiency. 33% percent of American adults cited this factor as a driver for wearable use, while 62% of Mexican respondents and 45% of Indian respondents agreed.

The survey did shine some positive light on the future of wearable computing in the United States. While only 13% of all U.S. adults claim they use wearable devices in their personal lives, more than 1 in 5 of adult students do. Consistent with that, 72% percent of U.S. students see at least one way wearable technologies could benefit the workplace as opposed to just 48% of overall U.S. adults. Kronos also noted that from a personal perspective, 85% of online students see at least one potential business-related benefit that would make them more likely to use wearable technology for work-related purposes, as opposed to 66% of overall U.S. adults.

So, what’s holding the critical mass of U.S. adults back? According to the report, “While privacy was listed as the top potential concern of U.S. workers, less than half believe privacy could be an issue. Data security was the second-highest ranked concern, but only 35% of U.S. employed adults cite it as a potential issue – suggesting that data and privacy concerns will not be a substantial roadblock if benefits of wearable technologies in the workplace are realized.”

Another positive sign for U.S. adoption is that nearly one-third of employed U.S. adults have no concerns about using wearable technology in the workplace. And, as the the wear-your-own device (WYOD) trend continues to take shape, you can expect Atmel to be smack dab in the middle of revolution, with a comprehensive portfolio of versatile microcontrollers that power a wide range of platforms and devices.

“This survey shows a marked difference in how wearable devices are used and perceived around the world, and people who use new wearable technologies in their personal lives tend to see more potential benefits in the workplace. The more comfortable we become with wearables, the more apt we are to leverage these technologies in the workplace,” concluded Joyce Maroney, Director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos.

Want to learn more? You can access the entire study here. Those interested in an in-depth exploration of computers that you wear for work and play may want to check out this latest white paper.

megaAVR powers this Steampunk VFD wristwatch

Maker John De Cristofaro recently devised a Steampunk-inspired wristwatch powered by an ATMega88 microcontroller (MCU).

Dubbed the ChronodeVFD, the wearable device is built around a IVL2-7/5 VFD display tube. “I originally purchased a few of these tubes to build a standard desk clock, but after playing around with them, I realized I could probably build a wristwatch too,” the Maker writes.

De Cristofaro notes some of the features which made the tube well-suited for this purpose, including its size (only 1.25″ x 2.25″), its flatness making for a sleeker watch design, its low-grid voltage (12-13V), as well as its nominal 60mA filament current at 2.4V.

“One other feature that I like about this device is that unlike nearly every other VFD tube, the IVL2-7/5 has no opaque or diffuse backing behind the digits. It’s completely transparent front to back, which means that if you put it on top of a circuit board, you can (with a bit of backlighting) see the PCB below.”

Since the device was merely a costume piece, the Maker elected to find use a battery that lasted between 6-10 hours. However, despite its novelty, he wanted to ensure that it would be comfortable enough to wear and not too bulky.

“Coin cells were out because the internal resistance was too high to meet the current requirements, so I was left with AA and AAA single cells. I decided to go with alkaline cells, since the lower nominal voltage of NiMH re-chargables would mean an even lower efficiency for the boost converters, and less current for the filament. The finished project can be used with either 1xAA or 1xAAA alkalines (with the appropriate clips), however AAAs only last about 2 hours, so I’m sticking with AAs for now,” De Cristofaro explains.

At the core of the wearable device lies an ATMega88 microcontroller, while the real-time clock is a Maxim DS3231. The VFD display is driven by a Maxim MAX6920 — a 12-bit shift register with high-voltage (up to 76V) outputs. In addition, the circuit itself is powered from three voltage rails, and there a few onboard sensors — one analog and two digital.

There are also a number of mechanical innovations featured in this build, most notably the brass tubing that frames the display.

Interested in reading more about this slick Steampunk build? Hurry on over to the ChronodeVFD’s official project page here.

Report: Wearable sensor market to grow sevenfold in 5 years

The market for sensors used in wearable technology is set to grow sevenfold over the next five years, according to IHS Technology. The new report, entitled “MEMS & Sensors for Wearables Report – 2014,” notes fitness and health monitoring features as well as improved user interfaces among key drivers fueling this growth.

The research firm stated the worldwide market for sensors in wearables will expand to 466 million units in 2019, up from 67 million in 2013, while shipments of sensors will climb much more quickly than the market for the wearable devices themselves. As the report reveals, wearable devices are expected to increase to 135 million units in 2019, just shy of three times the total of 50 million in 2013.

“Wearables are a hotbed for sensors, with market growth driven by the increasing number of these components in each product sold,” explained Jeremie Bouchaud, IHS Technology Senior Principal Analyst. “The main factor propelling this phenomenon is a transition in market share away from simple products like pedometers and toward more sophisticated multipurpose devices such as smartwatches and smartglasses. Instead of using a single sensor like the simpler devices, the more complex products employ numerous components for health and activity monitoring, as well as for their more advanced user interfaces.”

This comes as great news for makers of motion sensors like gyroscopes and accelerometers, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), sensors driving user interfaces, and health and environmental sensors, In fact, IHS predicted the average wearable device shipped in 2019 to encompass 4.1 sensor elements, a rise from just 1.4 in 2013.

IHS shared that smartphones brands are becoming increasingly aware that wearables are a better platform for some types of sensors than mobile handsets; in addition, the firm expects components such as humidity and pulse sensors to move from handsets to wearable devices.

“The use of these types of sensors reflects consumer preferences that are propelling the growth of the wearables market,” Bouchaud said. “Users want health and fitness monitoring, and they want wearable devices that act as extensions of their smartphones. However, there’s no real demand from consumers for environmental sensors. Instead, the rising adoption of environmental sensors such as humidity and UV devices is being pushed by both sensor suppliers and wearable original equipment manufacturers (OEM).”

The market for sensors in wearables will undergo a major acceleration next year as shipments of the Apple Watch commence. Overall wearable sensor shipments will double in 2014; shipments of sensors for smartwatches will surge by nearly 600%.

“Similar to the iPhone and iPad, IHS expects the Apple Watch will set a de facto standard for sensor specifications in smartwatches. Most other wearable OEMs will follow Apple’s lead in using these four devices—or will add even more sensors to differentiate,” Bouchaud explained.

IHS goes on to reveal that fitness and heart rate monitors, along with foot pods and pedometers, led the wearable market in terms of sensor shipments in 2013. However, smartwatches will take the top position starting next year and will maintain dominance through 2019.

As this report highlights, embedded wearable technology isn’t going away anytime soon. Sensors are everywhere and are being designed into everything in the connected world. The requirements are moving from simple monitoring to full interpretation of the devices state and situation. Many of these tasks require the simultaneous analysis and fusion of data from different sensors and sensor types. These can include motion sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes), environment sensors (temperature, pressure and humidity) and many others mentioned by IHS. To simplify enabling these systems, Atmel has partnered with the leading sensor manufacturers and sensor fusion specialists to provide a complete, easy-to-implement Sensor Hub Solution.

Interested in reading more? You can access the entire IHS Research report here.

 

Microsoft reportedly set to launch a wearable device in weeks

After rumors of a Microsoft smartwatch first surfaced back in July, Forbes has reported that the company is indeed getting ready to launch a wearable device within the next few weeks.

(Source: USPTO; CNN Money)

If you recall, Tom’s Hardware hinted that the smartwatch would be equipped with 11 sensors and feature a 1.5-inch display that would actually be located inside the user’s wrist, as it possesses a more natural look and feel.

The gadget will be a smartwatch that will “passively track a wearer’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms,” Forbes writes. Supposedly, the device will also boast a battery life of more than two days of regular use — a frequently cited factor in the consumer purchase decision process.

“Motorola’s [Atmel MXT112S powered] Moto 360 smartwatch also has a continuous heart rate monitor and has been praised for its stylish design, but the battery tends to last for just 24 hours based on various reviews. Some wearables like the Pebble and Jawbone Up24 boast batteries that last for days or even weeks at a time, but that becomes impossible when a device features a color display like the Apple Watch or Gear,” Forbes notes.

The recent Forbes report also emphasized that the device will work across different platforms, which is consistent with CEO Satya Nadella’s attempt to widen the company’s product offerings “across all devices.” This meaning that the new wearable will not only be compatible with Windows Phone devices, but Android and iOS handsets as well. When announced, the gadget will mark the company’s first attempt in the category under Nadella.

It’s no surprise Microsoft is looking towards wearable computing; after all, analysts predict the market to be worth $12.6 billion in 2018, with an anticipated 100 million smartwatches to be in use worldwide by 2019. Furthermore, businesses will look to integrate more than 13 million wearable devices with embedded wireless connectivity into their wellness plans over this time period.

“Microsoft’s legacy in machine learning through Microsoft Research could also point to a future business model for a health-tracking device — that is, if it chooses to exploit its close ties with enterprise customers.”

The Tom’s Hardware report in July added that Microsoft’s smartwatch will have a resemblance to a thinner, flatter version of the Nike Fuelband. We guess we’ll just have to stay tuned until its launch to find out more!