According to research professor Caj Södergård of the Finnish Technical Research Centre VTT, the most common types of wearable technology such as smart watches, glasses and rings will be widely used in the next five years.
Other more exotic items such as smart earrings and tattoos that allow advertisers to recognise their customers’ preferences or to validate an individual’s identity for health care purposes will come somewhat later, although some researchers have already taken the first steps towards this brave new world and have implanted recognition chips below the surface of the skin.
Södergård said that there will be a place for Finland in the wearable technology gold rush, noting that a number of start-ups have already entered the field.
“Actually about 150 have started operating during recent years,” Södergård added.
Wearable smart technology is not the exclusive domain of the small and new. The well-established Finnish physical performance measurement company Polar launched the first wireless heart-rate monitor as far back as 1982. Södergård said that if Nokia is thought to be the father of mobile phone technology, the company can be considered the mother of smart glasses and smart watches.
The researcher declared that indeed, Finns have given birth to the entire field of wearable technology. It now needs to reclaim its primacy before Google, Sony, Samsung and Apple consume the largest slices of the wearable technology pie.
“But there won’t be any new Nokias” Södergård cautioned.
Health fanatics first with wearable technology
According to Södergård health is one of the most important application areas for wearable tech.
“Sports enthusiasts like to monitor everything they can. Performance, heart rate, cardiograms and paces. But preventive health care is the biggest application area for this technology. It motivates people to follow and see whether they need improvements in their exercise or sleep routines,” Södergård added.
The professor pointed out that technologically, it’s already possible to provide home care for patients so that wearable devices would send cardiogram data directly to hospital monitors around the clock.
“Computer software could follow the cardiogram output and flag any deviations, and help provide immediate help if it’s required. It’s mostly a question of cost that will determine how broadly this kind of system would be implemented, but it’s certainly becoming more common,” he noted.
Södergård envisions that in the future, wearable technology would also fit into smaller spaces, for example in an earlobe. It would record and relay information automatically into the cloud or to smartphone applications that would then display them in charts. These would then direct people what to do in order to shed a few kilograms more, sleep better or eat more healthily, he explained.
But prices would need to be low enough and devices relatively easy to use for wearable technology to become an everyday item. Södergård said that resistance to this kind of new technology will be high in the beginning, with some even feeling very antagonistic towards the new technology.
“There are two kinds of people: those who want to be the first and those who will take new technology into use only when a sufficient number of people already have it,” he concluded.