Implementation of wearable sensors in different sectors

Recently there has been an  upsurge of usage of wearable sensors in many applications such as medical, entertainment, security, and commercial fields. They can be extremely useful in providing accurate and reliable information on people’s activities and behaviours, thereby ensuring a safe living environment. It may be that the smart wearable sensors technology will revolutionize our life, social interaction and activities very much in the same way that personal computers have done a few decades back. They are widely used in fields such as:

  • Security:    Wearable sensors in the form of panic buttons for emergency help have been in use for a long time and are a huge commercial success. Of course for proper utilization the person needing help should be alert and fit enough to press the button. Most importantly, the panic button should be light in weight so that it is comfortable to wear 24/7.
  • Medical sciences:   Wearable sensors have become very popular, especially in the medical sciences, where there are a lot of different applications in monitoring physiological activities. In the medical field, it is possible to monitor patients’ body temperature, heart rate, brain activity, muscle motion and other critical data. It is important to have very light sensors that could be worn on the body to perform standard medical monitoring. It is possible to measure the blood pressure using wearable sensors through a modified volume-oscillometric technique which eliminates the need for an inflatable pressure cuff and using earphone and mobile device. The use of wearable sensors has made it possible to have the necessary treatment at home for patients after an attack of diseases such as heart-attacks, sleep apnea, Parkinson disease and so on. Patients after an operation usually go through the recovery/rehabilitation process where they follow a strict routine. All the physiological signals as well as physical activities of the patient are possible to be monitored with the help of wearable sensors. During the rehabilitation stage the wearable sensors may provide audio feedback, virtual reality images and other rehabilitative services. The system can be tuned to the requirement of individual patient. The whole activity can be monitored remotely by doctors, nurses or caregivers.
  • Sport/Training:    In the area of sport and training there is an increasing trend of using various wearable sensors. Something, for example, measurement of sweat rate which was possible only in the laboratory based system a few years back is now possible using wearable sensors.
  • Elderly support:    A significant amount of research is currently undergoing in the development of a smart sensing system to detect falls of elderly within the home. Falls are the single largest cause of injury in New Zealand  and it may be true for any other country. In New Zealand one in every three people over the age of sixty five years has a fall every year and it increases to one in two for the age of over eighty years. Falls may lead to several major health problems for the elderly and immediate help needs to be provided to reduce the risk of complications. In the absence of quick help, the elderly may suffer pain, go through emotional distress and even develop other medical complications such as dehydration, hypothermia and so on. The wearable smart panic button can also provide a mental peace to the elderly.
  • Air Pollution:   Air pollution exposure is an invisible hazard responsible for seven million premature deaths every year, according to World Health Organization estimates. But the new generation of wearable high-tech devices, paired with the mobile phones we carry, reveals this hazard so that users can see it in real-time. Personal environmental monitors measure air quality and other environmental data and stream that information to users who may otherwise have no idea what they are breathing. Armed with information, wearers might seek cleaner air by moving off a certain street or opening the window to a smoky room.
     

It is now an everyday news that the wearable electronics devices and technologies, such as heart rate monitors, smart watches, tracking devices (including PillCam) and smart glasses (google glass), etc. are experiencing a period of rapid growth. Future wearable technology reports that the wearable technologies will impact future medical technology, affecting our health and fitness decisions, deciding which park to go so the air is not polluted, redefining the doctor-patient relationship and reducing healthcare cost. Looking at the bigger picture, research points out that the wearable electronics technologies will undoubtedly continue to expand in consumer sectors.

Sourcehttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6974987