By Industry

By Industry

Wearable Technology by Industry: Healthcare and Medical

According to ABI Research, medical applications are one of the main drivers of wearables in the enterprise space. The way we see it, wearable tech comes into play in this field in three ways: 1) There are wearable devices worn by healthcare providers. For example, MedEx paramedics in Chicago and doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston wear Google Glass to communicate and check patient information. 2) Then, there are wearable medical devices for managing chronic diseases and for monitoring patients post-hospitalization, including wearable glucose monitors, ECG monitors, pulse oximeters, and blood pressure monitors. These can be used, of course, in hospitals but are also worn by patients – either purchased by them through their insurance or provided by a doctor – with the doctor having access to the data via a smartphone or tablet. 3) The last category comprises wearable devices for health-related uses, such as sports and fitness trackers. These can affect health insurance rates and users or wearers can also grant their health providers with access to the aggregate data. While smartglasses such as Google Glass and Epson Moverio and also smart badges like Hygreen’s and Biovigil’s hand hygiene monitoring systems for hospitals are used […]

3 min read

By Industry

Wearable Technology by Industry: Oil and Gas

The energy industry is fraught with challenges today, including declining production rates coupled with increasing production costs; a lack of knowledge and expertise among young workers due to a retiring skilled workforce; and, of course, a host of complications associated with increasingly remote and dangerous mega projects, not to mention the fall in crude oil prices. Is there potential for wearable technology to address some or all of these industry issues? Can wearables improve operational efficiencies; lead to significant cost savings; and/or make the dangerous, messy, and exceedingly complicated jobs in this sector safer and easier? What enhancements can wearable tech deliver in the oilfield? When we talk about wearable technology in oil & gas, we are referring to wearable devices that can both collect and deliver data in the field, including Google Glass but especially more ruggedized smart glasses, such as those by Vuzix and Epson, and also VR (virtual reality) headsets like the Oculus Rift. Other devices include smartwatches and other smart wrist- and armbands, smart helmets, and sensors embedded in clothing designed to detect such things as radiation and/or chemicals. Most promising, however, is the smartglasses + AR (augmented reality) combo, along with the data analytics afforded […]

7 min read

By Industry

Wearable Technology by Industry: Retail

Many analysts predict that the main beneficiaries of wearable tech will be those businesses that routinely involve deskless workers performing task-based activities. Retail is a great example—large store environments as well as wholesale warehouses are very mobile and task-driven, and could greatly benefit from wearables to increase efficiency in a range of activities, from receiving inbound deliveries and restocking shelves behind the scenes to creating an enhanced, seamless shopping experience on the consumer front. Some of the proposed applications for wearables in retail bank on shoppers owning their own wearable tech devices, whether Google Glass or smartwatches like the Samsung Gear or Apple Watch. Retailers could then create wearable apps, and send special, targeted offers to connected consumer devices while in the store. Other discussed “applications” focus on how retailers will need to carry wearable tech products for consumers to buy. Seeing as wearable technology is expected to grow to be a $19 billion industry by 2018, it is no wonder Amazon opened its Wearable Technology Store or that much of the discussion of wearables in the retail space centers around the consumer’s POV. But we see even more immediate potential in back-end applications when it comes to WT in […]

4 min read

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Wearable Technology by Industry: Travel and Hospitality

As was the case in retail, much of the discussion when it comes to wearable technology in travel & hospitality has focused on how wearables stand to change the travel experience for consumers (i.e. the travelers) as opposed to those who work in the industry. For example, in the near future smartwatches (or smartglasses) will provide all the information that fuels a person’s trip – flight & boarding pass reminders, gate updates, reservation numbers, confirmation codes, directions from the airport, transportation options, even restaurant recommendations & weather forecasts – all at a glance, all in real time, right there on the wrist (or in front of the eyes). Travelers can already receive regular updates, book rooms, check-in, even order room service using mobile devices – a phenomenon referred to as the mobile concierge – and soon they will be able to do the same with wearables, or so the forecast goes. Of course, this all banks on wearable tech taking off with consumers, which it has yet to do but may very well once the Apple Watch is made available on April 24. The hotel industry once attracted guests with technological innovations. Consider the television for a moment. Back when […]

4 min read

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Google Glass Saving Healthcare

1 min read