Google and other major smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung (who already beat Google in launching their wearable sdk) are making cool wearable computing devices. As an example Google is launching in early summer the Android body wear software development kit (SDK) and the latest application programming interfaces (API) versions. Some of the cool new features include support voice commands, display data from sensors, the ability to create custom card layouts, and the ability to sync data between wearables and smart phones. Smart watches allow Google the ability to capture an entirely new layer of metadata, important for semantic search and Google Now, with which the smart watch will be closely integrated.
FS Studio’s development team includes windsurfing and kiteboarding junkies who are into health and fitness themselves and are excited to be involved in the wearable electronics market, especially the apps and other complementary devices and services catering to the health & fitness conscious. Now you know that wearing a fitness wristband is the new status quo for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Other wearable device applications extend to the health industry and designed for allowing caregivers and doctors to monitor the sick and elderly, people that want to watch their own health conditions, the ability of environmental disaster teams to have hands-free access to data via smartglasses or a smartwatch1, even human resource departments wanting to improve employee health wellness, worker safety, and efficiency. It is projected that by 2016 worldwide revenue produced by the personal health and fitness electronic wearable devices, mobile applications, and services will increase up to $5 billion compared to 2013 when revenues approximated $1.3 billion.
Fitness related wearables are not the only real world applications to come out of the wearable gadget technology revolution. Other devices are Google Glass, Jawbone, Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0, FitBit, Galaxy Gear SmartWatch, Pebble, and the SmartWatch 2. We have witnessed innovative uses for the Google Glass smart glasses: when a user held up a small child to take a photo up close, it received an immediate positive reaction and response from her friends. On the other hand, the potential for multiple uses with advanced bluetooth technologies is exciting: hearing aids are converted into wireless headsets to allow the hearing impaired to use their phones with ease, without disruptive feedback, as well as listen to bluetooth enabled mp3 devices.2
Even law enforcement teams are experimenting with head mounted devices that provides an officer with face recognition software to scan a crowd and look for emotional gestures that may elicit violent acts. There is even potential for business shopping applications such as coupons or special offers to be sent to a person shopping in a clothing store through his or her bluetooth device. Shopping malls are experimenting with placing beacons to be able to locate shoppers and send coupons.
Sky’s the limit to what creative developers and idea makers will come up with in the next 5 years. Dream it, make it, test it.
You may be wondering what makes up a wearable technology product? Data, cloud services, software (SaaS), sensors, hardware.
Mixing comprehensive software coding with new cutting edge hardware design. This combination could be stored in the cloud and on the device itself, so data can visualized, analyzed by the device and presented to the person wearing it in a helpful manner.
Some wearable fitness watch and bracelet examples include several types of sensors, commonly electrical or optical, that measure fitness aspects such as heart rate, number of steps taken, and even hydration levels of the skin.
The software portion of these devices are of most use to the person because of data delivered from biomonitoring, movement, sleep patterns, heart rate, pulse, which delivers quantifiable metrics.
Wearable computing devices collect and keep personal data from our daily activities. The information or data then goes to a server where an online cloud service interprets that data into metrics that help people understand themselves better; A more “Quantified Self;”–the future of using technology to improve human lives.
FS Studio’s expertise in working with innovative wearable device and related app technology companies gives us an advantage and good understanding when it comes to integrating all the vital components together such as data visualization, analytics, cloud architecture, mobile applications, bluetooth hardware and embedded low level software to help bring to market successful products that consumers and investors find valuable and interesting.
FS Studio’s expert team of hardware and software engineers and designers will work congruently with your product development team to code and seamlessly integrate the backend software that is connected to the hardware for your device to make sure it is fast and scalable, as well as optimized to work with all web interfaces and on-devices. The magic comes when you can create the service that blends the software together to aggregate all data that the hardware has collected. We are experts in architecting complimentary mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms. Our job is to aid wearable's product device companies to reduce their product time-to-market by performing feasibility studies and research to improve product backlogs. Check our recent wearable device case studies to see how FS Studio puts together savvy engineers, product managers and software developers.
Give us call 1-888-404-6115 to discuss your next project ideas and budget, we will be happy to help. Or simply send us an email or fill out our contact form.
1https://searchconsumerization.techtarget.com/feature/Where-wearable-devices-could-fit-in-the-business-world
2 Bluetooth SIG, Inc. “Loud and Clear” by Karen D. Schwartz http://web.archive.org/web/20151006140744/http://www.bluetooth.com:80/Pages/Loud-and-Clear.aspx