Tag: wearable devices

Wearable technology has now been designed to track stress

| November 28, 2015

While fitness trackers and bio monitors remain popular, mental health has become a new wearables focus.

Until now, physical activity has been leading the way in the wearable technology ecosystem, as many people use health and fitness trackers to be able to measure their activity and their progress on that level.

Now, a new product is changing the direction of wearables by looking into tracking stress levels every day.

The goal is not only to allow people to be able to see how their stress levels are occurring with each passing day, but also to provide them with a wearable technology based tool that will let them better manage those daily stresses. The device in question is called Spire. It consists of a small clip-on device that can be attached to a bra strap or to the waist of a wearer’s pants. This allows the device to track breathing patterns in order to determine whether the wearer is tense, focused, or calm.

If the wearable technology detects too much stress, it sends an alert to the user’s smartphone.

Wearable Technology - Stress TrackingMoreover, if the wearer’s breathing speeds up too much, the Spire wearables, themselves, will buzz. The alert sent to the smartphone reminds the wearer to take a deep breath. According to the co-founder of the wearable device, Neema Moraveji, “That simplicity of the feedback is what makes it so applicable and what makes it so actionable in daily life.” Moraveji also added that it is something that is very easy to work into a busy schedule. It is realistic and practical because “You can take a deep breath without stopping what you’re doing, without distracting from what you’re doing.”

Moraveji explained that while tech as a whole may help to contribute to the typical stress levels, these days, wearables may help to provide a solution as there really isn’t any practical escape from technology as a whole. She said that this is one of the driving concepts that helped to develop Spire, as they asked themselves “how could technology change and improve our state of mind?”

The app to which the wearable technology is linked allows a user to track and compare their stress levels and activity levels from one day to the next as well as overall.

EasyJet embeds wearable technology into uniforms full of sensors

| November 16, 2015

New uniforms for crew have now been debuted by the U.K. airline, which are lit with LED.

New uniforms have now been released for EasyJet crewmembers to wear, which are embedded with wearable technology in the form of sensors and LED lights that are designed to offer several features and benefits.

The cabin crew now have high tech uniforms that include many features of embedded wearables.

The airline was first founded in 1995 by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and is the largest airline in the United Kingdom, based on the number of passengers it carries. It is now using the company’s 20th anniversary as the opportunity for cabin crew and engineers to be able to don uniforms that have wearable technology features woven into them. Both of these types of uniforms have features such as microphones built into them. The microphones were chosen to make it possible for pilots, crew and engineers to communicate with each other.

Cabin crew uniforms also feature dots of LEDs along their shoulders among their wearable technology features.

Wearable Technology - EasyJet airbusThe LEDs indicate the flight number and the destination of the plane. The lights provide illumination along the hemlines and also offer additional lighting for visibility in case of an emergency.

On the other hand, the wearables laden uniform meant for engineers has both LEDS and reflective panels in the hood. The idea is that the clothing itself will provide lighting to a work area so the engineers won’t be required to have to try to direct a light while trying to complete their tasks at the same time. This will leave both hands free to complete a job, replace panels, and do everything else that is required to keep aircraft in top shape.

Furthermore, built-in video cameras make it possible to send images to other engineers in order to receive a second opinion about complex problems and the best course to take in order to correct them. At the same time, barometers and air quality sensors are meant to help engineers keep up with the safety of their work environments. It even becomes possible to use this wearable technology to create air quality maps for various cities.