Last year, AT&T provided the wireless network for Zephyr’s FDA approved BioHarness. When inserted in Under Armor shirts, the BioHarness can measure athletes’ vital signs, heart rates and temperatures. At the time of the agreement, Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T’s emerging devices division, said that he saw potential uses for wearable devices for consumer fitness and first responders’ applications. Another company, BlueLibris, has a device that can be used for mobile medication reminders, fall detection, activity and location monitoring as well as vital signs monitoring.
Fitness and wellness applications are the main drivers of the wearable device market. However, analysts believe that there is a future for more devices that specialize in patient and home monitoring, inpatient settings and “aging in place” strategies for seniors.
The breakthrough in wearable heath monitors has been the introduction of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. Devices that use this standard are low-powered, and can run for a year on a single battery. Mobile devices and apps also use this standard, which will allow wearable devices to send information to nearby communications devices.
Zephyr Technologies will be speaking in the session “Mobile Innovations: Transforming Consumer Behavior," at the upcoming CONNECTIONS at TIA, on Wednesday, June 6 at 2:30 P.M., at the Gaylord Texan. The presentation panel session, moderated, examines the next generation of consumer-facing mobile products and solutions that are likely to push end users to alter their everyday behavior and how mobile connectivity challenges the status quo, disrupts established industries and increases consumer engagement.
For more information see the article, “Forget Google Glasses: Meet Wearable Health Monitors,” by Ken Terry.
