Medusa

Crucial Design Factors Of Successful Wearable Gadgets

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Those working in the electronics industry have probably come across wearable technology&period; They are the next big innovation&comma; slowly gaining popularity&period; However&comma; this is not a new concept&comma; but simply one that has evolved over the past couple of years&period; Portable electronics have in existence&comma; since the discovery of microprocessors back in the 1970s&period; Since then&comma; the industry has been miniaturizing and producing smart glasses&comma; smart watches&comma; fitness activity trackers&comma; tracking devices and hearing aids&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Although this technology is not new&comma; what is changing rapidly is their classification&period; Developments in microelectromechanical systems &lpar;MEMS&rpar; have now allowed almost every industry to have a portable wearable gadget with a high level of finesse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Apart from the consumer market&comma; the medical industry has been creating a huge demand for these devices&comma; for monitoring physical functions and conditions&period; Since these devices need to be miniature and perform a whole range of functions&comma; manufacturers need to consider several design factors&comma; to ensure success&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-350" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;medusamagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;apple-watch-1024x682&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Crucial Design Factors Of Successful Wearable Gadgets" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"400" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Aesthetics<&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Wearable devices need to have a sense of style and seamlessly blend with existing accessories such as glasses&comma; watches&comma; and ornaments&period; Aesthetics are such important considerations that top industry players are collaborating with major fashion companies to produce fashionable devices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">According to Sarah Rotman Epp who is a Forrester senior analyst&comma; wearables should be designed in a way that it can be worn all day&comma; without any discomfort&period; A key technology used to improve aesthetics in these devices is capacitive touch sensing&period; This technology works on various form factors such as liquid tolerance&comma; curved surfaces and high sensitivity even when under thick cover&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Size<&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As previously indicated&comma; these devices must be miniature&period; This helps them to fit easily into a wearable&period; Despite that&comma; they should be able to integrate all the necessary features&comma; within the small space&period; Technologies such as chip scale packages &lpar;CSP&rpar; and System-on-Chip &lpar;SoC&rpar; help in shrinking the size&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-348" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;medusamagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;fitness-trackers&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Crucial Design Factors Of Successful Wearable Gadgets" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Power consumption<&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Since batteries power these gadgets&comma; it becomes a unique challenge&comma; when attempting to reduce their power consumption&period; Unlike other mobile gadgets&comma; wearable devices should always be on and connected&period; This is because majority of them are monitoring devices&period; A good example is a smart watch&comma; such as the students&&num;8217&semi; popular cheating watch that always needs to be connected to smart phone through a wireless link like a Bluetooth&period; It also needs to show time&period; On the other hand&comma; a pedometer should always be on&comma; in able to register the steps and report the information to a mobile phone app&period; Additionally&comma; a heart rate monitor should always be on to monitor and report the heartbeats&period; However&comma; the capacity of the battery is highly limited&comma; since the devices need to be tiny&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Wireless connectivity<&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Since wearable devices need to connect and interact with other devices&comma; wireless connectivity is of much importance&period; Depending on the features offered and the type&comma; the device should be able to support various wireless protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy &lpar;BLE&rpar;&comma; ANT&plus;&comma; Wi-Fi among others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>Operating system<&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Going with the features offered on the wearable device&comma; it should have a certain operating system&comma; to support its functions and easily integrate it to other devices&period; For example&comma; a smartphone that designed as an extension of a smartphone should run on Android operating system or iOS&period; Therefore&comma; each device requires a specific operating system&comma; depending on its functions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The market for wearable devices keeps on increasing&comma; same as the number of manufacturers&period; Since these devices are worn all day and everywhere&comma; they should be designed with certain design factors in mind&comma; to ensure successful consumer absorption&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version