Charging your smartwatch can be a headache. With a feature-packed smartwatch, you may need to recharge it every few hours. But when you’re away and don’t have your charger with you, what do you do? Now, a new project funded by the European Union has announced it is working on a solution that it calls an “autonomous energy supply platform.” If it succeeds, the project dubbed Smart2Go, has the potential to kick-start the development of a new generation of wearable devices that never need charging, reports Digital Trends.

German company Fraunhofer FEP is leading the project, which will involve the development of a flexible power supply for wearable devices under the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The company envisions the platform being using in everything from smartwatches, fitness tracking devices, and personal safety trackers, to exciting future tech including skin patches and smart labels.

Read more Innovative Charging Solutions for Your Cellphone and Other Electronics

‍

‍

“The aim of the project is the creation of an autonomous energy-supply platform. Based on the results of the project it will be possible to use a wearable without caring about recharging over its entire lifetime. This aim will be achieved by the combination of a powerful battery with appropriate energy harvesting technologies. The performance of the energy supply platform will be demonstrated in two application cases,” said CORDIS European Commission.

Smart2Go’s special feature is the standardization of the interfaces within the platform. This will enable manufacturers to easily adapt it to various different application after the end of the project.

Read more Matrix PowerWatch: A Smartwatch Powered Only by Your Body Heat

The project has already started in January with the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Center working with eight other EU innovation partners. But it’s worth noting that Smart2Go is a research project, and any resulting technology will not be ready for mainstream use for some time, if at all. However, projects like this can prompt development of new technology that will go on to transform our lives.

‍

A patent application filed by Microsoft has shown the company has looked into the possibility of wearable technology being used to help manage the symptoms of involuntary movements commonly suffered by people with Parkinson’s or a host of other disorders, reports Digital Trends. The wearable band would wrap around limbs or joints and use haptic feedback for therapeutic stimulation.

The device would have many haptic actuators scattered across a band that can be adjusted in response to sensor data, according to the patent. That data could come from sensors on the wearable itself or a nearby tablet or phone that communicates with it over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Read more Flytta Smartwatch: A New Approach to Parkinson’s Care

The patent titled “WEARABLE DEVICE” was filed by Microsoft and was published by USPTO.

“Haptic stimulation systems apply forces or vibrations to stimulate a user’s sense of touch. Touch-screen devices may use haptic feedback to indicate key presses to a user; games controllers may use haptic feedback to increase video game immersion (e.g. by vibrating in response to a collision or explosion within a video game) and smart watches may use haptic feedback to provide silent alerts to the wearer,” says Microsoft in the patent.

‍

‍

The embedded sensors could include heart-rate sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and electromyography sensors for detecting muscle activity. On the other hand, sensors outside the wearable could include a touchscreen or imaging system that detects motion, or motion detectors in a stylus, reports ZDNet.

The patent application further notes, “Described herein is a wearable device which uses haptic actuation for therapeutic stimulation and in various examples, the wearable device may be word close to a joint and used to affect (eg reduce or stabilize) involuntary movement of the joint or limb. The wearable device described herein may be used to alleviate some symptoms of a condition which affects motion or control of the limbs and one example is Parkinson’s disease.”

Read more IBM Develops Fingernail Sensor That Uses Artificial Intelligence to Monitor Parkinson’s, Other Diseases

When a company files for a patent, it has no idea whether it's actually going to use the invention. Many of these patents see the light of day. Therefore, it can’t be said with certainty that Microsoft will launch this wearable.

‍

Garmin’s latest smartwatch, Fenix 6S Pro, is small in size but offers a host of features. This rugged GPS watch has wrist-band navigation, pulse oximeter, data-tracking, new PacePro metric, music, and battery-saving features.

Related Garmin Unveils Four New Smartwatches, Including the New Venu

This feature-packed $700 watch has a 42mm frame. It has a 1.2” sunlight-readable display with bezels in stainless steel, titanium or diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating. The biggest improvement on the Fenix 6 Series is the revamped interface, which still maintains Garmin’s characteristic look and feel, reports Digital Trends.

The important metrics like temperature, altimeter, barometer, heart rate and battery, are all arranged right on the screen of the watch’s new and improved clock face. The data displayed is large enough to see but compact enough so that it doesn’t get in the way of the time and date.

The fenix 6 series introduces a first-of-its-kind PacePro feature, which keeps a runner’s pacing strategy on track with grade-adjusted guidance as they run a course. Runners can create plans directly from the watch or ahead of time on Garmin Connect™ or Garmin Connect Mobile. While running the course, users will be able to see their target split pace, the actual split pace, distance to the next split, and how much time they are ahead/behind on their target, right on the watch face.

‍

‍

If you’re climbing, you can turn on ClimbPro to check how many feet you have to left to ascend.

The new battery manager lets you manage your battery efficiently. For example, if you need your batter to last longer, simply choose the Expedition Mode. This mode for extended GPS tracking will disable Bluetooth, turn off the screen, and ping GPS every hour.

Related Garmin Adds Menstrual Cycle Tracking to its Wearables and Smartwatches

This is a real outdoors watch that makes your navigation easier with its preloaded TOPO maps, ski maps for over 2,000 worldwide ski resorts, multiple global navigation satellite system (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) support and built-in sensors for 3-axis compass, gyroscope and barometric altimeter.

Fenix 6S Pro also has fall detection that detects when you fall and notify others.

The watch also comes with Garmin Pay contactless payments, music storage with premium streaming service (may require subscription with third-party music provider) support, smart notifications and more.

‍

Wrist-worn wearables shipment went up 28.8% in Q2 2019, according to a new report by International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. During this period 34.2 million units of these devices, which include smartwatches, basic watches and wrist bands, were shipped, said the report. The top 5 companies – Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Fitbit, and Samsung – continued to push forward with new products and promotional campaigns during the quarter, collectively capturing 65.7% of the market, an almost 12-point gain from last year.

Read more Fitbit Faces A Tough Road Ahead in India’s Growing Wearables Market

"Health is now at the forefront for these devices since companies have started providing actionable insights and prescriptive measures for end users," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "Beyond health, mobile payment is also starting to become a mainstay as roughly two out of five wrist-worn wearables now include NFC, and many more simply use QR codes to complete transactions."

Xiaomi, known for its MI Band series, maintained the top position thanks to its latest Mi Band 4. The company, which focuses almost exclusively on wrist bands, lured new customers with its low-cost fitness trackers. While China is its biggest market, Xiaomi is still prioritizing to expand beyond China, the IDC report states.

Apple came in second in terms of units sold, but the company outpaces all others in terms of dollar value as the average selling price (ASP) for an Apple Watch was $448 during the quarter. The company’s newly announced Apple Watch 5 should help it maintain its leadership in the smartwatch market. IDC anticipates shipments of the Apple Watch to grow by 10.8% by the end of 2019 and capture 38.9% of all smartwatches shipped during the year.

‍

‍

In the third place was Huawei, a company aimed at capturing the mass market with the Huawei brand and a younger audience with the Honor brand. The new report shows Huawei focused on the Chinese market during the quarter, growing its share, rather than prioritizing international expansion as it had in past quarters.

Wristband market pioneer Fitbit ranked fourth place in the report. Although sale of its smartwatches declined, Fitbit was able to manage overall growth due to the popularity of the newly launched Inspire wristbands.

Read more Rising Popularity of Female Health Tech Will Take A Big Bite Out of Wearables Market

Samsung rounded out the top 5 and achieved the highest growth rate amongst the top 5 due to the introduction of its low-cost wrist bands, the Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit e, and the popularity of the Galaxy Watch.

“Glancing at data – like notifications, fitness stats, and even checking the time – remain the popular use case, but to be able to interact with the device via smart assistants, scroll easily through data with the rotating bezel like Samsung’s smartwatches, or connecting to smart home applications and devices raises wrist-worn wearables’ utility. Layer on top of this the growing market for applications on smartwatches, and the value of these device increase further,” said Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Wearables.

‍

The growing smart fabrics industry has diverse applications in wearable devices for the consumer, health care and defense sectors - from monitoring vital signs of patients, to tracking the location and health status of soldiers in the field, and monitoring pilots or drivers for fatigue.

Related Medical Smart Fabric Market Shows Noteworthy Growth by Strong CAGR Up To 2027

Researchers from Melbourne's RMIT University envision a future where waterproof smart fabrics will be laser printed and manufactured in minutes. They have developed a rapid, cost-efficient, and scalable method for printing textiles with embedded energy storage devices.

In just three minutes, this new technology can produce a 10x10cm smart textile patch that’s waterproof, stretchable and readily integrated with energy harvesting technologies, reports RMIT.

To create these smart textiles, the RMIT team used laser printing to embed the graphene supercapacitors directly into the fabric. The researchers believe their new smart textiles could be applied to various markets including consumer, healthcare, and defense.

In a proof-of-concept, the researchers connected the supercapacitor with a solar cell, delivering an efficient, washable and self-powering smart fabric that overcomes the key drawbacks of existing e-textile energy storage technologies.

Dr Litty Thekkakara, a researcher in RMIT’s School of Science, said smart textiles with built-in sensing, wireless communication or health monitoring technology called for robust and reliable energy solutions.

‍

‍

“Current approaches to smart textile energy storage, like stitching batteries into garments or using e-fibers, can be cumbersome and heavy, and can also have capacity issues,” Thekkakara said.

“These electronic components can also suffer short-circuits and mechanical failure when they come into contact with sweat or with moisture from the environment.

“Our graphene-based supercapacitor is not only fully washable, it can store the energy needed to power an intelligent garment – and it can be made in minutes at large scale.

“By solving the energy storage-related challenges of e-textiles, we hope to power the next generation of wearable technology and intelligent clothing.”

Related Smart Fabric Helps Athletes and Physical Therapy Patients Reduce Injury and Accelerate Recovery

RMIT Honorary Professor and Distinguished Professor at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Min Gu, said the technology could enable real-time storage of renewable energies for e-textiles.

“It also opens the possibility for faster roll-to-roll fabrication, with the use of advanced laser printing based on multifocal fabrication and machine learning techniques,” Gu said.

‍

Senseg, a leading manufacturer of electrostatic sensors based in Finland, announced that it has created a new category of flexible electronics by launching a family of roll-to-roll manufactured actuators for use in traditional flat actuator applications as well as for new applications, such as wearables, soft robotics, VR/AR devices, and interior integrated sensors. The new product, called Senseg ELFIAC (Elastomeric Film Actuator), will deliver large-scale manufacturable actuators that are far less expensive to produce than comparable traditional actuators and use cheaper, non-toxic materials, says Senseg. The inherent flexibility of the low-power Elfiac technology, enables new applications, form factors and geometries.

Read more AR/VR Can Enable Smart Factories to Reduce Cost and Delays and Boost Production

“ELFIAC is a robust technology. Its flexible membrane-like structure enables taking haptics to where it was previously impossible,” said Ville Mäkinen, founder and General Manager of Senseg. “We have proven the mass manufacturability of ELFIAC and gone through rigorous product testing. We can see that ELFIAC’s potential expands far beyond our initial scope of consumer electronics products.”

Senseg ELFIAC is completed by the simultaneous introduction of an advanced, ultra-compact, and low-power high-voltage driver circuit for ELFIAC. This circuit is powered by a proprietary system-in-package (SiP) S220 chip, which Senseg has jointly developed with ST Microelectronics. ELFIAC and the S220-based high voltage driver are now available as user-friendly demo kits including software, reports Globe News Wire.

‍

‍

The actuator market, currently pegged at $50 billion globally and expanding to $75 billion by 2025, according to MarketsandMarkets, includes consumer, automotive, healthcare, industrial automation, hydraulic, and other vertical market segments.

Senseg is a pioneer in the electrostatic haptic field since 2008, and an innovator in multiple fields of human-machine interfaces, with more than 40 granted patents. Senseg developed the first solid state haptics solution, the TIXEL, for touch screen devices in 2011, enabling users to feel dynamic surface sensations such as moving a hand through grains of sand or dragging a weighty object on the screen of a tablet device.

Read more Bioservo Introduces Improved Version of its Ironhand Soft Robotic Muscle Strengthening System

“With ELFIAC, Senseg is solving the problems of cost and materials usage in actuators, without degrading the experience,” says Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC’s Mobile Devices and AR/VR team. “This is a key component to the next wave of smart compute devices that are expected to perform rigorous functions while still delivering the types of experiences resident on other, more traditional, hardware."

‍

Amazon is reportedly trying to enter the wearable market with a device that can detect human emotions.

First reported by Bloomberg, the wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by the media. It’s a partnership between Lab126, the hardware development group behind Amazon’s Fire phone and Echo smart speaker, and the Alexa voice software team.

Read more This Wristband Could Help You Manage Your Emotions and Tell Your Friends How You’re Feeling

The wrist-worn device is “designed to work with a smartphone app. It has microphones paired with software that can discern the wearer’s emotional state from the sound of his or her voice, according to the documents and a person familiar with the program. Eventually the technology could be able to advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others, the documents show,” Bloomberg reports.

Amazon didn’t provide any details on the progress of the project, or if it will be available commercially. The online retail giant code-named the project ‘Dylan.’ According to documents and Bloomberg’s source, the project is ongoing and a beta testing is underway.

‍

‍

The idea of making devices that can understand human emotions first appeared in science fiction novels and Star Trek. With the advancement in artificial intelligence, image and voice recognition is now a reality. Big tech companies like Apple, IBM and Google are developing technologies that can derive emotional states of people from audio data, images and other inputs. Amazon has publicly said it wants to build a more lifelike voice assistant.

Read more This Gadget Can Communicate Human Emotions Through Touch

While this device may be the first wearable device from Amazon, if it becomes successful in tracking human emotions, it might roll out to other Amazon products, especially the ones that rely on microphone. Then again, Amazon’s wearable may never see the light of day. The company regularly experiments with new products.

‍

In 2018, more than 115 people died from opioid overdose each day in the United States. This horrid statistic demonstrates the devastating public health crisis that has gripped much of the nation. Researchers at the Carnegie Melon University (CMU) have found one possible way to save lives from this deadly epidemic. They developed a simple wearable device that can detect signs of opioid overdose and automatically call for help. In December, 2018 WT | Wearable Technologies reported that the students behind this wearable opioid detector won national awards.

“The problem with opioid overdose deaths is that there is a narrow window of time to save them, and the users will not be in a state to call for help themselves,” Puneetha Ramachandra, a CMU student who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “Our device solves this by continuously monitoring the user’s health, and if an overdose is detected, it calls for immediate help by sounding an alarm and also contacting the user’s emergency contact.”

The device, resembling a smartwatch, is still in prototype. It functions by using pulse oximetry, a noninvasive way of monitoring oxygen levels in blood by shining light from LEDs through the skin and detecting changes in light absorption. During an opioid overdose, the oxygen levels in the person’s blood drops. The device monitors the situation for 10 seconds before sounding the alarm.

‍

‍

The team plans to create blueprints for mass production, and get the device certified. “Once this is done, the initial goal is to sell the device in a small scale, and also distribute it through needle exchange programs by subsidizing it. Based on the feedback from the end users, we plan to upgrade the device and increase production scale,” Ramachandra said.

Read more Wearable Sensor Administers Narcan to Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths

“Our solution, at the moment, only focuses on preventing overdose deaths. “We do plan to incorporate more helpful features into our device in the future to aid in the addiction aspects of the problem.”

‍

Cerebral palsy is a group of permanent movement disorders that appear in early childhood. It's caused by damage that occurs to the immature brain as it develops, most often before birth. This is the most common cause of pediatric disabilities, particularly debilitating for daily activities. There are ankle-foot orthoses available as gait treatment. But selecting the most appropriate orthotic configuration is not easy. Researchers in Italy have now developed an assessment protocol based on wearable gait analysis to help clinicians in ankle-foot orthoses configuration selection.

Read more European Researchers Team Up with Pharma Companies to Develop Gait Detecting Sensor

For their study, the researchers selected 10 children with spastic diplegic Cerebral Palsy. The children were aged 4 to 11 years.

The participants performed a 10 Meter Walk Test in three conditions: barefoot and wearing alternatively a polypropylene hinged and solid ankle-foot orthosis accommodated in the same off-the-shelf shoe model, after 20 days of daily use of each configuration. The researchers developed an instrumented assessment protocol based on body-mounted magneto-inertial sensors to measure spatio-temporal, gait stability and symmetry, reports Science Direct.

‍

‍

The researchers found that all the children benefited by the two orthoses. The ankle-foot orthoses were patient-specific and it helped different children with gait issues. “The proposed instrumented protocol represents a quantitative and useful tool to support the clinical selection of an appropriate orthotic treatment and, potentially, in evaluating its effectiveness,” the wrote.

Read more FeetMe, Novartis Collaboration Aims to Study Gait of Multiple Sclerosis Patients

The research team comprised of researchers from Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù; Interuniversity Centre of Bioengineering of the Human Neuromusculoskeletal System, University of Rome “Foro Italico”; and ITOP SpA Officine Ortopediche, Palestrina – all in Rome, Italy.

The study was published in the journal Science Direct.

‍

Libre Wireless Technologies, an embedded Wi-Fi/wireless technology hardware and software solutions provider, announced their MAVID low power mic-to-cloud platform is now powering Hansong’s Microdot XS, a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth audio speaker with a no compromise far field voice interface featuring Amazon Alexa Built-In.

Hansong Technology is an audio OEM/ODM manufacturer, covering home theatre, hifi and AV systems, custom installation solutions, professional audio, wireless technologies and commercial products including AI voice and IoT devices.

Read more Waves Announces Optimization of Nx 3D Audio Technology with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform

“We are extremely excited about this entirely new category of portable, ultra-low power products enabled by Libre’s MAVID device,” says Helge Kristensen, Vice President at Hansong Technology. “The Microdot XS is the first of several breakthrough portable and wearable products we will deliver as we enable entirely new use cases and applications in the exploding AI and IoT markets where voice is becoming a primary new man-machine interface.”

The MAVID device is single chip mic-to-cloud solution measuring only 13.5mm square. By integrating Hansong technology, it created an entirely new category of personal, portable battery powered miniature voice-enabled product, reports Business Wire.

‍

‍

The Microdot XS, a tiny golf ball-sized speaker, has all the advanced features of full-size Wi-Fi audio speakers. The small size and long battery life allow users to carry it wherever they go. The device has the unique ability to connect to your mobile phone hotspot while maintaining special low power connections for extended voice assistant and music streaming support.

Read more ReSound Launches LiNX Quattro, the First AI Voice Control Smart Hearing Aid

“We are very proud of having developed and delivered MAVID, a revolutionary voice/AI technology product which offers so much unique and differentiating value to our customers,” says Jordan Watters, Chief Executive Officer of Libre Wireless Technologies. “With innovative partners like Hansong Technology, we are excited to see the many unique new miniature, portable and wearable WiFi products that are being created and will lead the market expansion of voice assistant applications.”

The Microdot XS will launch in Q3 2019 in multiple markets including the US, UK, Germany and France, and can be seen at the Amazon booth at IFA Berlin and viewed in Amazon’s partner program press release at Amazon Press Link for Hansong Microdot.

‍

Almost on a weekly basis, there are reports of an active shooter in the workplace. These critical events are threatening lives and causing major business disruptions. Fatal work injuries have increased over the last decade, with 5,147 occupational fatalities recorded in the U.S. in 2017. Now, Everbridge, a Massachusetts-based event management and enterprise safety software applications provider, is partnering with wearable device maker RiskBand to bolster workplace safety.

Read more Wearable SOS Button to Reduce Lone Worker Hazards

With the additional modality and simple access of the RiskBand wearable device, Everbridge is expanding its addressable market for protecting employees regardless of their physical location, whether inside the office, working remotely, or traveling the globe, reports Business Wire.

“The rise in smart technology and connected devices drastically improves operations for businesses across the globe, and brings about new opportunities to keep people safe,” said David Meredith, CEO of Everbridge. “Our partnership with RiskBand advances our existing connected safety ecosystem, offering employees without immediate access to a mobile phone with a direct line for emergency communication that they can utilize anywhere.”

The challenge of these incidents is only magnified by an increasingly mobile workforce, as well as the prevalence of lone worker scenarios across multiple industries served by both Everbridge and RiskBand, including healthcare, banking, retail, energy and utilities, hospitality, and higher education.

‍

‍

Designed for enterprise-level personal safety and security, RiskBand’s wearable devices bolster an organization’s emergency communication and response strategy. A single push of a button provides two-way voice, user profile data, images, and geolocation, in near real-time to your organization’s security operations center. As part of the partnership, Everbridge will integrate its award-winning Safety Connection™ platform with RiskBand’s wearables, allowing both Everbridge and RiskBand customers to receive emergency messaging and provide detailed reporting of their location.

Read more CommandWear Wearable Technology Helps Save Lives While Also Keeping First Responders Safe

“It is especially gratifying that a respected industry leader like Everbridge recognizes the powerful solution of the RiskBand ARIES device and platform. We believe that this collaborative partnership will enable us to empower businesses to enhance employee safety through state-of-the-art wearable devices that are fully integrated with the most comprehensive critical event management solutions,” explained Jim Van Law, CEO and Co-founder of RiskBand.

‍

Wearable health and wellness devices such as smartwatches and fitness trackers use optical detection to monitor vital health data. However, this rigid technology hinders the performance and form factor of the device. Now, in a study published in Science Advances, researchers demonstrated a new class of flexible and transparent wearables based on graphene sensitized with semiconducting quantum dots (GQD). The researchers showed several prototype wearable devices that are able to monitor vital health signs noninvasively, including heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2), and respiratory rate.

Our skin is a unique interface for electronic devices to assess the current wellness and health status of our body.

Read more Exeter Researchers Develop Self-Powered Graphene-Based Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Vital Signs

Optical vital sign monitoring is typically performed through photoplethysmography (PPG). PPG-based wearables are made of discrete, rigid silicon photodiodes that cannot interface conformably with the skin and thereby reduce the accuracy of the data. At the same time, bulky readout electronics and rigid sensors make the wearable uncomfortable to the user, reports Science Advances.

Because of its flexibility and transparency, graphene is a viable material for wearable sensors. Especially, GQD (graphene sensitized with semiconducting quantum dots) photodetectors offer key benefits such as broadband wavelength sensitivity and high responsivity due to a built-in photoconductive gain.

‍

‍

For their study, the researchers integrated flexible photodetector in a flexible bracelet and on a mobile phone screen, allowing users to track heart rate and respiration rate from a range of body locations. They used reflectance mode PPG to extract the heart rate of the user from the wrist. On the other hand, they used transmission mode PPG to monitor the heart rate of the user from a finger placed on the health patch.

In this case, the health patch uses the ambient light passing through the tissue, which then reaches the. Because of the broadband wavelength sensitivity of the GQD PD, the health patch can operate in transmission mode using solely ambient light because light of higher wavelength penetrates further into the skin. “This allows a wearable device to detect vital signs that require continuous tracking over a long time. Because of the absence of an external light source, the power consumption of the integrated wearables is very low and limited to the dissipation in the PD and the readout electronics,” the researchers wrote. “Mass-produced and low-cost devices are within reach for this flexible wearable platform, as it is fully compatible with scalable CVD growth and roll-to-roll transfer processes,” they concluded.

Read more Graphene-Based Sensors Detect Diabetic Foot Ulcers Before They Cause Injury

The research was carried out by scientists from ICFO–Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08860 Castelldefels, Institució Catalana de Recerça i Estudis Avançats, and Lluis Companys, in Barcelona, Spain.

‍

According to new report from International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, shipments of wrist-worn wearables, including smartwatches, basic watches, and wrist bands, reached 34.2 million units, up 28.8% during the second quarter of 2019. The top 5 companies – Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Fitbit, and Samsung – captured 65.7% of the market, an almost 12-point gain from last year, reports Business Wire.

“Health is now at the forefront for these devices since companies have started providing actionable insights and prescriptive measures for end users,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “Beyond health, mobile payment is also starting to become a mainstay as roughly two out of five wrist-worn wearables now include NFC, and many more simply use QR codes to complete transactions.”

Read more Children are Becoming Major Driving Force Behind the Wearable Market Growth in China

‍

‍

Top 5 companies highlighted are:

Xiaomi. This Chinese wearable maker maintained the top position thanks to its latest Mi Band 4. China remains the most active market for Xiaomi's products though expansion outside China continues to be a priority.

Apple. The Cupertino tech giant ranked second in terms of units although the company outpaces all others in terms of dollar value as the average selling price for an Apple Watch was $448 during the quarter. IDC anticipates shipments of the Apple Watch to grow by 10.8% by the end of 2019 and capture 38.9% of all smartwatches shipped during the year.

Huawei. This Shenzhen, Guangdong-based company took the third position with its dual brand strategy aimed at capturing the mass market with the Huawei brand and a younger audience with the Honor brand. Many of the company's wearables are bundled with its smartphones, thereby putting the company in a challenging position given all the recent uncertainty around its smartphone business.

Read more IDC Report: Xiaomi Tops Apple and Fitbit with 21.5% Global Wearable market share in Q3 2018

Fitbit. The wrist-worn wearables market pioneer, ranked fourth in the recent quarter. Though its smartwatch business declined, thanks to poor reception of the Versa Lite, the company did manage overall growth due to the popularity of the newly launched Inspire wristbands.

Samsung. The South Korea-based multinational conglomerate rounded out the top 5 and achieved the highest growth rate amongst the top 5 due to the introduction of its low-cost wrist bands, the Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit e, and the popularity of the Galaxy Watch.

‍

MediaTek, a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company, launched MT8516 2-mic development kit for Alexa Voice Service (AVS). The MT8516 kit is an integrated hardware and software solution aimed at helping developers build high-quality voice-assistant products, thereby reduce development costs and accelerate the integration process for creating far-field products with Alexa built-in, including multi-room music (MRM) capabilities.

Read more MediaTek Launches New Multi-Mode 5G SoC to Power High-End 5G Devices

Ideal for a wide range of voice assistant devices and audio applications, the MT8516 kit features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A35 application processor, operating up to 1.3 GHz to process user inputs faster. The development kit provides a highly integrated and cost-competitive solution with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities built in, and also integrates audio front-end and post-processing technologies without any additional cost. With MT8516, audio manufacturers can reduce the development time, effort and costs associated with designing and customizing smart speaker products, said a press release.

“As the No. 1 chipmaker for voice assistant devices, MediaTek is at the forefront of the connected device revolution, powering some of the most innovative voice recognition products in homes today,” said Jerry Yu, MediaTek Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Intelligent Devices Business Group. “The MT8516 development kit accelerates the development of devices with voice technology, making it easier for developers to bring consumers smart speakers, soundbars and other home appliances with the latest features.”

Read more Libre MAVID Embedded Wireless Device and Software Now Has Amazon Alexa Built-in  

‍

‍

The MT8516 can be integrated into a range of smart devices including speakers, sound bars, smart home hubs, industrial applications and smart home appliances. The MT8516 platform is capable of the following technology components, which are included with the kit:

• AVS Device SDK: With C++-based libraries, manufacturers can easily design devices that process audio inputs and triggers, establish persistent connections with AVS and handle all Alexa interactions.
• Amazon multi-room music (MRM): Enables developers to design smart products with MRM so customers can enjoy simultaneously streaming music over multiple Alexa built-in devices.
• MediaTek far-field algorithms: Integrating the algorithms on the application processor saves costs by eliminating the need for an additional digital signal processor (DSP). Qualified by Amazon with a two-microphone linear array, MediaTek also offers a four-microphone circular arrangement for added design flexibility.
• Amazon wake-word engine (WWE): Provides robust wake-word recognition in Alexa supported locales.
• MediaTek PowerAQ: MediaTek's powerful acoustic tuning tool PowerAQ provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) for signal flow design and audio parameter turning.

‍

Industrial wearables provider ProGlove raised $40 million investment from global growth equity firm Summit Partners. The company plans to leverage this funding to expand its international footprint and support its mission to connect the human workforce with the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). In April, WT | Wearable Technologies reported on ProGlove’s state-of-the-art handsfree barcode scanner, Mark 2.

ProGlove was founded in Munich, Germany in 2014. The company offers a scanner glove designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of scanning processes used across the manufacturing, logistics, transportation and ecommerce/retail sectors. ProGlove's products are integrated into the factory and warehouse floor processes at some of the world's most renowned brands including Audi, BMW, Bosch, Daimler, DHL and Lufthansa Technik.

The company's smart glove provides an ergonomic, hands-free barcode scanning solution that helps workers increase productivity and optimize workflow. While traditional handheld scanners tend to be unwieldy and bulky, the small form factor, lightweight, wearable design of ProGlove's scanner unit allows users to reduce scanning time by up to 4 seconds per scan. In a warehouse or on a factory floor, this reduction represents an improvement in scanning efficiency of as much as 50 percent for some ProGlove customers. Additionally, the company's smart glove provides direct feedback to the user via optical, haptic and acoustic signals, helping to eliminate mistakes and improve overall process quality, the company said in a press release.

‍

‍

“Organizations seeking to maintain a competitive edge in the era of Industry 4.0 must rethink and reinvent the way in which humans and machines interact. Wearable devices acknowledge the importance of enabling a smarter, more effective worker in the industrial IoT environment,” said Andreas Koenig, CEO of ProGlove. “Industrial wearables define the future of assembly, production and logistics processes. Our smart wearables are designed to function as a natural extension of the workers' tools, strengthening the role of the human in today's automated world.”

Read more Mobile-Sensing System Constantly Tracks Workers’ Performance

ProGlove started its operations in 2014 right after it earned recognition in “Make It Wearable” contest by Intel. The company began commercializing its scanner glove in 2016 and quickly amassed a number of industry accolades and an impressive roster of customers. Today, the company operates on a global scale, serving more than 500 customers around the world from its offices in Munich, Germany and Chicago, Illinois. ProGlove employs 160 people from over 40 countries at its two sites in Munich and Chicago.

‍

Scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a smart robotic hand to help amputees in daily tasks. The artificial hand combines individual finger control and automation for improved grasping and manipulation.

Read more Researchers Develop New Prosthesis that Provides Sense of Touch So the User Knows Its Location

This interdisciplinary proof-of-concept between neuroengineering and robotics was successfully tested on three amputees and seven healthy subjects. Implementing these two concepts together, the technology contributes to the emerging field of shared control in neuroprosthetics. The results were published in Nature Machine Intelligence, reports EPFL.

The robotic hand is intelligent enough to decipher the user’s intentions and can grasp an object and maintain contact with it for robust grasping. Such automation may help the system to be more skillful, innate and less cumbersome than previous robotic prostheses.

“When you hold an object in your hand, and it starts to slip, you only have a couple of milliseconds to react,” explains Aude Billard who leads EPFL’s Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory. “The robotic hand has the ability to react within 400 milliseconds. Equipped with pressure sensors all along the fingers, it can react and stabilize the object before the brain can actually perceive that the object is slipping.”

‍

‍

The machine learning algorithm, developed by the researchers, first learns how to decode user intention and translates this into finger movement of the prosthetic hand. The amputee must perform a series of hand movements in order to train the algorithm that uses machine learning. Sensors placed on the amputee’s stump detect muscular activity, and the algorithm learns which hand movements correspond to which patterns of muscular activity. Once the user’s intended finger movements are understood, this information can be used to control individual fingers of the prosthetic hand.

“Because muscle signals can be noisy, we need a machine learning algorithm that extracts meaningful activity from those muscles and interprets them into movements,” says Katie Zhuang first author of the publication.

Read more Swedish Woman Receives First Dexterous and Sentient Prosthetic Hand

Next, the scientists engineered the algorithm so that robotic automation kicks in when the user tries to grasp an object. The algorithm tells the prosthetic hand to close its fingers when an object is in contact with sensors on the surface of the prosthetic hand.

‍

Kaasa solution, a Movesense development partner from Germany, is publishing Data Collector 2.0 for recording Movesense raw data. Data Collector 2.0 is a powerful iOS solution that not only records Movesense data but also manages data collecting in projects where data is collected in several locations and multiple people.

Read more Movesense Motion Sensors Helping Companies Build Wearables for Various Fields

“We developed the Data Collector originally for our own Movesense projects but noticed that many developers need such a tool. Therefore, we are now making the improved 2.0 version available to other companies as well,” says Kaasa CEO Nico Kaartinen.

The new Data Collector connects quickly to up to five sensors and records their data to synchronized files, reports Movesense. The app includes a number of innovative features that makes data collection easy and reliable and makes sure that the recorded data is stored systematically:

• Easy real time annotation of recorded data through video, audio, hot buttons and free text.
• Easy sharing of sensors settings to ensure that data collection within a project always uses the same settings.
• Fast viewing of large recordings of up to 5 synchronized sensors with real time annotations through Data Collector Plotter.

‍

One of the innovative features of the app is sharing of sensor settings. When collecting data for research projects, prototypes, AI algorithms, and other purposes, it is essential that the sensor settings are kept identical across all sensors, locations and users in a project. Kaasa Data Collector 2.0 makes storing and sharing sensor settings within a project very fast and easy. This becomes even easier when using Movesense smart connectors.

One of the first users of Data Collector 2.0 is professor Sampsa Vanhatalo, leading researcher at BABA center, Helsinki Children’s Hospital.

“We are developing medical wearables for neurological assessment of spontaneously moving infants. It was necessary to find a tool that allows recording synchronous data from multiple sensor, and Data Collector 2.0 was the only solution that could carry out the task, says professor Sampsa Vanhatalo, leading researcher at BABA center, Helsinki Children’s Hospital.

Read more Microsoft Patents Multidimensional Heart Rate Sensor that Delivers Accurate Data on Wearables

“In addition, the ability to collect synchronized video as well as manual and audio annotations was extremely useful for us. Such tool will be crucial for anyone who wants to collect well characterized datasets for future training of analysis algorithms. Indeed, this was a game changer for our projects. We now feel so confident with the tool and its ease of use that we are planning to give it to external participants in their daily living environments, adds professor Vanhatalo, who’s also one of the first users of Data Collecto

‍

Wireless earbuds, better known as hearables, are fast replacing wearables as the most popular accessory for consumers. According to Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker of International Data Corporation (IDC), global wearable device shipments grew 85.2% in the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19) as shipments totaled 67.7 million units. From these devices, hearables were among the fastest growing categories, capturing 46.9% of the overall wearables market during the quarter, up from 24.8% a year ago. This growth was driven by a multitude of new products and consumers who purchased their second wearable, a hearable, to use in parallel with existing smartwatches or wrist bands, reports Business Wire.

“The growing popularity of the hearables segment is forcing existing brands to reconsider past designs when launching new products, as evident in Samsung's popular Galaxy Buds, while also attracting new brands to market,” said Jitesh Ubrani research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “And though it's still early days, the market is showing signs of emerging subsegments such as hearables dedicated to sports from the likes of Jabra, premium hearables from companies such as Bose, and ones dedicated to hearing loss such as those from Nuheara.”

Read more Nuheara Building Ecosystem for Hearables with its IQStream TV

‍

‍

Companies highlighted in the report are:

Apple. The tech giant led the market for hearables by capturing 50.2% share during the quarter. New products such as the refreshed AirPods and the latest from the Beats lineup helped the company grow 218.2% compared to last year.

Samsung. The company’s self-branded devices and the JBL brand, captured the second position during the quarter. The highly publicized Galaxy Buds were one of the company's most popular pair of hearables as the pair was bundled with the purchase of Samsung's latest smartphone.

Xiaomi. Xiaomi's AirDots (amongst other models) helped the company capture the third position. Though the company primarily sells its hearables in China, Xiaomi has already started to make inroads in other markets such as Europe and the Middle East with its smartphones and wrist bands.

Read more Hearables Are Going to Revolutionize Healthcare, Here’s How

Bose. This Boston-based company ranked fourth in this market. The company's long lineage in audio and premium offering has helped set the company apart from the remainder of the pack.

ReSound. The parent company of Jabra rounded out the top 5 with 5.1% share and 132.9% growth. Jabra's Elite Active 65t have been extremely popular as an alternative to Apple's AirPods and have also been promoted heavily on Amazon's store.

‍

Shimmer, a Dublin-based wearable technology company that produces wearable wireless sensors, which can be used in research applications, announced launch of a healthcare industry open source initiative for wearable sensor algorithms. The initiative is being co-founded by Shimmer, Dr. Vincent van Hees, author of the GGIR software and algorithms for movement sensor calibration, sensor wear detection, and signal aggregation, and Nextbridge Health, which is developing the Nextbridge Exchange, an online marketplace and discovery platform for the clinical research community.

Read more Shimmer Launches Verisense™ Wearable Sensor Platform for Clinical Trials

“We are excited to be working with Dr. Vincent van Hees and Nextbridge on this initiative. Vincent’s GGIR platform sets the standard for open source algorithms in terms of usability, documentation, and validation. More than 80 peer-reviewed studies involving almost 200,000 participants have used GGIR. When we searched for algorithms to power our Verisense™ wearable sensor platform for clinical trials, nothing came close to GGIR,” said Geoffrey Gill, president of Shimmer Americas.

Wearable sensors have the potential to revolutionize clinical trials and medicine in general by enabling continuous, real-world data to be included in clinical and post-marketing studies. They allow occasional and often subjective measures of health to be replaced with continuous, objective measures. But the lack of accepted clinical endpoints is proving to be a major impediment to the widespread adoption of wearable sensors in clinical trials, reports Shimmer.

This new initiative seeks to develop a curated set of open source algorithms and software tools for analyzing wearable sensor data that will be available to all medical device and pharmaceutical companies in a pre-competitive environment as a service to the industry. It will allow the work conducted by thousands of researchers during the past decade to be leveraged to create commonly-accepted de facto industry standards.

“Shimmer’s deep connections to the research community provides a fantastic channel to reach and recruit researchers to provide content,” said Richard Strobridge, CEO of Nextbridge Health.

Read more Oracle mHealth Platform is Revolutionizing Clinical Trials with Remote Monitoring Devices

This initiative will allow sponsors to gain access to transparent, peer-reviewed, and validated algorithms that have been commonly accepted by the industry. This advance should expedite clinical trials, reducing their cost, and improving patient access to treatments. Similarly, wearable sensor developers will gain access to accepted, validated algorithms, thus reducing duplication of efforts, and likely leading to quicker acceptance of new devices by the industry and regulatory agencies. Algorithm and software developers will receive increased visibility, greater recognition, and broader uses for their work, potentially resulting in business opportunities for them.

‍

Stretchable electronics is a technology for building electronic circuits by depositing stretchable electronic devices and circuits onto stretchable substrates or embed them entirely in a stretchable material like silicones or polyurethanes. Stretchable electronics comes in many shapes and forms. Because of their elasticity and conformity, they are widely used in wearable medical devices. A new report titled Stretchable and Conformal Electronics 2019-2029 finds that the stretchable and conformal electronics market will grow to approach $500m within a decade, reports Wearable Technology Insights.

This report provides a comprehensive and insightful view of this diverse emerging technology front. It covers the progress of more than 100 companies and 25 research institutes including first-hand primary research on 62 companies.

Read more New Stretchable E-Tattoo for Long-Term Uninterrupted Heart Monitoring

According to the report, most commercial growth in stretchable electronics comes from electrodes, circuit lines and interconnects, and basic sensors. InMold Electronics products are used in various fitness products for monitoring heart rate or respiration. These products are also used in wearables to monitor pregnancy. Many are also working on printed circuit boards.

‍

‍

“Stretchable electronics faces a complicated path to the market. It is not a replacement market in that stretchable electronics will often not substitute an existing component or product. There are rare exceptions, for example, in e-textiles. However, even in those cases, the addressable market itself is nascent and fragmented. As such, the challenge is to create new markets and new demand,” the report states. “This will require identifying and defining problems, in diverse sectors, which the unique features of stretchable electronics can help solve.”

The positive side, however, is that stretchable electronics are being used in various sectors. The most popular form of SCE is seen in fitness monitoring devices. The next round of products might come in smart skin patches and other forms of wearable patient monitoring tools and smart textiles, according to the report.

Read more Researchers Develop Stretchable Thermoelectric Coils for Energy Harvesting in Flexible Wearable Devices

The pipeline can be huge and robust and may be composed of many small pieces. Therefore, the companies should organize themselves to deal with these products. “This implies that in the medium the market will remain fragmented in terms of users and use cases, products, value chains, and performance and cost requirements,” the report said.

‍