Wearable Technologies For Smart Environments

Written by Igor Ilunin, head of IoT at DataArt.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) rapidly expands throughout our world, the possibilities for improvements to our daily lives increases exponentially. The growing popularity of wearable devices is an ideal complement to this evolution, carrying the potential to interact with smart envirnments in a multitude of exciting and highly valuable ways.

Although smart appliances in homes are relatively new, their usage is growing quickly, and this trend is expected to continue to expand significantly over the next few years. Wearable devices could be used to seamlessly connect to smart environments, allowing consumers to save a lot of time around the house. For example, many people prefer the lights dimmed when they are watching television. A wearable device could be used to automatically adjust the lighting level from connected LED lights within a room when the user turns on their TV, providing the perfect ambiance without any human intervention. This concept could be taken further in a smart home by blocking the light coming in through windows that causes a glare on the television screen, depending on the time of day and amount of sunlight, thereby creating the perfect environment to watch your favorite TV show or movie.

And this is indeed just one of many ideas that are expected to come to fruition in the not-too-distant future. Another exciting concept is an extension of the already popular wearable health monitors. Imagine a club with a massive crowd on the dance floor. If everyone is wearing sophisticated devices, the DJ could access the heart rates of all the people in the crowd to help determine what music they would be most receptive to hearing overall or to gauge the effect that the music already playing has on the club goers. And if that isn’t revolutionary enough for you, imagine if venues could harness data from wearable devices to get everyone dancing in sync, using an accelerometer to coordinate your movements with the others in the club. These are just a few of the innovative ideas floating around these days, and the possibilities are virtually limitless.

IoT is all about connectivity, and wearable devices are one of the keys to this technology’s expansion throughout our communities. Considering predictions by technology analysis company CCS Insight that 95 million wearable devices will be sold this year, which will increase to 185 million devices by 2021, consumers and businesses are clearly jumping on board at a rapid rate. This impressive growth, combined with continuing IoT innovations and developments, makes it clear that a future of wearable devices connected to smart environments is right around the corner.