According to IDC, “Wearable sales are projected to experience double-digit growth in 2019, and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.6% over the next five years.” Wearable technology can be leveraged across different industries to offer a enhanced user experience and solution to the users.
With advanced features and latest technologies, wearable user base is spreading across a variety of applications including consumer fitness, gaming, industrial automation, health monitoring, and Augmented/Virtual reality. The current wearable application trends have also impacted the IoT, big data analytics, and cloud advancements.
Emerging Application Areas for Wearable Devices
Healthcare and fitness: Wearable technology is getting smarter with newer sensors that help in recording health stats and tracking activities. These help users to monitor their health progress and alert their doctors in case of any deviations.
Manufacturing industry: With the advent of industrial IoT, the demand for wearable technology in the manufacturing domain has risen significantly. Manufacturing companies are gradually looking at developing wearable devices with multiple sensors that can be used for workflow management, quality control and for ensuring the safety of the workers.
Gaming and Entertainment: Wearable gaming is entering the digital entertainment market, with a focus on mobile gaming in particular. We see Headwear as a Platform, Eyewear as a Platform, Smartwatch as a Platform, and Body-wear as a Platform; all are emerging areas for next-generation digital entertainment and have revolutionized the gaming and entertainment industry including in-flight and in-car entertainment solutions.
Transportation and logistics: Wearables have crucial use cases in transportation and logistics. They help in monitoring the goods loading and off-loading process, allocating the right drivers for trucks, and tracing the fleet. Wearable technology helps to track inventory and fleets and auto-updates the data on the cloud system.
While selecting a platform for the wearable application, the following features need to be considered:
- Compact size
- Power efficient
- Sensor interfaces
- Multi-connectivity options
- Camera, multimedia
Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Platforms
The wearable platforms launched by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), known as Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear (SDW), support enhanced user experience, advanced personalization, and optimized battery life.
Snapdragon Wear 2500 offers key features like built-in 4G LTE connectivity, 5MP camera, AI voice assistance support, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, low-power sensors, and support for extended battery life. These features allow wearables to be a lot more than simple location tracking devices or phones – they support a variety of experiences including fitness, fun and learning.
The SDW 2500 also has pre-integrated sensor algorithms, integrated AI voice assistant, GPS tracker, and heart-rate algorithms, making it suitable for fitness and activity tracking. Device manufacturers can also integrate additional sensors to measure health statistics using a built-in sensor hub. Adreno 304 GPU is designed to display rich animations on an OLED screen to make the interaction experience more exciting and fun.
The SDW 3100 supports Wear OS by Google and is designed to deliver experiences that appeal to a diverse audience, ranging from sports fans and fashion aficionados to high-performing business travelers. The SDW 3100’s near field communication (NFC) chips can be used in plenty of different ways. For instance, a wristwatch can be used to make a payment or to digitally sign in to an event by holding the watch close to a sensor.
As a Qualcomm Snapdragon licensee, eInfochips has a strong team of experts who have experience on the latest technologies and SDKs offered by Qualcomm Snapdragon to transform wearable ideas into real, functioning solutions. We have developed a variety of solutions across different applications including smart glasses for biking, entertainment eyewear, AR/VR headsets and handheld solution for industrial automation. Please get in touch with us to discuss your wearable projects.
