Fun fact: If we take a look at the history of wearables, it's interesting to note that Edward Thorp created the first wearable to help a team cheat at the game of roulette.

Now, what exactly is wearable technology?

Electronic gadgets which are designed to be worn on the body are referred to as wearable technology. These gadgets use sensors to gather and provide information on the wearer's physical activity as well as other health-related parameters. A few examples include fitness trackers and smartwatches

Applications of wearable technology:

1. Health and Wellbeing

Smartwatches and fitness trackers are two of the most widely known and commonly used wearable technology. In order to maintain good health and meet fitness goals one sets for themselves, these gadgets help record heart rate, steps taken and calories burned per day.

2. Medical Science

Numerous medical disorders can be monitored and regulated by wearable technology and it can also be used to send the data collected to medical specialists. These gadgets include insulin pumps, smart inhalers, ECG monitors and several others.

3.Medical Research

Clinical research and analysis also require wearable technologies to gather, process and examine health related data. By using wearable technology to track patients' vital signs, it assists researchers and medical experts in providing accurate findings and precise interpretations.

Challenges to wearable technology:

1. Ensuring the correctness and reliability of the data collected is one of the most difficult challenges in the usage of wearable technology for healthcare. It's not always necessary for wearable technology like linked blood pressure monitors to gather precise and dependable data.

2. Ensuring patient privacy and data security presents yet another difficulty. Sensitive health related information is recorded by wearable technology, hence it's essential to ensure that such data is kept safe and that only authorized personnel may access it.

3. Limited battery capacity and expensive rates at which these high-quality battery devices are sold make them less accessible and affordable .

4. There may be a number of difficulties related with integrating wearables with existing software or infrastructure. This might require more technical support, funding and training in the future.

Research Topics:

Noteworthy areas related to wearable technology include the development of sensors that can monitor more health related information such as blood sugar levels and oxygen saturation and the creation of wearable devices that can monitor and treat chronic health conditions such as diabetes or hypertension.

The most remarkable progress in the development of wearable technology so far is ‘smart clothing’. This technology combines sensors and fabrics to create garments that monitor vital signs and other health related data. Others include ‘smart jewelry’ or ‘accessories’ such as rings and necklaces which can track activity levels, wearables which can be implanted in the human body such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and others which can be even tattooed onto the skin. Augmented and virtual reality have also been utilized for pain management, surgical training and for even treating mental health conditions. While wearable technology has several advantages and is fast growing, it has its own limitations and cons which need to be worked upon in order to make it a lot more accessible and universal. Wearables are still an expanding concept but is soon expected to have much more wider and practical applications in the near future thereby supporting better decisions and understanding in the healthcare sector and the world at large.