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Watch Closely
Health & Medicine
Informs Strategy
Act Now
10TH YEAR ON THE LIST
Wearables and Biointerfaces
In April, Sony started selling a more powerful wearable air conditioner called the Reon Pocket 2 in Japan.
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KEY INSIGHT
EXAMPLES
DISRUPTIVE IMPACT
EMERGING PLAYERS
We are seeing incredible growth in wearables, with more than 1,000 wearable sensors on the market—from smartwatches to advanced fabrics and materials. Viable implantable technology is beginning to emerge, and new advances may help detect and track biomarkers, and improve our health and enhance healing.
More wearables can now report data and adjust settings—independently of a smartphone or computer. Capabilities go beyond the smartwatch to include clinical-grade health monitors and fullbody exoskeletons that can enhance the wearer with super-human strength. As wearables transition to implantables, we will gain greater visibility into real-time biological health.
Global shipments of wearables surpassed 444 million units in 2020, up 28.4% from the prior year, according to Statista. Wearables will not only offer more data in areas where we previously had little visibility, but it will change how consumers interact with businesses and communities as they utilize new interfaces in entirely new contexts. Companies may gain greater understanding of a consumer’s health, potentially without the person even knowing, and utilize it to target products and services.
• University of Texas at Austin • Rogers Research Group at Northwestern University • ETH Zurich • MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory • Bionaut Labs • Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology
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