Wearables : Where Are We ?
The latest from Jacobs School of Engineering professors and alumni pioneering the industry .
Patrick Mercier , Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering , Co-Director of the Center for Wearable Sensors ( CWS )
Joseph Wang , Professor of Nanoengineering , Director of the Center for Wearable Sensors
Why should we be excited about wearables ? PM : Wearables are starting to offer interesting insights into our daily behavior and our health . Today ’ s Apple Watches and Fitbits can track things like your activities and heart rate , and can even provide estimates on your exercise potential , but these are just the tip of the iceberg . The technologies we ’ re developing at CWS will give us much more interesting and actionable information that will complement what ’ s available to provide a richer set of data to help people live better lives and figure out what ’ s working for them in terms of exercise , nutrition , medication , and clinical treatment .
Who would benefit most from advances in wearable technology ? JW : Wearables that provide continuous monitoring would benefit people who are managing chronic diseases , such as diabetes and heart disease . Ideally the monitoring would be as non-invasive as possible . In the case of people with diabetes , continuous glucose monitors that do not require the user to draw a blood sample multiple times a day would be a game changer . At CWS , we ’ re moving forward technologies that can continuously monitor multiple parameters , which could help even more people managing different types of conditions .
What are the challenges in making wearables part of everyday life ? JW : One of our main technical challenges is accuracy — can wearables get the same information that we normally get from the blood from the surface of the skin instead ? They also need to be comfortable to wear , so making them soft , flexible , and stretchable without sacrificing performance is a challenge from the materials science standpoint . Biocompatibility is another challenge ; they have to be non-toxic and stable over the long term so people can actually use them reliably 24 / 7 .
What will wearables look like in the future ? PM : We ’ ll be moving from big , bulky devices to ones that are sleek and integrated into everyday items . This is where the concept of what we call “ unawearables ” comes into play : these are next-generation wearable devices that are so small and unobtrusive that users are virtually unaware that they ’ re wearing their wearables . And if we can integrate these functionalities into things people already wear , like underwear , socks , belts , rings , or glasses , then users can get access to rich information without having to change their behavior .
What is different about the way CWS is engineering the next generation of wearables ? JW : Wearables are not just about the sensors . We ’ re working toward a complete wearable platform . Our faculty teams are experts in advanced biosensing technologies , flexible and stretchable electronics , ultra-low power circuits , bioenergy harvesting , machine learning , data analytics , data communication , and data security . We also collaborate with researchers in the UC San Diego School of Medicine too , which allows us to better tailor these technologies for clinical use .
PM : Such a holistic view brings extra value to the table because a lot of our challenges are linked . You could build the world ’ s best biosensor , but without a low-power electronic system to run it , then you ’ re limiting your technology to something that needs to be plugged into a wall . We are trying to solve all these problems together . Our cross-collaborations are key in enabling us to develop the next generation of wearable devices .
32 TRITON | WINTER 2021