Wearables Tech Conference 2023: Key Highlights and Takeaways

Last week, I had an opportunity to participate at the 44th Wearable Technologies Conference. It gathers industry leaders and pioneers in the wearable space to discuss the latest developments and highlight the projections of the wearable devices market.

The organiser of the conference, Christian Stammel , kindly invited me to attend and give a presentation about the opportunities unlocked with Prifina's human-centric approach to data and #PersonalAI that could be built on top of users' own data from wearable devices.

Here are some key highlights and takeaways:

I attend many events every week and talk to hundreds of developers, company representatives, and investors. The Wearables Tech Conference surprised me because of the shared knowledge of the participants:

• Wearable devices offer immense practical utility. E.g. traditionally, we had to visit a doctor and get our medical health records. If hospitalized, our vitals are checked 3, 4 or 6 times daily. With wearables, our health monitoring becomes continuous. If we have a 24/7 record of our body temperature and heart rate, we can move from a reactive healthcare model toward predictive healthcare. This is huge!
• Shared understanding of the limits of siloed data collection and processing; the need to create a holistic, open framework to utilize data from multiple sources.
• Building AI-powered solutions that would help people get insights, nudges and recommendations based on data from wearables.
• Lack of a clear regulative framework and, more importantly, is one of the main hurdles for more holistic, personalized human/patient-centric solutions.

1 / Tiny Cheap Sensors Everywhere

There are so many tiny, sophisticated and inexpensive sensors that can measure any data point: pressure, temperature, consistency of substances (e.g., liquid or your sweat), 3-dimensional movements, anything. The current state of technology allows us to make sensors as small as needed.

Established companies also see immense opportunities for sensorizing consumer devices. For example, Henkel , a German chemical and consumer goods company, is expanding its operations into the sensor-making market.

So many companies and consumer brands are exploring how to augment consumer experience with sensors and data from sensors. No matter the consumer device, there could be sensors that could add additional value to data. The tricky part is finding the right use case that actually makes sense for consumers and offers a competitive edge vis-a-vis other market players.

2 / Sensorized Wearables

Integration of sensors in wearables (clothing and everyday devices) is already taking place. I especially enjoyed the presentation by Ulysses Wong from Softmatter who showcased sensorized yoga pants, exercise T-shirts and various bands that measure heart rate, blood pressure, and body vitals. These wearable technologies are already being manufactured and many of our brands have plans to release sensorized products in the next coming years.

Brian Hamilton showcased sophisticated AR glasses for industrial applications (e.g., medical and construction environments). I got an impression that those glasses were like the Magic Leap device, but which is actually ready to be shipped and actually works.

The trend is clear: we will have more abilities to track our physical world and augment our performance in different life situations.

3 / Brain Data & Mental Wellbeing

Brain and mental health is one of the main areas where most breakthrough is likely to happen. As scientists uncover new methods to collect and interpret brain data, new types of devices are likely to be developed.

Those brain-related scientific discoveries are closely tied to the sensorized devices that send electromagnetic waves and stimulations to affect brain activity which in effect will help alleviate pain, detect brain diseases earlier, treat various symptoms and improve the general well-being of people.

Ramses Alcaide gave an excellent illustration about the recent developments in the brain tech space, and we will be able to perform different functions and give commands by simply using our minds.

Also, I got the impression that our conventional earbuds are going to evolve into sensorized devices and will become one of the most accurate medical-grade device used for various purposes (e.g., health monitoring, etc.)

4 / Prifina's Human-Centric Model for AI-Powered Apps

During the Conference, there was a special panel dedicated specifically to the topic of data. I appreciate the opportunity to present the human-centric data model which we are building at Prifina.

Currently, we live in a product-centric environment where device-making enterprises aim to offer the most amazing product for their customers. one of the side-effects of this product-centric model is that data created by us consumers who use such devices is collected in centralized systems of device makers.

In practice, this means that we have separate applications for each device and service we use.

At Prifina, we are building a personal data platform where individual user, like you or me, are at the center. Each individual user connects data from separate devices and services we use, and new types of AI-powered applications run on top of each user's own data, privately (not in a central server of a device maker).

Prifina's model unlocks endless opportunities with user-generated data: new types of applications and AI-powered assistants can be built for each user. More importantly, such apps are both private and personalized because they run on the combined data set - or "the master copy" of the data - that each user has for himself/herself.

You can read more about the human-centric approach to personal data and what it takes to build a truly personal AI here.

Thanks for reading this -I hope you enjoyed this recap!