This week’s Smart Health roundup features wearable devices that can be used for education, work training, and even gun control.

Wearable tech’s potential for education and work

 .

Wearable technology comprises devices to help people with daily tasks, such as tracking daily schedules and fitness goals, monitoring health and documenting regular activities, to name a few perks.

An infographic from the Online PhD Programs sees wearable tech’s potential in education, particularly for heads-up-display units such as Google Glass.  The infographic, Wearable Educational Technology, highlights how HUDs can be used in workplaces to train new employees with quick how-to videos, and even learning from a distance. This means a lecturer could be a few states away or even halfway around the globe, while the trainee remains at company headquarters.

In the classroom setting, HUDs can be used to orient new students to find the library, cafeteria or classrooms; for lecturers to deliver point-of-view presentations; view lab experiments involving volatile chemicals closely while in a safe distance. Lecturers can deliver supplemental materials during lectures, and a lot more other uses that are both beneficial for students and teachers.

However, it should be noted that despite high hopes for HUDs, there are still several drawbacks such as limited availability and high cost of the device, privacy issues and a short battery life. And depending on circumstances, an HUD can even be a distraction rather than a learning aid.

While others look to using Glass in education, Google has amped up efforts with Glass at Work, a program to help developers create specific apps for vertical business markets. The long term goal is to build an ecosystem around Glass to drive widespread adoption, leveraging the developer community instead of crafting and distributing apps directly to consumers.

Speaking of the workplace, Epson unveiled its next generation Moverio BT-200.  The device is different from Glass in so many ways, as it features two lenses, though it doesn’t look as stylish as Glass. The Moverio BT-200 comes with an external control unit that doubles as a battery pack, and aside from delivering quick information right in front of a user’s eyes, it features augmented reality capabilities.

Augmented reality can be really helpful in the workplace as the technology interlays digital information with real world settings or scenarios.  For example, it can be used to keep track of retail inventory, an employee will just have to look at an item’s barcode to receive pertinent data.

Beyond retail, Epson is currently working with APX Labs and Metaio to develop surgical training and remote-field service support applications for Moverio BT0-200 in health care.

Smartwatches get smarter

 .

miCoach Smart Run, Adidas’ offering in the smartwatch market, will be getting a worthy new feature: offline Spotify integration.  According to reports, the feature will be available later this year, towards December, along with route recommendations optimized to a person’s progress, challenging athletes with varied experiences everyday.

Microsoft smartwatch

There’s a good chance that we may soon see a smartwatch from Microsoft as the  U.S. Patent Office released the software giant’s application for a smartwatch design.   The smartwatch will serve as a fitness tracker with additional features for enjoying music, as well as a communication device for calling and texting.  The watch itself can be detached from the bracelet for charging.

If Microsoft does release the said smartwatch to the public, it will not be the company’s first product in the wearable tech market.  In 2004, Microsoft announced Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) which uses FM radio to deliver information to appliances such as coffee-makers and alarm clocks.

Microsoft collaborated with Fossil, Suunto, and Tissot, all three releasing SPOT watches to delivered information such as news, and even receive instant messages from MSN Messenger (though there was no option to reply back).  Back then, SPOT was quite revolutionary but it didn’t quite take off.  Maybe SPOT was just ahead of its time.

Smart gun opposed by both sides of gun control debate

 .

The Armatix iP1 handgun is unique in that it can only be fired by a person wearing a special watch. The watch requires a PIN before the gun will go off.  Though some may think that this smart gun is what we need to prevent senseless shootings and ownership of illegal firearms, there’s much more to this debate. Intrestingly enough, the technologically advanced smart gun is unifying those who are pro and anti gun control when it comes to the sale of the iP1.

Gun enthusiasts fear that allowing the iP1 will result in laws requiring similar technology for all firearms, potentially making current gun collections obsolete or illegal.

Others fear that the sale of the iP1 will put into act the 2002 law passed in New Jersey mandating that all handguns in the state be personalized within the next three years of a smart gun going on sale anywhere in the States.  Other states could follow suit, which would mean only smart guns can be legally owned, stripping a person’s right to choose their own guns.

As for those who are pushing for gun control, they fear that a smart gun will just result in more people owning guns, since the iP1 has a safety feature.

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc
photo credit: Janitors via photopin cc