This premium article gives an overview of optical combiners and explores manufacturing methods for surface relief diffractive waveguides, with examples from key market players.

Wearable activity trackers that monitor changes in skin temperature and heart and breathing rates, combined with artificial intelligence, might be used to pick up COVID-19 infection days before symptoms start, suggests preliminary research.

Blood pressure is one of the most important indicators of heart health, but it's tough to frequently and reliably measure outside of a clinical setting. For decades, cuff-based devices that constrict around the arm to give a reading have been the gold standard. But now, researchers have developed an electronic tattoo that can be worn comfortably on the wrist for hours and deliver continuous blood pressure measurements at an accuracy level exceeding nearly all available options on the market today.

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are edging toward becoming commonplace. However, social acceptability is still some way off and the user experience is not entirely comfortable. Essential to solving these problems are the lenses that magnify and focus headsets' displays.

This premium article explores the TechConnect 2022 event, held from 13th-15th June near Washington DC. The event covered a wide range of technologies and this article will particularly focus on photonics, displays, and augmented reality, materials informatics and AI, and materials and electronics.

A Finnish research group has developed a novel wearable for infants for the reliable assessment of motor abilities during early development. The smart jumpsuit is a wearable medical device equipped with multiple movement sensors, which assist in assessing and predicting children's neurological development.

This premium article explores the PRINSE'22 event. It will look into the most interesting and commercially relevant presentations from the event, with a focus on integrated electronics, manufacturing, wearable technology, and biological sensing.

A coach wearing a mixed-reality headset could receive real-time statistics and facial interpretation data to evaluate a player, while also interfacing with a team of analysts and trainers who work remotely and see the same information.

The creation of high-resolution extrusion printing—think 3D printing but with ink that conducts electricity—has enabled researchers to explore the potential of wearable human motion devices.

Teslasuit is very excited to be launching its haptic glove later this year, which combines haptic feedback, force feedback, finger tracking and a biometric system to give the user an unparalleled and literal grasp of the human-to-digital interface.

The skin of cephalopods, such as octopuses, squids and cuttlefish, is stretchy and smart, contributing to these creatures' ability to sense and respond to their surroundings. A Penn State-led collaboration has harnessed these properties to create an artificial skin that mimics both the elasticity and the neurologic functions of cephalopod skin, with potential applications for neurorobotics, skin prosthetics, artificial organs and more.  

Thursday 30 June 2022 - Emerging optical technologies have the potential to make realities feel more real in a compact device that may be worn all day. But what are these technologies and how will they alter the landscape of this growing industry? How will manufacturers and material suppliers need to react?

Imagine a more sustainable future, where cellphones, smartwatches, and other wearable devices don't have to be shelved or discarded for a newer model. Instead, they could be upgraded with the latest sensors and processors that would snap onto a device's internal chip — like LEGO bricks incorporated into an existing build. Such reconfigurable chipware could keep devices up to date while reducing our electronic waste.

Wearable sensors — an important tool for health monitoring and for training artificial intelligence — can be waterproof or can measure more than one stimuli, but combining these factors while maintaining a high level of precision in the measurements is difficult.

Thursday 23 June 2022 - Mass-digitization trend is predicted to cause the gas sensor market to surpass $8 billion by 2032. The gas sensor market is a complex combination of multiple technologies and applications - and understanding where true opportunities for commercial success exist is challenging.

This premium article introduces blood pressure and explores the technology trends and market outlook in wearable blood pressure, in particular focusing on the incumbent technology, the key players, and the role of wearable blood pressure in disrupting big-brand dominance.

Air quality concerns are on the rise globally, with urban pollution the dominant cause. However, radon accumulation and unpleasant aromas are often bigger problems in rural locations, creating opportunities for gas sensors that offer continuous monitoring and even odor categorization.

On display now at Milan Design Week is the SSYS 2Y22 Reflection Collection. Created using the new Stratasys J850 TechStyle 3D printer, this Stratasys created and curated collection was made possible through close collaboration with seven design groups and includes exclusive dresses and suits, daywear, lighting, luxury packaging, cosmetics, handbags, accessories, footwear and more.

NASA has selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to advance spacewalking capabilities in low-Earth orbit and at the Moon, by buying services that provide astronauts with next generation spacesuit and spacewalk systems to work outside the International Space Station, explore the lunar surface on Artemis missions, and prepare for human missions to Mars.