Wearable Technology

2019 saw the largest single year growth rate for wearable technology product revenue since 2015

Asked to picture a printed sensor, you might well imagine a paper test strip for measuring blood glucose concentration. After all, such test strips comprise the majority of the printed sensor market, with billions used each year by diabetics around the world. However, this ubiquitous application masks a highly complex, fragmented and in some cases rapidly growing market that spans applications ranging from image sensing to wearable electrodes.

IDTechEx, host of the world's largest event series on Printed & Flexible Electronics, broadcast this virtual event last week featuring Coca-Cola, Swarovski, Electrolux, Neotech AMT, Ynvisible, Roartis and IDTechEx. Watch on-demand.

The webinar will provide updates across each product type within wearables, confirming 2019 shipment data and reviewing the historic market trend that has brought us into 2020, and then discussing the significant impact which COVID-19 is having in each sector.

Recently the versatility of mixed and augmented reality products has come to the forefront of the news, with an Imperial led project at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Doctors have been wearing the Microsoft Hololens headsets whilst working on the front lines of the COVID pandemic, to aid them in their care for their patients.

An important new trend is buying electrics and electronics you customise to function not just shape. See the new IDTechEx report, "Complete Electronics as Smart Material, User-Customized 2020-2040". Builders, textile manufacturers, those doing home improvement and others are starting to buy electrically-smart materials direct from materials companies, bypassing the electronics industry.

Expect more healthcare wearables that power themselves, many even managing with no battery. The IDTechEx report, "Energy Harvesting for Electronic Devices 2020-2040" covers this and more.

This webinar shares some of the research for the new IDTechEx report, "Energy Harvesting for Electronic Devices 2020-2040". It comes at just the right time. The world's first self-powered smart watches have just arrived. They are not full-function but we are getting there. That billion a year harvester potential will be followed by similar numbers of Internet of Things nodes. Learn other big prizes making several of the world's largest companies research energy harvesting.

When some full-function, always-on smartwatches are able to self-charge, the others will look like the horse-drawn cart. When Internet of Things nodes are self-charging at the right size and price, the market for them will increase one thousand times.

While traditional electronic systems have an inherently rigid form factor, developments in manufacturing processes and materials are enabling a new world of flexible electronics. IDTechEx forecasts the market for healthcare products containing flexible electronics to be worth over $8.3 billion by the year 2030.