Wearable Technology in 2024: Predictions, Devices and Stories to Come

Devices

Moved by Evie Ring

Kot vse kaže je čakanja na Evie Ring končno konec. Na naše prste prihaja v letu 2024. Gre za pametni prstan, katerega glavna ciljna publika so ženske uporabnice, in ki naj bi konkuriral prav tako pametnemu prstanu Oura. Ta je v zadnjih 12 mesecih uspel prepričati velik del ženskega trga, ki so prepoznale prednosti nosljivih naprav na prstu.

Prva naloga, ki jo ima Evie Ring, je biti dejansko kvalitetna nosljiva naprava. Podjetje ima nekaj izvrstnih idej, kako uporabiti medicinske senzorje in kako po hitrem postopku pridobiti FDA odobritev, vendar je Movano še vedno “začetno podjetje”, ki razvija svojo prvo napravo.

It would also be wise to add support for Android devices. Currently, the ring only works with Apple devices.

Apple Watch X

Vse govorice kažejo na to, da posebna izdaja ure Apple Watch prihaja ob 10. obletnici naprave leta 2024. Govori se o veliki spremembi dizajna ter o novih senzorjih za spalno apnejo in krvni tlak. Apple bo med drugim moral dobiti tudi patentno bitko z družbo Masimo.

In addition to the presentation of the device in question, we expect Apple to take a step forward in the field of tracking well-being. It's focused on the big health metrics, but we feel like it's lagging behind in the realm of wellness devices. Just looking at where Whoop, Oura, and now Garmin have taken things shows how much work Apple still has to do. We expect a rebalancing this year.

Whoop 5.0

In addition to the innovations presented above, it seems likely that we will see a revamped Whoop device in 2024, although little has been said about it until now. As a reminder, Whoop is a very popular fitness device that works very discreetly on the wrist. In fact, at first glance, it works like a regular fitness band. Inside, however, there are quite a few advanced sensors that make athletes frantically buy this and similar devices.

The current Whoop 4.0 was released in 2021, so it really would be about time we got an updated device. As a simple sensor vehicle, the hardware is relatively unimportant.

However, we would like heart rate sensor upgrades and battery life increases.

Oura Ring Gen 4

The Oura Ring Gen 3 smart ring is also available from 2021.

During this time, the manufacturer did not stand still and presented the upgraded look of Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon.

Although Oura is still the leader in the field of smart rings, it is increasingly challenged by models such as the Evie Ring, Circular Ring Slim and Ultrahuman Ring Air.

With many improvements, competitors are only getting closer to the Oura's level of comfort and design.

Samsung Galaxy Ring

The smart ring market is one of the most interesting subcategories of wearable technology. So far, however, none of the biggest tech players have made a significant contribution.

Samsung regularly publishes patents for its smart ring, and it looks like 2024 could be the year they officially launch the product.

Čeprav se zdi malo verjetno, da bi lahko Samsung kategorijo v smislu surovih inovacij dvignil stopničko višje, bi tehnološki velikan, ki bi se lotil pametnih prstanov, kategorijo postavil na “mainstream” zemljevide.

Apple Vision Pro

Se spomnite velike naprave za “prostorsko računalništvo”, ki jo je Apple predstavil na konferenci WWDC? Saj veste, tista naprava, zaradi katere je zaslon vašega prenosnika velik kot soba? No, ta bo izšla letos.

Although it is a niche product, it will be interesting to see what kind of response, if any, it will generate.

It will also be interesting to see what impact it will have on the rest of the AR/XR industry. If this product is going to penetrate the consumer consciousness, it should probably happen now.

Stories

Blood pressure

Svet nosljivih naprav in pametnih ur že kar nekaj časa čaka na novi velik senzor – in zdi se, da bo ta prišel letos na področju merjenja krvnega tlaka.

Samsung has an existing workaround on the Galaxy Watch that only works if you also have a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, so its appeal is limited.

Smart watches that can detect high/low blood pressure and raise awareness among the millions of people suffering from hypertension would be a huge asset.

This technology was announced for the Apple Watch X, but many developers in the world of wearables are working on it. Therefore, it will be interesting to see who will manage to provide this functionality and implement a useful and educational feature in watches.

In addition, the signature of the regulatory authorities will be required to obtain a license for use. This means that it will be necessary to overcome quite a few big obstacles along the way.

Sleep apnea

A few years ago, sleep apnea became a central topic in the development of wearable devices. Fitbit and Withings already offer readings of changes in oxygen levels during sleep. However, due to restrictions, since they are not officially a medical device, the devices cannot talk about sleep apnea.

We expect things to move forward in this area with more prescriptive detection of apnea problems on common, everyday devices.

This is another feature announced for the Apple Watch X, and we'd be surprised if sleep apnea wasn't a major topic of conversation at this year's Samsung, Pixel Watch, and even Huawei releases.

Blood sugar

Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring seems highly unlikely this year. But by the end of 2024, we will definitely be closer.

There are a number of companies with promising solutions, such as Afon from the UK, RF sensor from Movano and Actxa from Singapore.

While a solution for type 1 diabetics may be unrealistic for now, something that can detect spikes or unhealthy blood sugar levels in pre-diabetics could have huge societal benefits.

So expect significant progress to be made in this area this year.

Artificial intelligence and wearables

2023 was a breakthrough year for artificial intelligence, and everything seems to be changing this year. But we can expect a shift from fairly useless concepts to useful and useful implementations. It is precisely the wearable device industry that could play a key role here.

The potential that artificial intelligence brings to the field of wearable technology is to connect scattered data points and make something unique out of them. In practice, this could mean long-term analysis of blood pressure data and their association with sleep patterns, which ultimately provide a whole new dimension of self-knowledge.

In any case, we are talking about big goals here, which are heavily dependent on regulation. Despite everything, we expect the first concrete steps this year, most likely on the wings of Apple's Quartz platform.

Patent War 2.0

Zdi se, da smo spet nazaja v času vojne patentov iz obdobja začetka nosljive tehnologije. Kar nekaj “spopadov” je trenutno aktualnih, na katere velja biti pozoren. Eden takih je zagotovo primer Apple proti Masimu ter tudi Apple proti AliveCoru. Tudi Oura ima močno konkurenco, recimo podjetji Ultrahuman in Circular.