Wearable Technology and the Future of a Billion-Dollar Industry

Washington, D.C., July 14, 2017 -- A feature article published this afternoon in the new, online nonprofit journalism news outlet Bioengineering Today explores the global, billion-dollar industry of wearable fitness and medical technologies, which stands at the crossroads of computing, consumer electronics, exercise culture and human health. 

A wearable alcohol sensor developed by Shalini Prasad Credit: University of Texas, Dallas

The article begins: 

"As you read this, you won’t have a population of customized precision medicine nanobots holding vigil in your body curing diseases just as they arise. Nor are you wearing a complete bodysuit that protects you from the near-vacuum, zero gravity and smidge-above-absolute zero threat of space, sending real-time data about your condition to your home planet via the galaxy-wide web. 

"Someday you might. For now you may be wearing a small piece of the future on your wrist. 

"You do already if you have a fitness tracker. Or, if you suffer from any of several chronic diseases, you may soon have a wearable, noninvasive medical device that monitors and/or treats your condition and sends data to yourself, your doctor or your insurance company. 

"The gap between the science fiction version and the real-life version may be rapidly closing. Wearable fitness and medical technologies will be a $4.5 billion market globally by 2020, according to Global Industry Analysts. Everything from heart rate to insulin status to recreational drug use can now be measured and monitored digitally. The convergence of miniature electronics, software and some fancy technical work at the interface of chemistry and physics is poised to explode -- with huge upsides and some possibly disturbing downsides …" 

Read the entire story for free right now at the Bioengineering Today site:
https://bioengineeringtoday.org/biosensors/wearable-technology-and-future-billion-dollar-industry 

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ABOUT BIOENGINEERING TODAY

Bioengineering Today is a nonprofit journalism venture owned and operated by AIP Publishing in Melville, New York. See: https://bioengineeringtoday.org 

ABOUT AIP PUBLISHING

AIP Publishing is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). AIP Publishing’s mission is to support the charitable, scientific and educational purposes of AIP through scholarly publishing activities in the fields of the physical and related sciences on its own behalf, on behalf of Member Societies of AIP and on behalf of other publishing partners to help them proactively advance their missions. AIP Publishing’s portfolio comprises highly regarded, peer-reviewed journals, including the flagship journals Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, and The Journal of Chemical Physics, in addition to the AIP Conference Proceedings. http://journals.aip.org

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Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8f4d9bf9-523a-4fb5-96ee-3752d350b703

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