Embedded.com Tech Focus Newsletter (8-11-14): Getting ready for wearable embedded computing

Ready or not, embedded developers have more challenges – and opportunities – ahead if they can want to successfully design wearable computing devices.

Wearable devices market analyst Jennifer Colegrove looks at the current generation of wearable electronic smart watch and fitness band devices and recommends seven key factors needed to stand out.

The basics requirements of first-generation wearable electronic devices and how to pick the right microcontroller or application processor for your design.

The basics of ultraviolet radiation in sunlight and how to use UV index sensor circuits to build a wearable device that warns of harmful sun exposure.

The health and safety requirements of wearable sensors embedded in jewelry, piercings or contact lenses are non-intuitive and may involve estimation of human physiological dynamics.

Wearable smartwatches promise to bring enhanced convenience to common communication and information retrieval tasks. Because of their placement on the wrist, they must be small and otherwise unobtrusive, which limits interaction range and sophistication.

The design of SmartFinger to provide visual information to connect devices, objects and people using a finger-worn camera to capture images from a user's surroundings.

Pingu, an around device interaction (ADI) prototype, uses a finger as the mechanism by which people can interact with any nearby computing device with wireless connectivity in a ubiquitous environment.

PinchWatch, a one-handed device with a wrist-worn display on which users invokefunctions by pinching and enter parameters by sliding or dialing motions with the thumb on the palm.

The integration of wearable devices in an Internet of Things environment, using a dual protocol Bluetooth/ Wireless Sensor network node and creation of an ontology for organizing and structuring management of such devices.

How wearable sensors, worn on a wrist band, an ear or in the earpiece of common consumer devices such as a Bluetooth mobile phone earpiece can be used to provide ongoing health monitoring.

Using a wearable wristband device that wirelessly controls software on an Apple iOS to explore the potential impacts of such technology, studies were done comparing sighted and visual impaired users.

A roundup of recent embedded technology and product news abou wearable electronics device tools and building blocks