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An international team of nanomaterials researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Korea University have developed a new, ultrathin, bendable and stretchable film that is both transparent and highly conductive to electricity. This film has potential applications in roll-up touchscreen displays, wearable electronics, flexible solar cells and electronic skin.

The transparent flexible film can be bent repeatedly and stretched to seven times its original length.

Senior...

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A research team from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has presented a new graphene-based supercapacitor at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Philadelphia.

The flexible micro-supercapacitors could trigger new developments in the realm of wearable technology, with a myriad of possibilities such as smart T-shirts that charges mobile phones or dishwashing robots, according to the researchers.

Picture credit: KAIST

A research group from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed ultra-thin transistors aimed at improving the performance of electronic and wearable displays.

As the IoT era gains ground, there has been robust demand for wearable and transparent displays suited to the requirements of various fields such as augmented reality (AR) and skin-like thin flexible devices. However, the researchers argue that previous technology for flexible transparent displays...

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Nymi, a security and authentication provider focused on the wearables space, argues in a recently published infographic that the increase in data breaches does not bode well for the enterprise.

According to the infographic, the risk of a company having its systems breached is one in five, with the average cost to a company coming in at $3.5 million.

More than nine in 10 (91%) of breaches involve stolen credentials of some sort – usernames and passwords – perhaps not a huge...

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A study from Michigan Technological University has revealed progress made on more versatile wearable technology using iron instead of semiconductors.

The research, published in Scientific Reports and led by Yoke Khin Yap, a professor of physics at Michigan Technological University, argues that silicon semiconductors are susceptible to overheating and face limitations in terms of size, as well as being at a disadvantage as they leak electricity. The alternative approach suggested by...

(Image Credit: Dialog Semiconductor)

Dialog Semiconductor's latest SmartBond development kit now includes profile support for WeChat's communication protocol.

The support for WeChat's protocol was announced with the launch of the company's WeChat SDK, which enables developers to add Bluetooth connectivity between wearables and WeChat apps or other IoT devices.

“Dialog is committed to supporting our customers’ continued growth and innovation into exciting...

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Frost & Sullivan has released a report that names wearable electronics among the leading microelectronics technologies in the future, with the segment expected to make headway in terms of adoption soon.

Wearable electronics is expected to play a major role in consumer and healthcare applications and this development along with the rise in the use of smart devices is boosting the development of microelectronics technologies.

The demand for cost-effective and robust devices that...

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A new report by Research and Markets has found that innovations, cloud computing and diversity in applications will play key roles in the future of wearable technology.

The report found that innovations across the entire ecosystem will play a major role in the success of wearables. The ecosystem includes app developers, technology providers, software providers and original equipment manufacturers.

Cloud computing is also expected to play a major enabling technology among wearables. In...

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Most current wearable devices use Bluetooth to communicate, but this can be wasteful due to a how difficult it is for the signal to pass through a user's body. This causes an effect called "path loss" whereby a signal is weakened on the way to its destination, as well as causing security worries due to the distance the signal travels around the user being susceptible to eavesdropping. 

A team led by Professor...

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To fully leverage smart textiles for the future for wearables, we need a manufacturing shift.

Smart textiles and interactive garments have played a strong role in the wearables space for the last twenty years, driven by visionary design prototypes such as the Philips New Nomad project from 1998, exploring the integration of digital interactivity into a range of apparel and jewellery.

Since then, we have seen a proliferation of prototypes and small release products, but a major impediment...

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Let’s face it: we’ve all moaned about our smartphone’s lack of battery. Anyone who has ever gone away on a trip and forgotten their charger knows never to do it again.

For wearables, the equation has turned on its head, and it’s a problem which many companies are trying to solve. Microsoft, in a recent post on its TechNet blog, revealed it was going about it in an innovative way: by...

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To ensure the connectivity of wearable devices, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) appears to be the way to go – with limited computing power, the clue is in the name. Yet a recent post from Context Information Security has fired a warning shot over privacy issues in the BLE protocol.

Titled ‘The emergence of Bluetooth Low Energy’, the post addresses how scanning for devices running off BLE...

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A research article discusses the issues surrounding the current Wi-Fi standard for connectivity on wearable devices and proposes a new standard, called Wi-Bo.

Wi-Bo, short for Wireless Body, would have a frequency of between 10 and 20GHz and a maximum range of two metres. As analyst and report author Andrew Sheehy explains: “It seems that what is needed is a completely new wireless networking standard.

“Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless networking standard that is used to...

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Semiconductor solutions provider Broadcom has introduced a new smartwatch platform that reduces power consumption for Android Wear devices.

Broadcom claims the platform reduces power usage by up to 40% by offering a smaller form factor, shrinking the circuit board size by a similar figure and reconfiguring certain features, such as offloading some tasks from the applications processor to less power-intensive parts of the system. With this, OEMs can also add features, or include a larger...

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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a hub for all types of technology, from smartphones to washing machines. Yet, alongside connected cars, there was a clear appetite for wearable technology at this year’s event.

Recent research from Accenture found that over the next 12 months 12% of consumers plan to buy a wearable fitness monitor, with the same number expected to buy a smartwatch in the same time frame. Within five years, 40% and 41% respectively expect to...

Most devices on the market use Bluetooth to communicate, and therefore rely on a six-digit PIN code to authenticate between them. This represents approximately one million possible keys which with today's computing power is simple to crack and allow an attacker access to private data about the user without consent.

The researchers showed how information from the wearable device could be revealed in plain text

Other than just notifications, wearable devices are collecting data such as...