Six months ago, Samsung began advertising the Simband, wearable technology for communication. Cheeky advertisements with nostalgic cinematic anecdotes from cult films and Sunday morning cartoons. The projection of our future being now was confirming these sci-fi films’ expectations for future communication technologies. The Korean company introduced the idea of technology s a wearable extension of self– your smartphone on your wrist. With months to sit with the idea of phone watches and allow competing companies to encroach on the wearable technology trend, they debuted the beta generation of the technology to product developers.
The new iteration of the phone watch, depicted through the advertisements, similar to Gear S, The Simband wearable is entirely focused on healthcare. At their second annual conference in Silicon Valley, Samsung debuted the beta product to developers for sensor evolution and reformation. CNet was present at the conference and reported on the product, “when the original Simband debuted earlier this May, it was designed as a health band, but not a smartwatch. Its focus is entirely on health tracking, collecting lots of data to share with medical researchers, doctors, and for personal health use. Simband is open and modular, and comes studded with a ton of medical sensors.”
The wearable technology allows for future medical advances and reporting of biometric data beneficial for the future of healthcare. Additionally, the release of the device in its beta stage allows for medical engineers and program developers to manipulate the technology to report or focus on specific medical diagnoses relevant to an individual’s health conditions. How the sensors can evolve, what they could possibly be recording, and the storage of this data is placing Samsung in a position where they could possibly merge with the Big Pharma and the Healthcare industry.
The potential that this product has on the future of wearable technologies and healthcare is exponential; if a wearable device with the technology of a watch, smart phone, and health data and medical records were safely stored and easily accessible by doctors or healthcare professionals.
The only downside to this reveal is that Samsung made it clear that this device is not intended for commercial sale and use, but rather for developers to expand upon the product for health care benefits. This opens the company up to healthcare platforms and encouraging further tech companies to expand on the same idea. It’s still unclear about how Samsung plans to use these new technologies in the future, but the debate still lies if whether people are in support of wearable technologies or smart gear. People could also question the privacy of the medical reporting or the incentives and hyper connection associated with wearable tech.
regardless, where the tech industry chooses to take wearable tech is interesting and the future seems bright.
thanks!
Taylor
Links:
http://www.samsung.com/us/globalinnovation/innovation_areas/
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/wearable-tech
http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-simband/
http://mashable.com/2014/11/12/samsungs-simband/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/12/samsung-releases-simband-fitness-wearable-for-developers/
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