Wearable Sensor Technologies

The widespread adoption of consumer electronics—including wearable sensors and smartphones—has strengthened our ability to understand and intervene in many aspects of personal and population health and performance and create a critical path to health problem solving.

Wearable sensors in the form of smartwatches, bands, or rings are devices that monitor the activity and physiological parameters—such as heart rate or skin temperature—of the wearer. Marketed as exercise or lifestyle trackers to the general public, the measurements enabled by wearable devices can be translated into meaningful and actionable health information for individuals, clinicians, researchers, and the military. Using wearable sensors as data collection tools coupled with advanced data analytics can provide invaluable insights into the health status of individuals.