How Wearables Could Change the Political Race

WearableToday-MP3

Luke and I have been doing some house cleaning. Luke shows off some old iPod mini watch bands and I talk about the tech upgrades in the house including a new Netgear Nighthawk X4S Smart WiFi Router.

Wearable Today Episode #95 Show Notes

• If you’ve been to a hospital for anything serious, you’ve probably had wires hooked up to your chest to check your heart health. This is called an ECG and can be an awkward experience for people. The wires usually run to machine next to the bed, so if you need to go to the bathroom or otherwise move around it can be quite an ordeal. HealthWatch has come up with a solution, with a tight fitting shirt that has the appropriate technology embedded into it. And the monitoring device attaches to the shirt too, making the monitoring more constant as well. This could open up the possibility of at-home monitoring, freeing up hospital beds and lowering healthcare costs.
• The educational aspects of wearable technology are just getting started. In a new video from my friend Paolo Tosolini, Nikki Kloeppel provides some 360 degree coaching, where you sit in the middle of a job interview and can watch all the participants. Although the content is short, it’s easy to imagine having this kind of immersive education for all sorts of topics. You can watch it with Google Cardboard, or on the YouTube website at the link in the show notes.
• The New York times has a bold article on the future of wearables, saying that right now, most of the wearables you see will end up in your junk drawer. His personal experience with a FitBit, a Jawbone UP, and an Apple Watch has turned into an indictment of the entire industry, with some numbers to back it up. Most sales numbers have not met expectations, and the industry has not grown as fast as it was predicted to a couple years ago. You can read the full article, which includes a few reasons why he feels like the industry has had slow adoption, over on the New York Times website.
• The luxury smartwatch family is getting another member! This one comes from Isaac Mizrahi in the form of a Swarovski crystal-studded watch for women that works with both iOS and Android. Engineered by HP, the device has a 3-line display that appears within a traditional watch face, and allows users to send and receive text messages, and receive all the standard notifications. The device will launch this week for only $249.
• Finally, at CES I met up with the folks at Blocks – the modular smartwatch. I interviewed them for Geekazine, as well as Fitbit Blaze, H2OPal and Quitbi
• Are wearable tattoos here? Kinda. The MC10 is working on reshaping healthcare with the introduction of the BioStamp Connect System. While you are not going to a parlour, finding the tramp stamp and laying on a table to have it put on, the BioStamp patch will create a “Tight skin coupling”. You can have multiple patches on your body. These devices offer 3-axis accelerometer and Gyroscope, integrated electrodes for sEMG and electro cardiac activity, and other sensor information.
• If you don’t like the standard cable for your Android or iPhone – even cables for your wearables, then Instructables has a great way to help curtail the cord noise. Did you know you can curl your own cables with nothing but a pencil and hairdryer? Guess what – you can also uncurl cables as well. This video will show you how.
• How Wearables Could Change a Political Race

Jeff’s View:

VR is a great way for you to watch the Iowa Caucus from home and feel like you are at the event. But that might not be the only way we can enjoy the front runners vie for political office.

Imagine this: You have a front row computer monitor to sensors attached to the candidates. From heart rate to perspiration levels, you will know when someone is uncomfortable with a question, if they will start a fight over something said, or if they may be telling the truth or not.

In the race between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, it was the debate where Nixon perspired too much which caused the public to turn. People watch and report on the facial expressions of candidates to determine if they are truthful. So why not add wearable data into the mix?

If could be a new level of politics – the wearable level. People monitoring office members to make sure they are in the best of health when making decisions for our City, State and Country. Any major change in their vitals and their staff can advise to prevent any embarrassing issues.

We could see how a campaign can stress out a person. We could see if Donald Trump or Marco Rubio is sleep deprived. We could get body readings from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to figure out who is confident and who is hiding something.

President Obama has already been seen with a Fitbit Surge. Data that I am sure he shares with Michelle and maybe his doctor. And this could be a great feel-good social moment for anybody running for office. Publicly display their wearable data for people to run the numbers and keep active on the campaign trail.

Luke’s View:

Not only can it be used for receiving data from politicians, it could also be used to contribute to the political process. Instead of just watching them, they could watch you. Show data to politicians ex: hundreds of active users in this area, we need more public trails. Monitor air quality with a wearable, share data with your favorite organization. Use wearables to vote on issues through connected apps. Keep constantly connected to your reps and send them data, pictures, or feedback on the political decisions.

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