IT APPEARS that sooner rather than later our smart watches will be telling us a lot more than they already do now.
The smart watches that were coined by Dick Tracy in the comics of the forties and fifties have finally come to pass.
What foresight did the authors of these comics have then. Those space travel comics predicted things that are happening, right now, in this fast-changing world of ours.
Not only do our watches tell the time, but they are mini computers advising us how to exercise – how many steps are taken on our morning walk.
We can talk to each other through your smart phone which in themselves can do almost anything one wants to do. These can give you the weather forecast, send messages, print details to your printer, and tell you if your home is invaded, or how your pet is behaving.
Not only do smart watches do all this and more, but some can be programmed to give valuable health information like pulse rate or monitor your heart condition or even your pacemaker.
As alluded to in some past columns, there are now pendants that can detect a fall you might have.
These can be programmed to call six telephone numbers that will get you the help you need. They use the Telstra network and can send a GPS location so that someone can find you, wherever you may be.
Some watches measure various heart patterns and can send this information to your doctors, who can then measure the response to the data supplied. Imagine being able to screen for potential mental health issues at home while you sleep wearing your smartwatch.
If it can be successfully analysed by its AI to screen for depression, it is likely that in the future it may be able to screen for other mental conditions too.
Most of this stuff is in the early stages, but when you think about how AI is being slowly introduced into our daily living, and robot waiters delivering food to your table. And AI is increasingly being used in aged care facilities to assist the staff.
Wearables have only just begun to realise their true potential. We are living in an age of wearables, not only smart watches, but plasters that analyse biomarkers from sweat, or bandages that examine the efficacy of medication.
Already patches are being used for medicating a dose directly into the skin and there are even rings that can be worn that together with your smartphone can analyse lots of information that may be required by your doctor. Some have a six-day battery life before needing recharging.
So, our world is changing so quickly that even if you’ve just retired, it may be well worthwhile learning of these new developments.
These are bound to affect you in the next 20 years or so. Maybe in that time, many more will survive and be living to 100.
They may have to have special lanes in shopping centres for those with walkers!
