Wearable tech is something that is new to the market. Although new and new products are launching very fast nowadays, the market is quite yet not welcoming to such endeavors.
Amidst of all this, “The Wearables for Good competition” is indeed a big effort to promote all those people who have quality ideas regarding new wearable tech. The competition is launched by UNICEF, ARM and Frog. Finally, the competition’s management had released the long list of wearables and the concept behind them.
The competition was initially launched around May. The aim behind this unique wearable competition was to motivate developers and designers to create new and fascinating ideas for wearables that could help children in developing countries.
The two winners will be awarded with the prize of $15,000 in funding. The purpose of funding is to help those people to finally solidify their idea into reality. The winners will also get support from ARM and Frog Design. As we all know these two companies are big tech giants and will definitely help the winners to develop a world-changing wearable.
Another advantage of the funding and this massive support is that the people who have geek minds but no medium or funding to make their ideas reality will finally find a platform to do so. Apart from the usual fame, it will also help in increasing the morale of participants.
There are few ideas that have made themselves successful through the initial judging stage. These include Wearable Water Purifiers, a Malaria warning system and a device to stop child abuse.
The participants of the competition have gathered from around the globe including US, India and Africa.
Denise Gershbein, creative director at tech design company Frog said that,
“We are excited to help the 10 finalists navigate this challenge and, in turn, rally the global community to explore greater use case potential for wearables and sensor technology.”
The full list of finalists is along with their origin and ideas are as follows:
- CommunicAID, U.S: It is a bracelet that tracks medication treatment
- Droplet, U.S: It is a wrist-worn wearable water purification device
- Guard Band, Vietnam: It is a wristband that helps protect children from abuse
- Khushi Baby, India and U.S: It is a necklace-type wearable to track child immunization in the first two years of life
- Raksh, India: It is a device worn in the ear to track a child’s respiration rate, heart rate, body temperature and relative breath humidity designed by a team of university students
- Soapen, India and U.S.: It is an interactive crayon-like device that encourages hand washing among young children
- Telescrypts, East Africa and U.S: It is a wearable device to take patients’ vitals and send the data to health care workers
- TermoTell, Nigeria and U.S: It is a bracelet used to monitor and analyze a child’s temperature in real-time in order to save the lives of children at risk of malaria
- Totem Open Health Patch, Netherlands: It is a small sensor-based device that is part of a wider Totem Open Health system for wearable health technology
- WAAA!, U.K.: A sensor-based neonatal health surveillance tool.
The next step of the competition includes making the prototypes reality. It means that the teams will have to practically implement their plan and make it a reality. The teams will additionally get help from ARM and frog to implement their ideas. This is a great step because apart from the winner wearables we will also get to see some other potential talents which may be a part of our near future, if they are lucky enough o get sponsored.
We will tell you more about the competition as it progresses. Stay tuned to know more.
