A smartwatch is a wearable device designed to be worn on the wrist. Like smartphones, they use touchscreens, provide apps, and typically record your heart rate and other vital signs. The many types and useful features of smartwatch makes it the most used watches in daily life.
Types of Smartwatches
Broadly speaking, smartwatches occupy two niches in the wearable market. First, like the Apple Watch and most of his Google-powered Wear devices, the versatile smartwatch combines form and function. These are intended to replace mechanical watches and rely heavily on smartphones. Think of them as support devices for mobile phones that happen to be worn on the wrist.
- Pixel Watches — Designed and marketed by Google, currently compatible with Android phones, but not compatible with Apple devices.
- Wear Watches — Designed and marketed by many vendors using Google’s Wear operating system.
- Tizen Watches — A proprietary operating system developed by Samsung for its popular Galaxy smartwatch.
- Apple Watches — Designed and sold by Apple.
- Hybrid Watches — Hybrid smartwatches are watches that have the traditional look and feel of a wristwatch, but they also come with smartwatch functionality.
General Features of Smartwatch
Most smartwatches—whether they’re intended for daily use (as with the Apple Watch) or for specific purposes (as with the Garmin Fenix)—offer a suite of standard features:
- Fitness tracking — If you’re a hardcore athlete, you’re probably better off with a dedicated fitness band than a smartwatch. However, many smartwatches include heart rate monitors and pedometers that can be used to track your workouts.
- Media management — Most smartwatches paired with smartphones can manage media playback. For example, if you’re using Apple’s AirPods to listen to music on your iPhone, you can use your Apple Watch to change the volume and track.
- Voice Control Features — Remember the old Dick Tracy comics where the main detective used his watch as a phone? Modern smartwatches with watchOS or Wear operating systems support voice dictation.
- Apps — Aside from displaying notifications from your phone, smartwatches are just as good as the apps that support them. The app ecosystem varies and is tied to the Apple or Google environment. Smartwatches with a dedicated purpose such as hiking and diving typically support the apps needed to serve that purpose without the ability to add other types of apps.
- Good battery life — Modern smartwatches come with batteries that can last you through a day of normal use, with only a small amount left. Battery usage varies. The Apple Watch typically lasts 18 hours on a single charge, while the Pebble lasts 2-3 days.
- Notifications — Notifications appear on your smartphone to remind you of important events and activities. There are different types of notifications. Devices that connect to your smartphone simply mirror your phone’s notifications to your wrist, while other smartwatches display notifications that only wearables can provide. For example, the new Apple Watch has a drop sensor. If you fall while wearing the watch, it will detect your subsequent movements. Send a series of escalation notifications if no motion is detected. If you do not respond to the notification, your watch will assume you are injured and will notify authorities on your behalf.
- GPS — Most smartwatches include GPS to track your location and receive location-specific alerts.
Basic Health Features of Smartwatch
Smartwatches have become a popular accessory. It’s important not to overlook the health and wellness features that many smartwatches offer. Today, as technology advances, they are cheaper and have more features. Smartwatches are usually associated with tech fanatics and health enthusiasts, but ordinary people can also benefit from using smartwatches i-e can use it for communication, etc. Here are the top 7 smartwatch health features.
Heart Rate Monitoring
Heart rate monitors are included in wearable technology and are used to measure heart rate. A biosensor can be placed directly on the skin for an instant heart rate reading. Biosensors are known to detect impending heart attacks and even detect heart rate abnormalities early.
Respiratory Rate Monitoring
Wearable technology can also be used to monitor breathing rate. This can help you spot breathing rate anomalies or if you need a break during your workout.
Blood Pressure Monitoring
Wearables have sensors to allow for accurate blood pressure measurements throughout the day, similar to a cuff device. Patients with hypertension or heart disease can use health wearable devices like a smartwatch to regularly monitor their blood pressure through an RPM program.
Pedometer
Wearable technology counts your steps as you join your daily walking routine. The accelerometer and altimeter are used to determine distance traveled. A must-have, especially for athletes and hikers. You can track your progress by tracking your steps.
Calorie Counter
This function displays how many calories you expended while walking. You can also keep track of how many calories you consume each day. You’ll be able to detect any dietary difficulties or track which days of the week were the healthiest by being able checking your caloric intake. This could be helpful for people with diabetes, obesity, or other chronic diseases who comply with a certain diet advised by their care providers.
Sleep Quality
This feature allows you to monitor your sleep time by recording your inactivity time. It detects sleep disturbances and lets you know if you toss and turn or wake up in the middle of the night.
ECG
Electrocardiograms are typically performed in clinical settings such as hospitals and clinics, but now patients can take an electrocardiogram at any time and send the data to their healthcare provider using the RPM mobile app. DrKumo’s ECG-enabled smartwatch has touch-sensitive buttons that allow wearers to get readings in just seconds.
Temperature
Due to the influence of COVID-19, more and more people want to measure their body temperature with a smartwatch. For this reason, many companies are working on adding this to their smartwatches. DrKumo RPM smartwatch supports this feature.
Alarm Reminder
Wearable technology can assist you in setting personal fitness objectives, as well as tell you when these goals are met and when they are not. Setting goals with your fitness tracker gives you that extra push to get them accomplished.
Connectivity
This is a feature that allows the gadgets to connect to your smartphone and track your progress over time. Although biosensors are directly attached to the skin, they also provide connectivity. They can use Bluetooth, which, once enabled, can sync immediately to an app on your phone, giving you real-time access to all of your information. The best part is that everything will be saved in the app and will be instantly available anytime you need it. If you use a remote patient monitoring program, you will be able to send your data to your doctor.
Conclusion
Of course, some gadgets just track your health. On the other hand, smartwatches offer fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring, and other similar features. Most smartphones come with these features built-in, and more health-related features will be added over time.
