9:30: WT CEO Christian Stammel welcomes the audience in Italy. Every part of our environment will be intelligent. Smart homes, smart cars, connected environment. Huge topic: energy for wearables – so let’s think about new connectivity solutions, low energy solutions, user interfaces and materials.
9:45: Keynote: The Intelligence of Things – Consumer Health, Michele Monico, Flextronics: Innovation is everything. Michele talks about digital healthcare and market analytics showing the importance of wearables (Digital Health market will increase to $5.7B in 2015, $97B in 2025, 33% in CAGR, (Park Associates) and about the difficulty to make something which is acutally wearable and convenient.
10:15: We are proud to have Marco Suvilaakso from Polar on stage talking about how to make successful wearables over several decades – since 1975! 1982 they created the first wearable monitor for athletes. But what is important for athletes nowadays? Amongst others and the importance of a long lasting battery and design, Polar takes the experience from professionals for all of us to move better.
10:35: Martin Treiblmayr from Garmin, another dinosaur in the wearable tech ecosystem, explains Connect IQ – The Wearables Platform to Lead the Sports Technology Ecosystem. Making wearables more attractive to bring value to the client.
10:45: Asli Solmaz-Kaiser, TÜV SÜD explains why wearables certified by an independent party are more attractive for consumers and how the TÜV SÜD can help to improve the overall development process. 90% of all customers prefer products that are independently certified for safety. Testing can increase product safety (all parts of it, also the components) which can help to avoid for example recalls causing brand reputation damage. The TÜV SÜD is recognized worldwide for independence. Having the certificate can be an important sales argument and helpful for startups to win investors.
11:45: Lisa Lang, ElektroCouture, is doing a great moderation in the session “Accessories and Jewelry and the Integration of Technology” – slipping in some of her own experiences with fasion and technology.
11:50: Matteo Lai, Empatica: “Medical Quality Wearables Are Coming: Embrace by Empatica and Ground-Breaking Research on Human Behavior” At the moment 200+ clients in 30+ countries use their epilepsy wristband providing clinical data. The embrace wristband shows that medical devices do not have to look “medical” – and patients would actually want to wear it. The device detects the event, shares the alert with acquaintances and – new in the medical field – can monitor daily activities, and use this data to analyze patterns probably leading to the attacks.
12:10: Ashlyn Bird presents the world’s first smart earring. Ear-O-Smart measures calories burnt, heart rate, and activity at the ear (a perfect spot to measure body vital signs) – all in a fashionable accessory customers would want to wear. The device works with any fitness app on the market but Biosensive Technologies is working on an individual app which will work like a personal trainer.
12:25: Reka Kovacs from LIBER8 Technology felt that the Fashion industry needs a dynamic kick. She tells us about Tago Arc with endless display possibilities. The customizable bracelet does not need a battery – so there is no need to charge it (LIBER8 works on energy harvesting solutions since a long time). They look for partners to integrate their tech into other products. So if you are interested do not hesitate to get in touch with Reka. Coloured designs are not yet possible, but will be in the future.
12:45: Lunch break – use the time to network and to talk to our exhibitors Atooma, Clothing+, ComfTech, Exel, Flextronics, Keysight Technologies, TÜV SÜD, Polar, Sensoria.
14:30: Our next session focuses on medical devices and new materials. Alberta Sanna from the Institute San Raffaele moderates “New Products and Technologies”
14:35: Titus Suck from Canatu presents bendable sensor technology opening a bunch of opportunities to design new wearable devices. The technology behind it: transparent conductive films (flat and flexible, bendable, formable). Besides new solutions to feed the devices with energy, newly shaped sensors offer a new freedom of form. High contrast and low reflectivity are some more advantages of the technology which is perfect for curved, flexible and foldable applications.
14:45: Rob Royea, Cyrcadia Health, explains the technology behind their awesome iTBra™ which can detect breast cancer at an early stage (successfully tested with over 500 patients). The company demonstrated an 87% correlation to a verified, clinical diagnosis of breast cancer including those patients with breast tissue. The iTBra contains wearable, comfortable intelligent breast patches which detect tiny circadian temperature changes within breast cells. Abnormal temperature and other cellular signaling patterns sent to a database. Rob met Flextronics at our WT | Wearable Technologies Conference 2013 USA in San Francisco and since then made great improvements with the development process. The bra will be launched in H2, 2016 in Asia and Europe. Info will be sent to the smartphone and database via Bluetooth. The intelligence is now in “your” hands and does not depend on a doctor.
15:00: Martina Janeckova, Qardio, introduces their group of devices enocuraging people to take early action. Due to their studies, 87% patients using their blood pressure monitor use it twice a week. Qardio wants to provide friendly and beautiful devices offering relevant data to care for the heart. Continueous heart monitoring shall be easy, discrete. Their wearables fit in the bag, are designed in various colours, and additionally offer fantastic features. You will be surprised if it is not your boss who is stressing you out but the weekend you spend with your loved ones. We are happy that Qardio will join the WT | Wearable Technologies Show at MEDICA 2015.
15:30: Simon Vicari, Aroma Technology, presents NEXT2me, the world’s smallest wearable devices with 10 integrated sensors which can help you in almost every situtation in daily life. The device can for example measure air quality, CO, UV, body temperature, ambient temperature, humidity, light intensity, and much more. The company plans to include an alcohol tester later on. NEXT2Me can show you the healthiest jogging route in your city, can tell you when it makes sense to use a sun blocker, can help you to find out if your child has fever. The product will launch on May 11 on Indiegogo.
15:50: Coffee break to get ready for the final session.
16:20: Now it’s Mikko Malmivaara’s turn, from one of the market leaders in the smart clothing space: Clothing+. Mikko gives us insights into the difficulties and opportunities of the wearable tech market when it comes to garments and clothing. One main problem is that the textile and tech industry speak in different languages. Clothing and garments are the perfect interface between tech an the human body – the trend is obvious and will develop further (you can have a look at our short overview). But if you want to create a successful smart garment, you have to be sure what you want to do and for whom. If you want to show off with the tech or if you want to hide it. Washability nowadays is about 100 cycles but can be adjusted depending on the solution the customer wants. However, one thing is for sure: People will certainly still wear clothes in the future – but if the smartwatch or the smart glasses will survive is not yet decided.
16:40: Andrea Mazzon from XYZE and his team solved the main problem of online fashion stores – to find the right size (35% of all clothes bought online are returned, 80-90% due to the wrong size). Their device (smart measuring tape) can take accurate body measurements; the hardware can be adjusted to the sports and fashion market. They also offer an e-commerce integration system to make it easy to integrate their tool into any online store. The measurements can be added to a profile which can of course be edited after gaining some weight – with this XYZE ID you can buy online in any fashion store using the system. But this is also interesting for fashion brands – the more of their clients use the measurement tool, the easier it is to find the average shape and to adjust the standard cuts.
16:50: Colin Ballantyne from Alpinestars presents a great safety solution for motorcyclists: TechAir: Instinctive Protection for All Riders. An airbag which can be activated by sensors detecting a fall (accelerometers) and command the airbag to fire. Also pretty clever: the system is turned on/off by using the zipper. The jacket looks very nice – just like a normal motorcyclist jacket. Alpinestars is finalist of the WT | Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup 2015. You can find some more safety wearables for motorcyclists here.
17:15: Another WT | Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup finalist is also presenting today: Davide Vigano from Sensoria.
17:20: Sensoria‘s CEO Davide Vigano has a long history in smart clothing and smart fabrics. His idea: building entire smart collections – with SDKs provided by Sensoria. At our conference, they announced their new cooperation with Renault Sport for a motorsport app – including video recording, heart rate tracking and many more to detect the stress level of the sportsman and many more assets. In the future, he announced that textile yarns can completely replace traditional conductive materials; smart fabrics can replace sensors. By 2016, wearable smart electronics will emerge as a $10 billion industry – Gartner Group (Angela McIntyre)
17:30: WT | Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup will be kicked-off after speeches from the sponsors STMicroelectronics and MediaTek Labs. Fabrizio Rovati, Senior Program Manager ST Central Labs, STMicroelectronics explains how the company can support the wearable tech space and why the company engages in the WT | Wearable Technologies World Cup. MediaTek Labs engage in the Innovation World Cup series this year for the first time. Edward Kay speaks about their enabling tech which can help to realize new ideas – technology available for everyone.
18:10: Evening reception will start now at the Museo – happy networking and see you soon at our WT | Wearable Technologies Conference 2015 USA in San Francisco (July 9-10).
