Hearables: a healthtech revolution
From headphones to hearing aids, ear-based technology is everywhere you look. It’s no surprise then that “hearable” devices and monitoring systems are also gaining huge momentum amongst healthtech innovators.
Jacob Skinner, CEO of UK-based wearable technology company, Thrive, gave his take to Med Device Online on what benefits hearables are already bringing to the sector, and what their future impact looks like.
“Hearables can be useful for telling us what is happening in the body right now… They could tell you whether you are within the correct heart rate range for your exercise plan, for instance, and use an audible signal to tell you to speed up or slow down,” said Skinner.
“Once a system begins to understand what is normal for your body, it can use anomalies to detect potential health problems. Combining several measures, along with things like voice recognition and head movement, could be a powerful indicator of overall health and well-being.”
By 2030, the hearables market is expected to be worth over $A220 billion.
“Many of these applications are some time away from being reliable and widely used, but the pace of innovation is fast and increasing,” said Skinner.
“We are just a few years away from widespread consumer use of hearables for health monitoring, but specific, niche medical uses are already happening.”
