Slowly but surely, technology is making its way into every wearable accessory we have – the best smartwatches have been on the scene for years, serving not only as an extension of our smartphones but also as health and fitness trackers. , while the best smart rings offer sensors. for key health metrics in a package smaller than watches. And now it's time to get ready for some stylish earrings.
Researchers at the University of Washington have presented the thermal earring, which is placed in the ear like a normal earring and has two temperature sensors. One of them is on the stud and detects your skin temperature, while the other hangs below, monitoring the ambient temperature around you and transmitting the readings from both sensors to a compatible device via Bluetooth (via Android Police ).
Thanks to this two-sensor system, the researchers found that it measures body temperature better than a smartwatch, at least for the six participants who have tested the pendant so far.
If this improved precision is applied to a larger group of subjects, the team behind the earring hopes it can become a useful health tool. Improved temperature accuracy could lead to a more reliable version of menstrual cycle tracking that we've started to see in smartwatches, and the earrings could help any wearer by alerting them to fever, stress, and other conditions that can affect temperature. bodily.
Not ready to use yet
However, before we all wear stylish earrings, several things still need to be resolved. For starters, as mentioned above, much more testing will need to be done, as a sample of six people is too small to draw any far-reaching conclusions.
Then there is the design. If dangling circuit boards aren't your thing, you can add resin charms to hide them, but this solution won't be to everyone's taste, and more universally styled designs will need to be made available and tested to ensure they don't affect accuracy. .
Additionally, it will be necessary to modify the design to use a material such as silver or another hypoallergenic metal; Otherwise, thermal earrings could create more problems than they solve for some people.
Overall, we're excited about the idea of smart earrings and can't wait to see these designs in a product we can actually buy and wear.
Smartwatches have become one-stop shops for health and fitness, but your wrist probably isn't the best place to measure all your vital signs. By splitting your sensors across multiple wearables, all working together, you can place them where they are most effective, which in turn should allow for more accurate and useful health and fitness tracking.
