Is This the Most Surprising Wearables Trend of Q2 2017?

One of the stories that is gaining traction in the wearables space is the reality that sensors are becoming less expensive and increasingly commoditized. It’s no longer enough for wearables makers to leverage better sensors to attract consumer interest. Instead, they must develop more holistic offerings with software that makes wearables smarter and more useful. This is why you may have been seeing a lot of focus on AI-powered wearables lately.

Yet, there’s are a few areas where sensors could still drive significant demand and innovation. A surprising one is sweat-sensing wearables.

A new feature coming this month to the DigiHealth Informer intelligence platform is the Exploration Engine. It is designed to solve a common problem: Sometimes it’s hard to understand big picture themes and trends by looking at a series of charts, table and graphs. Via Innovation Maps (see below), the Exploration Engine provides users with with insights about trends, companies, innovations and other topics that consistently receive attention over time at-a-glance — and information about how they connect with each other.

The image below is of an Innovation Map I generated using DigiHealth Informer illustrating some of the sensor-related themes that were dominant areas of focus during Q2 2017.

Innovation Map: Dominant Themes, Sensors — April 1, 2017 — June 30, 2017

Source: DigiHealth Informer

What’s intriguing about this Innovation Map is its emphasis on a new breed of wearables that utilize sweat to diagnose disease. This was interesting to me, as I’d been seeing some increased references during 2017 to sweat-focused wearables. To confirm this, I decided to run a comparative analysis between 2016–2017 to see if the volume of references to sweat wearables had increased. As it turns out in 2017, there have been (overall) higher and more consistent references to sweat wearables (as compared to the same period during 2016), as illustrated by the two trend analysis graphs below.

Trend Analysis: Sweat Wearables — January 1, 2017 — June 30, 2017

Source: DigiHealth Informer

Trend Analysis: Sweat Wearables — January 1, 2016 — June 30, 2016

Source: DigiHealth Informer

Startups and Surprising Sweat-Related Innovations

Another interesting characteristic of the sweat wearables sub-sector is how quickly advances in this area are being commercialized by startups. For example, Kenzen, which delivers real-time insights using patented biosensors, raised $5 million during Q2. And, Eccrine Systems is developing a range of “non-invasive, electronic wearable systems that measure and transmit real-time data about human sweat.” The company has raised $6 million to date.

Also of interest is some of the surprising ways sweat sensors are being utilized, as illustrated in the Innovation Map below. Sweat could potentially be used to diagnose disease, including cystic fibrosis. Another interesting use of this technology is to detect human emotion, as a researcher at MIT has recently demonstrated.

Innovation Map: Dominant Themes, Sweat — April 1, 2017 — June 30, 2017

Source: DigiHealth Informer

Some experts believe sweat could take health wearables to the next level, especially from the perspective of providing critical medical and wellness-related data. Only time will tell whether this prediction comes true, but the sweat wearable subsector is certainly advancing rapidly.

Note: All of the insights above were generated using DigiHealth Informer. The platform’s core value is its ability to automatically produce and deliver market research summaries and reports in seconds. Use it to rapidly gain insights about new markets, companies and startups, technologies and much more. Click here to learn more about how the platform can help you.