“Biometric identification will become an increasingly important part of our lives in the future.” – Arne Fleißner, Product Manager, Osram Opto Semiconductors Munich-based Osram Opto Semiconductors is looking to facilitate facial recognition on smartwatches with a new pair of infrared LED solutions. The LEDs, dubbed SFH 4170S and SFH 4180S, can each be used in…
There is growing evidence that Apple will launch new versions of its Apple Watch smartwatches alongside its new iPhones this year. One of the most solid pieces of evidence comes from filings with the Eurasian Economic Commission, or EEC – a necessary step before launching new products in the Eurasian region that has previously foreshadowed…
Vivo is focusing on 5G at this week’s Mobile World Congress Shanghai event, announcing a slate of new products based on 5G technologies. The most noteworthy is Vivo’s first commercial 5G smartphone, which is on display at MWC Shanghai before becoming widely available in the third quarter of 2019. The smartphone will serve as the…
Huami has upgraded the Amazfit Verge smartwatch with the full integration of Amazon Alexa. Users of the wearable device will now be able to talk to the hand to get news, sports, and weather updates, and to perform a slew of basic clerical functions. “Alexa has become a natural part of our daily routines in…
“The ECG data from the Health app can be shared as a PDF with physicians, potentially enabling diagnosis and treatment for conditions that otherwise might have gone undetected.” The Apple Watch’s electrocardiogram capability is now being rolled out in Europe and Hong Kong through a new software update. First unveiled along with Apple’s latest iPhones…
“Based on the FitPay mobile payments platform, Garmin Pay allows users to upload their payment information so that they can make contactless, tap-to-pay purchases using their wristband devices.” Garmin Pay has a big new supporter: Discover has announced that its credit cards can now be used together with the wearables-focused mobile payments platform. The news…
The Garmin Pay mobile payments system for wearables has further expanded, this time through a new version of the Vivoactive 3 Music smartwatch. The new wearable was announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. In its core specs, it’s pretty much the same as the last version of the device, able to store about 500…
IDEMIA‘s remote SIM provisioning technology is once again being used in support of a smartwatch, this time in collaboration with DTAC, a mobile operator in Thailand. The collaboration means that DTAC subscribers will be able to easily set up a new, eSIM-based smartwatch on the network, and to easily change their subscriptions and even network…
“In the case of SK Telecom’s smartwatch, the eSIM provisioning is facilitated through IDEMIA’s Smart Connect service.” Remote SIM provisioning technology from IDEMIA is being used in South Korea’s first eSIM smartwatch based on the GSMA’s latest eSIM specification. It’s the product of a collaboration between France-based IDEMIA and SK Telecom, the country’s largest Mobile…
China-based Huami appears to be banking on the flashy aesthetics of a San Francisco-based design studio to help it crack into the American smartwatch market. The company is promoting its new Amazfit Verge device, which features a Xiao voice-based virtual assistant, IP68-rated water and dust resistance, NFC support for mobile payments, and an embedded GPS. It…
“…it’s worth noting that this technology could also potentially be used for biometric authentication, with other biometrics specialists such as Nymi having demonstrated that the unique patterns in an individual’s heart rhythm can be used for identification.” Along with its unveiling of this year’s new iPhones, Apple also showed off an upgraded Apple Watch this week.…
A pair of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have devised a novel approach to online authentication that leverages speech recognition and a smartwatch. Dubbed ‘Listening-Watch’, the system requires a given user to download a security app on their smartwatch device. When authenticating through a PC or laptop, the computer will play a…
“As the researchers explain, transparent fingerprint sensor technology ‘is highly sought after’ given the growing prevalence of biometric security on smartphones and smartwatches, and device makers’ interest in maximizing screen space. “ Korean researchers have developed a capacitive fingerprint sensor technology that is both transparent and flexible. As outlined in a paper for Nature Communications,…
Market research firm Tractica believes that we’re on the cusp of an explosion in the wearable tech market. In a new report, the firm asserts that the nascent wearables market taking shape with the smartwatch is going to usher the broader smart clothing and body sensor market into the mainstream. In its report, the firm…
