Wearable
A body-worn connected device, such as a smartwatch, fitness band, patch or smart garment, that senses physiological or motion data and syncs it to a phone or cloud.
Wearables are IoT devices built around the human body. A watch or band combines an IMU for movement, optical sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen, sometimes temperature or electrodermal sensors, and a Bluetooth Low Energy link to a phone that forwards data to the cloud. Patches and rings push the same sensing into smaller, longer-lasting packages, and smart garments weave electrodes into textiles.
The design pressures are extreme: a few grams, days of battery life, skin contact, water resistance, and sensors that must cope with motion and varied skin tones. In healthcare, wearables are the front end of remote patient monitoring, where the question of whether a device is a consumer gadget or a regulated medical device shapes everything from accuracy requirements to data handling. The IoT in healthcare guide covers that distinction.
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