Sweat monitoring underwear? Is 2014 the year of wearable technology

Although wear­able technology has been around in some form or another for the last 25 years, its pre­de­ces­sors were much more geek than chic and existed solely for the ease, con­ve­nience, and enter­tain­ment of the wearer. But with Google Glass’s high-profile entrance into the mar­ket this past year, a newer, brighter light was seem­ingly shone onto the wear­able tech land­scape as a whole.

Just days into 2014, and many experts are already tout­ing it as the year of wear­able tech­nol­ogy, cit­ing the pro­lif­er­a­tion of in market and soon-to-be avail­able devices dom­i­nat­ing the dig­i­tal chat­ter. Regard­less of the expec­ta­tion, the num­bers cannot be denied.

Strava has changed they way we run and cycle, for better or worse. If you haven’t heard of it, see top ten tips on how to use it best here. This video explains what it is and what it does.  

From Fit­bit to Jaw­bone and Nike’s pop­u­lar Fuel­Band, every­one, it seemed, was lever­ag­ing these con­ve­nient wrist­bands to opti­mize weight loss and well­ness. And with affordable aver­age prices rang­ing from £75 - £125, the wrist­band was hands down the most con­sumer acces­si­ble tool on the mar­ket in the last 12 months.

Innovative are fit-tech leader Basis, who showed off a sleek sleep tracker that will offer wear­ers a detailed break­down of their rest periods, from toss­ing and turn­ing counts to nightly inter­rup­tions, heart rate, skin tem­per­a­ture, and restora­tive REM time. All, of course, sync with a now-updated mobile app for iOS and Android and will be avail­able start­ing Jan­u­ary 21.

The com­pany already offers some of the most sophis­ti­cated tools out there, with bands that gauge heart rate constantly, body move­ments, work­out inten­sity, sweat lev­els, exer­tion level, and sleep qual­ity, sync­ing data to your smart­phone. Also inter­est­ing is that Basis devices, unlike the name brand prod­ucts on the mar­ket, are pre­dom­i­nantly geared toward the health con­scious rather than the fit­ness freak.

Smart watches as a whole are expected to dom­i­nate the mar­ket in the next 12 to 24 months. They have an ever-expanding app sup­port and an affordable price of around £200.The first proper smart watch came out in late 2013, with Samsung’s release of Galaxy Gear. Late this year Apple look likely to release of its iWatch—and CEO Tim Cook indi­cat­ing that the device will have more con­sumer appeal than Google Glass.

Fol­low­ing on the suc­cess­ful heels of the activ­ity tracker boom, per­sonal health and well­ness soft­ware and ser­vices will make steady increases in the year ahead. Bio sen­sor shirts seem likely hit the mar­ket in a big way this year and next. These styl­ish com­pres­sion gar­ments acti­vate cir­cu­la­tion, aid per­for­mance, and are even pur­ported to drive faster, more effi­cient mus­cle recov­ery, while their embed­ded sen­sors mon­i­tor heart rate, activ­ity, breath­ing, and a host of other func­tions. All of this valu­able bio-data syncs with your mobile phone instantly, help­ing you track progress and chart suc­cesses. Should you prefer, try a sensor-enhanced bra or underpants—both can monitor sweat release, track food con­sump­tion and help stave off overeat­ing.

Impli­ca­tions go beyond the gym. Sen­sors can track overnight pat­terns for sleep apnea suf­fer­ers, or even trig­gers for those with chronic phys­i­cal and emo­tional con­di­tions, from asthma to panic attacks. In the future, this infor­ma­tion could sync not only with patients’ smart­phones but with their doc­tors’, enabling them to make rec­om­men­da­tions and, essen­tially, track patients in their day-to-day envi­ron­ment to make more effi­cient, effec­tive diag­noses and treat­ment plans, and track their suc­cess in real time.

The only thing Steve Austin may have got wrong, was the price tag.