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Technology allows us to monitor the pressures of daily life |
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Quentin Cooper explores how the latest science and technology
is taking wearable monitoring away from the laboratory and realms of science
fiction, into the practical everyday, and puts his body to the test.
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Technology and watches are hardly new to each other - the idea of a self winding wristwatch can be traced back to a patent granted in 1780, although it didn’t come into production until 1924. But with the advent of the post World War 2 spy era, wristwatch technology came to symbolise being one step ahead of the competition. In the 1950s detective series Dick Tracy, had a two-way communicating watch, and any James Bond film is not complete without some highly advanced ideas in wristwatch development… if a little impractical - but is it?
With the rise of aerobics, gym culture and athletics, people suddenly need to know exactly how long they’ve taken to do a hundred press-ups, or to monitor their performance to the split-second. More than that, they are intent on keeping a check on their pulse rate, breathing, and bloodflow. Now wristwatch and wearable technology has been developed that allows us to monitor the way our body responds to the different pressures we put it under every day.
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