Intelligent Wearable Electronics: A New Paradigm in Smart Electronics

In the last decade or so, the wearable electronics technology has seen an unprecedented growth which is expected to reach around USD 51.60 billion by the year 2022 with a CAGR of 15.51%. Intelligent wearable electronics is a combination of wide range of technologies like computation, communication, sensors, cloud computing, and display to cite a few. Integration of various technologies result in systems which are multifunctional along with higher complexity of design presenting a unique challenge for the technologists. With Internet of Things (IoTs) becoming ubiquitous and 5G technologies around the corner, the wearable devices are no longer simple passive systems providing the user limited information, but rather they are multifunctional, powerful, and intelligent devices which make use of complex sensing and signal processing elements along with cloud computing and data analytics to provide real-time data interpretation. In this chapter, we review the recent developments of intelligent wearable electronics (WE) with emphasis on their working principle and design at various levels of abstraction, that includes material, device, and system levels, along with signal processing and communication protocol for external communication. Further, the design and development of smart wearable electronics which involves multivariant problem-solving at various abstraction levels is explained. In addition, we elucidate popular classes of smart wearables like wearable textiles, healthcare wearable electronics, and WE in education. Furthermore, we explore the primary performance constraints of typical WE systems such as battery life (energy), system architecture, communication protocols, and integration with cloud computing to, mention a few. This chapter concludes by elucidating various challenges in developing WE and the future directions of this industry.