Sustain Southern California, formerly known as Sustain Orange County, recently hosted “Wearable Technology in the Workplace for Safety, Wellness and Efficiency” at the Cove @ UCI Applied Innovation.
As part of its “Trending” program series, the lunch-and-learn event featured speakers from various fields who shared valuable insights on the state of wearable technology, the smart electronic devices that can be worn on the body, as well as the Internet of Things, the network of smart devices with internet connectivity.
James Dickey, senior underwriting specialist at Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company, spoke on the wearables sector’s projected growth and the insurance industry’s interest in wearables as a means of employee safety as it relates to workplace injuries. Dickey also mentioned the risks associated with these devices as it relates to personal information.
“With wearables, as with any Internet of Things device, you’re going to be collecting a lot of raw data that could include personal and sensitive information that may need to be protected or encrypted,” said Dickey. “So, if your business deploys wearables, you want to know who’s managing and protecting that data.”
Other speakers included Pawel Sasik and Scott Orlyck, who shared their own raw data, including their GPS coordinates from earlier in the day and Sasik’s own elevated heart rate, as part of a live demonstration of their software. Their startup company, Wearabouts, hopes to bring real-time employee data to businesses, and is part of a growing list of Industrial Internet of Things companies. Their software, when connected to a smartwatch, allows employers to monitor the location and vitals of employees for the purpose of injury prevention and fatigue management, all from a web-based dashboard.
Attendees left the event with a better understanding of the positive potential of wearables as well as their affects, from a data and privacy perspective, on all types of industries.
For more information on Sustain SoCal or to register for an upcoming event, click here.