The world of life science recruitment is in an especially fascinating place, with a range of transformations in the fields of pharmacology, MedTech and genomics powered forward with the rise of more advanced technological solutions such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.
One of the more interesting evolutionary tales is that of the wearable health tracker and its progression from a basic step-counting device to one that can detect a whole range of biomarkers and signs of a healthy body which can be used as part of preventative health interventions.
Chronicling the development of the technology that would enable smartwatches to work is somewhat fragmented, as much of the technology used in modern health trackers were invented for often very different purposes.
With that in mind, here is the evolution of wearable health technology and the origins of the technologies that make the field possible.
Arguably the first step towards a health tracker was conceived by Leonardo da Vinci, as designs for an early pedometer were found in his notebooks, although it is unlikely he ever managed to make one.
Mechanical pedometers that worked using a similar mechanism to watches of the day were known to exist by the late 16th century.
Fast forward to the 1960s, and the purpose of the pedometer becomes clear thanks to the work of Dr Iwao Ohya and clock engineer Juri Kato of Yamasa Tokei Keiki.
Dr Ohya was worried that people in Japan were not active enough in the year leading up to the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and the solution he proposed was that everyone should walk 10,000 steps a day, which would lead to Mr Kato producing with Yamasa the Manpo-Kei – the ten-thousand step-meter.
The device, when it was released in 1965 created a revolution, and whilst it turned out the 10,000 steps number was somewhat arbitrary, it has endured to this very day, with the initial basic mechanical switch replaced with a mix of sensors that have made it more accurate.
Pedometers were the first portable wearable health technology and the basis for which health trackers today are built upon.
Many wearables use a mix of sensors that detect heart rate, blood pressure and galvanic skin response, all three of which were also used as part of criminal investigations as part of the polygraph test.
Often called a lie detector, the three physiological indicators were believed to be the main telltale signs that someone was lying, although in practice the concept is somewhat more controversial in criminology than it is in healthcare.
These basic biometric indicators were first attached to the human body by Polar in the form of wearable heart rate monitors in 1982 and the first-ever wrist-mounted health tracker in 1984, in the form of the Polar Sport Tester PE3000.
This was a gamechanger for athletes, who could now analyse their training data with a system far more advanced than filling out a spreadsheet manually.
One of the key appealing factors of many health trackers is that they have a gamification element, often in the form of setting records that are then broken as well as showcasing progression.
This concept comes from computer games, which would start to produce what would later be known as exertainment as early as 1982, with the Atari-powered Puffer project.
It was an exercise bike that connected to either an Atari 5200 console or an Atari 8-bit computer and would control a game via a combination of pedals and a set of controllers that attached to the handlebars.
It would never be released, and aside from the Joyboard, a balance-based controller for the Atari 2600, it would take until 1986 for Bandai to create the Family Trainer pad, which became known as the Power Pad when the device arrived in North America, licensed by Nintendo.
A concept similar to puffer would arrive in the 1990s in the form of the Exertainment system which provided gamified elements as well as more sophisticated activity tracking.
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