24 Empowering Design Innovation for Healthcare Wearables
Introduction
"Citius, Altius, Fortius," or "Faster, Higher Stronger"
in its more recognizable form, is the motto of the
Olympic Games (Figure 1). Of course, not everyone
who wears a health and fitness monitor to measure
and record vital signs is an aspiring Olympic athlete.
For more sedentary individuals, such as your humble
scribe, an occasional workout might be the only time
a wearable is pushed anywhere close to the level of
performance for which it was designed. In addition,
everyone (even Olympic athletes) needs rest and sleep.
Ultimately, this means that for a large part of their
REALLY
SMART
WEARABLES
CUSTOMIZE
THEIR POWER
SUPPLY
Figure 1: Olympic flag
This design solution shows
how an alternative power
management integrated circuit
allows optical sensors used in
health and fitness wearables
to save power with dynamic
voltage scaling techniques,
particularly when they're not
being used to their full potential.
