Perspectives for Wearable Electronics in Healthcare and Childcare

Johanna Virkki, Pasi Raumonen

Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.
Department of Mathematics, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland.

DOI: 10.4236/etsn.2013.23008                

Abstract

This paper starts with a literature survey that introduces possibilities of wearable electronics (WE) in different healthcare and childcare applications. Next, 24 personal interviews and an Internet forum survey were conducted in Finland about the use of WE in applications mentioned above. According to the results, most of the people feel positive about clothes used for wireless identification purposes in healthcare and childcare, but when more information about the person is added that can be wirelessly read, the feelings become more negative. Several important points to consider before implementation of WE for healthcare and childcare environments were brought up.

Keywords

Childcare; Finland; Healthcare; Individual Privacy; Wearable Electronics

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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