Wearables in the future

PETER

Welcome everyone. I'm Peter Gauden, one of Huawei's global product marketeers and today it's my great pleasure to be with the genius in biotechnologies and telecommunications. A lecturer at the University of Rome and author of hundreds of scientific papers and numerous books on electronics. That is, Giovanni Saggio.

Hello Giovanni, thank you for joining us today.

GIOVANNI

Thank you, Peter, it is a great pleasure to be here to talk about some fascinating technologies.

PETER

I've mentioned that you're into biotechnologies, but in general terms most people would recognise the term wearable better. You've spent some time looking into a number of aspects of wearables, including the interesting history of wearables. But what I'm really intrigued about is your opinion on what you think will be the most important drivers for wearable innovation in the future?

GIOVANNI

I think the drivers will be data collection and sharing. Enhancing peoples’ lives and

making life easier for people. Durability, since what's the point of a wearable if you have to be constantly taking it to recharge it?

PETER

You know, those are really interesting perspectives, but for us at Huawei, not so unexpected, as for a long while now we've been inspired and driven by a philosophy we call a seamless AI life. Essentially, the desire to research, innovate and develop experiences that allow people to connect with each other across the world in intelligent ways, and for us, wearables are a major route we are actively exploring to support that philosophy.

GIOVANNI

That's interesting, and they already look at the use of wearables to measure our body status and activities. And for wearing tools that augment our capabilities. Even the wearing on computers thanks to chipset technology which has been driving the development of wearable devices. You know, Peter, there are so many great applications for wearables.

PETER

Yes, and I've got some great examples of wearables with me here that do all of that and are already bringing the future of wearable technology to everybody today. You just mentioned that innovation in chipset technology is a key driving factor in the future of wearables, and we totally agree.

So these two devices I have with me today are both powered with Huawei’s own class-leading Kirin A1 Chipset. Kirin A1 features three high-powered dedicated processors – a Bluetooth processor, which is very advanced; a powerful audio processing unit and a low power application processor – all supported by an independent intelligent power management unit. Combined, this delivers the perfect combination of advanced wearable technology and ultra-energy efficiency for a robust and unrivalled experience. I've brought along with me today Huawei's latest member of our Smartwatch family, the Huawei Watch GT2. And then alongside that, I've brought the latest addition to our audio portfolio the Huawei FreeBuds 3.

GIOVANNI

So, both these wearables are powered by the same cutting-edge intelligent processor?

PETER

Yes, and they also run our own in-house open-source operating system called Lite OS, a lightweight Internet of Things operating system designed to make intelligent hardware development easier, and therefore perfect for wearable devices.

GIOVANNI

In the past I have talked about the increasing miniaturisation of micro-processors. That's a key component of the future of wearables and it sounds like you are very far along that path yourselves. I predicted that one of the key uses of wearables to look out for in the future will be related to healthcare. How are you working along that path?

PETER

The Watch GT2 is a perfect platform for users to get in touch with how their body is running and monitor all sorts of important health aspects such as heart rate, stress levels, sleep patterns. Because what we've designed with the Watch GT2 is a much more holistic approach to wellness, which is not just designed to track your activity either passively or actively. And actively, we've actually built in 15 separate activity tracking modes. But also, to give you feedback on how to improve your mental health through sleep pattern guidance and meditating breathing exercises.

GIOVANNI

I see. From what I can tell, a lot of experience will be driven by the type and quality of data the Watch GT2 carried from its wearer. How are you planning for that with the Watch GT2?

PETER

Great question. Watch GT2 includes the Huawei-developed TruSeen 3.5 optical heart rate monitoring technology, that accurately monitors heart rates effectively through all skin types, through an innovative light path result.

This is also accurate even underwater if you are swimming. But we also include a number of sensors as part of the current A1 chipset and use AI to improve the accuracy and evaluation of all the data sources, including an innovative algorithm that helps with our Huawei TruSleep 2.0 sleep monitoring technology. The TruSleep 2.0 technology accurately identifies six typical sleep problems, to provide not only eight sleep monitoring reports but also hundreds of sleep improvement suggestions.

GIOVANNI

That's a lot of information for a wearable to process and it will take up a lot of the power to do that. What have you done to make sure that Watch GT2 is different to all the other smartwatches on the market?

PETER

Well, on top of all the things we've already spoken about, part of the key to the Watch GT2’s wearable experience is its two-week battery life. Instead of having to charge your smartwatch every day, as you do in most cases with the average smartwatch, the Watch GT2 will last a full two weeks thanks to its ultra energy-efficient Kirin A1 processor, and also the intelligent and efficient power management algorithms that it contains.

The Watch GT2’s Bluetooth connection is again powered by the Kirin A1 chipset and for the first time supports Bluetooth 5.1 and BLE 5.1. So, it provides an extremely stable, high bandwidth and long distance reaching supporting connection.

GIOVANNI

By the sounds of it you've got the data collection and evaluation element wearables covered. But you mentioned earlier about the interaction with the wider Internet of Things ecosystem, what have you done to further your progress on the topic?

PETER

Another great question Giovanni, and it leads me into introducing you to our FreeBuds 3 earphones. As part of the seamless AI life strategy, we've recognised that in the coming years the number of digital devices we will share our lives with will grow dramatically, bringing their own challenge as to how we interact with them. And what better way to do that than with the most natural, convenient and personal tool we have? Our own voice. As a perfect tool for being able to talk to and listen to either someone or something, the FreeBuds 3 will increasingly become an indispensable part of our lives.

GIOVANNI

Oh yes, my research indicates that in the future smart controls will take care of you, but how are you building that philosophy into the FreeBuds?

PETER

Well, there are a number of unique elements about the FreeBuds that are really interesting here. First, FreeBuds 3 are the world's first open fit active noise-cancelling earbuds. With the advanced audio digital signal processor of the Kirin A1 chipset designed to support call noise reduction and an accurate real-time active noise cancellation, which can be personally customised for output frequency and intensity.

These true wireless, stereo ear buds have been designed to be not only great to listen to, but also amazing at listening to you, through the combination of precise and real-time AAA call noise reduction algorithms. That means, acoustic echo cancelling, automatic gain control and adaptive noise cancellation. All those combined, plus the inclusion of a bone conductivity sensor in the earpieces and the patented Mic Duct Design protects the onboard microphones from external environmental noise.

GIOVANNI

So, that vital link between yourself and any artificial intelligence powers a smart assistant with which you can link FreeBuds, will be greatly improved with it being able to understand you more clearly than with other headphone connections.

PETER

Correct. And that also brings me on to the remarkable connectivity capabilities of the Huawei FreeBuds powered by the Kirin A1’s superior Bluetooth 5.1 and BLE 5.1 supporting processor. It means that they will be unmatched for signal stability and ease of connectivity. Here, we're using our new generation Bluetooth signal selection algorithm, which is able to hop between signal frequencies to avoid any interference.

We've also designed a system called Isosynchronous Dual Channel Bluetooth, which connects both earbuds simultaneously yet independently. The signal transmission mode leads to a signal transmission latency remaining extremely low, at less than 190 milliseconds. Thus, avoiding any of those audio lags that are especially annoying when you're trying to immerse yourself into watching a movie or playing a game.

GIOVANNI

These earbuds seem to be able to do a whole lot more than an average pair of earphones, but if they are to be your essential audio companions how are you ensuring that the battery will last as long as possible, so that they are there whenever you really need them?

PETER

Well, currently using the highly efficient power consumption capabilities of the Kirin A1 chipset, the Huawei FreeBuds 3 are able to deliver four hours of audio playback from a single charge. But if you bring their charging case into the mix, that extends to 20 hours of playback, so more than enough for the average day.

Although, for us, it's not about pure battery life, it's about the entire power system. So, the FreeBuds 3 are also designed to charge rapidly, whether you're using a wired connection or a wireless charging connection, or even Huawei's reverse wireless charging capabilities on our smartphones, which we were the first to integrate.

So, you can see both the Watch GT2 and the FreeBuds 3 are really powerful wearable experiences.

GIOVANNI

I'm really impressed with what I'm hearing about Huawei’s wearable strategy and the outstanding hardware that we are bringing to market already. The innovation we are bringing is truly impressive, but what is outstanding is that it is so well designed. It makes for an extremely accomplished user experience.

Not only are you creating wearables that allow people to collect and share enough information to evaluate their lifestyle passively, but they will be able to actively evaluate their exercise performances, receiving coaching and guidance on how to recover after exercising and how to handle the stresses of everyday life.

You are also designing future-ready wearables experiences, which appear to be capable of being easily integrated into people's everyday lives, naturally and harmoniously. So that the interaction with them and the wider IoT ecosystem they provide access to will rapidly become second nature.

PETER

I certainly hope so. And thanks Giovanni. We're definitely excited about the innovations we're bringing to wearables and feel that we're really on the right path with our seamless AI life strategy.

Our desire, as you know, is to connect people across the world in increasingly intelligent ways. But I think, unfortunately, we're out of time now.

So, thanks for joining me Giovanni, it's been a great pleasure to chat with you.