Trends in Wearable Technologies for Earth Science

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss the need for wearable technologies for earth science field research, a discipline that can be both extremely physically rigorous and even potentially dangerous at times. The field is also technically challenging because of environmental conditions as well as often being conducted in remote offline regions. Current trends in available wearable technology devices suitable for earth science applications are explored, in addition to describing possible modifications to existing wearable technologies in order to make them deployable, practical offline-capable geoscience systems. Offline Health and safety monitoring systems designed to operate on a low-powered personal body-area network system as well as offline (non-internet dependent) wearable communication technologies are particularly addressed. These types of wearable technologies represent some of the most complex aspects in this field as well being some of the most customizable systems with highly configurable components for remote back country fieldwork functionality.