Selecting a ‘Smart’ Hat to Match Your Other Wearable Accessories

Have you heard about ‘Smart’ Hats? They are one of the latest trends in wearable technologies.

Those of you who have read my previous posts on ‘Smart’Fishing Rods, ‘Smart’Kayaks, ‘Smart’Guns, and ‘Smart’Hiking Sticks - you know I really don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m just not a big outdoors-man and don’t really like to fish, hunt, hike, or paddle around in a kayak. I much prefer to stay at home and read about these topics or watch YouTube videos about them. However, I do know how to put on a hat.

Nowadays, whenever I go out to play tennis, ride around in my boat, or watch a ballgame, I tend to put on a hat – usually one of my favorite ball caps. I wear one not only because my doctor says to, but I also want to hide the growing bald spot on the back of my head. Now I have many other reasons to wear a hat - we now have ‘smart’ hats.

Definitions – Hats vs. ‘Smart’ Hats Hat - A head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons, religious reasons, safety, fashion or… ‘Smart’ Hat - A head covering with built-in technologies such as biometric sensors, fitness tracking software, bluetooth communications… and more.

Examples of ‘Smart’ Hats

The following are excerpts from some recent published articles about ‘smart’ hats - whether they be ‘smart’ ball caps, ‘smart’ hard hats, wearable fitness tracking caps, or …

• LifeBEAM offers a wearable ‘smart’ hat containing a fitness tracker measures your heart rate, cadence and calorie consumption, then transmits your performance to your smartphone, smart watch, or home computer.
• Spree Smartcap uses biometrics with medical grade technology to measure heart rate, movement and body temperature. It syncs with your smartphone to track your workouts, showing the progress toward your fitness goals in real-time.
• Smart-hat – A startup company developing a ‘smart’ cycling helmet that includes a variety of road safety features including: indicators, brake lights, headlight, camera, drop down visor and wiper system!
• Daqri – They have developing an Android version of the ‘smart’ hard hat that is packed with sensors, a camera, and heads-up visor display.

• SmartCap – They have produced a ‘smart’ cap for vehicle drivers or operators of heavy vehicles that provides real-time measurements of fatigue, based on direct physiological measurement rather than estimation via measures of related symptoms.

Other ‘smart’ hat products you might want to look at include ForestfishBluetooth Baseball Cap and the ZeroWearables who are currently running a Kickstarter campaign for development of their smart baseball cap.

The 1^st generation of ‘smart’ hats are now here – but imagine what technologies and capabilities the next generation of ‘smart’ hats will include. For example – think augmented reality software, artificial intelligence (AI), interconnected wearable ‘smart’ clothing, interface to your self-driving vehicles, drones… and to your ‘Smart’Fishing Rods, ‘Smart’Kayaks, ‘Smart’Guns, ‘Smart’Hiking Sticks ... Will the wonders never cease.

As I said before, whenever I go outside nowadays to play tennis, ride around in my boat, or watch a ballgame, I now tend to grab my ‘smart’ hat – in addition to my ‘smart’ glasses, Fitbit wristband, smartphone, and ...

* Check out the Summerton SC Blogspot for more articles about SmartTechnologies & Accessories