In the past week I've come across two wearable technology projects, the UV ring and UV Intensity Bikini, that monitor an individuals exposure to harmful UV rays. What's interesting about these two projects is that they take two very different approaches, both using technology, to solve a health issue.

The UV Ring, a student project developed by Julien Bergignat & Laurence Charron-Huysecom (so it's currently only a concept), is a high-tech ring that captures, measures and stores data about the amount of UV exposure one has been subjected to throughout the day. The data is then communicated to your doctor. The information from the ring is retrieved via a wireless data reader.

A more low-tech solution is the UV Intensity Bikini developed by Solestrom.

The UV bikini has has UV sensitive beads that change color with the level of UV intensity. The deeper the color, the higher the UV level· Although this project is fairly low tech using smart UV inks to measure UV exposure, what is nice is that it immediately lets the wearer know when the current UV levels are high.

Why is this important?
It's important to examine various low and high tech solutions for solving a problem. It's also important to see how wearable technology can be applied in our everyday lives to change our behaviors when it comes to monitoring our health.