Impact of Wearable Technology on the Coal Industry

Explore the potential impact of wearable technology on the coal industry, covering technology, market regulations, ethics, and disruption. Learn about smart glasses, smart helmets, and walkie-talkies in coal mining.

ITECH 1100 UNDERSTANDING THE
DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Part One – Research.........................................................................................................................3
Technology..................................................................................................................................3
Coal Industry:..............................................................................................................................4
Part Two – Brain Storming..............................................................................................................5
Part Three: Regulations and Ethics..................................................................................................8
Market..........................................................................................................................................8
Law..............................................................................................................................................8
Physical........................................................................................................................................9
Ethical..........................................................................................................................................9
Part four - Disruption.....................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Smart glasses....................................................................................................................6
Figure 2: Smart glasses in coal mining............................................................................................6
Figure 3: Radiation detector............................................................................................................7
Figure 4: Flow Chart without wearable devices............................................................................12
Figure 5: Flow Chart with wearable devices.................................................................................13

Introduction
In this assignment, “The potential impact of Wearable Technology on the Coal Industry” was
evaluated with the following points. The wearable technology plays a necessary role that
provides security threats and their features into the coal mining industries. For explaining the
overall scenario, it was divided into four similar parts. In the starting stage, the technology
description and about the industry was described. In the next stage, at least three types of
technologies were described briefly. In the next stage or the third stage, the scope of the market,
their laws or the rules and regulations, physical architecture, and the ethical risks will be
discussed. In the last or the fourth stage, the disruption part will be described with the flow chart
of the usage of this technology.

Part One – Research
Technology
Technology refers to the application for the scientific information for the practical purpose,
especially into the industries. The technology that is used was named “The potential impact of
Wearable Technology on the Coal Industry”.
Wearable technologies are fashionable technologies, smart devices, wearable devices that were
incorporated in the worn or clothing over the structure as accessories or implants. These devices
are the activity trackers and the example of IoT (Internet of Things) such as sensors, software,
electronics, and the connectivity that are the effectors which enables the object to change data
quality via internet with the operator, manufacturer, and the different kinds of connected devices
with no requirement of the intervention of humans (Kolodzey, et al, 2017).
Wearable technology having the application varieties that grow their fields and expands with
their own. Instead for the commercial use, wearable technology was incorporated in the
navigation system, healthcare, and the advanced textiles.
There are some wearable technologies that were used in the present times, these are:
 Smart eyewear Technology: Smart eyewear could be used as a body camera. Smart
eyewear battery life can be easily extended with the use of an external battery. Controlling
the device / or programs from another device is needed for some features because of the
sterile environment. The lenses of smart sunglasses can be manufactured out of multiple
adaptive cells, therefore different parts of the lens can exhibit different optical properties
(Tag, et al, 2018).
 Walkie-talkie Technology: A walkie- talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio
transceiver. A walkie-talkie is a half-duplex communication device. The transceiver is
normally in receive mode; when the user wants to talk, they must press a “push-to-talk”
(PTT) button that turns off the receiver and turns on the transmitter.
Usage of walkie-talkie:
Intrinsically safe walkie-talkies are often required in heavy industrial settings where the radio
may be used around flammable vapors. This designation means that the knobs and switches
in the radio are engineered to avoid producing sparks as they are operated.
Accessories Used:
There are various accessories available for walkie-talkies such as rechargeable batteries, drop
in recharges, multi-unit rechargers for charging as many as six units at a time, and an audio
accessory jack that can be used for headsets or speaker microphones.
 Smart Helmet: Smart helmets were embedded with the additional devices and the sensors
which used to gather the data or the information to assist users. It will be increasing the usage

by the bicyclists and motorcyclists instead of industrial use by their fire fighters and the
workers. This technology includes the GPS navigation and the action cameras which also
used to assist the users. It was connected via internet which performs the functions in the
wide range that is in-built headphones, GPS guidelines, in traffic monitoring, and many
more.
Coal Industry:
It is the type of industry which includes the coal mining workings and it was the process for
extracting the raw material of coals with the surface of earth. Coal is the high valuable resource
which used in such source of power such as electricity. It is an important aspect into Industrial
Revolution in between 19th & 20th century. It was also used to generate electricity, heat buildings,
steam engines, and many more. Coal mining industry continues it as a necessary economical
activity, for now, days.
In the early 1800s, coal mining industry is not bituminous coal. Coal mining in the US was
growing rapidly into the earlier 1800s, tripling, doubling in each decade. In 1810, 176,000 tons
were short of the bituminous coal that was mined into the US, as compared to 2000 anthracite
tons.

Part Two – Brain Storming
Coal industry includes the work of coal mining which is the process of extracting raw coal from
the earth surface. Coal is highly valuable for its good source of energy, like, electricity. Since
1880’s it is used as a source for generating electricity. Other industries also use coal as an energy
source for their production. Coal mining is a part of underground mining and not a part of
surface mining that occurs at 300 ft below the ground. Underground mining is done when there
are few sources available on surface and raw material is available in deep surface of the earth.
There are various issues that underground miners face during their work, like flexibility in
operation, ore recovery, safety, cost, and productivity (Mark, 2016).
Some of the technologies that can be used to solve few issues of the coal miners can be as
follows:
Walkie talkie earphone:
Walkie talkies are unidirectional communication, wireless handheld device that is used for one-
way communication. It generally looks like a telephone handset that is holding onto one hand by
pressing a button i.e. “push-to-talk” (PTT) and once spoken can leave the button. The other
person having the pair of this device will be able to hear it at that time while the first person is
speaking and vice versa. But holding this device can be hectic for the miners who are busy in
mining work so they must take time from their work so that they can respond to the other side
(Woodford, 2019).
This device is used in those departments and industries that have a large group of people working
together on the same platform and they require communication with each other. Since walkie-
talkie is a handheld device and requires holding in hand so this issue can be removed by using
walkie talkie earphone. This can be wired or Bluetooth depending on the need. The earphone
will be plugged in the handheld device and kept in the pocket (Chapelain, et al, 2015). Walkie
talkie earphones make the job and life of miners easier as the coal miner does not need to touch
and hold the decide and carry on with his work.
Smart Eyewear:
The first smart eyewear was announced in the year 2012 by Google under the name of smart
glasses. The smart glasses have become smarter after that with augmented reality. Initially, it
was assumed that it is of no use but later, multiple uses of smart glasses have originated and
since then it has been used in many industries and sectors.

Figure 1: Smart glasses
(Source: BBC, 2019)
The success of smart glasses in various industries can be an example of initializing this
technology in the coal industry. It can be very beneficial for the coal miners as this can help them
in managing time in controlling equipment of mining, they can access the information that is
easily accessible, they can also monitor and control the production process of the mining, like,
supervision of the loading of the conveyer belt.
Mokhinabonu Mardonova, Yosoon Choi (2018). Review of Wearable Device Technology and Its
Applications to the Mining Industry. Energies, 11(3), p.547. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-
1073/11/3/547
Figure 2: Smart glasses in coal mining
(Source: Mokhinabonu, 2018)
Smart helmet:
One must have heard about the protective helmet in mining and any other mining domain. Since
helmet was worn for protective measures just to protect from any injuries. The smart helmet has

been introduced that have various capabilities and functionalities in addition to the security and
safety feature. The smart helmet that has been introduced in coal mining has a gas detector to
detect the harmful gases like methane, carbon monoxide, etc. harmful gases that are injurious to
health and may lead to death.
https://www.azosensors.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1046
The smart helmet can also work as radiation sensor that can detect the radiations like alpha,
beta, gamma radiations in mining operations. The radiations can lead to fatal cancer and many
other issues related to health.
Figure 3: Radiation detector
(Source: Australian, 2019)
The smart helmet can also have humidity and temperature sensor to detect the temperature and
humidity levels in the mining area. The radiations are properly monitored by professional
trainers so that these radiations cannot harm the workers in the mines. It can also contain smart
torch that can be put ON automatically when the miner is working under light or when he came
on the surface and put the torch OFF automatically when he is in dark.

Part Three: Regulations and Ethics
Market
 In the present times, the Smart Helmet technology was used in the market with the
continuation of gaining popularity in the overall world. There are many types of industries
that were able to implement the Smart Helmet technology in the organization. For
overwhelming, the Smart Helmet features that were necessary will attract to the other
industries with the designed system or the technology. While performing these formations, it
will increase their market place of Smart Helmet.
 For executing the Smart Helmet technology or the system into the Coal Mining Industry will
result a bigger market place over the globe or world. There are many types of industries such
as real estate industries, fuel industries, armed forces industries, and many more. Smart
helmets were embedded with the further mounted devices and the sensors which used to
collect the data elements and the assisted users. It will be increasing the usage by the
bicyclists and motorcyclists instead of industrial use by their fire fighters and the workers.
 The coal industry was increasing more now a days. The latest or the newly inventions were
designed by the designers with properly designed patterns that were attracting more persons
towards coal industries. With increasing the usage of coals, it increases the demands for the
valuable security and the costs can be neutral and increase in the future norms. After
implementing this system, it will increase the overall market of Smart Helmet to the large
extents (Wu, et al, 2017).
 In the earlier or the latest reports, it was found that the countries were like Germany, Austria,
and Spain will increase the overall market of the Smart Helmet technology. It concluded the
complete markets of Super Helmet technology that has reached in the highly needed in the
present years. It was assessed that if coal industry will able to implement the Smart Helmet
technology with the better increment in the upcoming years.
Law
 There are several laws that were associated with the Smart Helmet system of Coal Industry.
This system has the capability for revealing the information that was private for the other
ones who are using the Smart Helmet technology. The laws that were legal was associated
with a smart technology system that was followed in appropriate form for implementing the
Smart Helmet technology in the coal industries.
 There was a law that requires the associated tags with every type or size of coal that were
read with the associated with declared or unique tags. The reader hasn’t provided the rights
for reading the required information with each unique tag that was not associated by the
readers.

 The main aim for implementing the Smart Helmet technology of this system was the security
that was associated with valuable types of coals such as lost or the theft issues. There can be
proper standards of safety that provide the best security qualities with the concern of coal
industries.
Physical
 For successful system implementation, the system architecture will play the major roles. The
overall system functionality was dependent on the system that was designed with the
required features that were existing into the system. Therefore, Smart Helmet architecture is
so important for acquiring better results for implementing this technology.
 A major concern of the coal industry was the security, because of the architectural system
designs that were developed or designed in the formation. It includes the technology features
related to the securities which are incorporated into the Smart Helmet technology system for
the coal industry. All components of the Smart Helmet were associated with the coal industry
that was taken for each system functionalities which results better for the clients of coal
industry.
 If error will occur into architectural designs of the Smart Helmet technology system will
results bigger loss to the coal industry’s owner. Then the designed system will handle all
possibilities of the loss of coal manufacturing and the security issues.
Ethical
 There were so many security issues that were associated with Smart Helmet implementation
into the coal industry. Those security issues were taken for securing safely so that this system
will not harm any type of its components that were associated with this system or the
industries.
 The major security issue was relating these with the Smart Helmet technology system which
was released with the frequency from system that was so harmful to human beings. The
released frequency will not be uncontrollable which cause very harmful disease for human
beings (Darrow, et al, 2015).
 The term privacy was so necessary issue while implementing the Smart Helmet technology
system. The user privacy cannot be violated or disturbed despite using the designed system.
It has the ability for tracking each movement of clients. By this, system was not violated or
affected with the ethical or the security issues by which the user’s information will leaked.

Part four - Disruption
Coal Industry before Smart Helmet Technology
Coal mining Industry is one of the most growing and financially sound industries around the
globe. This industry consists of providing raw and final materials to various sectors of the market
to public outreach. This type of industry involves in the medium to large scale industries. This
industry provides solutions to various activities held in the households. With the vast size of the
industries and the strong financial growth, the industry also consists of various hazardous threats
that can affect the position and the outreach of the industry. These issues and problems can be
solved using the smart helmets by every employee of the industry such as:
1. Integration of security and the camera placed over the helmet:
Due to the requirement of security in the coal industry, it is required to maintain and ensure the
security of the resources and to make the activities secure from the miss happening. To make the
process secure it made it necessary to install the flash lights and camera on the helmet to make
the tracking of all the activities from the control room. These security cameras are the
combination of advanced technology that has the capability of record and captures visuals in
both light and dark environment. The cameras installed over the helmets are also coupled with
sensors to detect any uncertain happening due to any motion in the surrounding (Hottner, et al,
2017).
2. Requirement of Security officers:
Coal industry requires various other procedures and resources to maintain and ensure the security
from any miss happening. This is the reason the coal mining industry or refineries invests in the
security service provides that provides trained security officers to handle any kind of miss
activity and miss happening in the industry. These security officers take care of all the unwanted
activities that harm the security of the services and resources. These officers can take quick
actions against any of the harmful activities.
3. Specifying significant identification tags:
There is a need to specify a defined tag to the items and to a lot of items to make the proper track
of the resources and services. By making a track of the items and resources there is a possibility
to get the required information from the desired smart helmet easily and effectively to maintain
the security in the industry. The identification may be the line of code that is generated
automatically using the defined system (Lin, et al, 2017).
4. Alarm Sensors:
These are the technology used with the implementation in helmets and the solely. These are the
sensors placed to analyses the motion and the heat detection form the user inputs. If the sensors

detect any unwanted motion or activity it sends the respective signal to its connected alarm to
provide the information to all the other officers to stop the occurred mis happening in the
industry.
Record Streaming:
With this type of technology, it will record the overall streams via helmets and can able to access
the recordings into the control room or the area where all recordings or the database were
maintained. It also consists of DVR Video Recorder, Bluetooth devices, video camera over the
helmet, and able to do live streaming for recording.

Figure 4: Flow Chart without wearable devices
In the above figure, it shows the flow chart of the wearable devices which shows the overall
process without wearable devices. It shows how the process was handled with the identification
of security threats.

Figure 5: Flow Chart with wearable devices
In the above figure, it shows the overall flow chart of the wearable devices that were used in the
coal industries. It shows the process of the usage of the wearable devices. It shows the analysis
of the security threats which shows the process of threats resolving.

Conclusion
In this assignment, “The potential impact of Wearable Technology on the Coal Industry” was
described into the following parts. Where the first stage describes the overall description of the
technology and the industry that was taken for further description. In the next or the second
stage, mainly three latest devices were explained in brief. These three devices are Smart helmet,
Smart Eyewear, and Walkie-talkie earphones. In the next part, one technology was picked for
explaining the compatibility with their laws, market strategies and so on. After that, the
disruption was discussed with the key points of the technology used.

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