Human Computer Interaction aspects of Low-Power Wide Area Networks for Wearable Applications

The advent of Low-Power Wide Area Networks has enabled significant developments of the IoT ecosystem. Long range communication using low power is now feasible and offers connectivity to remote areas where cellular network is not available. Therefore, new application scenarios have emerged, such as smart cities, smart metering and more, which are attracting a lot of attention from both research and industry. Beside the aforementioned popular scenarios, Low-Power Wide Area Networks have started to be used in wearable systems scenarios as well. In this position paper, we pose some questions regarding the Human Computer Interaction aspects of Low-Power Wide Area Networks which will help them integrate in Ubiquitous Computing applications. We illustrate by a wearable system, which is based on an foot gesture interface, a Low-Power Wide Area Network, and an Neural Network classifier. The discussion is based on the state of art of foot interfaces and highlights open issues and challenges.