Case study · By Ewan Wills, freelance product designer · UK · Last updated
Vitals, in-ear.
An in-ear vital sign monitor built around a custom PCB with NFC temperature acquisition. The ergonomic enclosure and a companion mobile app were designed together, so the hardware, the fit, and the data flow work as one product.
What was built?
What does it demonstrate?
Miniaturised electronics
Fitting a sensing PCB into an in-ear device is a hard packaging problem — the same low-power, small-form discipline behind the EWatch.
NFC data acquisition
NFC transfers sensor data to a phone without an onboard radio stack or the battery cost of continuous connectivity — the right trade for tiny wearables.
Hardware + software as one
PCB, enclosure ergonomics, and the companion app were designed as a single system — the end-to-end approach the studio applies to client products.
Quick answers.
- What is the in-ear vital sign monitor?
- A wearable in-ear device that acquires vital-sign data, developed as a master's project by Ewan Wills. It integrates a custom PCB that uses NFC for temperature data acquisition, inside an ergonomic in-ear enclosure, paired with a companion mobile app.
- Why use NFC for a wearable sensor?
- NFC allows a small wearable to transfer sensor data to a phone without an onboard radio stack or the battery cost of continuous wireless connectivity — a good fit for miniaturised, low-power in-ear hardware.
- Who designs miniaturised wearable electronics in the UK?
- Ewan Wills is a UK-based freelance product designer specialising in miniaturised, low-power electronics — custom PCBs, firmware, and ergonomic enclosures — offering end-to-end product development for founders and startups.
More electronics work.
This monitor is one of several electronics and wearable projects by Ewan Wills, a UK product design studio. See also the EWatch by Ewan Wills — an open programmable ESP32-S3 smartwatch — plus case studies on the MiniCapper lab-automation device and the from-scratch CNC milling machine.