There are a number of new wearable tech options in the market today, including Google Glass if you got in on that one day special. From watches that take phone calls to health trackers that can tell you how many calories you’re burning when you have sex, the gadgets are kind of neat in their own unique way. This isn’t going to be the year to spend your cash on these items, however, because there is a much brighter light in the wearable tech category headed our way.
What could the future hold for you?
Charge Your iPhone From Your Clothes
One of the most exciting ventures right now in this niche industry comes from a startup called Wearable Solar. Their goal is to create clothing that will potentially charge the battery in your phone in two hours if you’re taking a walk out in the sun. So ok – you’ll have massive shoulder extensions to maximize solar collection, but the concept is great and it uses renewable energy to keep your tech charged up all day.
Go Chip Yourself
Intel has plans for microchips that will work with your body parts in a variety of ways to get the data you want about life. The attention this year might have come from a robotics kit that they’re planning on bringing to market, but there’s also a smart t-shirt in development that will give you vital stats in whatever you do.
Gather and Analyze
The problem with today’s wearable tech is that it either gathers data from the environment [i.e. pulse rate] or it presents data to its user [i.e. Google Glass]. The future of this tech is that it will be able to do both. Quanttus is working on a smart watch that will do just that. It will collect your vital stats, and then show you what your body does when you’re in a polluted environment.
Get Real Time Data With a Thought
One of the biggest names in the wearable tech field is Frog Design. They’ve been marketing tech for over a decade and one of their concepts is called “Relay.” The idea is pretty simple: you’d get real-time NYC subway data on your wrist so you knew when you had to be ready to board your preferred train. Now imagine being able to access whatever data you wanted through Relay with just a thought – kind of like how you’d control the fingers of modern artificial limbs. You could think about pizza and get Yelp reviews of the best around… or send a thought email to your boss to tell him your kids hid the keys again.
Receive Better Data
It’s kind of nice to have a FitBit, but the limitations of today’s wearables is pretty clear. If you have a FitBit, then it can measure the speed of motion and it can measure the rise in altitude to calculate the steps you’ve climbed and give you health stats on it. What it can’t do is determine what it is you’re actually doing outside of walking, running, and maybe riding a bike. If you’re climbing up a mountain trail, it’s going to think you’re walking up a long set of stairs at home. If you’re having sex, hopefully you’re at least at a run instead of on a bike! As the data improves, the specificity of the data received will increase the quality of the feedback, but it’ll take a year or two for the tech to get there.
Responsive Clothing
What if your entire outfit could be a mood ring that responds to the environment around you? Rainbow Winters has created a line of clothing that responds to sunlight by changing colors and has accessories that seem to change their pattern when you shift your perspective. Now imagine having clothing that could respond to the environment to better protect you against pollution or become water-resistant when there’s a surprise shower.
Having data is ok, but having data that you can actually use is better. The future of wearable tech is that it will help you analyze your gathered data and actually be able to do something about it instead of just alerting you to the fact that your pulse is now 140 and you appear to be running. Even Google Glass can get better and go beyond pictures, video, and the apps out there right now.
So invest in your future. Save your money today so you can spend it when the future arrives.
