Having finished its production tooling and having cleared regulatory hurdles (and we'd love to hear more about that), Vuzix announced today that it's starting commercial shipment of its M100 industrial smart glasses. Developers and back-orders are first in line; everyone else will get them in two to four weeks. The company's website claims that the M100 is "the world's first … [Read more...]
Apple’s Buying PrimeSense May Be a Very Big Deal
Brendan O'Neil from One Mighty Roar has become a frequent and interesting correspondent hereabouts. He's taken a look at Apple's purchase of PrimeSense, the company that built the technology behind Microsoft's Kinect camera and 3D System's Sense, and has a theory: tl;dr — Apple will build a contextual ad platform that will be used in physical spaces and introduce analytics … [Read more...]
Qualcomm Toq Smartwatch Goes on Sale December 2
Every so often, the chipmaker Qualcomm has a brain freeze and decides it wants to play in the consumer market; it rarely ends well. The latest is a smartwatch that's going on sale in a couple of weeks. The thing is, it sounds like it might be pretty interesting. One way the Toq watch is different is that its wearers don't need two hands to tell the time; the screen is always … [Read more...]
Is London a Wearables Hub? Events Page Updated
We've heard about another couple of wearables events, these in London, so the Events item from yesterday has been updated. Until our Calendar page is running, you may want to bookmark it. … [Read more...]
Wearables Startup in Nairobi, Kenya
I always like hearing about tech startups in emerging markets, so news about a tech incubator in Nairobi is worth repeating. The Nailab says it's set its third round of startups, including iContent Systems, which will make glowing clothes for night bike taxi drivers. Apparently, bike taxi drivers getting hit by motorists at night is a major problem in Kenya. Here's hoping … [Read more...]
Shottracker and 94Fifty: Two Basketball Wearables Shoot It Out
Shottracker is a hoops-related crowdfunding play. It's a combination of wrist sensor, net sensor, and an app that -- as the name implies -- follows your shooting and helps you improve. They've put together a neat infographic shown here. But they're not alone. 94fifty does much the same thing but puts the sensor in the ball, which requires a wireless charger for your … [Read more...]
Novasentis Haptic Actuator wins CES Innovations Award
One of the lower-key exhibits at the Engadget Expand conference last week was a table that showed a centimeter-square leaf of plastic with a wire running to it from a small panel of electronics. All the leaf did was flex and unflex, but it was doing it in response to electronic signals -- and that's a pretty good technical trick. A few days later, the Novasentis … [Read more...]
Reebok Skullcap wins CES Innovations Award
Just the other day, we wrote about the Reebok Checklight head impact monitor, powered by technology from MC10. Yesterday. the Checklight was awarded a 2014 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award. Those awards are kind of a big deal. Some of them are sometimes headscratchers from a commercial point of view, but they always reflect innovative product thinking and good … [Read more...]
Hands-on with the Avegant Retinal Display; Pre-orders at CES
I wrote last month about the Avegant Retinal Display, a goggle-style headset that projects images directly onto your retina. I got a hands-on demo Friday at Engadget Espand, as well as a chat with the energetic COO Yobie Benajmin, and it was a special as I'd hoped. Most goggle viewers work by throwing an image onto a tiny hi-res screen that sits close to your eyes. … [Read more...]
Intel to Target Wearables, IoT With New Business Group
For those of you who keep track of such things -- and it is important -- know that Intel has formed an Internet of Things business group. The IOT Solutions Group will have products like the new low-power Quark processor and its Atom chips for embedded systems. It will be headed by Doug Davis, who ran Intel's embedded chip group. He'll report to CEO Brian Krzanich and … [Read more...]