A couple of Indian entrepreneurs are about to build shoe insoles that use haptic feedback to direct you to your destination. These insoles -- Lechal, from Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma -- will vibrate on the appropriate side of the shoe when it's time to change direction. Input your destination into your smartphone and the phone plots your route. The phone's GPS … [Read more...]
Basis Selling Itself to Whomever, says Techcrunch
Monday morning usually brings a spate of M&A news/leaks. Today, Techcrunch reports that Basis -- the heart monitor wristband company -- is either trying to sell itself or raise a Series C round. The acquisition candidates include Apple, Google, Samsung, or maybe Microsoft. The Basis tracker has the reputation for being one of the more accurate products on the market, but … [Read more...]
Flexible All-Plastic AMOLED Displays Produced
While we're thinking about displays and flexible electronics, it's worth noting an important first that was mentioned at Flextech: all-plastic flexible AMOLED displays from Plastic Logic and Novaled. If you've got an Android smartphone, you're probably familiar with AMOLED displays. They're clear, bright, fast, and used in most Samsung phones and lots of others, besides. But … [Read more...]
NYTimes says Apple Execs Met with FDA, Signaling a Heath-Related Device
The New York Times reports Friday evening that a bunch of high-ranking Apple executives met last month with some top folks at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency that regulates health devices. According to the Times, Apple was represented by Bud Tribble (VP of software), Jeff Williams (SVP Operations), and Michael O'Reilly (former chief medical officer of … [Read more...]
Glass Gets Frames, Prescription Lenses
We have not been shy about expressing our opinion of Google Glass; one of our chief objections has been its inability to accommodate prescription lenses. At last, Google is now finally selling some pretty attractive snap-on frames for Glass that can take ground lenses. They apparently cost about $250, on top of the $1500 cost of the Glass. Plus the cost of lenses. And, from … [Read more...]
Interview with Wearable Experiment’s Billie Whitehouse
We've written a little before about Billie Whitehouse and the Wearable Experiments Navigate Jacket, but International Digital Times has quite a good interview with Whitehouse that's worth reading. The great quote: "It's the Burberry guided tour of New York, or the Luis Vuitton tour of New York, or maybe the Diesel tour of Milan." Whitehouse said. Concerning the jackets … [Read more...]
Will We See Samsung Glass This Year?
A lightly sourced (to be kind) article in Korea Times make some predictions about the facewear market in 2014. The reporter quotes an anonymous official at Samsung as saying that Samsung will introduce a smart glasses product at the upcoming IFA trade show in September in Berlin. He also cites "an executive at Google's local parts supplier" as confirming that Google Glass will … [Read more...]
Intel’s Edison Can Do Local Voice Processing, No Cloud Required
Though it's fun to play Stupid Siri Tricks on the iPhone (we had loads of laughs asking it about the movie "Her"), there's one bit problem with it: Siri needs a network connection. It calls home to process your questions. No connectivity, no Siri. Intel's Project Edison wearable platform apparently has no such limitation. Quartz, the excellent news site from The Atlantic, … [Read more...]
A Drum Set In Your Pants
How about a set of electronic drum pads inserted into your pants and shirts? Drumming your fingers on your legs can turn into a snare roll; tapping your chest rhythmically can sound like a tom or a bass beat. Drumpants doubled the ask on its Kickstarter campaign, which closed last week. The Arduino-driven sensors are programmed through an iPad app. They can be any kind of … [Read more...]
Netatmo’s June Tracks Sun Exposure
People who work around radiation have long worn exposure monitors. And more and more people are wearing movement trackers. So why not wristware that monitors excess exposure to the sun? Why not indeed? Neatmo (which heretofore has made connected weather stations and thermostats) has introduced June, a jewel-like bauble that hangs on a slender leather strap, and which tracks … [Read more...]