Anyone who's sat next to somebody who plays their earphones too loud will probably be able to appreciate the SubPacM1, a wearable subwoofer. A press release from the company describes it as a "low-profile" backpack that "provides the physical vibrations of club-level bass in a wearable form that is quiet to the outside world (and sleeping neighbors." The thing weighs about … [Read more...]
Avegant Retinal Display Prototype
Most heads-up displays work by putting a monitor close to your eyes, one way or another. cNet's got a hands-on story about the Avegant Virtual Retinal Display, a prototype that actually projects images directly onto your retina. It sounds creepy, but it is, after all, how people see: light hitting the backs of our eyes. There's a key quote from Avegant's Allan Evens, … [Read more...]
Basis raises another $11.75m; opens store
Basis Science, which makes the Basis health-tracking watch, says it's raised another $11.75 million in its Series B funding round, GigaOm reports, bringing the total for the round to $23.25 million. Total funding is now $32.25 million -- not bad for a watch company. And where the Basis device used to be available only by invitation, you can now buy one from the company … [Read more...]
LG touts OLEDs, maybe for the iWatch?
OLED displays -- Organic Light Emitting Diodes -- have been the Next Big Thing in display technology for well over five years. Between technical challenges, patent disputes, and the awful finances of building flat-panel displays, they've never quite made it to market in a big way. That's a shame, especially for the wearables market, because the brightness, low power draw, and … [Read more...]
Oakley HUD Ski Goggles
Here's a disaster waiting to happen, but I can't wait to be first in line to have it happen to me. Oakley, the performance eyewear company owned by Luxxotica, has announced the Airwave 1.5 Goggle, a set of ski goggles with WiFi,GPS, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, Facebook integration, and a heads-up display. It connects with your phone, so you can listen to your music and get … [Read more...]
OvaPal Basal Thermometer
A press release just crossed our desk about the OvaPal wearable basal thermometer: a small patch that a woman wears that syncs with a mobile device which allows her to predict when she'll be most fertile. The patch is waterproof, doesn't require charging, and can be worn for seven days. The thing just won The San Diego Tech Coast Angels quick-pitch competition this … [Read more...]
New FitBit Force coming?
The Verge has pictures and details of what it says is the next wristwear from FitBit. The Fitbit Force is essentially an upgraded Flex, says the Verge, but with an altimiter (to track stairs, presumably), an added activation button and an alphanumberic display where the Flex just has a series of dots. Addition of a button means you won't have to tap the device like a maniac … [Read more...]
Glazed Over
We wrote last week about the then-upcoming Glazed wearables conference in San Francisco. It upcame, and it upwent. The promise was to connect companies with potential investors -- a laudable aim and one that almost by definition happens away from the public eye. The problem with wearables conferences given the current state of the industry is that seem to focus on the … [Read more...]
Xerox Flexibles and Microduinos
It's intuitively obvious that wearables will require flexible circuits; The human body, after all, moves and consists of curves; boxes are not fashionable. Xerox is positioning itself as an expert in all things printing, and has gotten itself interested in the printing of electronic circuitry on flexible substrate. Another strategy might be to make the rigid circuitry very … [Read more...]
Listening to Breath
This article had us with this snippet: Using 10 years of data, which amounts to over 10,000 recordings of various people’s breathing... BreathResearch has a KickStarter campaign to raise $30,000 to build a Bluetooth smartphone headset that also tracks the sound of your breath. The interesting idea is that your breath is an important indicator of your health; by comparing how … [Read more...]