Wish your smartwatch came with more or different functions? Is there just that one thing missing that would make it exactly what you want? Blocks might have be able to make your day fairly soon. The Blocks modular watch has taken some two years of development just to get to Kickstarter. Their original goal was to raise $250,000; to date, they have raised more than $1 … [Read more...]
Lumo Runs the Numbers
All runners, amateur or pro, want to get better every time they run and avoid injury. That’s one of the reasons coaches keep stats and why fitness tracking devices are so popular. Lumo now makes it even easier—and quite possibly more accurate—by putting all the electronics in your running shorts. Lumo Run running shorts are the result of Lumo teaming up with sports … [Read more...]
Itsy-Bitsy Solar Panel to Power New Google Lens
First smart glasses, now smart contact lenses? How are they going to get all that info on something the size of your thumbnail? Not to mention using solar power? Google thinks it can be done. The company has been granted a design patent for a wearable communication device shaped like a contact lens, including sensors, memory and a microprocessor. Power would be provided by … [Read more...]
Women and Wearables: Not Always a Good Match
Wired designated 2015 as “the year wearables will stop being so ugly,” which might be a sign that the industry is taking the distaff side of the marketplace more seriously. For a lot of women, the issue isn’t ugly but too big, too clunky on smaller wrists and frame, which is, well, ugly and awkward. And some health and fitness devices don’t take women’s unique health issues … [Read more...]
A Bikini That Takes Out the Trash
A swim suit—a bikini—that filters toxins out of sea water as you swim can sound either ecologically wonderful or personally, well, yucky. It has to be said, though, that the prototype is quite attractive. The cleaning part of the suit, Sponge, is made of heated sucrose combined with a 3-D printed elastomer frame. Engineers at The University of California Riverside created … [Read more...]
Throwing Your Money into the Ring
London-based startup Kerv is Kickstarting its smart ring into the contactless payment arena, as Europe prepares to go completely contactless by 2020. Although the U.S. is well behind in new payment technology, the Kerv ring is expected to be available—and work—in both markets. It just might take longer for the U.S. to come up to speed. The Kerv ring design is slick and … [Read more...]
Friendship Bracelets Go Tech
Seattle startup Gemio will enter the smart jewelry market in 2016, targeting fashion- and tech-conscious teens with Bluetooth-enabled friendship bracelets they can pretty much design themselves online. The bracelet’s “gem optics” sparkle or flicker (your choice) and can be controlled remotely by a smart phone—you know, if you leave it in the locker room or somewhere. You can … [Read more...]
Microsoft Buzzes with Project X Ray and HoloLens
Although it seems clear that Microsoft’s HoloLens is geared more to the real, grown-up world, Project X Ray is a sure sign that they remember the rest of us. It’s an AR (Augmented Reality) game that uses the HoloLens to bring 3-D images into play, with images a player can grab, wear, and use to blow up things. You can designate any object in your house as your weapon. (Let’s … [Read more...]
What’s on Your Finger?
One ring to bind them all, one ring to ... check your email? Apple has applied for a patent for “Devices and Methods for a Ring Computing Device.” That’s right; an iRing, a touchscreen device that you can wear on your finger, complete with a battery and the ability to communicate with other iDevices. It might also have a camera and a biometric sensor for Apple Pay. There … [Read more...]
Making Fashion Work
The intersection of high tech and high fashion is well getting closer, if you believe what you could see at the September 2015 London Fashion Show. In fact, some in the fashion industry are predicting that within 10 years—possibly as few as 5—we’ll be wearing our phones and cameras on our sleeves as well as our hearts. Or, more accurately, in our sleeves, since the devices will … [Read more...]