The Churchill Club is a well-respected business and tech forum in the Bay Area, and the conversations that happen there are usually interesting. The club ran a panel on "The Next Frontier" of wearables the other night, featuring execs from Jawbone, Intel, Misfit and Lumo Body Tech. Healthcare was repeatedly mentioned as a prime market, both for personal use and as an aid to … [Read more...]
12 Million Augmented Reality Glasses Will Ship by 2020, Says Tractica
The market research firm Tractica estimates that 12 million units of "smart augmented reality glasses" will ship in the next five years. The company counts everything from Google Glass to Oculus Rift and Magic Leap, so they don't seem to be making much of a distinction based on use case. Nonetheless, Tractica estimates that 114,000 units of AR glasses will ship this year, … [Read more...]
Canadian Ticketed For Driving While Watched
Well, someone had to be first. A driver in Quebec picked up a $120 ticket last week for using his Apple Watch while driving. Jeffrey Macesin says he was changing songs on his watch when he was pulled over and ticketed. Quebec's traffic code prohibits using "a hand-held device that includes a telephone function" while driving. Does the Apple Watch include a telephone … [Read more...]
Google’s Project Soli Rethinks Interaction
Google took the wraps off Project Soli during its Google I/O developer conference, quietly introducing a highly sensitive motion sensor that could reshape how we interact with close-range devices. We've seen radar signals used in various ways, and generally in much larger sizes and forms than what Google unveiled at I/O. Project Soli, Google says, marks the first time radar … [Read more...]
What to Expect From Levi’s Deal with Google
A fashion designer at Google's annual I/O developer conference? Inconceivable. But with the unveiling of Project Jacquard, Google's touch-enabled material, it suddenly makes sense that Paul Dillinger, Levi Strauss’s head of global product innovation. could be seen wandering amidst developers. After all, the world of apps and fashion are about to collide, and Levi's will be … [Read more...]
Google’s Project Jacquard Transforms Clothing Into Wearables
Dr. Ivan Poupyrev is part of Google’s secretive ATAP division, a team of Googlers tasked with making the stuff of science fiction reality. Take Project Jacquard, introduced by Poupyrev not at Google I/O's 2015 keynote but rather at an under-the-radar standing-room-only session on the second day of the conference. Project Jacquard won't fly under the radar anymore. It was one … [Read more...]
Is Your Activity Tracker Tracking More Than Just Your Activity?
The security firm Context Information Security recently put up an extensive and interesting post that points out that gadgets that use Bluetooth Low Energy -- as most wearables do -- can be tracked, and could therefore be seen as a security or privacy risk. The report gives background on beacon technology, which uses wireless signals to serve up location-dependent content. … [Read more...]
A Wearable Tech Circus In Toronto
When technology and the arts meet, the result can be either disappointing or profound or someplace in between. A wearable tech-oriented performance at a circus arts festival in Toronto, reported in The Star, sounds like something we'd have liked to have been at. One performer used motion sensors to control lights and music as she danced. This act sounded interesting, … [Read more...]
Disney COO Touts More Wearables In Theme Parks
The Disney MagicBand is perhaps the most widely deployed commercial application of wearable tech, although its development and application did not come without considerable internal controversy. Disney's newly named chief operating officer, Tom Staggs, told Reuters recently that he expects the MagicBands will expand beyond DisneyWorld to other of the company's parks. Said … [Read more...]
New Canalys Figures Show Fitbit Leading Wearables Market — For Now
Canalys, which has a better-than-most handle on the size and shape of the consumer wearables market, is out with its 1Q15 numbers, and they show Fitbit maintaining its lead in a growing market. Overall, the research company said the wearable band market grew 150 percent year over year, with more than 7 million units shipped in the first quarter. The company did not publicly … [Read more...]