It turns out that the data gathered by fitness bands can be pretty useful. Outside Magazine reports that mountain bikers are using the information to advocate for new and improved trails, and some governments are actually using it to establish bike routes. And even though we have our doubts about the actual activity data, information like the time of day or day of week can … [Read more...]
Fitbit Leads the Wearables World: Canalys
Anyone can project billions of dollars in the future, but counting actual shipping products is hard. The consulting firm Canalys reports that Fitbit shipped nearly half of all wearable bands in the world in the first quarter of 2014. Overall, Canalys reported, 2.7 million wearable bands shipped worldwide last quarter, and Fitbit's strength was despite the skin rash-related … [Read more...]
Wall “Clock” That Shows Your Pulse
Here's one of the more poetic uses of wearable technology that we've seen: a wall clock that reflects your heartbeat. The Uji clock, from the designer Ivor Williams, is not really functional. Its hands stay at high noon, and flicker back and forth in response to pulse data sent from a sensor you wear. It's not practical; it's art. And it's quite lovely. Dezeen has a nice … [Read more...]
ABI Puts Enterprise Wearables Market at $18 Billion in 5 Years
ABI Research is guesstimating that the market for enterprise wearables -- that's business-related, not consumer -- will total about $18 Billion in 2019. Analyst Jason McNichol says the enterprise market will consist essentially of visor products (like Vuzix, Google Glass, and Epson Moverio) and healthcare-related devices. Smartwatches count, too, but as "BYOD" … [Read more...]
Want Glass? Go Right Ahead.
Google has now opened its Glass Explorers program to anyone (in the United States) with a spare $1500. If the devices are in stock, and you've got a US address, you can step right up and order one. Keep in mind, though, that Glass remains a pretty much roll-your-own kind of thing... And speaking of Glass, there's another estimate out of its material cost. IHS put the cost at … [Read more...]
Runkeeper CEO Says Fitness Trackers Are Dead; We’re Not So Sure
Business Insider is carrying a very thoughtful and provocative article by Runkeeper CEO Jason Jacobs. Jacobs says that standalone fitness trackers like the Nike FuelBand, the Fitbit Force, or the Misfit Shine, are fads -- and that the future belongs to smartphones and software. The argument -- that consumers consistently bias toward simplicity and not complexity -- is … [Read more...]
Glass Helps Save a Life In A Boston Emergency Department
CIO has an interesting story about a neat use of Google Glass in the emergency department of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. An ER doc was able to access and read a patient's medical records while providing emergency care -- learning from the documents that the standard treatment that was about to provided would probably have killed the guy. It's worth noting … [Read more...]
Verge Profiles MIT’s Sandy Pentland, “Father of Wearables”
The Verge has a terrific longform profile of Sandy Pentland, of MIT's Human Dynamics Lab. Most strands of the wearables revolution track back to Pentland, particularly (and most famously) Thad Starner, who led the original Google Glass project. It's a long read that touches a lot of bases, most particularly privacy: Any technology that can capture and transmit your … [Read more...]
Dean Kamen Wonders if Wearables Are Like Pet Rocks
We're big fans of Dean Kamen, the inventor who may be the Thomas Edison of our age. Besides inventing things life-altering devices like portable insulin pumps and robotic prosthetics, Kamen is the brains behind the Lego FIRST robotics challenge, an international grade-school robotics competition. He doesn't give too many interviews, so when Kamen talks about innovation, you … [Read more...]
Are Identity and Science the Big Wearables Play?
Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman spoke yesterday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference and laid out two big ideas that we've been talking about a lot around here: wearables and identity, and wearables as the generator of huge data sets. Rahman talked about using wearable devices as a means to interact with other connected devices and use them to customize your environment. Think … [Read more...]