Somewhere around about the turn of the millennium, we probably thought that a wireless mouse was a pretty cool state of the art connection point to our computers. At around the same time, we started getting used to stylus-driven input via the Palm generation of PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) devices, which you could just about fudge with your fingernail if you had lost your cherished pointing device.
Human-Computer Interaction
Apart from keyboards and the never quite popular enough trackball device, this was the limit of so-called HCI, or Human-Computer Interaction to afford it its full technical term. Then the iPod, iPhone and iPad phenomenon happened. Previously dormant (or comparatively embryonic at least) touch-based technology came to the fore, not just from Apple but from a whole slew of competitors too.
In the aftermath of touch, we have refined our ability to use speech recognition through companies like Nuance and its refinement and continual augmentation of its excellent Naturally Speaking app, which is still leading many other pretenders in this space. Oh yes, Apple built Siri for speech too didn’t it? OK so the speech recognition market isn’t a one horse race, but it is a defined speciality.
Intel is pioneering real development in this space
Fast forward again and we see that touch and speech are joined by facial and gesture recognition input such that we can now wave or motion actions that our computers will recognise. Think Minority Report (the movie) but without the special Tom Cruise electronic gloves; yes this technology is already here and Intel is pioneering development in this space.
So we logically come to wearable technology. The first definition of this term and the apps that serve this space were confined to developments such as body sensors located inside professional sports clothing. RFID tagging was also employed in some instances to add geo-location aware capabilities, but this was still a world away from what happened in this space this year with Google Glass.
As any reasonably technology-aware individual will know, Google Glass is the Internet giant’s wearable computer that manifests itself in the form of a normal pair of eyeglasses. Presenting what is known as a HUD or Heads Up Display, the Glass unit is intended to give a user a similar experience to that of a smartphone via natural language speech recognition.
Google Glass
Apps in the face-wearable space will initially, perhaps unsurprisingly, be focused upon image capture, web search and location-aware information delivery tasks such as navigation and beyond. If you can do it on a high-end smartphone, then you can probably do it on Google Glass — or you will be able to soon. Google is not completely alone in this space as the Nike+ FuelBand and the yet to be launched Apple iWatch take up similar positions in the wearable technology space.
As exciting as this new development may sound, now is a sensitive time for emerging wearable technology and its mainly cloud-based (or Internet-based if you are uncomfortable with the term) online applications. Chief technology officer at cloud computing specialist Rackspace has called wearable technology an “unstoppable trend”, suggesting that a whole new generation will now expect this technology it to give them better information about themselves all the time.
Three quarters of people believe in the cloud
Rackspace has this month released the findings of a study into the use of wearable technology and its impact on consumers and businesses. The research finds that, of 4000 adults questioned, over three quarters believe that these cloud-powered devices have enhanced their lives.
The study, “The Human Cloud: Wearable Technology from Novelty to Productivity”, was commissioned by Rackspace in association with the Centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST) at Goldsmiths, University of London. The exploration was supported by quantitative research into attitudes and behaviour regarding wearable technology among 4,000 UK and US adults.
“It is important to note that wearable technology and the cloud go hand in hand – together they provide the rich data insights that help users better manage many aspects of their lives. Cloud computing is powering the wearable technology revolution. It allows the data generated by wearable devices to be captured, analysed and made readily accessible whenever users need it,” said Robert Scoble, startup liaison officer and technology evangelist at Rackspace.
‘Internet of Things’ becomes mainstream
With adoption becoming mainstream, wearable technology will form an integral part of the ‘Internet of Things’ – a growing network of devices – from wearable tech and smartphones to road traffic sensors – that connect to the Internet to share data in real time. The research revealed that citizens may be willing to share the data generated by wearable technology with central or local government, enabling authorities to crowd-source insights which can be used to enhance public services.
Although one in five think Google Glass should be banned due to privacy concerns, this technology is almost unquestionably here to stay already. How the next phase of applications develops in this space will crucially depend upon user adoption, price and the privacy concerns that have already been stated. You don’t need an optician’s prescription or a tailor fitting for any of these wearable application technologies, so watch this space closely.
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