• by Volker Ballueder , July 30, 2014

My post in May was much aimed to be an article about wearable tech but came down to control units and apps combined with wearable tech. Hence, I thought I would air my thoughts on the actual physical devices this month. Unfortunately, however, the iWatch has not been officially announced, so I am personally still waiting for big things to happen. I hope I won’t have to wait forever, and I can write about it in due course.

But something is already there: the Bluetooth-enabled ring, the one that connects to your phone to measure blood pressure, yet also the ring that can open doors. We will soon find the ring that is able to open specific doors based on a code and connects to other devices to store or sync information. So next time you check into a hotel, you might just end up wearing a ring instead of carrying a key card.

I believe if we get some more cool features into an electronic piece that fits into a ring, why not? Wireless tech, hidden in a piece of jewelry. A bit James Bond like. Yet, if I look at some of those smart watches, I am less convinced it being a jewelry item or fashion accessory.

The industry of watches lives of having different designs, cool features and the big silver wrist band that sparkles in the sun. That is what dreams, dreams of wealth and success, are made of. Could those plastic watches we see at the moment really replace them? I get reminded of my first-ever Casio watch I got from the super market.

Why can’t we have a normal looking watch, a Rolex or Breitling, that connects to our phone and other devices. Or will wearable tech soon be integrated into a chip under the skin? Why not? If it is GPS enabled, we might never ever lose someone again. Scary yet possible. And imagine the wedding ring with GPS tracker!

Or is it all about the connection to our health as iOS Health suggests? I like the ideas of smart cycle helmets. Or tattoos, T-shirts, jackets, and smart socks? We might even get some smart sex toys … but that might be taking wearable tech just one step too far.

And, last but not least, you see all those reports about Google glasses. The idea to be hands free, get plenty of information whilst not having to type them in. Isn’t that great. Of course, we need to improve voice recognition, and we need to discuss privacy issues if we use it to monitor our surrounding, but overall this goes in the right direction.

Again, we have to look at the design too. A study shows that Google glass looks too futuristic and if they designed them a bit nicer, the uptake would be a lot higher. We shall see. The concept however, being able to coordinate your diary, your life and gather information on the go, without having to look the other way, is great.

So where are we at? We got designs in the making which might be too small to really be the game changer (rings) but could prove useful to a lot of security and other applications. We then got the not so nice designs that are practical like Google glass or the plastic smart watch. 

I have no doubt that we will see improved design and functionality over the next few months, however, the wrist band monitoring everything, like discussed in last month’s post, is here to stay. For now anyway.