If the tech fits.. Google glasses, wired bras – tech u wear is set to take off. In a big way.
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As if technology isn’t fashionable enough at the moment (think how proud owners flash their latest smartie, iPad), demand for augmented-reality eyeglasses, as debuted by Google (basically a smartphone on specs), cocktail dresses that light up when your phone rings and sports bras that monitor heart rates, is set to explode, IMS analysts reckon.
Wearable tech are devices that are worn on the body for an extended period, enhancing user experience via features like wireless connectivity and independent-processing capability.
But now with tech advancements, there is “major potential for growth in all kinds of wearable technology products,” IMS predicts.
By a whopping 500% in 4 years, meaning a lot more of us will be sporting gaming vests, smartwatches that sync with your phone and health monitoring wristbands.
Hell, Nokia have even patented a ‘vibrating tattoo’ which alerts you when your phone goes off, using ferromagnetic ink.
The wearable technology market is likely to rise fivefold by 2016 to almost 93 million units, tech researchers IMS said today. In 2011, just 14 m wearable devices were shipped.
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Wearable tech already has huge appeal for fitness fanatics who check heart rates and running times on mobile devices like the iPhone, but future smart devices will transmit real-time info like news, maps or cinema times, with the potential to be used for more serious medical purposes such as monitoring vital health signs and augmented senses, says IMS.
Google Glasses, unveiled earlier this year, are a pair of augmented reality glasses that feed information across the (left lens) screen including emails, video chat, Google searches and GPS directions. AR may play a big part in the wearable tech field in the future. Nokia already uses AR navigation on its newly unveiled Windows 8 phones as does BlackBerry.
Analysts are also predicting “significant progress” in wearable technology, including new products that are produced in mass numbers, with Adidas, Nike among the major names and already flogging devices.
In other words, the sky is the limit as far as what tech will bring so who knows what wired devices we’ ll be wearing a few years time.
“Wearable technologies provide a range of benefits to users, from informing and entertaining, to monitoring health, to improving fitness, to enhancing military and industry applications,” said Theo Ahadome, senior analyst for medical research at IMS Research.
The United States is the leading region for wearable devices at present along with Europe and Japan.
