With insiders and the public agreeing that Wearables were in need of a shakedown and reboot in 2017, what has changed and what is going on in 2018?
If March 2017 punctuated the end of an era, 2018 has already shown strong signs of the start of a new chapter in Wearable Technology. We are seeing some significant, plausible developments in highly integrated and low power sensor technologies, partly amplified by the demands of the Hearables market, but also accelerated by the general need for smaller, lower power systems. This goes some way to address the onerous constraints of limited battery energy densities.
Hearables (as Nick Hunn rightly indicates) are a triumph for the chip designers and engineers working in that space. But will this now be the year of the battery and the start of the ubiquity phase of discrete, body-worn computing?
It feels like the last 12 months has been a formative time all over again. A lot has changed and the maturing Smart Watch, Fitness Band and Hearables sectors are being joined by interesting developments in Smart Jewellery, all manner of Smart Shoes and, Clothing. In addition, buoyed by the boost from VR and AR application development, new applications in Smart Glass technology are now emerging into the space Google paved with the Glass project In 2013.
I firmly believe that the technology advances that we are seeing in virtual reality, AI and a maturing of many key technologies underpinning body-worn sensor technologies may well actually surpass the expectations of a tainted public perception of Wearables this year. Would it not be ironic if this were the case, just 12 months after the disillusionment of last year!
Join Thrive Wearables, Partners of the Innovation Zone at this year’s Wearable Technology Show, where we will be ignoring the gossip, cutting through the hype, talking tech and offering a showcase of the latest upcoming innovative startups in the Wearable Technology space.