Wearable technology
Look around any waiting room and you will probably row after row of people hunched over their smartphones. But that common sight may change as tech companies bet that users are so attached to their screens, they’ll start to wear them.
It’s more than sci-fi speculation. The first testers for Google’s Glass device — which puts Google Search, Maps and other services on a screen mounted in front of someone’s eye — are sporting the devices on sidewalks across the country. Other companies, such as Samsung and Pebble, are working to get apps and data streams to users’ wrists through Web-connected watches; some reports say Apple, Microsoft and other tech titans will also jump into the mix.
A majority of American smartphone users keep their phones on or near them at least 22 hours a day, and analysts say it’s a short jump for wearable tech to take off. Research firm IHS estimates that wearable-technology firms could sell up to 9.4 million devices by 2016, up from an estimated 50,000 shipments last year. That figure includes smart glasses, smart wristbands and smart watches.
The fitness industry has also embraced wearable tech, with devices that track everything from how many calories you’re burning to how well you’re sleeping. Pebble’s watch is designed to work with your smartphone as a pedometer, control panel for music or caller ID screen.
But the always-on, always-connected lifestyle that smart watches and glasses encourage doesn’t sit well with everyone. Privacy advocates have cautioned that users have to think carefully about giving companies even more streams of data about their lives — not to mention the information those devices may capture from the unwitting people around them.
Pebble’s watch doesn’t collect information on its own, and the firm secures the data transfer between watch and smartphone. But if users are concerned about people seeing an e-mail or text message that pops up on their wrist, chief executive Eric Migicovsky suggests users take a common-sense approach: Turn their arms.
That sort of action should be the guiding star as wearable tech raises debates about the line between public and private life, said Daniel Post Senning, the tech and social media etiquette specialist at the Emily Post Institute.
“Everyone has these cameras on every phone now,” Post Senning said. “We have some responsibility on all of us to think that we’re always on film. The question is: Do we want that to be the standard, or is there another side? Do the people who are filming also have responsibility?”
Early adopters, Post Senning said, should act as “ambassadors” for this new technology and temper their enthusiasm with caution and common sense.
He also recommended that small courtesies, such as asking others before you take or post pictures, and letting others know when you’re shooting video, will go a long way. He also recommends propping the glasses on your head when you’re not using them.It’s a concern that hasn’t gone unnoticed among those using Google Glass. The company hasn’t offered official guidance on how it plans to navigate the privacy or etiquette questions its product is likely to generate, but some developers have tackled the topic.
Noble Ackerson, an Alexandria-based developer, has created etiquette tip cards that encourage users to “Glass with Class.” Tips include, “Don’t use Glass in the locker room or restroom.”
Ackerson said he has gotten good feedback from Google on the cards and hopes they will help wearable tech become as normal in social situations as smartphones and Bluetooth headsets.
“There are some features of glass that scare a lot of people,” he said. “The whole idea behind the etiquette cards was to dispel some of the myths about people wearing these devices.”
But the fashion industry is eager to jump on the trend to spur creativity, said NPD Group fashion analyst Marshal Cohen. Smart fashion companies, he said, will partner with technology firms to create products, if only to head off accessory competition from businesses that have proved they know how to design gadgets to sell.
The first mobile phones looked ridiculous, he said — “like a box with a strap” — as did the first earbuds. But they quickly evolved into everyday essentials as their worth earned them the cool factor.
“If these products make our lives better, it could very well become something that makes its way into every household,” Cohen said.
IHS analyst Theo Ahadome said Glass, which Google has said will go on sale next year, could accelerate the wearable tech world in the same way that Apple’s iPad jump-started the tablet market, because the company can use its strength as a software developer and its banks of search information to build useful programs to make Glass more than a gimmick.
“The hardware is really not so relevant,” Ahadome said. “It’s more about the applications you can develop for it.”
Photo credit: Forbes
Via Washington Post
