A New Generation of Wearable Tech
It’s telling that when Pebble introduced their first smartwatch to the world with their 2012 Kickstarter campaign, they didn’t use the word “wearable” anywhere. Before it became an industry buzzword, noting that a watch was “wearable” would have seemed about as novel as touting its ability to tell time. But four years later, wearable technology has become one of the most dynamic — and crowded — categories of connected devices, leveraging the power of ever-shrinking processors, ubiquitous Bluetooth chipsets, and a base of users eager to extend the functionality of the smartphones that now touch so many parts of our lives. As with all emerging technologies, wearables have seen a progression from initial experiments that explored form and function — but often fell short in user experience — giving way to more refined, polished examples that don’t require the eagerness and patience of devout early adopters to appreciate. We took a look at the some of the latest projects on Kickstarter that demonstrate how far wearable tech has come in the last four years and reveal the new approaches and features that will define the future of the field.
Pebble Core
With the recent rollout of not one, not two, but three new devices, the folks at Pebble have been busy — and they’re focusing on helping you stay active as well. In addition to updating their popular pair of smartwatches with heart-rate monitors, they’ve introduced Pebble Core: a fitness tracker with its own 3G data connection and streaming music via Spotify. The screenless, pocket-size device uses Amazon’s Alexa platform for voice control, allowing you to access functions, ask questions, or take notes with natural-language commands. Whether chatting with a gadget as if it’s a virtual assistant strikes you as a sci-fi dream come true or a posthuman dystopian nightmare, we expect to see an increasing number of wearable devices that use hands-free interfaces to fit into users lives more seamlessly.
LifeBEAM Vi
At first glance, Vi appears to be just another set of sleek wireless headphones — then it tells you to run faster. LifeBEAM’s artificial-intelligence personal-training device learns about your fitness goals, develops a customized exercise regimen, and tracks your progress. Like the Pebble Core, Vi employs a sonic interface, and the team behind it put a lot of creative thought into designing the sound experience. A friendly, chiming voice coaches you through workouts, offering encouragement and asking how you’re feeling, while video-game-style sound effects let you know when you’ve achieved milestones. These audio augmentations of reality are an interesting parallel to emerging visual AR platforms like Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap.
Basslet
In a way, wearable tech for music listening has been the norm for decades, with headphones and earbuds accompanying the progression from Walkman cassette players to iPods to the smartphones that now pump out our on-the-go jams. But our experience of sound goes beyond our ears, especially with the body-shaking effects of bass-heavy music. Basslet is a wearable subwoofer that brings the physical experience of low-frequency sound to personal music listening. By positioning a special vibration motor on listeners’ wrists, it achieves a surprisingly visceral recreation of the thumping feel of a club with massive speakers. Symphonic recordings also come alive in a new way, summoning the feeling of timpani and tubas rumbling through a concert hall.
Octopus
Developing a device to keep five year olds on schedule may sound like the premise of a zany comedy sketch, but the team behind Octopus is serious about using wearables to help kids develop good habits. The colorful watch syncs with parents’ smartphones and uses basic icons to remind kids about important events like dinner and bedtime, helping them understand time along the way. This simplified approach to wearables is a good reminder that designing an effective personal device is often about constraining features and limiting information to make sure users can focus on what’s important.
Electric Embellishments
Sometimes wearable electronics are just about adding a stylish flash to your look. Natasha Dzurny of TechnoChic has been making DIY paper-circuit pop-up cards for a few years now. Her new Electric Embellishments kit lets you craft colorful paper flowers with glowing LED centers and sparkling foil petals. You can follow her designs or mix and match parts to create your own species of battery-powered boutonniere.
MetaWear
As certain combinations of sensors and features become the norm for whole categories of connected devices, it makes sense that some teams creating new products would opt to use standardized hardware, freeing them to focus on software, mechanical design, and user experience. MetaWear accommodates this need, expanding their line of compact development boards for creating wearables over the course of seven Kickstarter campaigns. Their latest is geared towards health and fitness, allowing developers to easily tap into location and biodata sensors when designing and building their own wearables.
For more personal devices that track your activity, augment your reality, or add some electric pizzaz to your look, head over to Kickstarter’s Wearables category.
