2014 - the year of the wearable?

Wearable computing is just one small step up from mobile technology. A large percentage of the world's population is already connected through mobile phones, e-readers, games consoles and tablet computers. The next stage is inevitable - that users begin to wear their tools as jewellery, clothing, eyewear and even as implants. Will 2014 be the year when wearable technology emerges as the next stage in our connected future?

Ben Hammersley seems to think so. In the January 2014 issue of Wired Magazine, he argues that whilst the last decade has been about smart mobile technologies, the next decade will be about wearable computing. Hammersley is convinced that it isn't the technology - the gadget - that is the driving force of this transition. Rather, it is the growing desire to have a device that is with us, or in the words of Gerd Leonhard - 'on us' at all times. The wearable device, whether it be Google Glass or some other as yet to be conceived wearable, is only the physical manifestation of something a lot larger and more complex. Wearables are the tip of the vast, complex infrastructural, social and technological iceberg that includes cloud computing, social interaction, content generation and sharing, context awareness and a whole host of other services, effects and influences. They are the next stage of the interface between humans and the vast world of computational intelligence. Can wearable technologies fulfil their promise to become 'mind extensions', or will they end up as just another expensive gadget that was a fad for a time, before disappearing into the mists of obscurity? I think not.

My personal view is that the time is now ripe for the widespread and rapid adoption of wearable computing. I believe this for a number of reasons: The stage is already set. Today's culture is rich in digital technology, and several generations have now grown up with the expectation that they can access information when and where they want it. Younger generations are wedded to their smart mobile technologies, both psychologically and socially.

Entire industries have evolved and emerged into the mainstream premised on the use and exploitation of smart technology. They would not be able to function without it.

We are also increasingly aware of the connections that make our world move forward, politically, economically and socially, and we are reluctant to step backwards or stand still to risk this progression. The rise in nomadic and itinerant working, and the flexibility that results, is also a very recognisable facet of life and employment in the 21st Century. Knowledge has radically increased and has been more widely disseminated as a result of access to smart mobiles, social media and the Web.

Wearing computers as jewellery, embedded inside our clothing or even as implants inside our bodies seems to be the next stage in our development as technology users. We are already comfortable wearing such enhancements on our person - wrist watches inform us of the passage of time, and spectacles enhance our vision when it deteriorates. Plans to embed digital tools inside wristwatches and spectacles are already well under way.

Finally - and this is potentially what matters the most - venture capitalists are beginning to invest heavily in businesses that are developing new wearable devices. Where the money goes, innovation usually follows.

These are the signs that wearable computing will not go away, and will probably emerge as the next stage in our increasingly intimate relationship with technology. We will use computers in increasingly social and personal ways. As Hammersley intones at the end of his article: 'We will wear it like we wear our heart: on our sleeve.' 

Photo by Antonio Zugaldia on Wikimedia Commons


2014 - the year of the wearable? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.