runScribe separates itself from the wearable pack

Though there may be plenty of wearables on the market that can log the steps you’ve taken or track the distance you’ve jogged, the runScribe can do those things and a whole lot more. In fact, the latest device from ScribeLabs provides 3D insight into the mechanics of how you run, thus enabling data to drive you toward smarter training decisions.

Recently launched on Kickstarter, the runScribe is described as a lightweight running wearable that mounts onto the back of your shoe and uses a 9-axis sensor to precisely capture the movements of your foot during the gait cycle. The unit itself makes thousands of calculations every step you take and creates reports on 13 separate kinematic metrics that can better help an athlete understand factors ranging from shoe selection to fatigue impact.

While some run analyzers come embedded within a shoe itself, the runScribe is interchangeable and can provide the user with a comparative report as to which shoe allows them to perform best. To make the use of the runScribe even simpler, the device can communicate via Bluetooth with a smartphone application that is available on both iOS and Android.

“The response from runners, both casual and professional, has been rewarding because they understand that running is a sport with an incredibly high injury rate. The metrics that we use today to assess our performance only tell part of the story,” Scribe Labs CEO and Co-Founder Tim Clark shares. 

One of the most helpful aspects of the runScribe is the active community that it creates. With the assembly and analysis of a massive amount of data from runners across the globe, the runScribe team can help predict and prevent injuries by tracking specific patterns that lead to physical breakdowns.

“As a community, we need to be smarter about how we run, and with runScribe, runners can have a deeper understanding about how the decisions they make impact their running mechanics,” explains Clark. 

To sweeten the pot, the runScribe is ideal for any level of runner, whether you’re just trying to get into better shape or are a competitive track athlete. There are a series of different levels of technology available. The starter pack gives you access to six kinematic metrics for $99, while the complete 13 are available in the pro unit which runs around $140. The technology onboard can improve the workout of nearly anyone that straps on the wearable strap.

The campaign exceeded its initial funding goal of $50,000 in just over two days, and currently sits just shy of $170,000. At the moment, runScribe is in its final design phase with a pilot build to be slated later this year. For those interested in learning more about or funding the runScribe, feel free to head on over to its official Kickstarter page.

11 pawsome wearables for your pet

Leashes? Psh. That’s so 2013. With the emergence of pet fashion in recent years, it comes with little surprise that wearable tech’s next market would target our four-legged friends. While we’ve seen an assortment of examples for wearable tech for us humans — ranging from rings and watches to hoodies and shoes — the hype around wearable technology is still relatively new. Indeed, no animal may be making a phone call anytime soon (or so we think), the idea of using wearables for tracking and identifcation, behavior control, safety and health monitoring is very much a viable option.

As analysts at IDTechEx recently highlighted, the market for animal wearables is expected to reach $2.6 billion by the year 2025. In that time, it is without question that we will see the launch of various new products targeting pet owners and of course, their furry sidekicks. In celebration of National Dog Day, here’s a roundup of some of the latest SMART gizmos and gadgets for pets — thus far.

1. Whistle Activity Monitor

WhistleGPS is an on-collar, pet tracking device that measures a dog’s activities including walks, play and rest. The device is designed to give canine parents a new perspective on day-to-day behavior and long-term health trends. The smart device monitors your pets’ activities, reading information such as health parameters and how much exercise they are getting. The data collected is sent to the owners’ smartphone through an easy-to-use app, while the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled wearable enables users to check-in from their phones, share memorable moments and send detailed reports to a veterinarian. The WhistleGPS pet activity tracker adds GPS capabilities and is the first consumer device to tap into Sigfox’s low-power IoT network. For the rare time good ol’ Skippy wanders off and cannot find his way back, the collar’s GPS is there to help.

 

2. Tagg Pet Tracker

The Tagg Pet Tracker allows owners to keep track of their dogs via their mobile device by notifying them if their pet has left the pre-programmed “Tagg Zone.”  Designed for both cats and dogs to be worn at all times, the lightweight pet tracker attaches to your pet’s existing collar and serves as a wearable GPS device. Tagg’s location tracking system enables an owner to receive a text and email in the event that their pet gets away. Aside from ensuring the whereabouts of your best friend, Tagg also features activity tracking which collects data related to daily activities, trends and more.

 

3. FitBark

FitBark is a tiny, smart activity monitor that helps pet owners stay cognizant of a dog’s health while understanding its behaviors throughout the day in a way that was never available before. Through its app, a pet owner is provided with a detailed analysis of the pet’s activity, giving “Bark Points” as a way of comparing its lifestyle to other pets. The app offers a breakup of activities by time slots, allowing you to compare your pets’ behavior at different times of the day. FitBark also allows you to easily monitor your dog’s health and recovery from illness, by studying activity trends. One of the most notable features of the monitor is the “Dog vs. Human” capability, where users can connect with their dog on a whole new level, keeping up the pace by challenging their canine every time they go out for a run.

 

4. Voyce

The Voyce health tracking dog collar can monitor your dog’s health, ranging from their heart and respiratory rate to calories burned and its pattern of activity. Using a mobile app, all the data is collected in the form of trends, giving an owner an overall picture of their dog’s well-being. Upon entering information about your dog’s breed, age and unique medical situation, Voyce will mesh that data with its sensor statistics, and feed you with customized insights to make you a better-informed pet parent. The platform also provides tools to track your dog’s medicines and vaccinations, and makes it easier to share everything with your veterinarian, too.

 

5. Silent Herdsman

Not all wearables are for dogs or cats; in fact, the Silent Herdsman is smart collar designed for cows. The device’s smart monitoring system uses a wireless network-powered collar to detect patterns in cows’ behaviors, and automatically alerts farmers regarding changes in normal behavior, indicating patterns related to parturition and oestrus. As a result, the smart device can also enhance the efficiency of the farm by reducing labor costs and improving milk yield.

 

6. StickNFind BlueTrackers

While the StickNFind BlueTrackers can be applied to a number of items ranging from car keys to wallets, it is of particular interest to pet owners. At less than an inch in diameter, the smart sticker can easily be placed on your pet’s collar to help locate it when it’s gone missing. Given that a majority of lost pets are typically within just a couple of blocks from home, BlueTrackers will make it easy for you to know its exact outdoor location within 2,500 feet. The motion detector also notifies you if your furry friend is on the move. Say goodbye to the case of the missing moggie!

 

7. Eyenimal PetCam

Designed by Dogtek, the Eyenimal is an uber-mini digital cam which can be attached to your pet’s collar. The device comes equipped with 4GB built-in Flash memory, 500mA Li-Ion battery and the ability to capture images continuously for up to two and a half hours. Upon capturing footage, pet owners can then download the video to their computer via the included USB cable and be amazed at the animal’s activities.

 

8. MyFitDog

The Best Fit Friend is a pair of small, lightweight and extremely durable activity monitors: one worn on your dog’s collar, the other worn by you. Both devices utilize a three-dimensional accelerometer, low-energy Bluetooth technology, and a mobile device to track the amount and intensity of your movement. The activity data is stored on the devices until it is wirelessly transferred to a mobile app, where a pet owner can compare data, set goals, and interact with other Best Fit Friend owners down the block or around the world. The Best Fit Friend is unique in that one device is specifically calibrated to accurately track the movement of our four-legged friends while the other is calibrated to human movement. This dual device system allows us to set fitness goals for ourselves and for our pets to then achieve our goals together.

 

9. Trax

Trax is a tiny, GPS tracker featuring an accelerometer and gyroscope for indoor tracking where GPS doesn’t work. These combined technologies allow the Trax to offer the real-time tracking of movement with accuracy of up to 10 feet, meaning that you can track down your four-legged friend quite easily using nothing more than your smartphone. In addition, owners can set the Trax to create GeoFences that alert you when the animal goes over a boundary. Each app features four basic types of GeoFences for ultimate flexibility, and each of these fences sends an alert to your phone when the Trax wearer goes beyond the designated area. Alerts can be set to push notifications or SMS. Given its small size (2.6 inches x 0.40 inches), the device can easily be clipped to collars.

 

10. No More Woof

Ever wonder what your dog was thinking? Imagine if it could tell you. Though it sounds much like the storyline from the Pixar film, “Up,” a team of Scandinavian scientists are working to develop a headset that could soon allow man’s best friend to speak his mind. No More Woof aims to develop a small gadget that uses the latest technology in micro computing and EEG to analyze animal thought patterns and spell them out in human language. If your dog could talk, what would it say? No More Woof says key phrases might include: “I’m hungry — but I don’t like this!” or “I’m curious who that is?”

“Yes, we HAVE achieved some results, but we are very far from a mass-producable product. That said, we believe that within a few years the technologies we are working with will revolutionize our relation to pets and animals,” the Makers’ Indiegogo disclaimer reads.

 

11. Adafruit Dog Logging Harness

Sure, you can buy one of the many smart gadgets on the market… or in true DIY spirit, you can go ahead and make one! That is what Adafruit’s Becky Stern recently did. The Maker created a FLORA-based GPS logger capable of mapping a dog’s playtime at the park or hike in the woods.

The IoT is making a racket in the tennis world

With the U.S. Open now in full swing, it appears that the serve speed radar gun and Hawkeye replay challenge system won’t be the only high-tech gadgets in use over the next two weeks. In a new venture with OMsignal, Ralph Lauren is introducing a new revolution in on-court wearable technology. As the official outfitter of the two-week Grand Slam, Ralph Lauren will be decking teching out this year’s ball boys with nylon t-shirts lined comprised of conductive silver-coated thread and sensors knitted into its core to read biological and physiological information.

As demonstrated by the image above, the compression shirt features a sleek look in black with a signature yellow Polo Player logo. The second-skin fit enhances comfort and agility. Indeed, the decision to equip ball boys with sensor-laden shirts is a first serve of many in introducing a new wave of technology into the tennis world. Ralph Lauren tells the New York Times that 2015 will see the company launch a range of clothing — including classic dress shirts as well athletic wear — containing the smart technology of OM.

The embedded sensors, which include an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a heart rate monitor, are housed in a black box that’s embedded discretely in the shirt. This box can also be removed, allowing for the shirt to be thrown in the wash, while the box itself is charged. Ralph Lauren tells Business Insider that the smart shit can endure 30 workouts, or approximately 30 workouts, without running out of battery.

Aside from dressing several ball boys in the Polo Tech Shirt during select matches at the Billie Jean National Tennis Center, top collegiate player Marcos Giron will be playing in his first Grand Slam in Flushing wearing the embedded shirt during his training sessions. He will track his biometrics and making adjustments in real time to his play, form and breathing.

David Brewer, U.S. Open Tournament Director, explained that there are features in the Polo Tech shirt that can “revolutionize how players train and compete.” He added, “The fact that Ralph Lauren chose the U.S. Open as the venue to unveil its Polo Tech shirt enhances our tradition as a showcase for innovation.”

The debut at the U.S. Open marks the first time a global sporting event is being used as a platform to launch a collection of wearable products. However, this is just the latest connected advancement in the sport over the past couple of weeks. Just days ago, Sony has introduced its Smart Tennis Sensor, which has been designed for all levels of players that looking to optimize their game and share their performance results. The new sensor takes control to the next level through real-time shot visualizations instantly available on a smartphone or tablet as well as simultaneous displaying of recorded video and shot metrics.

As the USTA Grand Slam exemplifies, sensors are everywhere and being designed into everything throughout today’s connected world. The requirements are moving from simple monitoring to full interpretation of the devices state and situation. Many of these tasks require the simultaneous analysis and fusion of data from different sensors and sensor types, including motion sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes. To simplify enabling these systems, Atmel has partnered with the leading sensor manufacturers and sensor fusion specialists to provide a complete, easy to implement Sensor Hub Solution.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the IoT, or Internet of Tennis. Connected devices continue to emerge throughout the tennis world, including recent advancements from Smash, Shot Stats and Play Pure Drive, each of which have already ‘hit’ the market.

Sony has opted to go with a racquet-mounted sensor, which sits right at the butt of its handle. The company reveals that device will track just about every metric and statistic that a tennis player or coach could need, ranging from shot count and ball impact spot to swing and ball speed. Through highly sensitive wave and motion detection, the sensor can pick up multiple swing types such as topspin forehand, slice forehand, volley forehand, topspin backhand, slice backhand, volley backhand, smash, and even Andy Roddick-like serves, the company explained in its press release.

Initially partnering with top tennis manufacturer Wilson, as well as Prince and Yonex, Sony aspires to create a compact enough body to accompany the sleek yet performance-driven rackets known to generations of players.

“Sony is a company which aims to enhance customers’ daily lives by offering products, applications and services which inspire and fulfill their curiosity,” said Furumi Hideyuki, SVP, the president of UX & Product Strategy Group, UX, Product Strategy and Creative Platform, Sony Corporation. “Through working with our partners in the tennis racket market, Sony will offer its Smart Tennis Sensor, to all levels of tennis players ranging from beginners to experts and is very excited about the prospect of enriching tennis with this new experience.”

Sony’s Smart Tennis Sensor wirelessly connects with smartphones and tablets using Bluetooth technology with performance data spontaneously visualized through a complimentary iOS and Android supported application. Alongside showcasing real-time visualizations of swings including heat mapping and stats, the app can record rallies while simultaneously displaying shot metrics. Through the app’s social sharing features, the Smart Tennis Sensor turns single and double player matches or practice sessions into an instant sharable experience across social media.

The sensor’s Memory Mode enables up to 12,000 shots of internal storage for quick saving or easy download to a smartphone or tablet. The sensor can be conveniently transferred any time, along with all recorded historical shots between a player’s spare rackets, or to another compatible racket model or brand through a player’s development in the sport. The Smart Tennis Sensor, which weights approximately 8-grams and measures 31.3mm in diameter, will be available directly from Wilson and at some retailers in January with a price tag of $200.

Once thought as a preppy, traditional sport, tennis has stepped up its game to meet today’s digital-savvy, constantly-connected world. This means we can expect to see more sensors, more chips and more real-time action. Atmel is making it easy for designers to create a more intelligent, more connected tennis world, ranging from embedded wearables to on-court technologies. Atmel® | SMART™ ARM®-based solutions include embedded processing and connectivity — as well as software and tools — designed to make it faster and more cost-effective to bring smart products to market, or in this case, the court. Atmel | SMART MCUs combine powerful 32-bit ARM cores with industry-leading low-power technology and intelligent peripherals. Serve’s up!

Channel your inner superhero with The Dazzler bracelet

Maker Michael Barretta was searching for the perfect gift for his girlfriend’s birthday. After some deep thought, he decided to develop a project based on her favorite superhero: The Dazzler. So what happens when the superpowers of the X-Men join forces with the low power of today’s microcontrollers? This DIY Dazzler bracelet.

To best personify the bright lights of the Dazzler’s powers, Barretta worked to incorporate light organs into a wearable bracelet. MAKE Magazine best describes light organs as a simple technology that causes light to pulse in tune with the frequency and intensity of sound.

Much like Marcus Olsson’s Trinket design we featured a few weeks back, this bracelet pulses in reaction to the sound around it. Undoubtedly, these wearables would be a massive hit at any party… or Comic-Con, of course!

Barretta linked an Adafruit GEMMA platform (ATtiny85), a microphone breakout board, NeoPixel RGB LED strips and LiPo battery to establish the dazzling effect. The microphone adapts surrounding music into a sequence of LED flashes. For even further customization and personalization, the Maker 3D printed the bracelet enclosure to perfectly fit his girlfriend’s wrist. The schematics for the bracelet itself can be found here.

If you want to build your own bracelet for that someone special in your life, or just want to channel your inner Dazzler, check out Michael’s tutorial here!

Wearables shipments to reach 22 million in 2014

According to CCS Insight, 22 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2014 — more than double last year’s 9.7 million total. The latest report projects that over 250 million smart wearables will be in use by 2018, nearly 14 times more than in 2013.

“The wearables market is in its Stone Age right now. There needs to be huge improvements to broaden their appeal,” explains Marina Koytcheva, Director of Forecasting at CCS Insight.

The forecast predicts that wrist-worn devices will account for 87% of wearables to be shipped in 2018 — comprising 68 million smartwatches and 50 million smart bands with no screen or with a minimal, one-line display. Fitness and well-being trackers remain the fastest-growing category, given that they have a clearly defined purpose, user benefits and are relatively affordable. CSS Insight believes fitness trackers will account for over half of the 35 million wearables in use at the end of this year.

“Wearables are poised to be the perfect gift for the person who has everything this Christmas. We believe this will fuel strong growth in the final quarter of 2014 for smart bands, particularly fitness trackers, which will account for more than half of the 35 million wearables in use at end of 2014,” Koytcheva adds.

According to the report, CCS Insight also foresees strong future growth in smartwatches. The company expects many smart band manufacturers to extend their product ranges by adding devices with screens. As smartwatches broaden their appeal, capabilities are refined, new functions are added and prices fall, CCS Insight expects smartwatches to displace fitness bands and become the most used form of wearables.

A smart wearable category that will become much more prominent in the second half of 2014, CSS reveals, is stand-alone cellular wearables. “We expect a number of high-profile devices with their own SIM cards will be announced in the coming months. However, these devices will face significant challenges as people are reluctant to take out another contract with their mobile operator.”

North America currently leads the way in terms of adoption of wearables with 5.2 million wearables sold in  2013, and over 40% of all wearable devices currently in use are there. Reason being that a majority of companies are based in North America, while the region possesses a proven eager to adopt new technology. Western Europe is catching up and from 2016 is expected to buy more wearables than North America, the analysts predicted. Adoption will be slower in emerging markets and primarily driven by tech-savvy, affluent users.

“The market is still in a chaotic stage of development, and there’s still a huge amount of uncertainty. Every category faces different risks: the way people use wearables is still changing, one type of device could kill sales in another category, people are unsure whether some wearables are socially acceptable, and intellectual property rights are a minefield for the dozens of start-ups entering the wearables market,” Koytcheva points out.

To learn more, you can access the entire report here or view the detailed infographic from the research firm below.

 

Wearable tech transforming how coaches evaluate players on the pitch

Most of us consider Silicon Valley to be the technological hub of the country, so it comes with little surprise that the resident professional soccer team of the region is at the forefront of on-field tech.

Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes have recently adopted the Adidas MiCoach platform to optimize player performance on and off the field. “As much as you’re used to doing things a certain way, if you can get this immediate feedback and metrics then put it into use it’s an incredible tool,” Coach Mark Watson tells the Silicon Valley Business Journal. 

To track the athletes, a small wearable unit is placed into a pocket on the back of an Adidas undershirt. With the sensor in place, coaches are able to monitor heart rate, distance run, and movement speed all in real-time. An iPad compiles the data and then allows the coaching staff to determine if they are overworking certain players.

While this unprecedented form of player analysis is changing how coaches view the game, there are some concerns rising as the technology moves into the future. Some worry that player medical information gleaned from these sensors could be used against them in future contract negotiations, while others wonder how it will affect player comfort. Needless to say, we can continue to expect to see an emergence of both physical and mental applications for wearable technology throughout the professional sports world.

In fact, the Earthquakes aren’t the only MLS club experimenting with wearable technology. Since last year, the Seattle Sounders have been partnering with analytics company Tableau to visualize data generated from wearables to track player movements and health. The technology assists the team in monitoring player effectiveness, GPS positioning on the field, speed and distance traveled, as well as off-field data like player sleep patterns. Although the players aren’t allowed to wear the technology during games, the information collected throughout training sessions is enough to help improve the team’s strategy, conditioning and roster development.

According to CNBC, Australia-based Catapult has also risen as a leader in the athletic wearable technology arena. The company measures more than 100 fields of data via a device worn under the athletes’ jerseys. Nearly 4,000 professional teams utilize the technology, and has even earned billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban’s investment.

LED basketball courts, sensor-laden tennis shirts and RFID-embedded shoulder pads are just a few of the tech-based advancements throughout the sporting world in recent months. From the field to locker room, Atmel is right in the middle of the wearable tech action, with a comprehensive portfolio of versatile microcontrollers that power a wide range of platforms and devices to meet the demands of tomorrow’s athletes and coaches

Your shirt may soon be able to visualize music

Created by the folks at New York-based design lab CRATED, the Sync shirt is described by its Makers as “an audio responsive VJ Shirt” that visually connects its wearer to the background music in a club. This visual connection is derived from an LED-embedded patch that is inserted into the front of the shirt, which pulses at varying degrees of intensity depending upon what music is playing.

Inspired by the emergence of visual DJs that use light and sound in their performances at nightclubs throughout New York City, London and Europe, the Sync shirt enables partygoers to become active participants in the light shows instead of just passive watchers.

As Co.Labs notes, though light-up attire is nothing new, the Sync is on the cutting-edge of visual wearable tech because of the underlying technology used to create it. Whereas fashion wearables that have visual elements likelights often have wires running throughout the fabric of the garments, the designers have done away with wires altogether in the shirt thanks to its collaboration with BotFactory.

The Brooklyn-based startup is also the company behind the innovative Squink technology, which allows Makers to create circuit boards from the comforts of their own homes or offices for less than the price of the average iced coffee. It was the same technology that enabled Crated to print uber-thin and flexible circuit boards right on the patch that powers Sync.

Most impressive of all, thanks to Squink, Crated says they prototyped Sync in just 24 hours.

“Sync was a collaboration inspired by BotFactory’s Squink,” Crated CTO Madison Maxey tells Fast Company‘s Michael Grothaus. “We had met the team about a month earlier and were so impressed by the implications for Squink, especially after we had run into come frustrating PCB troubles with an earlier project. We were excited to see BotFactory crowdfunding and decided to propose a collaboration using Squink boards in wearable technology, as they’re exceptionally flexible and really beautiful if properly designed.”

Squink prints conductive ink on specific material, such as photo paper or glass, enabling Makers to create their own functional circuit boards using conductive ink and glue. The all-in-one printer then goes one step further than just producing out the intricate designs that connect all of the electronic components on a circuit board together. Furthermore, it will then actually pick and place those components onto the board, as specified in a design you mockup on a computer. This process takes a matter of minutes and can be completed for a revolutionary low price of around $2. This makes the prototyping process easier and faster than ever before.

“For the wearables space, Squink is great as it prints boards on paper, so projects can be ultra thin,” Maxey adds. “The patch that responds to music on Sync has a battery and microcontroller onboard, meaning the patch itself could be removed, and attached to another garment without any additional wiring. Often wearable tech prototypes have wires running everywhere. We were quite pleased that Squink allowed us to make something that looks clean from phase one.”

The Sync VJ shirt may only be a proof of concept at the moment, but its creators say they’r exploring a consumer-ready version that can be worn to concerts and festivals. Interested? Back in August, Squink had successfully achieved its $100,000 Kickstarter goal, just by the skin of their teeth.

A look back at the evolution of wearable tech

Wearable technology is undoubtedly one of the latest trends to proliferate our digital world. While wearables might seem like an innovation entirely out of the 21st century, humans have been tinkering with these gizmos and gadgets long before the days of Pebble, Jawbone, Fitbit and Google Glass.

In fact, the definition of “wearable computers” can date all the way back to the 16th century when humans first starting wearing time-keeping devices. However, due to the differing definitions of both “wearable” and “computer,” there remains varying beliefs as to who devised the first computer with which we adorned our bodies. For some, the first wearable (an abacus ring) arrived on the scene early as between 1368 and 1644 during Qing Dynasty era, while others believe it was either the first wristwatch by Breguet for the Queen of Naples in 1810, or the covert timing devices hidden in shoes to cheat the game of roulette by Thorp and Shannon in the 1960s.

The 1920s saw the debut of digital mechanical watches such as the Cortebert Mechanical Digital, the ancestors of today’s high-tech materials and innovative designs. Then, nearly a half of a century later in 1972, Hamilton introduced the world’s first fully electronic wristwatch with a digital display, the Pulsar P1 Limited Edition Watch. By the end of 1970s, the price of the average digital watch dropped drastically and come 1980, these became nothing more than a mere novelty. During this time, however, consumers were introduced to the revolutionary Sony Walkman, which remains arguably one of the first real success stories in the wearable world with over 385 million units sold worldwide.

Throughout the evolution of what many would dub “archaic” wearables, the world came to love (and sometimes strongly dislike) these devices — many ahead of their time, while some real duds. Fortunately, we still remember them, and today, we pay homage to some of wearable technology’s predecessors… before the days of versatile microcontrollers.

Abacus Ring, 1600s

Developed in the Qing Dynasty era (1644-1911), the ring features a 1.2cm x 0.7cm abacus that sits on the finger. While the ring may not be able to make phone calls, it does prove that wearable tech may not be a modern-day concept as many would think.

(Source: ChinaCulture.org)

Breguet Wrist Watch, 1810

Breguet created the first wrist watch for the Queen of Naples, Caroline Murat. 

Protona Minifon P55 Recorder Wristwatch, 1955

This wristwatch got a little closer to true spy action, except for that conspicuous carrying case.

(Source: Gizmag)

Atsuko Tanaka Electric Dress, 1956

The center of attention at exhibitions, this burqa-like costume consisted of electrical wires and colored lightbulbs. Inspired by a pharmaceutical advertisement illuminated by neon lights, the bulky garment set out to express the body’s circuitry, while acting like a costume.

(Source: WilliamGibsonBoard.com)

ARPA Sword of Damocles, 1968

Created by computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, the Sword of Damocles was the first pioneering example of a virtual and augmented reality head-mounted display system.

(Source: io9.com)

Keith Taft’s George Blackjack Shoe Computer, 1972

Weighing fifteen pounds and the size of three large textbooks, the world’s first microcomputer-powered blackjack cheating device was fitted around the waist, surrounded by batteries and controlled by switches attached to big toes inside custom made shoes.

(Source: VegasTripping.com)

Hamilton Pulsar P1 Limited Edition, 1972

The very first electronic digital watch to reach the market made its in April 1972 for $2,100 — about $11,400 today.

Hamilton Pulsar Calculator Watch, 1976

Only a few years after the launch of LED wristwatches, several manufacturers like Hamilton showed off prototypes for models containing fully-functional calculators.

(Source: watchismo.blogspot.com)

Hewlett-Packard HP-01, 1977

While this wrist instrument may have resemble an ordinary digital watch, it was in fact much smarter than its fellow pocket calculators. The HP device performed more than three dozen functions to manipulate and interrelate time, calendar and numeric data. With six interactive functions (time, alarm, timer/stopwatch, date/calendar, calculator and memory), the HP-01 had 28 tiny keys that the user operated with a stylus built into the bracelet.

(Source: HP)

Texas Instruments Star Wars Watch, 1977

TI revolutionized the digital wristwatch industry with the introduction of the first under-$20 LED watch in 1976. Soon, the company produced licensed LED watches that tied-in with the release of movies like Star Wars the following year.

(Source: newturfers.com)

Sony Walkman, 1979

Kids, way before the days of your MP3, Sony debuted its iconic portable cassette tape players on July 1, 1979 for $150.

(Source: dvice.com)

Casio Game-10, 1980

Who remembers playing mini-versions of Legend of Zelda or Super Mario on their wrists?

Steve Mann’s WearComp, 1981

While still in high school, the revolutionary Maker designed a backpack-mounted computer to control photographic equipment. Mann felt that humans that computers and computing environments should be available anywhere to a person, not just at a specifically designed computer terminal.

(Source: TechHive)

Seiko TV Watch, 1982

Now this watch did something rather innovative for 1982 — it allowed wearers to view live TV on a tiny LCD screen embedded into the watch face.

(Source: visions4.net)

Puma RS Computer Shoe Pedometers, 1986

These Puma running shoes were affixed with pedometer computers that could be reset and would count up time and distance that could be then downloaded to the game port on the Apple II.

(Source: digibarn.com)

Reflection Technology Private Eye, 1989

The Private Eye head-mounted display scanned a vertical array of LEDs across the visual field using a vibrating mirror.

(Source: CNET)

First Wrist Computer, 1994

Designed by Edgar Matias and Mike Ruicci of the University of Toronto, this “wrist computer” presented an alternative approach to the emerging HUD + chord keyboard wearable. The system was built from a modified HP 95LX palmtop computer and a half-QWERTY keyboard. With the keyboard and display modules strapped to the operator’s forearms, text could be entered by bringing the the wrists together and typing.

(Source: edgarmatias.com)

First Linux Wristwatch, 1998

The “Father of Wearable Computing” Steve Mann invented, designed and built the world’s first Linux wristwatch.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The Trekker, 1998

In terms of size, this device is a slight improvement of Steve Mann’s pioneering work, but still lacked the appropriate geek chicness. Produced by Rockwell, the Trekker was a rugged wearable computer based on a 120 MHz Pentium with built-in DSP support for speech interface and a monocular head-worn display.

(Source: TechHive)

Digital Eye Glass EyeTap Augmediated Reality Goggles, 1998

A step closer to today’s smart glasses…

(Source: Flickr)

MicroOptical TASK-9, 2000

Even closer… Founded in 1995 by Mark Spitzer, the company produced several patented designs which were bought by Google after the company closed in 2010. One such design was the TASK-9, a wearable computer that is attachable to a set of glasses.

(Source: CNET)

WatchPad, 2000

IBM first prototyped a watch running Linux in 2000, and quickly evolved into the WatchPad, made in collaboration with Japan’s Citizen Watch Company.

(Source: Engadget)

Casio Wrist Camera, 2002

The Casio Wrist Camera was the first wristwatch with an integrated digital camera. Sure, it only captured 120-by-120-pixel photos in grayscale, but the fact that Casio crammed a working camera into a watch turned many heads.

Xybernaut Poma, 2002

The Xybernaut Poma Wearable PC was another foray into the head-mounted display market that launched after Steve Mann’s gadgets and way before Google Glass. The wearable comprised of a 309g Windows CE device, running on the Hitachi 128MHz Risc processor with 32MB of RAM.

(Source: TechRadar)

Fossil Wrist PDA, 2003

Essentially be a watch running a read-only version of the Palm OS…

(Source: TechRadar)

Whatever the future may hold, rest assured we’ll continue to power a number of these next-gen devices — from the Atmel | SMART SAM4S Cortex-M4 being embedded in smartwatches to ATmega32U4 MCUs used to design some wild FLORA-based creations. Interested in learning more? Discover how the computers that we wear will help you work, play and just about everything else in our latest white paper here.

Real-time digital doctor checkups may soon become a reality

As recently discussed on Bits & Pieces, the wearable market continues to be driven by sports and healthcare functionalities. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have supported that claim by laying out a plan as to how the market can grow even further.

UC-San Francisco envisions the next wave of wearables to possess “advanced biosensors that can collect new data, teach us what data is most valuable – and maybe even change the way we practice medicine.”

These new sensors could be as tiny as an earbud or patch on the skin, and collect a pool of data that would track things previously only able to be studied within a hospital. Dr. Michael Blum, Director of the UCSF Center for Digital Health Innovation believes, “We need to get to a world where individuals are using digital health devices to collect accurate, detailed data about themselves and that data is available for clinical trials as well as to their clinicians for helping them maintain wellness or managing disease.”

Dr. Blum goes on to note that if these precise and individualized wearables are researched and adopted, the healthcare community could gain “access to these large, rich data sources, [where] we will likely see new patterns and relationships that will lead to the development of new, non-traditional ‘vital signs.’”

As we previously shared, heartbeat monitors and pedometers make up for much of the health related wearable market today with over 12 million units shipped in 2013. Advances in wearable health technology would allow a patient to remain monitored by a professional once they are discharged from a hospital after an ICU visit or even a serious surgery.

UCSF shared five examples of technology they believe could transform the realm of modern-day healthcare.

The Simband

With its ability to measure blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation and body temperature, this wearable device could prove invaluable for those in clinical trials or in need of constant monitoring.

Home Sleep Studies

Much of the hesitancy for patients to undergo sleep studies is the fact that they have to spend the night in a hospital hooked up to a series of wires and machines. Thanks to new high-tech biosensors, doctors will be able to monitor a patient’s sleep patterns from home and send the data directly to their physician.

The Modern Day Life Alert

“Help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up.” We’ve all seen the melodramatic TV commercials for devices that allow elderly relatives to notify loved ones and emergency personnel if things go awry. With updated biosensor technology, new gadgets will alert caregivers if there is limited movement, no access to the refrigerator, or even signs of illness.

Vital Connect

The Vital Connect patch allows irregular heartbeats to be monitored from a tiny patch. The data collected is then uploaded to a cloud database and can be analyzed by a healthcare professional.

Measuring Vitals With Tunes

New earbud technologies are utilizing photoplethysmography to monitor heart rate, temperature, and respiration rate; therefore, vital signs can be monitored while you listen to your favorite album or podcast.

With the wearable market increasingly permeating the healthcare community, the future seems to possess fewer doctors’ office visits and nearly uninterrupted monitoring for those in need. Certainly, the doctor-patient relationship will continue to flux, while wearables will be yet another influence on that relationship.

Luciferin: A wearable plucked out of the Elizabethan Era

Our friends over at Adafruit have brought to our attention this mesmerizing piece created by lighting student Laura Jade. The Maker has a passion for history, design and technology, and this project is a superb hybrid of all three.

When developing this wearable, Jade looked to everything from the term ‘enlightenment’ to biological organisms that produce their own light. The name Luciferin is actually that of a molecule, which produces bioluminescent light in nature.

The sparkling LEDs across the piece are powered by the ATmega32u4 based FLORA platform. The project also includes an accelerometer that communicates with the microcontroller to direct the lighting to fit the wearer’s movements. The plastics adorning the front are laser cut and accented by EL wire.

It would be easy enough to believe that the Luciferin would be included in the next Hunger Games movie, or was a relic from an era long past. The antique design partnered with the high-tech functionality truly makes this necklace one of a kind. To check out more of Laura’s illuminating designs, we encourage you to browse her Tumblr page here.