Where Next for Wearables

I recently found this article https://www.wareable.com/wareable50/best-wearable-tech-2017 on wearable technology trends, which is worth a read.

The thing I really liked was the Thynk Relax device, which basically uses electrical neck stimulation to help you relax and improve sleep. It's a bit pricey but slots alongside Dreem's headset as something which is really focused on individual well-being and in the the nature of Zeitgheist addresses one of the major issues of the age, Stress.

However overall this article gives a snapshot of where investment is going. Out of 50 (or so items mentioned) Mainstream trends are:

• Watches and Wriststraps account for 14 of the main items, all with slightly different slants.
• Smart Clothing and shoes get 7 mentions.
• VR, AR and Mixed Reality get 6 with evolved approaches to smart glasses and weareable cameras counting for another 4.
• Hearables and earbuds count for another 3 with more mentions of possibilities as well.
• Home automation platforms and static digital assistants (which are not currently weareable, but this is an obvious evolutionary path)  garner 6 mentions.

Looking across the products, one gets a sense of evolution and convergence. Some things are being simplified to address user centric design concerns (make things simple). Single use items such as payment rings probably will not survive long as products in their own rights. Products are starting to address response to human emotions, e.g. straps which detect them and home management systems which adjust the home environment to fit your mood and music/media based output to clothing. There is also a slight shift away from just sensing to doing things to you as well.

The overall wearable eco system is evolving to sense everything to do with the wearer and his or her environment, to provide him or her with information input (visual, audio, heating and cooling of clothing, and bodily stimulation), to screen out unwanted stuff, e.g. background noise, as well as issue commands to your car, devices in a smart house etc. and to provide AI based advice and updates of information from the internet.

The foundations are really being laid to get rid of the smart phone, home computer and pad, and replace them with smart clothing, jewelry and even smart temporary tattoos. Interestingly as this wave hits, Google and Apple appear to be trying to keep up, but with slightly underwelming products, and Microsoft is barely visible in the race. It's time to try and work out who will be the next consumer and design driven giant in the tech field.