wearable computing

The next big thing in tech: Augmented reality

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Reality isn't what is used to be. With increasingly powerful technologies, the human universe is being reimagined way beyond Google Glass' photo-tapping and info cards floating in space above your eye. The future is fashionable eyewear, contact lenses or even bionic eyes with immersive 3D displays, conjuring up a digital layer to "augment" reality, enabling entire new classes of applications and user experiences.

Like most technologies that eventually reach a mass market, augmented reality, or AR, has been gestating in university labs, as well as small companies focused on gaming and vertical applications, … Read more

Google, Nike, Jawbone and the fight to win wearable computing

When wireless headset company Jawbone announced plans Tuesday to buy wearable sensor maker BodyMedia for what a source said was more than $100 million, it may well have marked a turning point for wearable computing.

The technology, which includes everything from Google Glass eyewear to heart-rate monitors to sensors that slip into running shoes, has come of age. It's moving past the niche gizmos that only appeal to geeks and gearheads.

As a real business materializes around the technology, a battle is brewing among companies that want to put themselves at the heart of it, and profit from its … Read more

FitBark, a kind of Fitbit for dogs, launches on Kickstarter

NEW YORK--Worried about Fido getting a little too chunky? Now you can track how active your dog is by using FitBark, a sort of Fitbit for pets.

FitBark, a New York-based startup, launched the product Thursday on Kickstarter and at the NY Tech Day tech show in Manhattan, seeking funding to produce its wearable fitness tracker for pets.

For a $99 pledge, people receive a wearable bone-shaped device, a home base that collects data, and a three-month subscription to the service. The FitBark mobile app itself is free. (FitBark is not affiliated with Fitbit.)

"We all wondered how we … Read more

Apple board member's remarks pique iWatch speculation

Here's another scrap to add to your "Apple's Next Move" file.

Recent remarks from Bill Campbell, an Apple board member and close friend of Steve Jobs, suggest that rumors about an iWatch -- or perhaps even an Apple competitor to Google's high-tech Glass specs -- might be worth heeding.

At an event for Intuit employees this week, Campbell sat down with Intuit CEO Brad Smith for an hourlong chat, discussing, as Businessweek puts it, "things that make a product great, how managers should behave, and some of the recent highs and lows he's … Read more

When wearable computing meets the Pilates shirt

SEATTLE -- Technology giants such as Google and apparel makers such as Nike are pouring millions into wearable computing, betting that it's one of the next untapped frontiers in consumer electronics.

Runners slip sensors into their shoes to track how far they've gone. Insomniacs wear wristbands to monitor their sleep habits. Skiers don goggles with heads-up displays to see how fast they're moving.

But wearable computing remains a niche business. Even as the cost and size of the sensors the devices use has dropped, and the ability to transmit the data those sensors collect to smartphones has … Read more

Apple reportedly testing curved glass for 'iWatch'

Like hands on a clock, rumors that Apple is developing a Dick Tracy-like wristwatch have come around again.

The New York Times reports today that Apple is experimenting with wristwatch-like iOS devices that sport curved glass. The advantage of the "iWatch," as some have labeled it, is said to be in the company's expertise with curved glass.

The smart wristwatch notion isn't exactly groundbreaking: a lot of smartwatches, fitness bands, or some hybrid of the two, were talked up last month at CES. Some of those devices include the long-awaited Pebble wristwatch, which made its debut … Read more

Apple rumor watch: iOS timepiece on drawing board?

After creating the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, is Apple now working on an iWatch?

A report cited by Business Insider claims that Apple has partnered with Intel to develop an iOS watch. Supply chain sources reportedly told Chinese blog site Tech163.com that the watch would be Bluetooth-enabled and sport a 1.5-inch OLED screen.

The so-called smart watch would debut sometime in the first half of next year.

Other sources have chimed in on the general concept, with Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, for one, saying he thinks wearable computing is a line that Apple might eventually get into. … Read more

New patent hints at Google Glass wristwatch

If the idea of a heads-up display inside your eyeglasses still seems strange, what about one for your wristwatch?

A patent issued yesterday revealed a new frontier for the Google Glass project: the humble wrist. A wristwatch design filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows a timepiece with a clear touch screen that flips up from the base of the watch to serve as a secondary display.

Images filed with the patent show the display being used to offer directions, product information and e-mail notifications.

Patents don't always -- or even often -- become products. But … Read more

Smart shoes step up the wearable-computing pace

A group of researchers says shoes may be the next thing in the busy field of wearable computers and gesture interfaces.

Computer scientists from the Telekom Innovation Laboratories, the University of Munich, and the University of Toronto this week published a paper on ShoeSense, a wearable computing system for a smartphone.

It's one of many gesture interface-related papers being presented this week at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012) conference, which is sponsored by the research arms of Microsoft, Google, eBay, and other tech companies.

Wearable computing got a high-profile plug when Google introduced Project Glass, … Read more