wearable tech

Google said to be creating game console and smartwatch

Google appears to be boosting both its wearable tech and its gaming status. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the tech giant is working on developing both a video game console and a smartwatch that could run on Android.

Last year, Google unveiled a Web-connected media-playing console, dubbed the Nexus Q, but it never sold it to the public. The spherical device featured glowing LEDs that responded to music. The Q also streamed content directly from Google Play Music, Google Play TV & Movies, and YouTube, using an Android phone or tablet as the controller. However, a couple … Read more

Enter the relax-matrix: PSiO AVS MP3 Color System, hands-on

CE Week in New York is often about finding the oddball bits of CES all from the comfort of your Manhattan midtown event space. Winning the Oddball Award for me this year was the PSiO AVS MP3 Color System, a wearable "audiovisual stimulation" device aimed at wellness.

It may look like some bizarre knockoff of Google Glass, but PSiO has more in common with home relaxation-therapy gadgets and meditation tapes. The plastic glasses have a variety of colored LED lights that strobe and shift across an opaque visor, while earbuds (or headphones) play back stereo sounds and voices … Read more

Talk to the hand: No, really, it's a glove phone

I have had the impression for some time that Google has thought of everything.

This impression was mainly fostered by Google, which seems intent not merely on knowing everything I do now, but everything I will want to do in the future.

But then I saw this footage of a man talking into his pinkie finger and thought: "He must be British."

This did, indeed, prove to be the case. For Sean Miles of Designworks in the U.K. decided that the true joy of wearable tech was a driving glove that you can talk into.

At least … Read more

Google Glass could be the next iPhone?

Get ready, Google Glass may soon be as omnipresent as the iPhone. People will be seen walking down the street, grocery shopping, and riding the subway with the wearable tech sitting on their faces.

According to a new report by Forrester, 21.6 million U.S. online consumers, or 12 percent of the population, are willing to wear augmented reality eyeglasses if they come from a trusted brand. Forrester's report is based on surveys with more than 4,600 U.S. adults in April.

"Not since Apple's iPhone debuted in 2007 has a computing device attracted as … Read more

Sensoria smart socks may do more than help you run better

A slew of fancy pedometers has hit the market in recent years, capturing a range of data to help people know how many steps they've taken, how far they've gone, how many calories they've burned, and even one's sleep quality.

Well move over Fitbits and Omrons, because a new kid is moving to the block. Redmond, Wash.-based startup Heapsylon is launching an $87,000 crowdfunding campaign

today on Indiegogo to wrap up product development and manufacturing of its highly anticipated Sensoria Fitness system, replete with smart socks, electronic anklet, and virtual coach mobile app.

… Read more

Acer now eying wearable tech too

Acer is looking at wearable technology as its next big opportunity, a high-level executive told tech Web site Pocket-Lint.

The wearable technology market could be worth billions of dollars to the industry, ST Liew, president of the smartphone business group at Acer, told Pocket-Lint in an interview. He teased some wearable tech product to emerge in 2014.

Acer is just the latest company to look into wearable tech, a burgeoning market that is starting to see interest from major players. From Google Glass to the Nike Fuelband, the category has begun to pick up steam. The products are often seen … Read more

Amulet camera records your life, stores it in cloud

"The destruction of music through YouTube is enormous."

That's what pianist Krystian Zimerman told an audience in Germany when he stopped his performance to demand a fan stop recording it with a smartphone.

But if you think the ubiquity of phone cameras is more than a little annoying, get ready for one that goes around your neck and can record automatically. … Read more

Scatterbrained? Focus with the Melon EEG headband

Do you need an app to help you think straight? How about a dorky bit of wearable tech that promises to improve your life?

Melon is an electroencephalography (EEG) headband that supposedly helps you focus your thoughts. If you usually need caffeine for that, it could be worth a look.

The subject of a successful Kickstarter campaign that has more than doubled its $100,000 goal, this wireless headband and app "was built to be worn while engaging in a variety of activities -- from working, to studying, playing sports, dancing, practicing an instrument, programming, painting, or doing yoga." … Read more

Glasses with Google Glass: Prescription versions appear at Google I/O

SAN FRANCISCO--Google Glass currently comes in five colors and has a pop-in sunglass visor, but no version of the Explorer Edition comes with prescription lenses. For glasses-wearers like me, that means getting contacts or jamming them over my frames. Next year, that may change.

You had to look closely on the Google I/O show floor, but a few Google employees were wearing Glass prototypes with actual prescription glasses attached. Designed in-house at Google, they actually look good: crisp modern lines, but not exactly for the Ray-Ban set. Mark Shandy, seen above, was kind enough to show them off … Read more