The Trace of Wearables : First Class

In 2016, the phrase “Wearable Technology „ is becoming familiar. We are now bombarded with many fitness trackers, smart watches, and smart glasses and so on. However since when the first class of wearable techs were on the market? Let’s follow the trace of wearables’ first class with WT | Wearable Technologies.

At CES 2016, VINCI Smart Hearable is announced as the world’s first smart hearable with a wireless and hands-free smart music player. However, on the timeline of wearable music player, do you know what and when the first wearable music player is? A portable music player that rocked the music industry and changed the way people experienced music. Did I hear IPod? Actually it is Sony Walkman which is the first portable cassette tape player from Sony. Sony Walkman was on sale since 1979.

It is so interesting that it has taken a traditional fashion brand like Ralph Lauren to step into smart clothing at the moment. Nevertheless, you may not know that since 1998 Clothing Plus from Finland launched the world’s first heart rate sensing shirt. They followed up on that in 2002 with a textile heart rate strap and have worked with Adidas, Salomon and Garmin.

The Apple Watch is obviously leading the smart watches market although it is not a new idea. Tech giants have been trying to get smartwatches right for more than a decade. In 2001, IBM Research and Citizen Watch got there first with a smart watch called WatchPad. WatchPad crossed all platform from large enterprise servers to medium-sized and small servers, desktop systems, laptops and the smallest intelligent devices. The watch is featured a LCD screen, Bluetooth and accelerometer. Additionally, it ran on Linux version 2.4. However, the battery life of WatchPad only lasts for a few hours.

Looking back on 2012 when Google announced their Google Glass. Google Glass at that time came with a tiny screen that sits in the upper right corner of your field of vision. The screen notifies notifications, contents from the web and also runs native app often referred to as Glassware. However, no one wants to walk around looking like a computer. Besides, along with the main concerns of privacy and the poor sales following, Google stopped selling their glasses and prepared for a new approach.

Wearable Technology has a fascinating past. The idea of wearable technology is in no way a new one, but we’re finally arriving at the point where years of research and development is paying dividends. The future of wearable technology is coming with endless possibilities and surprises.

from Wearable Technologies http://ift.tt/1REhj47