During last three-four years we have seen a great popularity of wearables. It started with smartwatches or special training watches including pulse-meters. Some say that wearables are new way of interaction. In the class we were presented with opinion that smartphones are not really natural way of interaction. Wearables however are much more 'human' in many ways. Now we can see concepts, like one from Levi's shown in the class, where technology is blended in clothes.

Case

After class we were presented with two cases:

• ‍ Case 1. Social interaction
• ‍ Case 2. Touch as a new way of communicating

I decided to choose Case 1, which in more details is:

Can you think of a new interactive wearable concept that has not been mentioned in the lecture, based on the biometric body data of people who are in the same room as you?

I imagine there is some room, that is not too big. There is 5-6 people sitting there. Imagine that you know that somebody in the room feels sad, or imagine that someone is extremely happy.

Knowing such things would make you interact with others. You would start thinking, why is he said? Maybe I should talk to him.

By using wearable technology we can make it happen. I imagine that all people in the room have some wearable technology that can check body biometrics. There should be some pulse sensors, body heat sensors, heart rate sensors etc. Such sensors would bring enough biometric data to tell how somebody feels.

The wearable technology itself would be blended in jacket. There would be some device that can quickly turn hot or cold. The closer you come to some person different temperature you would feel. Hot means that person you are approaching is really happy or similar. When you would feel cold it would mean that you are approaching person that is really sad or even depressed.

Such wearable technology would be beneficial to human interaction. We could feel how others are feeling and help them or share their happiness.

Research

In my research I have found one really interesting start-up, not form Silicon Valley nor from the Netherlands, but from India this time. It's name is Leaf Wearables and is based in Delhi. Actually not so long $1 million Women's Safety X Prize aimed at discovering a wearable emergency trigger for less than $40. 

"Leaf Wearables' smart necklace, which looks like regular costume jewellery (and can also be worn as a ring) but connects to the user's smartphone via Bluetooth to trigger alerts to friends and family when needed. Cleverly, it will send a text message when your phone isn't connected to the internet. Co-founder Manik Mehta ultimately wants to see a neighbourhood-led emergency response system."

I really like this one as it's not just another cool gadget or some giving directions jacket solving first world problems. But it's actually product with vision solving real women problems around the world. Big plus for that.

Reflection

As our teacher spoke during class I see a lot of potential in wearables. I really liked the opinion that throught last 20-30 years we created so many interactions based on touching the screen or pushing the button, and it's not really our natural way of interacting. We kind of separated our normal life from our digital life. Wearables give us this possibility to blend this two worlds together.