The release of the prototype of Google’s smart contact lens has received much media attention. Tiny sensors detect glucose and alert diabetics that they might need their insulin. It really is a great – and more to the point quite feasible – application of ‘wearable computing’.
Any HotViews reader with half a memory will know that we have been raving on about Wearable Computing as the NBT for quite a few years. CES last week produced an array of new announcements. The Intel ‘Geo fencing’ Smart Watch caught our eye too. Basically a watch for your kids which will alert you to where they are and if they have deviated from their agreed route home from school. Despite a big debate here at TechMarketView on whether this goes too far in invading privacy, we think it is a great application.
But here is the rub. One device = one application? That’s just not going to work. I haven’t got enough body area for a start!
As I have also said before, the real breakthrough product will be the one device embodying loads of sensors and measurement devices allowing third parties to develop loads of different Apps. A non-invasive blood ‘measuring’ sensor is already in prototype I have heard, that could give cholesterol readings. If you can do that then almost any health monitoring requirements are in range eg PSA measurements for prostate cancer. Blood pressure and pulse rates are now common apps. Add to that GPS and the new ‘accelerometers’ and the Apps are boundless.
If you recall, it was this ‘one device = many applications’ that was behind the success of the iPod, iPhone and iPad. If Apple’s long-awaited iWatch provides all the basics with a platform for third party Apps they will, in my view, be on to a winner. Of course iWatch 1.0 will be ‘basic’ – meaning that groupies like me will buy a new one every year (or more often!) as more hardware functionality is added.
Believe me, we are on the cusp of something really BIG.