It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Google Glass and its sister augmented reality devices that are just beginning to come out. But Google Glass is not the only wearable computer out there on the market, and not the only one that’s starting to face backlash from the tech community, as well as consumers. While last year it seemed like wearable tech was the only thing anyone could talk about, as more and more companies decided to get in on the game, and the closer these devices are coming to release, it seems like more and more people are saying, ‘no thanks,‘ to wearable tech.
The other major player in wearable tech right now is the smart watch. The Pebble Smart Watch was the first. Funded by Kickstarter, it made over $10 million– well past its funding goal of $100,000. The e-paper watch lets you connect to your smartphone to tell you about emails and messages, runs apps, controls music, and even acts like a Fitbit. Preorders began shipping in January, but because they decided to manufacture each colour batch separately, it meant that some Kickstarter backers didn’t get their smart watch until the end of May. They only just hit Best Buy (and only Best Buy), on July 7th. By now, there are several imitators out or in the works — the MetaWatch Strata, The Cookoo Watch, the Basis Science. Apple, Sony, Microsoft and even Dell are all investing in their own smart watch technology. They all pretty much look the same and do the same things, and it seems like the bloom is off the rose both with journalists and consumers themselves. A recent survey found that most Americans don’t want to wear their tech. Wealthy college grads in particular really don’t want wearable tech, with only 34% of those polled saying they would buy one. So, are all these companies investing for nothing?
The problem with most wearable tech right now is that it’s not sophisticated enough or is still too much in the prototype stage to be desirable to the everyday consumer. AR technology and iWatches still require the use of a smartphone in order to get the most use out of them — most of their purpose is to make checking your phone easier. That’s rather pointless, and most people are smart enough to recognize that. Not to mention the fact that most young, hip, tech savvy people don’t like wearing watches anyway.
The other problem is design. Those are some fugly watches. Fugly watches that, for the most part, are barely appropriate to wear in a formal office environment. They are also definitely designed for men. I asked my female friends if ever in a million years they would wear any of these watches, and the answer was a resounding no. (In part because of the design aesthetic, but also because they’re way too big for woman’s wrist). “Those are most assuredly some Dude Watches,” one of them said. What’s really strange to me is how it seems the entire industry is latching onto this trend, without really thinking through how much the product makes sense from both a technical and a design standpoint. It’s like someone spiked every tech conference’s punch with smart watch fever or something.
Now, this doesn’t mean that nothing cool or interesting is happening in wearable technology. It’s just that most of the cool stuff is in an entirely theoretical or experimental stage. E-textiles in particular are really interesting, and actually have practical, everyday uses. Self-cleaning and self-repairing fabrics have both been successfully made. Solving the problem of making textiles more environmentally sustainable is a big one in the realm of e-textiles, and to that end we have people working on clothes that can be dissolved in water when you’re done with them, even creating a new kind of leather made out of microbes instead of from animals. Karma Chameleon, a Montreal design collective made up of Joanna Berzowska of XSLabs and Maksim Skorobogatiy of the Advanced Photonic Structures Group, have managed to actually weave circuits into their fabrics to create beautiful, photonic materials. Photonics basically means they just light up, but the fact they have managed to successfully weave these into fabrics could open up a lot more experimentation into what an e-fabric could be made to do. The most interesting part of these innovations though, is the fact that they are mostly being made by artists, or collaborations between artists and scientists, rather than the commercial tech industry. We are of course decades away from seeing any of these things become a part of everyday life, but it’s interesting to see people who hear the words “wearable technology” and don’t think quite as literally as most of the major companies seem to. Wearable tech may not die, but it’s definitely not going to take the form it is right now.
____
Megan Patterson is a freelance writer and the Science and Technology Editor at feminist geekery site Paper Droids. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise.
For more, follow us on Twitter at @torontostandard and subscribe to our Newsletter.
