The Case Of The Shrinking Wearables

As technology advances our physical devices are shrinking at an alarming rate.
In a nod towards the future of technology, industry giants Apple have this month applied for a patent on a new wearable smart ring device with a built-in microphone. While not all patented products eventually make it to the shelves of the Apple store, this patent is an interesting hint into the future of our wearable technology as companies race to create devices that work in harmony with our lives rather than interrupting them.
Indeed, the Apple Watch and its various industry equivalents are a move away from our more intrusive handheld devices: wearable technology seemed ready to fulfil its disruptive destiny with the arrival of smart watches. But considering the fact that wearable technology has been a buzzphrase for quite some time now, we’re still patiently waiting for the market explosion we were promised (read: Where Are All The Wearables?).
This news from Apple (and indeed an exciting showcase of a wearable called Ring that we spotted at CES earlier this year) all points to the fact that wearables aren’t in fact disappearing, they’re just getting smaller.
As seems to be the trend with all things technology, the smaller the product, the more impressive it is. Anyone who is learned in the early days of computing will recall the vast, clunky machines of old, which now look completely ridiculous when compared to the machines we interact with today. Computing is very much a part of our everyday lives now, and these increasingly compact wearable computing devices aim to integrate our computing further with our humanity, as opposed to our current, more disruptive smart devices.
The US Government recently unveiled plans to fund next-generation wearable technology, and it’s potentially even smaller than a ring. The plans are for the FlexTech Alliance to develop FlexTech: completely flexible and potentially minute wearable technology that can be worn by human or robotic owners. This breakthrough in technology is likely to change the way we interact with the internet beyond recognition, as our computers become one with the very clothing we wear.
Indeed, we have said before that it’s our jeans which are next to get the ‘smart’ treatment, as the internet of things arrives on the scene. Project Jacquard, as Google calls it, will allow textile manufacturers to incorporate a braided conductive thread into – in this case – their denim. And it’s not just jeans that we could be updating our Facebook statuses with in future: our home furniture and various other clothing fabrics could soon become smart, bridging the distance between ourselves and our technology.
The smaller and more cohesive technologies are predicted to storm the market; research from Gartner predicts shipments of smart garments to reach 26 million by 2016, which is 2 million more than the expected sports watch shipments. Perhaps the Apple Watch is about to be knocked off its wearable pedestal; Digital Darwinism could come into play if our larger and more clunky devices continue to disrupt our everyday lives. Apple’s making a move towards smaller things; who’s next?
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