Communications of the ACM
Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve
Instead of staring at a mobile device, people one day may be able to wear a computer.
Credit: Adrian Dennis/Agence France-PresseGetty Images
Google and Apple researchers are developing projects that might result in wearable computers, with smartphones acting as the hub for information sharing.
For example, Google X labs researchers are developing peripherals that communicate information back to an Android smartphone once they have been attached to the user's clothing or body. Google reportedly has hired engineers from Apple, Nokia Labs, and several universities that specialize in wearable technology.
Meanwhile, Apple researchers are developing prototype products that relay information to the iPhone, as well as other Apple devices such as an iPod, which Apple is currently encouraging users to wear on their wrists by selling Nanos with watch faces. The Apple researchers also are developing a curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist and communicate with users through Siri, Apple's artificial intelligence software.
The technology's next step is combining the real and virtual worlds, says the Institute of the Future's Michael Liebhold. He says that in the next 10 years people will be wearing glasses with build-in screens and contact lenses with working displays. "Kids will play virtual games with their friends, where they meet in a park and run around chasing virtual creatures for points,” Liebhold says.
From New York Times
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