Age Of Wearables

Computers are no longer plugged into a wall socket or carried around in bags.

- Neeraj Krishnan

At first, man looked at the sky to read time. Then, he looked at shadows. Much later, he took time indoors, in the form of clocks. And then, eventually, tied it to the wrist. In time, watches got smarter. The technology in and the features of a present day smartwatch could have only be seen in sci-fimovies two decades ago. Today, computers are no longer plugged into a wall socket or carried around in bags. We wear them. The future is wearable.

Hewlett-Packard’s catchy slogan in 2006, ‘The computer is personal again’, signalled disruptions. It was, however, nothing compared with the disruption caused by wearable tech. The turn of the millennium saw tech manufacturers racing to make computers and phones smaller and faster. They soon turned their attention towards wearable devices, where the race has been to load them with features while keeping them light and stylish. As a result, technology is now truly personal.

Wearable technology is nothing new. It can be traced back to the 13th century (eyeglasses!). Nuremberg eggs (small ornamental clocks worn around the neck) were invented in the 16th century. It was a status symbol in the west then; pocket watches and wristwatches replaced the eggs. Even smart rings—safety devices that can be used to send SOS alerts—have an ancestry dating back to 17th century China (abacus rings!).

The first wearable computer came in 1960. Designed by American mathematicians Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon, it was a timing device which could be fitted into a shoe to help the wearer cheat at roulette. The 1970s saw the birth of the first calculator wristwatches; the Sony Walkman came in 1979. The first health care wearable devices were digital hearing aids introduced in the 1980s. The bluetooth headsets that hit the market in the early 2000s sent the industry into a spin.