Wearables, Is It Time To Don Tech?

Once considered stuff of science fiction fantasy and the geek crowd, wearables have come a long way and according to some pundits, are now all set to go mainstream. But are gadgets like the apple watch a flash in the pan or the sign of a new trend? We take a closer look at wearables in India.

- Anuj Bhatia

In the 1987 movie, Mr. India showed a gold watch worn on the wrist, which when activated, made the wearer invisible to the naked eye. Two years later, in 1989 back to the Future Part 2 captured the public’s attention when the future family of Marty McFly use “connected goggles” to watch TV and make video phone calls. And then there is Giordi La Forge’s VISOR from Star Trek: The Next Generation, a device which helped him to see even though he was blind. They might not have been part of our every day lives, but wearable gadgets - from watches to spectacles - have definitely been a part of our imagination for a while now. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that a lot of the wearables that we see in the market today owe their existence to science fiction.

The sci-fi series Star Trek, inspired Google to develop its head mounted Google Glass (now discontinued), as revealed by Amit Singhal, Google vice-president and senior search engineer, in 2012. When Samsung launched the Galaxy Gear smartwatch back in 2013, it released commercials that reminds consumers that the wearable gadget actually dates back to 1946, when comic strip-detective dick Tracy first used his handy wristwatch for police communications.

From the world’s first commercial electronic digital wristwatch to Apple Watch to Oculus rift, wearable computing is an integral part of the “Internet of things (IOT)”, which could redefine how we interact with technology and indeed with each other, making technology an even more integral part of our lives.

What are wearables?