Wearable tech

[Janx]

I've started to need reading glasses more and more over the past few years, and that's starting to be a real drag for some gadgets. It's frustrating because when I'm not sitting at my desk, walking around, my reading glasses make the world around me fuzzy, and I take them off -- which makes quickly accessing something like my phone, or a smaller smartwatch screen -- seem really challenging. But in theory, I love the idea.

I hear ya.

I'm far sighted, which means I can see normal things fine without glasses, even read. But my focus point is "out there" so small screens with small print are next to useless for me. My wife hands me her iphone to read a funny FB article, and it's too damn small and FB won't rotate or resize the content. So I just get frustrated and miss out.

tiny screens are not good for 50% of the population (assuming relatively even distribution across ages).

With touch interfaces, they're not so good for UI either as more people have fat stubby fingers than super thin pointing stick fingers.

I hate to be Debbie Downer on this, because as an idea it's great. But as I've gotten older, wiser, and considered more user interface concepts (remember, I'm an application developer, I do this for a living), it has problems that will turn off users once they actually use it.

Kinect has similar problems when folks thought it would open up Minority Report like user interfaces by waving your hands. The problem is exactly why touch screens have taken off. Touching a screen is VERY intuitive for a user interface. Your eye sees the object on the screen, and your muscles direct your hand to make contact and do a motion with perfect feedback (you feel the screen surface, you see the object react).

Holding your hand in the air to touch nothing (and with Kinect, literally nothing, the screen is another 4 feet away) is tiring and non-tactile. You never really know if your hand is in the right place because your hand isn't even touching a hologram to SEE that it's correct.

Again, we'll have to see how it turns out. As smartphones have evolved to some pretty large screens with users accepting that bulk (remember pre-iPhone when they were about to announce cell phones the size of chapstick tubes?). It turned out, the drive to make everything smaller, while valuable, transformed into enabling larger interfaces while the guts were very tiny and compact.

Thus, we may see a smart watch design that has the optimal screen size and minimal wrist band that will appeal to most folks so it doesn't look like a clunky computer strapped to your wrist.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Again, we'll have to see how it turns out. As smartphones have evolved to some pretty large screens with users accepting that bulk (remember pre-iPhone when they were about to announce cell phones the size of chapstick tubes?). It turned out, the drive to make everything smaller, while valuable, transformed into enabling larger interfaces while the guts were very tiny and compact.

Thus, we may see a smart watch design that has the optimal screen size and minimal wrist band that will appeal to most folks so it doesn't look like a clunky computer strapped to your wrist.

I think another key is going to be the design that does that, and that also includes a bluetooth earpiece that sockets into the phone somehow. I need to be able to pull it out of the phone, stick it in my ear for my conversation, and then put it back so I don't lose it.

-rg

 

[Umbran]

Anyone excited about it?

However sciencey and tech-oriented I may be, I've not yet seen any particular need for the kind of connectivity to the web that these things offer. I don't need to have 24-7 connectivity. Really. I can let days of social media go by, and not worry about it. I don't need to see my e-mail 7 seconds after someone sends it.

 

[Janx]

I think another key is going to be the design that does that, and that also includes a bluetooth earpiece that sockets into the phone somehow. I need to be able to pull it out of the phone, stick it in my ear for my conversation, and then put it back so I don't lose it.

-rg

I don't advise that. That will make the phone's form factor be larger to accomodate the earpiece. Even assuming the tech gets as small as just the ear nozzles, that's too large for today's thin phones. The body would have to have a larger section to accomodate the ear buds.

Instead, go look at LG's Tone+ headphones. Again, not to advertise, but these things are completely UNLIKE traditional headphones (earbuds + cord), earpieces (ear nozzle+boom), ear muffins (ear pieces with band). The Tone+ is a step in the right direction as it is a completely different form factor worn around the neck, with ear buds that reach up. The main body has the sockets for holding the ear buds in place when not in use.



This thing is stereo bluetooth. It rests on my shoulders, lightly, yet doesn't fall off. It has the buttons to answer the phone, control music, and I just pop the ear buds into my ear to listen (or even just one), and snap them back into the magnetic sockets when I'm done.

So if I wear this thing, I got audio solved to my computer in my pocket.

Give me Bluetooth Video sunglasses with mo-cap sensing for hand pointing at the UI I see, and that too will pair with the computer in my pocket.

Note, the computer in my pocket is my iPhone 7 with BlueTooth video, which is really just an extension of the iPlay technology they did to transmit video to iTV on my television.

 

[Janx]

However sciencey and tech-oriented I may be, I've not yet seen any particular need for the kind of connectivity to the web that these things offer. I don't need to have 24-7 connectivity. Really. I can let days of social media go by, and not worry about it. I don't need to see my e-mail 7 seconds after someone sends it.

I agree on the social media (FB). I check it once a day to scroll through the feed and close it.

But for work, that's where things are different.

I carry 2 cellphones. One for personal, one for work. 2 different carriers, which let's me optimize for same-carrier free calls in some cases.

I'm on the phone at least 20% of the day. My aforementioned bluetooth headset pairs to 2 phones. Which means I can go handsfree while driving to lunch or working on the computer to either phone that could be ringing.

I'm in IT, so some emails I do need to see 7 seconds after someone sends it. Unfortunately, the polling mechanism used by the phone is more like 15 minutes.

When I go out to lunch, I often carry my iPad, so if I need a computer, I can get online and remote desktop into a server to fix something. An iPhone screen is just too small for that, and a laptop is way more baggage to lug for lunch at Panera.

Most of this tech is going to be early adopted by tech professionals more than any other demographic. That's basically IT people. Because depending on their job, they do have a greater need to be wired up than other people.

 

[MarkB]

I dunno.

Since the advent of the cellphone boom, wristwatch sales have been down. Way down.

Once everybody had a cellphone in their pocket, they just puled that out to check the time.

Coupled with every Windows PC had the clock in the lower right corner by default.

I haven't worn a watch in years. I don't even carry my pocket watch, as its too much clutter in my pocket with knife, phone and keys.

Same here. In fact, after a similar topic came up on another forum, I realised that not only do I not own a wristwatch, I don't actually have a single dedicated timepiece in my home.

In my bedroom, I have a clock-radio. In the kitchen, there's a time display on the microwave. And in the lounge, either I'm at my computer, with the time visible in the bottom corner, or if I'm watching TV, the time is just a press of the remote away. And my smartphone is always somewhere close at hand.

I'm not particularly keen on wearable tech. If I wear sunglasses in summer, I never get to the point where I can just ignore their presence, and even back when I owned a wristwatch, I'd keep it in my pocket more often than upon my wrist. I've never found a set of earbud headphones I could wear comfortably for any length of time.

For wearable tech to be comfortable to me, it's going to have to move on from being a gadget, to being something you can wear as part of an outfit and never notice it.

 

[Umbran]

But for work, that's where things are different.

Oh, certainly. There are people for whom the functionality is a real aid (except insofar as once it becomes commonplace, it is expected you can do *EVEN MORE*, thus negating the advantage). I'm just not one of those people.

 

[EricNoah]

I don't even wear the glasses I'm supposed to wear, and I can't wear a watch (I get really itchy under the band no matter what it's made of). I'm having trouble envisioning something I would wear. And yet the device in the pocket has significant drawbacks.

 

[Janx]

I don't even wear the glasses I'm supposed to wear, and I can't wear a watch (I get really itchy under the band no matter what it's made of). I'm having trouble envisioning something I would wear. And yet the device in the pocket has significant drawbacks.

Yup, phone in pocket = not great place to keep $800 appliance.

In order to keep the phone from getting scratched up, I keep it in a front pocket, by itself. My wallet, keys and knife go in the other front pocket (my wallet is an aluminum RF shield to protect Blinkable cards from hackers).

I want to avoid scratching the phone, because I get $100-$150 on trade-in after the 2 year contract is up and I'm due for an upgrade. Every scratch knocks off money off that trade in which reduces the effective cost of the new iPhone.

They dont make a belt case that fits an iPhone with armor on, so in my pocket it goes.

If bandoleers came back in fashion, I reckon one of those would be handy to have pouches to hold my tech, while not being a purse or man-bag.

This is the crazy train of thought that leads to "if I could just wear the tech, I wouldn't need more pockets to carry it..."

 

[Radiating Gnome]

In order to keep the phone from getting scratched up, I keep it in a front pocket, by itself. My wallet, keys and knife go in the other front pocket (my wallet is an aluminum RF shield to protect Blinkable cards from hackers).

You're at least the second person in this thread to mention carrying a knife around with them as part of your regular pocket loadout....I'm fascinated. Don't get me wrong, I like a good knife, have several, some even appropriate pocket knives.... but I don't carry one with me on a daily basis. I guess I'm just too much a product of the suburbs -- not urban or rural enough to feel naked without a knife.

Now, if you wanted to talk about fountain pens....

-rg