Suddenly everybody’s talking about wearable computing. Two Silicon Valley giants are reportedly working on wearable computing devices, which appears to validate a fringe area of research that’s been around for decades.
But is a new era of wearable computing about to dawn?
The answer is yes — and no. Here’s where wearable ware is going.
My friend Seth Weintraub, writing on his blog 9to5Google, reported this week that Google is working on “wearable computer glasses.”
According to Weintraub, Google’s “Google X” lab is “in late prototype stages” of development of the glasses, which give the wearer a heads-up computer interface inside the glasses and a “few buttons” for controls on the temples of the glasses. The glasses run Android, and do not, according to Weintraub, connect to a nearby smartphone or PC, but directly to servers on the Internet.
Google apparently hired MIT wearable computing expert Richard DuVal to work on the project.
Apple is also rumored to have created prototypes of a wearable device, which has been described as a curved-glass wristwatch. The device enables the user to give commands via Siri, the personal assistant software built into the latest iPhone.
Rumors that Apple and Google are working on wearable computing products triggered chatter expressing the flawed assumption that the whole category of wearable computing will suddenly go mainstream.
This category includes wacky experimental augmented reality helmets, painful implants, weird backpacks, dorky input devices lashed to arms and legs, wacky conceptual art projects, smart fabrics, funky glasses, ill-advised “quantified self” sensors and mind-reading temple clips.
One such project involves a display built into a contact lens that communicates wirelessly to a smart phone. In fact, an International Symposium on Wearable Computers has taken place every year since the late 1990s to discuss various technologies and issues related to wearables.
Scientists, inventors and hobbyists have been working on a spectacular range of wearable computing devices for many years.
But just because experimental concepts fall into the “wearable” category with what two Silicon Valley giants are working on doesn’t mean they’re all validated. The technologies behind these far-flung ideas are all over the map, and the acceptance of each idea depends upon the readiness and user friendliness of each technology.
In other words, that Apple comes out with a wristwatch doesn’t mean augmented-reality contact lenses are going to be showing up as an option at your optometrist’s office any time soon. The technologies are unrelated.
It’s tempting to think of the wearable-computing revolution as one in which full-power computers are made so small they can be built into anything and everything. Although that’s reasonable and coming soon enough, the first wave of mainstream wearables will be less ambitious.
For example, I predict that Apple’s first major wearable will be a Bluetooth-connected iPod nano that takes Siri commands.
The first generations of this ‘iWatch’ will almost certainly require another Apple product nearby — say, an iPhone or Mac. You’ll touch the watch to wake up Siri and get it listening, then talk to it like Dick Tracey would.
As is Apple’s fashion, I suspect the iWatch will be limited in features to only those that are pretty solid. It will download music from iCloud, store them locally on the watch and play them through earbuds or on any nearby device that supports the technology, for example.
You’ll be able to do just about everything Siri now does on the iPhone — because it will use the iPhone to execute. So with the iPhone in your pocket or purse, you’ll be able to say: “How does my day look?” Siri will reply by speaking: “You’ve got a planning meeting at 2pm.” That sort of thing.
I believe that Bluetooth will transmit the noise your voice makes to the phone, which will upload it to Siri servers for the data crunching. The response will be sent back to the phone, then relayed to the watch and played. The illusion will be, however, that you talk to the watch and the watch talks back or displays the requested information.
Around the house, the fun really begins. I believe you’ll be able to use the iWatch to control your TV, Mac, iPad, iPhone or supported peripherals.
The reason I believe this is that it’s a continuation of current trends.
Let me give you four scenarios for watching a YouTube video — three that exist today and one that does not:
The first scenario is an old and familiar one: You download and watch a YouTube video on a Mac.
The second scenario is that you launch a YouTube video on your Mac, but push it out through Apple TV.
The third scenario is pretty new: You watch a YouTube video on TV launched from iPhone using the iPhone’s AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV feature.
The fourth scenario doesn’t exist yet. You launch a YouTube video from Apple TV using Siri commands on your iWatch. The video is actually “provisioned” by your Mac and its Internet connection.
If you can imagine the fourth scenario, you can also imagine playing music on your home audio systems by Siri command spoken into your iWatch, or controlling all kinds of home devices.
We already know that Apple is using iCloud to integrate its product. This integration will become ever more seamless to the point where all your iDevices will function as a single distributed gadget. Plugging a Siri wristwatch into the mix is a no-brainer.
The news about Google’s wearable device sounds more far-flung (and far off in the future) than Apple’s. The reason is that Google will probably have trouble convincing millions of people to wear glasses on their face designed by Google.
The idea of Google glasses reminds me of the idiotic “Java Ring” concept floated by Sun Microsystems in the late 1990s: an embedded chip in a finger ring that would provide identity information to replace passwords and biometric access. The belief that people would actually buy jewelry from Sun Microsystems could only come from someone completely clueless about, well, about human beings.
Eventually — say, in ten years — it’s conceivable that Google’s technology could be built into regular glasses designed and built by glasses companies. But most of the people who would be willing anytime soon to actually wear clunky, heads-up display glasses with buttons on the side designed by Google probably already work at Google.
Having said that, I believe that Google will tweak Android to function on wristwatch phones.
These will probably be less elegant and integrated with other devices than Apple’s. But the watches themselves will probably be a lot more powerful and capable, will connect to the Internet directly, make phone calls and may even run third-party apps.
Like the iWatch, Google’s watch platform will probably be optimized for voice command.
Why? Because it makes sense, Apple will probably validate the product category and because Google could easily do this.
So are we entering into a new age of wearable devices? Not really. But I do think we’ll see the nano upgraded with Bluetooth and the ability to convey Siri commands and results back and forth from a phone. And I do think Android will support wrist phones.
And that’s pretty cool.
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.