As a partner of Techsylvania – a brand new technology and innovation event that will be staged in Cluj-Napoca, Romania between the 31st May and 2nd of June 2014, Codespring has been present at the 1st pre-event meet up. We have met a few guests in a cozy atmosphere and have talked about the wearable technologies that are the main topic of the Hackathon.
The whole idea of “wearable” has its roots in ancient times, when devices like the first portable watch or the first portable compass have been assembled.
Where to wear it?
Due to the recent mediatization of smartwatches and smartglasses, we tend to overlook the vastness of the wearable products range. Actually, the wearable technology has been developed for various body areas. There are devices that must be worn on the hat or on a headband, on glasses , on an armband or a wristband, on a coat or a shirt, even on your shoes.
For what purpose?
A significant factor on the design of any wearable device is the purpose that it will serve. For instance, in the security field wearable devices are designed for identity recognition, environment surveillance, rescue and tracking operations; in the medical sector some special devices support the vital signs monitoring, chronic disease management or stand for body augmentation; in the wellness area there are devices through which we can monitor stress levels, sleep rhythm and emotion variation, we can monitor the body weight and correct body postures; still in the health and wellbeing area, in sport and fitness there is a rice of devices and applications to monitor and coordinate sport performance, to coach, to control body temperature and to help users with space orientation; the entertainment aspect is also of great interest: interactive games and shared experiences are available through diverse wearable; last but not least fashion has a word to say: wearables may be used for all kind of shows, decorations and emotional response tracking.
The challenge
Due to the diversity of purposes and of application areas, the devices tend to be also very heterogeneous. There is a technical challenge and a design challenge. On one hand, the hardware and software are to be redefined in accordance to the desired functions; on the other hand, the design of both devices and apps has to be adjusted to this new product range.
These were the general ideas discussed during our little pre-event meet up. Hopefully we will find out more about these technologies during the Techsylvania Conference 2014.
