For hundreds of years, people have been trying to apply technology to daily life and people. The abacus ring that appeared in the 16th century can be regarded as the earliest "wearable computer".

Wearable technology is changing rapidly today.

The buzzword "wearable" began to emerge last year, originating from techies and quickly spreading into mainstream consumer space. All the tech giants are pouring into this space, actively developing 'wearable' products and scrambling to acquire smaller companies in order to profit in this growing market. According to the latest report from Credit Suisse, the wearable market is expected to reach US$30 billion to US$50 billion in the next 2 to 3 years.

A few months ago, WIMM Labs, maker of the highly sought-after WIMM One smartwatch, was acquired by Google. WIMM abruptly ceased operations last summer, and after months of speculation, a brief statement on its website said: "In the summer of 2012, WIMM Labs established an exclusive, trusted partnership for its With the sale of developer preview tools...We would like to thank all the developers who are interested in our platform and willing to experiment with it, and we are confident that the wearables market will see exciting advancements."

Google isn't the only big player seeing the potential of wearable technology and acquiring specialized companies to meet the growing trend in the field. Samsung, Microsoft, Apple, and LG are all rumored to be doing some acquisitions and product development.

All of this shows that wearable technology is no longer just for the development of high-end smartphone derivatives, but also offers great potential for countless technological innovations.

Human life is now inseparable from the Internet, and the relationship with technology will become closer with its development, and technology will penetrate into all aspects of people's clothing, food, housing and transportation. In the future, our descendants will be very curious about our lives, for example: they will be curious and make fun of our annoyance about losing keys, because they only need to tap the NFC ring on the panel on the door.

Making wearable technology a reality

Just as jewelry can open the door to happiness, wearable technology will open up countless opportunities to impact every aspect of our lives. At present, many professional wearable technology application products with various functions have appeared on the market, such as GPS sensors that can prompt visually impaired people to arrive home immediately, built into the clothes of vulnerable groups living alone, and once it is detected that they have fallen Sensors that instantly notify caregivers when they fall. In addition, there are various applications we are used to, such as heart rate monitors, running sensors installed in shoes, and so on. In the future, there will be more gadgets and electronic products more closely related to human life, which will track and use data in various intelligent and non-traditional ways.

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is one of the application fields that adopts the latest wearable technology, which integrates the Internet of Vehicles services and various communication technologies within the vehicle, between vehicles, and between vehicles and fixed locations. Although the impact of wearable technology on the field is unknown for a short period of time, ITS actually refers to more than vehicle-to-vehicle communication. In the future there will also be a wearable sensor that monitors traffic flow and communicates with the car. With such sensors, pedestrians and cyclists can be forced to slow down or brake as soon as they approach a car, and crossing the road will no longer be life-threatening.

As more and more new solutions emerge, engineers and designers are more and more affected, and they take on the responsibility of making these solutions a reality; at the same time, the emergence of products such as Adafruit Flora has also accelerated the democratization of wearable technology. pace of. Flora is a wearable electronics platform for makers, hackers, technologists, designers and engineers based on the ATmega32u4 processor chip, and its built-in USB capability means users don't need to add any other special cables or components to get started Programming, which is conducive to the novice to complete the development of wearable projects faster.

Flora has been used in the development of wearable technology during maker movement, which is the difference between electronics and handicrafts. The use of Flora will lead to an explosion in the development of wearable technology, some of which are practical, some are intriguing, some are inconceivable...but many of these products will be as widely used in the future as smartphones. universal.