Wearable Computing Convergence

The future of wearable computing, and, indeed, of fasion itself, will go to whomever can first make wearable computing trendy. In order to be trendy, however, a way must first be found to make it so that wearable computers do not need to be completely ubiquitous. There are a great number of styles and fashions in clothing and dress throughout history that we can borrow from in order to produce something acceptable to wear but that caters to integration with electronics.

Whatever forms that wearable computing eventually takes when it becomes accepted without comment in today's society, it will need to be confined within a range of locations that will not cause interference with normal range of motion and activity.

One of my personal favorite articles of clothing that seems to have been phased out is shoulder armor. The only time you see it anymore is on football players (no, not soccer), where it is bulky and designed to absorb impact.

It doesn't have to be so cumbersome, however. That was my thought the first time I ever had to wear a set and it remains doubly so today. How about a nice light-weight piece of semi-articulated armor plates coming off one (or both) shoulders? Not something that is designed to stop a bullet or a broadsword; just a new type of accessory that we can all add to our wardrobes. The exterior could be plated with thin solar paneling to keep electronics powered. Sandwiched between the layers would be micro-circuitboards with your components distributed across them. I particularly like the concept of rigging the plates up to open/close and display sequences of lights to indicate things like your mood, rate of data transmission, etc.

Another accessory that has gone largely out of style is the monocle. Combined with something like an eye-patch, to keep it in place, a monocle could serve as a great display interface that doesn't prevent you from being about to see around you. It could double up as a magnifier to see distances or minutae. If the rest of the computing components were small enough, they could be distributed around the band or tie that keeps the monocle in place, to balance out it's weight perhaps. The best part about going with a monocle interface is that it has got to be the most steampunk practical accessory you can find; after you add a little bit of electronics, it's bound to resemble a sophisticated yet ornate viewing mechanism. And that is exactly what it would be.

Other than that, I am sure that the industry is bound to provide us with a wide range of belt-clippable devices, just as it always has. There just seems to be no escaping the Bat-Utility-Belt syndrome.

I'm just ready for the industry to move beyond it's fascination with all of the dorky "tech" jackets that have been represented the bulk of the wearable computing industry so far.

And, to whomever can reach market fastest with something that the public is willing to consider trendy will get the prize: desktop computing is dying, and the fashion world isn't going away. The company that is able to deliver will have a deciding vote in both computing and fashion for decades to come.