Wearables & Sensors Big #1

at All Things Digital conference

from Forbes Magazine 6/13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz

There were very few product announcement at the Wall Street Journal’s “All things Digital” conference that wrapped up on Thursday 30 May, but there was plenty of talk — and a couple of products — focusing on the trends of Wearable Technology & Ubiquitous (everywhere wear) Sensors.

Next profound area for Technology. It started on the first night when Apple – CEO Tim Cook – who was wearing a Nike+ Fuelband on stage, said that he thinks that “Wearables “could be the next profound area for technology.” He added that “there’s a lot of things to solve in this space but it’s an area that’s ripe for exploration.” He said that he thinks there will be “tons of companies” playing in this field but, refused to say whether Apple would be one of them. Still, he did say it’s “another very key branch of the tree,” in the post-PC era. The first two branches, from Apple’s perspective, are iPhone and iPad. So, while I suppose it’s possible that Apple will sit out Wearables, [Wiz4biz: That’s a laugh !!!] it was as close to a product announcement as you’ll get from Apple ahead of a real announcement. Cook observed teens and young adults don’t wear wrist watches – they use their phones to tell time — so to get them to adopt a new habit, “you first have to convince people it’s so incredible, you want to wear it.” Cook also said that the “whole sensor field is about to explode,” though he didn’t even hint as to what Apple might be thinking about in that arena.

Electronic Tattoos & Pills. Regina Duncan, Senior VP for Advanced Technology & Projects at Google-owned Motorola was not only bearish on Wearables, but digestible too.
She showed off a Pill that you can swallow that will authenticate you so don’t have to enter a password. “It creates a signal and your entire body becomes your authentication. My arms are like wires, my hands are like alligator clips.” And the pill is far from science fiction. It’s based on technology developed by Proteus Digital that integrates sensors, which are powered by stomach acids — into ingestible pills. [Wiz4biz: I’m not swallowing this.]
She also bared her arm to show off a Digital Tattoo that can also be used to authenticate a user. I got a close look at it during lunch and, don’t worry, it’s not permanent. It’s kind of glued on.

(Google Glass & other new products Continued in Premium Content)