| The Medium of Wearable Technology | | | | control the computer. It was only with Smalltalk, |
| Wearable technology is everywhere, you just | | | | followed by its adoption and adaptation by Apple, |
| weren't paying attention. It's on your wrist. It's on | | | | that the concept of the user illusion was introduced |
| your face. It's in your shoes. It is your watch, your | | | | to the computing world. The user illusion allows users |
| glasses, your sportswear. It introduces new | | | | to create their own experimental narrative of how |
| capabilities and resources to your day-to-day living. | | | | content on the computer is represented and should |
| Any technology that you wear is wearable | | | | be used without knowing anything about the inner |
| technology. But it can be so much more. | | | | workings of the computer. Everything in the |
| Today, wearable technology is most commonly | | | | computer is just a series of "0″s and |
| defined as garments and accessories that integrate | | | | "1″s, but we perceive them as metaphors for |
| circuitry, are made of technologically significant | | | | physical objects that have meaning to us. From the |
| materials, or produced by technologically significant | | | | user illusion comes the imagery of desktops, trash |
| means, be it accelerometers (tilt sensors) in your | | | | cans, folders, files, and documents. |
| shoes, LEDs (lights) in your dress, peltier modules | | | | While this approach is gaining ground it still has a |
| (heaters) in your jacket, or t-shirts with print | | | | ways to go and room to expand. Those not clued in, |
| patterns designed with a computer algorithm. It is | | | | think that adding a drop-shadow and reflection to |
| new, it is different, it is undervalued, and all too | | | | their websites and applications will make them like |
| commonly misused. | | | | Apple. No, what matters most of all-what should be |
| The military and athletic industries dominate the | | | | at the top of our consciousness when creating-is the |
| wearable technology scene as commercial and | | | | user. |
| research interests to improve user performance and | | | | Wearable technology schematic, in a nutshell |
| communication. Outside of the commercial | | | | The Potential of the Wearable Technology |
| mainstream, it appears in tech blogs as a game of | | | | Wearable technology is a medium characterized by its |
| "one up" to see how many LEDs a designer can fit | | | | closeness to the body-it is the closest we can get to |
| onto a single dress. | | | | the body short of subdermal implants. This makes it |
| The Practice of the Wearable Technology | | | | ideal for taking measurement and monitoring body |
| Wearable technology must be three things: it must | | | | states. Unlike other medical technology, it is also |
| be small so that it is wearable, it must be attractive | | | | integrated into the day-to-day life of the wearer, so |
| so that people will wear it, and it must be functional | | | | that it can collect readings over a greater period of |
| so that people will have a reason to wear it. All else is | | | | time and react to body movements and biometric |
| needless elaboration. | | | | shifts. These capabilities speak to wearable |
| Wearable technology is of two worlds and too often | | | | technology's singular potential to be intimately and |
| its practitioners loose track of one side or the other: | | | | innately sensitive. Why is it, then, that these |
| creating opulent dresses of LEDs-all light and fury, | | | | characteristics are so often over looked? |
| signifying nothing-or fearfully functional works that | | | | Much of today's technology employs an overt |
| might aid the body but at the cost of any aesthetics | | | | interface. Users are presented with keys, buttons, |
| or comfort. Indeed, wearable technology binds two | | | | switches, levers, knobs, call them what you will-label |
| worlds that are too often devoid of interdisciplinary | | | | them if you must-to control their technology. But all |
| consideration. | | | | these means of entry are abstractions of the |
| Wearable (read: fashion) | | | | message. The medium may be the message that is |
| Fashion is too trendy for its own good. The paradigm | | | | currently conveyed, but it is far from the intent. Our |
| of fashion is one of seated authorities dictating the | | | | intent is formed before it was composed into words, |
| current style to the masses. And while industry has | | | | typed onto a screen, sent to another screen to be |
| control of what it outputs, buyers, more than ever, | | | | read by another. Our true meaning is something inside |
| have control over what they choose to consume. | | | | of us that has yet to find a means of pure |
| Though our tastes are our own, I will stand by the | | | | expression. Even our migration to touch screens and |
| flavor of elegance-not the elegance of opulence but | | | | finger gestures does not represent a transition from |
| the elegance that comes of optimality. No, I believe | | | | the consciousness but a smoother means of |
| in the simplicity of line, the delicacy of cut, the | | | | operating with it. And while I do not claim that |
| timelessness of rationality. | | | | wearable technology is a means of undiluted |
| I leave it to you to choose what to buy but chastise | | | | communication, it is a means of coming one step |
| those who similarly choose what to sell. Fashion is not | | | | closer to it. |
| eternally tied to the theocracy of labeled priests and | | | | Wearable technology can take in the unconscious |
| boutique temples. If the Internet has done anything | | | | gestures of a user. By unconscious, I do not, by any |
| to fashion, it is that it has opened the consumers to | | | | stretch, imply that these actions are not meaningful. |
| a wider range of possibilities than ever before. | | | | Much of our functions, actions, and reactions are left |
| Though fashion always had a trickle down process to | | | | to our unconscious to decide and execute. Indeed, |
| the Kmart clothing racks for the masses, this new | | | | "left to" is a bit of a misnomer in that implies that the |
| means of commercial structure-like that of MySpace | | | | consciousness has some part in giving over control. If |
| music groups and YouTube amateur series | | | | the experiments of Libet on neurological stimulation |
| before-allows smaller or more niche designers to find | | | | and awareness prove anything, it is that the |
| a larger audience for limited runs of clothes. Of | | | | consciousness is a final authority that is called on by |
| course, the transition is harder than the transition of | | | | the subconscious to validate an action. Our |
| already digital goods that can be sampled online. The | | | | unconscious actions have faster response times, |
| Internet lacks the convenience of a dressing room | | | | unhindered initiation, and more undiluted meaning. |
| with which to try on potential purchases for fit, | | | | Wearable technology is in a, quite literally, unique |
| drape, and complementary colors. Yet people are | | | | position to monitor these actions and convey |
| buying online, and there is little reason to expect that | | | | meaning to them. |
| market to do anything but grow in the future. | | | | And so create. Create beauty. Create use. Create |
| Technology | | | | usability. Create wearable technology that does more |
| The technological market place has been historically | | | | than flash lights, that does more that warm feet. |
| unconscious of the end user. Computers were initially | | | | Create wearable technology that inspires, intrigues, |
| used by programmers and technicians that knew the | | | | and enhances the users' life. We have a unique |
| inner workings of the computers. For them, the | | | | medium with as yet unimagined potential. |
| arcane acronyms in commands were adequate to | | | | |