Speech Is Set to Dominate the Wearables Market
better," she wrote in an email. "It would work with Siri or Google Now."
Vuzix, another smart glasses manufacturer, has already launched xPick, a warehouse voice picking solution created by xCon Partners, on its M100 smart glasses, which come with an on-board processor, video camera, voice recognition, and gesture control. XCon Partners is developing several applications, including remote service, maintenance and repair, and medical support for the Vuzix wearables.
Similar eyeglass wearables have been emerging to help the blind, enabling them to walk into stores, pick items off the shelves, and have the glasses tell them all they might want to know.
One such product, called EyeTalker, was developed by a group of then-students at Florida International University. It looks like a normal pair of dark sunglasses but features text-to-speech technology, two high-definition micro-cameras, and an earphone that enable users to have printed material read to them. Testing continues on the EyeTalker, with plans to incorporate language translations.
Ivona Software, which was acquired by Amazon in January 2013, has also entered the wearable assistive technologies market through a partnership with OrCam, an Israeli firm. Ivona's text-to-speech technology is powering OrCam's small wearable computer that hooks onto a pair of glasses with a small magnet and tells the wearer what's in front of him. It can read the text of a book aloud and even announce the names of friends and family in a room.
Wristwatches Become Interactive
Another widely popular form of wearable device is the smart wristwatch, which thus far has been dominated by models that connect to smartphones via Bluetooth and serve as second screens for them. More than 1.9 million smart watches shipped in 2013, according to recent research from Strategy Analytics, and the firm expects more robust growth as the market takes shape. "We estimate less than one percent of all smartphones shipped worldwide were bundled with smart watches in 2013, so there remains huge scope for smart watch growth in the future," says Matt Wilkins, director of Strategy Analytics.
So far, Google has had the lion's share of the smart watch market, with 1.2 million units shipped in 2013 running on the Android platform, according to Strategy Analytics. That translates to 61.1 percent market share, according to the research.
Samsung's widely popular Galaxy Gear, which had been running on the Android platform, since its launch in September, propelled Google to its dominant position. But the Korean electronics manufacturer is set to disrupt the market by moving the latest versions of its Galaxy Gear watches, the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, to its own homegrown Tizen mobile operating system rather than Android.
The newest Gear models can notify users of incoming calls, texts, and email. They allow users to control their phone's music players and offer real-time personal fitness coaching, flash storage, a heart-rate sensor, pedometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, and an auto-focus camera. Users can also control other devices, such as TVs and set-top boxes, with the devices.
Sony's smart watches also run on Google's Android platform. They allow users to make and receive calls, take photos remotely, control their music, and access notifications for text messages, calls, email, Facebook and Twitter updates, calendar appointments, and more.
Not to be outdone by Samsung's Tizen OS, Google in mid-March announced Android Wear, a new version of its mobile operating system tailored for smart watches and other wearable devices.
Google expects Android Wear to be used primarily for notifications and quick responses to user queries. The Internet search giant's Google Now virtual-assistant software will be integrated to deliver information such as the weather, flight times, sports scores, stock quotes, and upcoming appointment reminders. Wearers will also be able to use always-on voice search and issue voice commands that respond to the familiar "OK Google" prompt.
LG's G Watch will be one of the first devices to use the new operating system. Motorola—which Google bought for $12.5 billion in 2011 and sold to Lenovo in January for $2.91 billion—is also a key launch partner, with a summer release planned for its Moto 360 smart watch.
Google says Android Wear is starting with smart watches, but is meant to eventually extend to other wearable devices.
Apple is rumored to be working on its own smart watch, not surprisingly called the iWatch, which would undoubtedly run on its own iOS, but the company has been very tight-lipped about any plans for the wearable device market so far.
While the available applications are many, the functionality doesn't stop there.
"Today's [wearable] applications, like activity/health monitoring, mobile directions, and recording, are becoming increasingly popular," says BCC Research's Weigold. "Soon, applications such as mobile payment processing, remote item location, and home automation control using near-field wireless technologies...will start to emerge."
Miller has other ideas. "The most common apps that you can anticipate are picture taking, hands-free navigation, feedback to/from health and fitness apps, dictation/captioning of pictures, tweets, and social networking updates," he says. "Those are the most obvious. In the near future, you can contemplate the power of a speech/gesture interface for games as well as all the third-screen applications associated with home entertainment systems. The personal virtual assistant is not very far away and will best be instantiated on a wearable."
Beyond that, wearables are poised to deliver an entirely new way for consumers to get information. As it stands now, Internet searches are limited to text, but if wearables become mainstream, images, sounds, and other elements could be searchable as well.
Still, for all their promise, many of these wearable devices are not yet ready for mass consumption. "Wearables are like prototypes. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but they're definitely getting a lot of attention, and that changes user expectations," Castanon concludes.
News Editor Leonard Klie can be reached at lklie@infotoday.com.
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