Smart Eyeglasses, e-Textiles, and the Future of Wearable Computing

Abstract

Where a decade a ago mostly visions and bulky carry-on devices existed, today several wearable computing products could be found. For example, activity trackers are already selling in convenience stores. The development does neither mean that the core innovations of the wearable computing vision are realised, nor that there will be any successful wearable device beyond those activity trackers. The product announcements and explorations, such as Google Glass, have identified key challenges that are urging further research investments. The lessons to learn from those recent developments are discussed here, leading to an approach towards multi-function materials and wearable devices. Two projects are described that implement a multi-function approach. In the SimpleSkin project, a generic fabric is developed to realise different sensor functions, controlled via software apps in a Garment OS. The same fabric material is used in smart eyeglasses to realise temple-integrated electrodes. Whereas SimpleSkin aims at skin-attached wearables, the smart eyeglasses developed here closely resemble regular glasses and thus could become publicly accepted wearable accessories. Moving towards wearable technology that is truly embedded into everyday life opens a series of new health support applications that are sketched here, based on the concept of smart eyeglasses.