You know that we love emerging technology at Web3sy, but would you wear it?
Wearable Technology, or ‘wearables’ are “electronic devices that can be worn as accessories, embedded in clothing, implanted in the user’s body, or even tattooed on the skin” as defined by Investopedia. We already have a lot of mainstream wearable technology in circulation, such as headphones, earpods and smart watches like the Google Pixel Watch. But is it possible to get even more technical than that?
In mid-january, Samsung released a teaser and announcement of their next gadget at their Galaxy Unpacked event, the Galaxy Ring. The Galaxy Ring aims to “cover the categories of wearable smart devices in the nature of a smart ring for tracking, measuring, monitoring, and uploading health, fitness and sleep-related information.” as quoted from a filed by Samsung as recently as February 2023.
This isn’t exactly groundbreaking technology though. Smart rings already exist and have a variety of capabilities such as allowing you to have contactless payments, and monitor other attributes of your health. In fact, they are effectively just sleeker, smaller and more delicate versions of smart watches.
A simple “Smart Ring” search into Google yields a number of different smart rings by independent companies. Though one of the biggest and most established players in the Smart ring space is the Oura Ring 3 – a device with a number of capabilities that will set you back $299. Upon hearing news about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, an Oura Ring spokesperson considered the competition to be ‘validating’, which certainly makes sense. What is more encouraging than a tech giant acknowledging the viability of the technology that you have created? Keep going, Oura Ring!
But Smart Rings aren’t the only wearable technology that we are seeing.
In the VR and AR space, Apple is starting to receive reviews about their Apple Vision Pro headset. The feedback has encompassed the entire spectrum of user satisfaction, with some users quoting it as the best piece of technology that they have ever used, and others regarding it as a huge waste of money.
Mat Smith from Engadget.com mentions the sharp and vivid displays of the device, intuitive controls and navigation, and in-depth Augmented Reality experience, but notes that given the early days of Apple hardware, it is safe to say that the device still lacks in key areas such as app selections, and battery life.
We love how VR and AR devices such as the Meta Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro, are taking the adoption of the Metaverse by storm, so we’ll keep an eye on this space for you.
Last but not least, Brilliant Labs has recently unveiled ‘The Frame’, a pair of AI Smart Glasses that promises “AI Superpowers”.
The Frame, which is currently available for pre-order, is said to provide a “Visual analysis of the world around you”, and is powered by OpenAI. It will allow the wearer to translate both what they see, and what they hear, a capability powered by Whisper, which is “a pre-trained model for automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech translation” according to huggingface.co. Best of all, the website notes that the technology would be open source, as it encourages buyers to “Hack, Build and Modify” the Frame to suit their needs. Official documentation is currently being developed to help make this a seamless process.
In the video from the Brilliant Labs’ page for the Frame, we note the ability for the glasses to be prescription compatible meaning that all of us semi-blind folk can finally get our AI on, which is certainly a game-changer for smart lenses. The lenses also boast AR Optics and OLED display, which by translation means that we can layer virtual items on top of our real perception of the world, and do it in great quality too. The video also shows examples of live information about different items being visible upon perception, such as the nutrient breakdown of fruits, visual recognition of items and landmarks,
Personally, I hadn’t heard of Brilliant Labs before this, but according to their website, they “exist to make tools which equip us with knowledge, deepen understanding, unleash creativity, and foster empathy”. A noble cause if I have ever heard of one. I am excited to see what else this Stockholm and San Francisco based team publishes in the near future.
That covers January and February 2024. We’ll be back in a few months to see what has changed, and get back to you! What do you think about Wearable tech? Are you ready to get your hands on The Frame? Or is the Galaxy Ring more up your alley?
Busy finding more interesting content for you,
CEO and Founder of Web3sy.
Sources:
- https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/19/24041922/samsung-galaxy-ring-smart-ring-wearables
- https://ouraring.com/
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wearable-technology
- https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/
- Engadget.com – Mat Smith
- https://brilliant.xyz/products/frame
- https://brilliant.xyz/
- https://huggingface.co/
- https://cdn.shopify.com/videos/c/o/v/8755edf5d19a4d54ba09cd874878a66f.mp4