• About Me Card

Max Hemingway

~ Musings as I work through life, career and everything.

Max Hemingway

Tag Archives: Wearable Tech

The Distraction of our Digital Eyes

17 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by Max Hemingway in Digital, Wearable Tech, xR

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Digital, Digital Human, Mixed Reality, Wearable Tech, xR

Digital EyeAs the world evolves our need to consume information grows at an exponential rate. Since the advent of the screen our  for appetite for smaller, better screens to display information has increased.  Developments in Virtual and Augmented Reality have provided a way of displaying information in different formats.

We have in recent times been distracted by the mobile phone and the ability to view information 24×7 on what we want and need. This has become a distraction to many whilst walking , eating and unfortunatley whilst driving!

Recent developments in technology have introduced smart glasses that can project information from your mobile device on to the glass such as Focals 2.0 by North which will soon be available as version 2.0. If glasses are not your thing then contact lenses maybe and Mojo Vision recently announced a smart contact lens.

Used in the right way and environments these advancements will bring great benefit to us, such as giving work instructions, directions whilst walking, words to a speech whilst presenting. The list goes on.

The risk of using these technologies with things we should not is already known in some cases, such as Mobiles and Driving.

Tracking of eye movement is also becoming more main stream and are being added to cars to check our ability to look at the road and also control things. Companies such as SmartEye is developing solutions that are looking at identification, alertness to sleepiness for vehicles.  Within business use the latest version of the Hololens uses eye tracking to help display and select items within the headset. Perhaps this type technology will detect the use of Smart Eyes technology in the future and not start a car until removed.

Heads Up Displays are being used to project information to glass in the car to allow the driver to maintain road contact with their eyes whilst seeing vital information such as speed.

I hope that the future should see the next level of developments bringing interaction with the environment or things we are interacting with. For example the ability for a device for our eyes to switch off automatically whilst driving or at least display information in a Heads Up Display format from the car.

Intergration will be key between these types of systems going forward to increase the usefulness in the right environment and reduce the distraction elements in the wrong environments.

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

A-Z of Digital – W is for Wearable

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by Max Hemingway in Digital, Wearable Tech

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Digital, Wearable Tech

Fitness TrackerFollowing on from my blog post outlining an A-Z of Digital, here is “W is for Wearables”.

Whether a Smart Watch or Fitness Tracker type our wrists now contain one of the most popular wearbles and the one that can easily be associated with the term “Wearable”.

The field of wearables is expanding with more ways to attach sensors and record data about our daily lives. This typically covers anything that you can wear or attach to your body and in the main interfaces with a mobile to be the central data point, although many devices operate separately and can transmit data themselves.

Here are some of the types of wearables available and what they can contain:

Hats

From baseball caps to hard hats, wearables are being incorporated into hats to display or capture information about the wearer or local environment.

  • Display Screens to display messages or logos
  • Sensors to monitor heat loss
  • Sensors to monitor the local environment
  • Beacons to show location of the wearer in working zones
  • Knock sensors to detect when a hard hat is knocked against an item

Eyewear

Headsets and Glasses provide visionables that can be worn across the eyes to display information to the user of the device. These typically display information and data in one for of reality from a small computing device within the wearable, mobile device or large fixed computer.

  • Virtual Reality
  • Augmented Reality
  • Mixed Reality
  • OLED/LCD Screens

Ears

Typically we have always put things over or just inside our ears to hear things such as headphones and headsets. Bone conducting headphones change this by placing a conductor along side the ear and send the sounds to the inner ear through the bones around the ear. This still allows you to hear the environment around you whilst still listening to a music or a phone call.

Wrists

As mentioned above wrists are the most popular place to use a wearble. Taking the form of a smart watch or fitness tracker

  • GPS to provide location
  • Sensors to monitor fitness, activity and movement
  • Sensors to monitor body stats – heartbeat, temperature, sleep patterns
  • Connection to other devices such as mobile phones

Clothing

Electro conductive threads are being woven in to clothing to provide an ability to power small sensors and devices also sewn or attached to the garment.

  • Ability to power devices through clothes
  • Display Screens to display messages or logos
  • Sensors to monitor heat loss
  • Sensors to monitor the local environment
  • GPS to provide location
  • Sensors to monitor fitness and movement
  • Energy harvesting to power devices

Shoes

Smart Shoes can provide power to devices though energy harvesting devices and use sensors providing tracking of movement.

  • Energy harvesting to power devices
  • Sensors to monitor fitness and movement

The growth in the wearable market and personal data is vast and will bring changes in the way we use and think about wearables. With wearables collecting data about our activities, industries and businesses are looking at how they can use these. For example:

  • Healthcare – monitoring patients through wearables and help gather data for diagnosis
  • Fitness – to help maintain our level of fitness and tell us when we are doing well against set goals
  • Insurance – using wearbles as a method to bring down insurance premiums of health and life insurance depending on how active you are

Further Reading

  • A-Z of Digital – F is for Fitness Trackers
  • A-Z of Digital – G is for Geolocation
  • A-Z of Digital – H is for Hearable
  • A-Z of Digital – J is for Jacking
  • A-Z of Digital – L is for Legal
  • A-Z of Digital – V is for Visionables

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

A-Z of Digital – V is for Visionables

26 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by Max Hemingway in Digital, Wearable Tech

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Digital, Visionables, Wearable Tech

Cyborg Eye

Following on from my blog post outlining an A-Z of Digital, here is “V is for Visionables”.

Visionables (Wearables that enhance or change our digital visual experiences) covers areas such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

These should be viewed as complementary technologies, each with their own use cases. As there are already good definitions of these technologies, I will reference some sources:

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer technology that uses Virtual reality headsets, sometimes in combination with physical spaces or multi-projected environments, to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user’s physical presence in a virtual or imaginary environment. A person using virtual reality equipment is able to “look around” the artificial world, and with high quality VR move about in it and interact with virtual features or items. The effect is commonly created by VR headsets consisting of head-mounted goggles with a screen in front of the eyes, but can also through specially designed spaces with multiple large screens.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are “augmented” by computer-generated or extracted real-world sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called computer-mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. Augmented reality enhances one’s current perception of reality, whereas in contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality

Mixed Reality

Mixed reality (MR), sometimes referred to as hybrid reality, is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Mixed reality takes place not only in the physical world or the virtual world, but is a mix of reality and virtual reality, encompassing both augmented reality and augmented virtuality via immersive technology.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_reality

These are experienced through the use of Smart Glasses or Headsets that interface the user to a form of computing to power the device and display the visualisations.

Augmented Reality is probably the most widely used and known reality technology through applications such as Google Maps and Pokemon.

These technologies are developing at a rapid rate with both hardware and software evolving. Some examples being:

  • Microsoft now demonstrating sharing Hololens sessions through Teams and Apple introducing AR/MR into their devices. Ikea have taken advantage of this by releasing a catalogue application in iTunes that allows you to view a virtual version of the catalogue item in your room to see how it looks before you order it.
  • Google Glass providing an Enterprise version for use with specific software vendors.
  • HP have released a backpack computer allowing portability of Virtual Reality headsets powered on batteries, removing the chance of cable snagging as the operator moves around enhancing the users experience.
  • There are a set of Mixed Reality headsets coming onto the market with the release of Microsoft’s latest MR software.

As well as the reality based technologies there are also developments in traditional headset displays putting a small display in front of the eye to view content as if your sat in front of a monitor, navigating using voice commands such as the Realwear HMT.

Visionables will drive a change of working replacing monitors with headsets initially in  specific use cases, then moving to a wider audience as the technology advances and becomes more mainstream and costs start to come down.

Further Reading

  • 5 killer use-cases for augmented reality in the enterprise
  • The next wave of digital interface: Virtual and augmented reality
  • Are you getting your AR mixed up with your RR, or your SV mixed up with your VR?
  • Google Lens shows the practical, everyday value of augmented reality
  • After Pokémon Go craze, what’s next in augmented reality?
  • Augmented, virtual reality markets to soar as enterprise use cases emerge
  • A rookie’s guide to mobile virtual reality for iPhone
  • Information overload in a virtually augmented world

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

A-Z of Digital – J is for Jacking

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by Max Hemingway in Digital, Wearable Tech

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Digital, Wearable Tech

Cyborg Eye

Following on from my blog post outlining an A-Z of Digital, here is “J is for Jacking”.

Jacking is a term used when you plug into something. Body Jacking is a growing area where the body is being used from generating power through movement to implanting chips to interact with the environment such as open a door or unlock a computer.

Previously the main development area for jackables has been in the medical industries with things like robotic limbs, artificial organs, pacemakers and implanted hearing aids. The market is now shifting with recent examples of this include someone who had lost their eye replacing an eye with camera to create films of what they see to employees being implanted with chips to open doors and use the vending machines. There are also Bioables which collect data on your body such as glucose levels using sensors that penetrate into the under the skin.

Whilst there are some medical and ethical questions to be looked at around the growing use of Jacking, the evolving market for non medical use (ie chips implanted under the skin) is starting to create a demand that will trigger these debates.

Being implanted with a chip under the skin may not be for everyone, this is a growing area where it may become part of an induction to a new company on your first day.

There are no clear standards at the moment and chips can use a number of technologies such as NFC or RFID to operate the surrounding environment. Consideration should be give to those that do not want to be implanted or contractors who may not want lots of chips in their bodies.

There have been a number of demonstrations around the insertion of the chips. In some instances professional tattoo artists are used to insert the chips as they have a level of training around injecting the skin. What has yet to be seen is the removal of the chip should someone leave a company or it needs replacing for some reason.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Learning Fog Networks and the Internet of Things

03 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in Architecture, Cloud, IoT, Wearable Tech

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cloud, IoT, Wearable Tech

Princeton University have a course set up on Coursera for learning about Fog Networks and the Internet of Things.  

This course teaches the fundamentals of Fog Networking, the network architecture that uses one or a collaborative multitude of end-user clients or near-user edge devices to carry out storage, communication, computation, and control in a network. It also teaches the key results in the design of the Internet of Things, including consumer and industrial applications.

Although no dates available at the moment, its certainly on my watch list of courses I am interested in taking.

The course will cover

  • Overview: From Cloud to Fog
  • Overview: From IT to loTThings
  • Principles of Edge/P2P networking
  • Smart data pricing for new network services
  • Client side control and configuration
  • Client-side measurement & Control Signaling
  • Edge resource pooling and caching
  • Security and privacy in Fog
  • Consumer and wearable IoT
  • Connected cars IoT
  • Smart grids IoT
  • Healthcare IoT

Source: https://www.coursera.org/course/fog

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Google I/O 2015 Event – Keynote Speech – Notes

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in Innovation, IoT, Open Source, Productivity, Programming, Security, Wearable Tech

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Innovation, IoT, Wearable Tech

Here are some notes from the Google I/O 2015 – Keynote Speech

Android Overview

  • Android – Supporting over 400 OEMs and over 4000 Devices
  • Android Wear – 7 Models Supported
  • Android Auto – Supporting 35 Brands
  • Andriod TV – Sony, Sharp, Philips shipping with Android. Many more to come
  • 17m ChromeCast Devices – 1.5B Cast Button Presses

M Developer Preview

  • Back to Basics – Solved thousands of Bugs
  • Focus on Quality
  • Improving the core User Experience

App Permissions
– Simplifying App Permissions
– Apps asking permission when using that feature at first use rather than at install
– Faster to get users up and running – updates are seamless – app control process

Web Experience + App Links
– App Dev’s care about the experience that the users get
– Linking App to Web smoother
-Chrome Custom Tabs
– Apps can auto verify links at install time to verify the app owns the links it says it does

Mobile Pay
– Standardising Fingerprint Support

Power & Charging
– Doze Feature using activity to monitor when less power is needed in the device
– up to 2x longer in power length
– USB Type C charger to increase charging by 3x to 5x
– Can be charged or feature to act as a charger

Other new features
– Easier word selection
– Direct Share
– Simplified volume controls
Android Wear

  • Wearable Apps
  • Always on Apps
  • Wrist Gestures (such as scroll up/scroll down
  • Emoji Recogniser (draw emoji’s that are then recognised and correct emoji is displayed then sent)
  • Launcher (improved)

Project Brillo – Underlying IOT Operating System

  • Derived from Android
  • Minimal system requirements
  • Broad Silicon support
  • Easy to secure
  • Q3 Developer Preview

Weave – IOT Communcations layer where things can talk to each other

  • Common Language
  • Standard Schema’s
  • Developers APIs
  • Run with Brillo
  • Cross Platform
  • Q4 2015 full stack released

Now On Tap

  • Takes advantage of M Developer
  • Provides deeper interaction through access to Googles back end systems and deep machine learning networks
  • Enhanced user experience with access to information in real time

Google Photos

  • Built a new experience
  • Home for photos private and secure – available any device
  • Organise
  • Share

Chrome

  • Lite Search Results supporting more countries
  • Optimised search page results load 4 x faster, 80% less bytes and 80MB reduction in memory usage
  • Network Quality Estimator – to load pages to quality of bandwidth
  • Improved Offline Support – Saves of pages

YouTube

  • YouTube Offline – up to 48 Hours to view the video

Maps

  • Offline Maps
  • Offline Navigation – step by step

Developers

Developing Apps
Android Studio 1.3
– Improved Gradle build speed
– New memory profiler
– Support for C/C++

Polymer 1.0
– Elements to easily drop in features

iOS
– Cocoapods for SDK distribution

Testing
– Cloud Test Lab – Automate testing of mobile apps
– Runs test across top 20 devices across the world

Engage

– App Indexing (50 billion app links)
– Cloud Messaging (70 billion messages a day)
– will support iOS
– Topic subscription

Mobile Web
– Push Notfications
– Add to Homescreen

App Install Ads
– Universal App Campains – auto campain based on budget
– Measure App Install Ads

Google Play
– Conversion Funnel – Dashboard across app
– Play Store Listing Experiments
– Developer Pages – Own Google Play Home Page

Earn
– AdMob & Google Analytics
– AdMob Mediation – 40 Ad Networks

Google Cardboard – Over 1 million users

  • Improved viewer – screens up to 6 inches
  • Cardboard SDK – build for Android and iOS
  • Expeditions – Education Travel for Schools – Synchronized phones and tables

Google Balloons

  • 100+ days in the air
  • 10 Mbps connectivity
  • 500m accuracy
  • 4 x coverage area
  • Local partners

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Open Source, Open Human, Open Data, Open Sesame!

30 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in IoT, Open Source, Wearable Tech

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cloud, Data, IoT, Open Source, Wearable Tech

Opeopenn Source is a term that is now common place  meaning access to the inner workings of a thing to allow a wider community of people to help develop and take it forward. A good example of this is in software. The Internet is full of Open Source Software projects that people are developing and collaborating on, sharing data.

A project by the Personal Genome Project is now looking to take the idea of Open Source to the next level with Open Humans. The project is looking for volunteers to Open Source themselves and publicly share data about their health to further science and medical fields. The project does state though that you can choose what data you share.

Open Data is a term relating to data that can be shared openly and freely. An example of this are the data sets freely available by governments such as Data.gov and Data.gov.uk.

By 2020 it is predicted that with a world population of 7.6 billion, there will be 50 billion connected devices. That’s 6.58 connected devices per person. Some people have that now with phones, tablets, wrist devices, glasses etc. Each device capable of producing a lot of data on usage, actions, etc. How much of this data will be private vs open is yet to be determined and the ability to opt in and out need to be clearer for people to understand.

A report in todays BBC News claims that yet more personal data is being sold illegally. This time pensions data (Pension data ‘sales’ investigated by watchdog) . However as we take more steps towards the IoT (Internet of Things) are we able to keep track of our data and how it is used or are we heading towards an Open Sesame bonanza of data treasure being opened, taken and sold on.

Open Sesame is a magical phrase used by Ali Baba to access a secret cave of treasure. In this case the treasure is data!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Time to get chipped?

13 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in Security, Wearable Tech

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Wearable Tech

There is a choice at the moment to wear or not to wear tech, but in the future will there be? An interesting article on the BBC tells of an office puts chips into staff. Whist this is not new – how long before you cant get your next job without getting chipped.

As there are no current standards on chips used you may end up with the below situation.

Hiyoumustbethecontractor

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Technology Couch Podcast

Technology Couch Podcast

Topical discussions with different guests on Technology

Chat and views on latest Technology trends, news and what is currently hot in the industry

Max Hemingway

  • Listen on Apple Podcasts
  • Podcast RSS Feed

RSS Feed

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Currently Reading

@HemingwayReads

Other Publications I contribute to

https://sparrowhawkbushcraft.com/

Recent Posts

  • My Virtual Selfie – Avatars and Identity Security
  • Air Launching Satellites into Space – UK First
  • Our Acceptance of Modern Technologies
  • Pen based Productivity Tools – The Chronodex 2023
  • Top 10 Tech Podcasts for 2023

Categories

  • 21st Century Human
  • 3D Printing
  • Applications
  • Architecture
  • Arduino
  • Automation
  • BCS
  • Big Data
  • Certification
  • Cloud
  • Cobotics
  • Connected Home
  • Data
  • Data Fellowship
  • Data Science
  • Development
  • DevOps/OpsDev
  • Digital
  • DigitalFit
  • Drone
  • Enterprise Architecture
  • F-TAG
  • Governance
  • Health
  • Innovation
  • IoT
  • Machine Learning
  • Micro:Bit
  • Mindset
  • Mobiles
  • Networks
  • Open Source
  • Podcasts
  • Productivity
  • Programming
  • Quantum
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Robotics
  • Scouting
  • Scouts
  • Security
  • Smart Home
  • Social Media
  • Space
  • STEM
  • Tools
  • Uncategorized
  • Wearable Tech
  • Windows
  • xR

Archives

Reading Shelf

Archives

Recent Posts

  • My Virtual Selfie – Avatars and Identity Security
  • Air Launching Satellites into Space – UK First
  • Our Acceptance of Modern Technologies
  • Pen based Productivity Tools – The Chronodex 2023
  • Top 10 Tech Podcasts for 2023

Top Posts & Pages

  • Data Fellowship - BCS Level 4 Certificate in Data Analysis Tools
  • A formula for Innovation
  • Have you tried R yet?
  • Personal Knowledge Management System
  • The Nature and Cycle of CPD
  • Data Fellowship - BCS Level 4 Diploma in Data Analysis Concepts
  • My Virtual Selfie - Avatars and Identity Security

Category Cloud

21st Century Human Architecture Automation Big Data Cloud Cobotics Data Data Science Development DevOps/OpsDev Digital DigitalFit Enterprise Architecture Governance Innovation IoT Machine Learning Mindset Open Source Podcasts Productivity Programming Raspberry Pi Robotics Security Social Media STEM Tools Uncategorized Wearable Tech

Tags

# 3D Printing 21st Century Human Applications Architecture Automation BCS Big Data Blockchain Certification Cloud Cobot Cobotics Coding Communication Connected Home Continuous Delivery CPD Data Data Fellowship Data Science Delivery Development DevOps Digital DigitalFit Digital Human Docker Drone Email Encryption Enterprise Architecture Framework GTD Hashtag Infographic Information Theory Innovation IoT Journal Knowledge learning Machine Learning Micro:Bit MicroLearning Mindset Mixed Reality Networks Open Source OpsDev PKMS Podcasts Productivity Programming Proving It R RaspberryPI Robot Robotics Scouts Security Smart Home Social Media Standards Statistical Inference STEM Technology Couch Podcast Thinking Tools Training Visualisation Voice Wearable Tech Windows xR

License

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Max Hemingway
    • Join 71 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Max Hemingway
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: