Guest editors’ introduction

The New Wearable Computing Frontier

Maria R. Lee, Shih Chien University, Taiwan Irena Bojanova, IEEE Senior Member Tom Suder, Mobilegov

riven by advances in mobile comput- glasses. The technology is mainly integrated ing and communications, ambient into conventional electronics and is evolution- intelligence, and ubiquitous sensors, ary—that is, it combines periph- wearable computing facilitates a new erals or variants of new human interfaces with Dform of human-to- interaction via diagnostic devices. small, on-body devices that are always connect- ed, hands-free, and less distractive, and that have The rich variety of today’s wearable technol- multiple access opportunities. This always-ready ogy applications is nicely depicted by Beecham capability leads to a new form of synergy between Research (see Figure 1; an interactive version is humans and , offering consistency available at www.beechamresearch.com/article. and multitasking capabilities. aspx?id=20).

What Is Wearable Computing? Market Growth Forecasts According to a 2015 and Market forecasts and the adoption of wearable markets report,1 there are two main types of computing suggest significant growth. Juniper wearable technologies: research predicts that smart wearable device shipments, including and glasses, will • Apparel and textiles are used in healthcare, exceed 100 million by 2017, and that the smart medicine, sports, safety, and for fitness, wearable market will generate US$53 billion in wellness, and life-tracking applications. They hardware revenues by 2019 (http://tinyurl.com/ also apply in industrial, police, and military pumlb2z). ABI Research forecasts that the global environments (for instance, hand-worn termi- wearable computing device market could reach nals, body-mounted cameras, or augmented- 170 million devices by 2017, assuming the entry reality headsets). The technology is disruptive of most of the major platforms, including , and has closely integrated electronics. Microsoft, and Apple.2 The highest growth areas • Devices for infotainment include smart - are sports and activity trackers, but wearable es, headsets, and smart computing will eventually fully integrate into our

16 IT Pro September/October 2015 Published by the IEEE Computer Society 1520-9202/15/$31.00 © 2015 IEEE

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Figure 1. World of wearable technology applications. (Figure courtesy of Beecham Research; see the interactive version at www.beechamresearch.com/article.aspx?id=20.)

, becoming seamless and invisible.3 Ac- have gotten considerably smaller, although in cording to Forbes, 71 percent of 16- to 24-year- the 1990s they were still the size of a shoebox. It olds want wearable technology (http://tinyurl. wasn’t until 1999 that ’s digital eye- com/pw3268l). glass became the predecessor to . It was then that the became From Past to Future Wearable Devices a mainstream phenomenon. Figure 2 displays the profound importance of The (IoT) will drive wear- wearable devices in different aspects of our so- able evolution from now on. Wearable devices ciety from the past to the present and beyond. are becoming smarter and faster, and have more In 1945, Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” features. They will affect how we live, work, and proposed the first wearable device with aug- socialize. For example, Samsung’s Smart Home mented memory. During the 1960s, many of lets users manage all their connected appliances the designs were analog and used in casinos. and devices through a single application. In ad- Ed Thorp and invented the dition, devices won’t need to oper- first wearable computer to predict the outcome ate—other smart wearables will break free of the of spinning wheels.4 Evan Sutherland link, as with Skinput.5 used a head-mounted 3D display presenting Wearable biosensor are expected to be images in 1968. The first algebraic calcula- revolutionary in many application areas, such as tor watch was designed by Hewlett-Packard in a sensory vest to allow deaf people to hear the 1977. Through the years, wearable computers world without vibration. We expect products to

computer.org/ITPro 17 Guest Editors’ Introduction

1968 Evan Sutherland 1999 A head-mounted 3D Steve Mann display EyeTap digital eye glass 1945 ­underlying security protocols. Vannevar Bush “As We May Think” designers must consider what external security threats and breaches of personal the system might face. Device prices and evolving ser- vice models are also worries, as are Past Future social acceptance issues, such as glass-wear being perceived as more intrusive than wrist-wear, as de- scribed by Apple CEO Tim Cook. Wrist-wear seems to be where the money is right now. The choice 1961 between standalone (fitness track- 1977 1981 Thorp/Shannon HP-01 wearable roulette MIT self-protection ers) or integrated devices (smart algebraic device predictor watch watches with fitness apps), battery life, and poor data sync functions Figure 2. From past to future wearable devices. This figure helps us to are device-related concerns as well. recognize the advanced technology and applied sciences in wearable Due to a lack of clear use cases, devices. wearable product positioning is of- ten niche. Early designers lacked experience in fashion marketing, evolve to improve functionality, reliability, and but a wide range of fashion designers and jewelry convenience for . makers have begun to design wearable technol- Human-computer interaction will also play an ogy pieces. Technology and fashion are team- important role in future wearable technology.6 ing up to make wearables more fashionable, as NailDisplay is bringing an always-available vis­ featured in Milan’s Spring/Summer 2015 Fash- ual display to fingertips.7 It will reveal what is ion Week or in this CNN piece: http://money. occluded under a figure touch and transforms cnn.com/video/technology/2014/09/12/fashion free figure movements into visual output. In the -week-high-tech.cnnmoney/index.html. Wear- future, fingertips will be able to provide private, ables such as handbags that can display tweets, subtle, and quick access; like a new kind of Cy- bracelets that charge phones, connected rings, and clops, we will be able to see everything through flashing dresses have made their catwalk de- a single device. but. It looks like wearable technology has finally become fashionable. Challenges and Growth Barriers Despite the incredible pace of evolution in wear- In This Issue able devices, new challenges such as privacy This issue of IT Professional is devoted to the concerns, data security, service models, product theme of wearable computing trends, and appli- positioning, and marketing pose massive threats cations related to the engineering and operation- to the industry’s growth potential. al aspects of wearable computing. The articles In 2013, a social study surveyed the impact of include a diverse range of sources from Greece, wearable technology in the UK and US.8 The re- Australia, and Italy. In “The Health Avatar: sults showed that half of the respondents cited Privacy-Aware Monitoring and Management,” privacy as a barrier to adoption, and 62 percent Despina T. Meridou, Maria-Eleftheria Ch. Pa- thought wearable devices should be regulated in padopoulou, Panagiotis Kasnesis, Charalampos some form; 20 percent called for these devices Z. Patrikakis, Georgios Lamprinakos, Andreas to be banned entirely. Indeed, privacy is one of P. Kapsalis, Iakovos S. Venieris, and Dimitra- the key concerns in adopting wearable devices. Theodora I. Kaklamani show state-of-the-art Data security is also a concern, because large techniques for seamless discovery and collec- amounts of data are synced to the cloud ­without tion of health and data by a wide range of

18 IT Pro September/October 2015 ­wearable devices. The proposed patient-centric ­SIGCHI Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems, care model provides preventative action by ana- 2010, pp. 453–462. lyzing the patient’s daily routine and behavior 6. P. Mistry and P. Maes, “SixthSense: A Wearable Ges- (for instance, health status, environmental or tural Interface,” Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 occupational exposure, lifestyle, and diet) with a Sketches, 2009, article no. 11. closer doctor-patient interaction to obtain better 7. C. Su et al., “NailDisplay: Bringing an Always- health and well-being. Available Visual Display to Fingertips,” Proc. SIG- In “Low-Profile Jamming Technology for Medi- CHI Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2013, cal Rehabilitation,” Timothy M. Simon, Bruce pp. 1461–1464. H. Thomas, and Ross T. Smith show us that in- 8. The Human Cloud: Wearable Technology from Novelty tegrating novel feedback mechanisms into wear- to Productivity, Rackspace, with the Centre for Cre- able devices has the potential to support medical ative and Social Technology at Goldsmiths, Univ. of rehabilitation applications and enhance existing ­London, 5 June 2013. methods of interaction. The proposed smart layer jamming wearable prototype provides haptic feed- Maria R. Lee is a full professor in the Institute of Creative back for interacting with virtual and augmented Industries and the Department of Information Technology realities. and Management at Shih Chien University, Taiwan. Her Finally, in “Wearable Computing for the Inter- research interests include wearable computing, an- net of Things,” Simone Cirani and Marco Picone alytics, e-commerce, and knowledge management. Lee is the propose shaping the Internet of Things (IoT) to program chair of the IT in Practice Symposium at the IEEE provide natural interaction patterns between us- Computer Society International Conference on Computers, ers and smart objects via wearable devices. The , and Applications (COMPSAC). Contact her at proposed model aims to guide and teach users [email protected]. by increasing their awareness without requiring them to learn new paradigms. Irena Bojanova is the founding chair of the IEEE Com- puter Society Cloud Computing Special Technical Commu- nity, a co-chair of the IEEE Reliability Society Internet of he spectrum of interesting topics in this Things Technical Committee, and a founding member of the special issue reflects the multidisciplinary IEEE Technical Subcommittee on Big Data. Bojanova is the T nature of the wearable computing field. acting editor in chief of IEEE Transactions on Cloud Wearable devices will not only be hype; their ap- Computing, associate EIC of IT Professional, and an plications will also play a significant role in our associate editor of the International Journal of Big Data society in the near future. This issue’s Spotlight Intelligence. You can read her Internet of Things and department features “Beyond the Wearable Hype,” her cloud computing blog at www.computer.org. Contact a discussion by Matthew Lee and Maria R. Lee her at [email protected]. looking at several new wearable technologies. Tom Suder is the president and founder of both Mobilegov References and the nonprofit Advanced Technology Academic Research 1. P. Harrop et al., Wearable Technology 2015-2025: Tech- Center (ATARC). A respected thought leader in the federal nologies, Markets, Forecasts, Research and Markets, Feb. IT community, he drives cutting-edge mobile solutions by 2015. blending academic innovation and research with proven 2. J. Ranck, The Wearable Computing Market: A Global business methodologies and management techniques. Suder Analysis, GigaOM Pro, July 2012. is a Federal 100 Award winner and former industry chair 3. D. Melanson and M. Gorman, “Our Augmented of the ACT-IAC Advanced Mobility Working Group. Con- Selves: The Promise of Wearable Computing,” Engad- tact him at [email protected]. get, 12 Dec. 2012. 4. E. Thorp and Anonymous, “Optimal Gambling Sys- tems for Favorable Games,” Rev. of the Int’l Institute, vol. 37, no. 3, 1969, pp. 273–293. 5. C. Harrison, D. Tan, and D. Morris, “Skinput: Ap- Selected CS articles and columns are available propriating the Body as an Input Surface,” Proc. for free at http://ComputingNow.computer.org.

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