Wearable technology: the wearable smart devices that are changing our daily lives

The link between fashion and the technology sector has a long history, culminating in wearable technology products that have changed or will significantly change the daily life of anyone who wears them.

Probably the first technological accessory that human beings ever wore was eyeglasses, which were invented during the Middle Ages, but which we hardly consider a technology today, perhaps because they are no longer an innovative product.

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Wearable technology refers to all those electronic devices that can be worn as accessories on the body by the user and that are able to provide some improvement or benefit to the wearer, very often making use of artificial intelligence tools. Let's discover the wearable technologies that have set trends in the past up to the latest inventions...

Wearable technology started to evolve especially towards the second half of the 20th century: some tangible examples are the calculator watches invented in the 1970s (pictured) or even the Walkman in the 1980s.

But, since the start of the internet, technology has never been the same: consequently, wearable technology, year after year, has also been at the centre of a relentless evolution.

At the beginning of the new millennium, Bluetooth headphones (pictured), iPods, Fitbit, wearable webcams began to spread, which totally changed the way we understand fashion, no longer considered a mere aesthetic trend, but with a specific technological function capable of accompanying us everywhere.

From 2010 onwards, there was a real boom: objects and accessories of this kind began to develop faster and faster, conquering the wardrobes and drawers of millions of people, as with the launch of the first Apple Watch in September 2014 (pictured).

Even today, this accessory, later also developed by other brands, is among the best-selling wearable technologies. These are some of its many functions, included or not depending on the model: watch, alarm clock, ability to receive messages and make phone calls, monitor physical activity and make payments.

The smartwatch has entered the lives of sportsmen and women in particular, many of whom would no longer take a step without the technological watch on their wrist.

In the large category of wearable technology, there are several micro-categories, including smart clothing, such as all garments made of technical fabrics that allow greater breathability, or like this jogging smart T-shirt (pictured) designed by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute. The technological T-shirt is equipped with a device that monitors the wearer's activity and can alert runners when they are pushing too hard.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has contributed greatly to making wearable technology even more innovative and interactive. An example of this are augmented reality viewers, initially used in the world of video games.

Augmented reality is a technology that allows a representation of the real world to be overlaid with digital content, applications, video, data, images and audio. As a result, it increases the vision (and knowledge) of the wearer.

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Apple's Vision Pro (pictured) represents perhaps the latest frontier in this type of wearable technology. The smart visors launched by Apple are considered to be the first model of 'spatial computing', as it is literally having a computer at hand at all times, but without a screen, and working in the space surrounding the user.

It is a totally new way of interacting with technology, once again launched by one of the most disruptive brands in recent years. It's highlights are a large, portable, private 4K display, FaceTime goes spatial, an immersive experience and features Apple's first three-dimensional camera.

Another novelty in recent years, combining jewellery and technology, are smart rings, smart rings that can monitor the health of the person wearing them, collecting data such as steps, kilometres travelled, heart rate, speed, oxygen levels, imitating, in short, the functions of a smartwatch.

Among the smart rings, one of the most innovative models of this type of wearable technology was launched at the Mobile World Congress in February 2024: the Samsung Galaxy Ring (pictured). Much lighter than other models, it is equipped with a suite of advanced sensors capable of providing an overview of all health-related data including fertility monitoring.

In November 2023, Humane Inc. launched an innovative wearable technology that promises to make us spend less time in front of a smartphone screen: it is called the AI Pin, the smart pin (pictured). What does it consist of?

Credit: Humane

Humane, the start-up founded by Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, has created this new device without a display that can be operated with simple voice, touch or gesture commands. The pin includes a mini laser projector that allows information to be displayed in the palm of the user's hand or on any surface.

Credit: Humane

Inside this small wearable device we also find GPT-4 chat, which becomes a real personal assistant in these circumstances. Will the AI Pin be able to make us spend less time in front of our smartphone display? We shall see!

Credit: Humane

The Mobile World Congress has always been one of the most important runways for technology in general and wearable technology in particular. At the 2024 edition, another product that caught the public's attention was a novelty from Motorola, the phone giant that had disappeared from the scene for so many years, but made a comeback with a bang!

Motorola's latest invention is a flexible smartphone (pictured) that can be worn like a bracelet or a watch - as it can adapt to any wrist. The display, when folded, goes from 6.9 inches to 4.6. In short, it took Motorola a long time, but with its Rollable Concept Phone, it has really come back in a big way!