Author : Maxime Crost

Section : EII 2012-2014

Tutor : Mehdi Benadi

Master II – Expert en Ingénierie Informatique

Mémoire de fin d’études 2013-2014
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 Abstract
It is first of all useful to define the “wearable computing” term. Wearable computing (also known as
“wearables”) is a kind of miniature electronic devices that are worn by the bearer under, with or on top of clothing
(Mann, 1996). The wearables are in fact directly inheriting from connected objects, their particularity is only they
are worn by a user.

Moreover this definition, wearable computing is the range of connected objects than can be worn by a user.
Connected objects in themselves are a very blurry concept of high tech product, but in a general way, we can say
connected objects are devices destined to ease every day’s life by connecting themselves to other smart devices
(PC, smartphones, tablets…) and to the Internet. Connected objects are the extension of the Internet to the
physical world.

Wearables have been mediatized in the IT press, but the mainstream market is still dubitative about all of
these products. The reason is the people are quite satisfied of their smartphones and don’t find a usability to
wearable technologies. People are more seeing wearables like gadgets than real useful objects, and this is
understandable because, we will see that as the communication as the development of the wearables are poorly
exploited.

This document will then be used to explore the current progress of wearable computing, both from a
scientific point of view as a technical or commercial point of view. With this, I will infer what would be the solutions,
which could integrate in a more durable way the wearables with the mainstream market. Although this technology
is today well known by a lot of people in the world, it remains a bit fuzzy on a lot of points.

I’m going to endeavour to answer to this general problematic by following 3 sub-questions which are those
ones:

 What are the future prospects of the wearable computing? (short, middle and long-term visions)
 What innovations are possible?
 What is the mainstream market acceptance rate?

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 Table of contents
Abstract.....................................................................................................................................................................2
Special thanks ...........................................................................................................................................................0
1 How did we get to wear technology? ................................................................................................................1
1.1 Science-fiction dreams ..............................................................................................................................1
1.2 Wearable mother technologies ................................................................................................................4
1.3 First prototypes.........................................................................................................................................6
1.4 Mobility advent which has contributed to wearable entry .......................................................................8
2 How is composed the current wearable landscape? ...................................................................................... 11
2.1 Strong actors from mobility ................................................................................................................... 11
2.1.1 Apple .................................................................................................................................................. 11
2.1.2 Google ................................................................................................................................................ 12
2.1.3 Intel .................................................................................................................................................... 13
2.1.4 Microsoft............................................................................................................................................ 14
2.1.5 Samsung ............................................................................................................................................. 15
2.1.6 Sony ................................................................................................................................................... 16
2.2 Strong actors from third party sectors ................................................................................................... 17
2.2.1 Adidas ................................................................................................................................................ 17
2.2.2 Nike .................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.3 Startup companies ................................................................................................................................. 19
2.3.1 Athos .................................................................................................................................................. 19
2.3.2 Fitbit ................................................................................................................................................... 20
2.3.3 OMsignal ............................................................................................................................................ 21
2.3.4 Pebble ................................................................................................................................................ 22
3 How this sector can evolve? ........................................................................................................................... 23
3.1 Too much confidence in marketing campaigns...................................................................................... 23
3.2 Create and develop concepts of use ...................................................................................................... 26
3.2.1 Applications ....................................................................................................................................... 26
3.2.2 New wearables................................................................................................................................... 28
3.2.3 New inter-devices communications ................................................................................................... 29
3.3 Restart communication campaigns on concrete bases .......................................................................... 30
4 What will be the impact of a potential success of wearable computing? ...................................................... 31

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 4.1 New lifestyles ......................................................................................................................................... 31
4.1.1 Questioning existing debates ............................................................................................................. 31
4.1.2 Health................................................................................................................................................. 32
4.1.3 Privacy ................................................................................................................................................ 35
4.2 Growing techno-dependence ................................................................................................................ 36
5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 37
6 References...................................................................................................................................................... 38

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Special thanks
I would like to thanks Mehdi Benadi, my tutor to have been present during all the writing of this paper and for the
support he has given to me.

I would like to thanks Sciences-U Lyon and its teachers which allowed me to study as a master degree student and
brought me a proper environment to work.

I would like to thank Volvo IT for the trust they placed in me by hiring me during 3 years as an alternant, and
especially the MBA team, who helped me all this year to grow professionally and to make this paper.

I would like to thank Stéphane Marceau, Alex Danvy and Loïc Jacques for their participation to my research work.

I would like to thank Steve Mann for all the work he have done on wearable computing since 1980, all of his work
has been a huge source of inspiration for me.

I would like to thank all of the science-fiction authors, directors, game designers, creators and artists who I've cited
in this paper, because they built my culture and helped to shape the essence of the reflexion of this paper.

And finally, I would like to thank Ludwig Van Beethoven, Radiohead and Jamiroquaï which music helped to keep
calm and concentration during the writing of this paper.
 1 How did we get to wear technology?
Once the information technology was accessible to everyone and popular in all around the world, people
started to think to new ways of using this amazing tool. But first of all, the need, the phantasm of wearing
technology is still older than information technology popularization itself.

1.1 Science-fiction dreams

First of all, we had to explore, what made the desire to wear technology. That is sure, technology were worn
a long time ago with more simple applications. But if companies are now beginning to sell it to people, there is
some reasons why people could have believed that one day, they could wear a computer on their body.

The first domain which has given people the idea to wear sophisticated and clever systems on their own
body is the science-fiction (sci-fi) culture. Books, pictures, comics, movies and later video games, awaken in
people’s mind the need to have smart clothes, cybernetic skins.

The first time we can approximately reveal a trace of wearable-computing dream would be with Twenty
Thousand Leagues under the Sea (Verne, 1869-1870), with an advanced imagined concept of diving suit. When
the Captain Nemo bring Pierre Arronax, Conseil and Ned Land for the first time underwater, Jules Verne imagined
a concept of spacesuit (surely developed during the writing of De la Terre à la Lune (Verne, 1865)) a kind of armour
which allows the person which is inside, with the pipe linked to the Nautilus, to breathe underwater. The device
is surely primitive but very time-advanced for its period, and over the years, Verne has brought a huge contribution
to science and to people who wanted to discover science with simple terms.

The nautilus crew in diving suit (taken from the 1997 movie), the reason why we can’t see the wires
Source : http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/2/0/0/20000-lieues-sous-les-me-21-g.jpg

After that, a lot of authors wrote sci-fi books, with some references to wearable technologies, but the most
remarkable applications of wearable computing went surely with sci-fi movies. Out of sci-fi movies, the recurrent
symbol of gadgets and technology in popular culture is James Bond (Flemming, 1953) with his hi-tech watch and
suits offered by agent Q of MI-6 to accomplish various missions consisting generally in saving United Kingdom,
Europe or the world. Even if some slight applications of wearable computing could have been shown in 1900 to
1960 sci-fi movies and more precise concepts in 1970 and 1980 sci-fi movies, the one movie which really brought
the concept of wearable technology was undoubtedly RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987). The story of a person half-

1
 men and half-machine, saved from death by transplanting technology inside his body is truly one of the crucial
base of a lot of wearable technology concepts. Then, some other movies exploited the idea of wearing technology
but never in such a deep way RoboCop done before. One of the ideas of the movie was really to tell that human
and technology can coexist in a certain way. But not too much, it would be idiot to forget this movie is a criticism
of modern society.

James Bond Rolex (left), RoboCop armour (right)

Sources : http://us.cdn281.fansshare.com/photos/robocop/robocop-armor-pepakura-research-robocop-bp-515534428.jpg
http://rolexpassionreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rpr_img1268139962smy.jpg

Meanwhile, in Japan, Akira Toriyama was creating a huge creative work that would change the popular
culture forever: Dragon Ball (Toriyama, 1984). This manga is described by the author like a futurist version of the
Knights of the Round Table. Which matters to us, is the time when the saiyans, galactic warriors come to Earth:
they own a device which is just like the Google Glasses that allows them to measure strength of their opponents.
This scooter (as called in the manga) is nowadays a phantasm of the geek community as a wearable device.

The saiyan scooter (left), Radditz wearing a scooter (right)

Sources: http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/243/6/d/dragon_ball_z____scouter_by_camarinox-d2xqma0.png
http://www.final-dbz.com/content/gallery/pics/101/1128173283[from_www.final-dbz.com].jpg

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 Some years after, video games applications finally concretized the need of wearing computers and
technology. Examples are legions, but the closest one to RoboCop would really be Metroid (Gunpei Yokoi, 1987).
This video game takes place in a distant future were the heroin is a bounty hunter equipped with a high tech suit
(named the Varia suit) built by an ancient civilization named the Chozo, which includes special lenses and a HUD.
No doubt it influenced the current HUD and augmented reality projects. Other games like Splinter Cell (Clancy,
2002) or Crysis (Crytek, 2007) did then a genius work of using wearable technology.

Samus Aran’s Varia suit (left), Crysis nanosuit (right)

Sources: http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100804002317/metroid/images/1/1d/Varia_Suit_Render_Gene_Kohler.png
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk143/BlauerGeist/crysis-nano-suit-pc-sc002.jpg

After reviewing the birth of wearable computing in popular culture, let’s see, how the wearable computing
did come to life with previous technologies.

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 1.2 Wearable mother technologies
In history, it has been plenty of time were humans has to wear technology on them to simply do their work
or, at least, ease a task. The first time where we can possibly assimilate some technology wearing to a civilization
would be in China with the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty in China (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). The
Qing Dynasty saw the introduction of a fully functional abacus on a ring, which could be used while it was being
worn (Xinhua, 2006).

The ring's Zhusuan, or China's abacus, which origins are unknown

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-07/20/content_645797_4.htm

A few centuries later, in the same time that the space conquest and the Moon race were on, a man, Hugo
Gernsback a writer, novelist and inventor, was about to create a new concept. In 1963, the television is being
watched more and more and the people really love this 20th century media. But there was still one problem: you
had to get up and touch the device to switch channels, volume and turn on and off the TV. This constraint was
disturbing Hugo Gernsback, so he thought: “what if the TV could be near to me?” With this reflexion, he created
the elder ancestor of the nowadays “virtual reality headsets”. Although this device never been sold, it has been a
huge start and inspiration for a lot of visioning headsets today.

Hugo Gernsback with his TV glasses

Source: Life Magazine

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 The other great footstep in wearable technology has been done by a person considered nowadays as the
father of wearable technology: Steve Mann. In the preamble we could have seen that Steve Mann has given the
definition of wearable computing for the first time in 1996. But this reflexion on wearable computing has been
the result of years of working on prototypes and experimenting on itself. Graduated from MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology) with a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences in 1997, Mann had the idea to build a headset with
a camera that he could wear on his body. After scheduling plans of the wanted device, he face a problem: how to
store what records the camera? And how to see what the camera is filming? To solve this problem, he found the
idea of a backpack, which was overriding the storage problem and to see what the camera was shooting, he simply
installed the camera on his right eye. Then the device is totally dependent from his body. This singular prototype
on himself granted him the official status of cyborg, knowing the fact his wearable device is physically linked to
him. With years, he enhanced his cybernetic prosthesis to become something more like natural glasses.

Evolution of Steve Mann's WearComp wearable computer from backpack based systems of the 1980s to his current covert systems.
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Wearcompevolution.jpg

What Steve Mann created officially started the wearable computing research for high tech companies and
startup companies.

But after all, these applications were purely destined to the professional world and the research. In all the
cases, nobody could use anything similar to the previous described technologies. The aim of the abacus ring or
the Datalink was not to be a consuming product, but useful products for specific usages.

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 1.3 First prototypes
At this time, in the 1980’s, sell something like a Mann’s headset would have been clearly impossible. Too
many constraints would have block the road and the mass production would have been undoubtedly impossible.
Some high tech companies then started to think how a wearable device could be elaborated and sold in a relative
easy way.

The first company to have a wearable computing idea targeting the main market was probably Nintendo.
The Japanese firm, well known for its creativity in the video games industry, decided to innovate in the controlling
experience to enhance gameplay. For this, they imagined a concept of controller not held by the player, but that
the player would hold. This idea gave birth in 1989 to the Power Glove.

The Power Glove by Nintendo

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/NES-Power-Glove.jpg/1280px-NES-Power-Glove.jpg

Nintendo was really proud of their product, and strong from their success in video games industry, they
thought it would be wise to make an advertise campaign before selling it. So they contact Hollywood to start the
production of a movie, which Nintendo would finance. In this movie, there would be a lot of references to the
Nintendo universe and various licenses from the Kyoto firm. The Power Glove would be used and named as an
important object in the movie. This movie was “The Wizard” (Holland, 1989). Despite of the success of the movie,
Nintendo didn’t sell a lot of units of the product. The main reason was the Nintendo customers were mainly people
with smaller income than average, so they wouldn’t spend extra money on a gadget product. Yes, the main reason
was the Power Glove was a gadget after all. No video game was thought around this device and the usage was
constraining the player (unlike in “The Wizard” (Holland, 1989)).

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 After this, a corporation has been the next to design some wearable technologies with astronauts by the
creation of the Timex Datalink. This was the first concrete concept of smartwatch created by the Timex Group, a
watch manufacturer. The first model of the earlier line of Datalink has been released in 1994 in the USA. The
watches have been certified by NASA for space travel and have been used by astronauts and cosmonauts in space
missions. This certification has helped Timex to earn recognition in front of the mainstream market and release
evolutions of the first line of watches. The first Datalink was built with the help of Microsoft as a wearable
alternative to mainstream PDAs with additional attributes such as water resistance, that PDAs lacked, and easy
programmability.

The Datalink, model 150

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Timex_Datalink_Model_150.JPG

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 1.4 Mobility advent which has contributed to wearable entry

Today, the most notable high tech advance in mass market in the last decade has surely been the mobility.
After a few years of deny from the mass market, smartphones has begun to be adopted since the 2007 release of
the first iPhone. Once the success of the iPhone, and then the next declinations of the Apple product were installed,
the people were ready to consume mobile technology. For sure, the Google market domination, with Android, has
durably set up this mobile-dependence of the customers.

However this is interesting to know how and why people did accept mobility in 2007? Why not before? There
was already a lot of smartphones before 2007, how did Apple got the world to buy and live with smartphones?
First of all, no, this is not because the product was awesome or anything related. Moreover, the Apple fan base
did not launch this mobile dependence only with marketing and talented keynotes of Steve Jobs. The context was
appropriated, and the first iPhone was thought in a way all the smartphones should have been at this period.

The smartphones are mostly built with an ARM CPU. These CPUs are based on Motorola architecture
(contrary to Intel architecture for x86 CPUs), which make them good for some tasks and bad for others in
comparison to x86 CPUs. Smartphones were exploiting very poorly the potential of ARM CPUs and this was causing
slowdowns in the phones interfaces, which was making them not very attractive for people who preferred more
reactive devices even with less functionalities. The software engineer work at Apple allowed the iPhone to be fast
and fluent with an ARM CPU, only because they thought iOS (iPhone Operating System) around an ARM processor.

ARM Cortex-M4 CPU architecture

Source: http://mikrokontroler.pl/?q=system/files/artykuly/Cortex_M3_vs_Cortex_M4_czym_sie_roznia_/rys1_48.gif

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 The functionalities were also a reason to the inexistent success of smartphones before the iPhone. The
smartphones leader was Nokia and Sony Ericsson. And the functionalities of the best phones for each one of these
brands in the markets were simply drastic. Nokia had the solution of the problem: give to the users a store of
applications, allowing them to download their favourite applications on their smartphone. The idea was great, but
this was missing a crucial thing: applications. The store was starving and didn’t encounter much success. The two
detonators to a successful application store were simple: partnership and free SDK. Introducing the App Store in
2008 (the application store for iOS), Apple got some partnership with big companies like Nike, Facebook, LinkedIn
etc. Those partnerships have helped the App Store to grow faster. By the way, Apple released a SDK (Software
Development Kit), which would allow any developer to build an iOS app. With these two conditions united, the
iPhone domination in the smartphone world was complete because the App Store was the main argument of the
marketing campaigns.

Nonetheless, the ultimate thing that helped smartphones to ascend in the late 2010s was clearly the need to
carry an Internet connection everywhere. Internet was, and is still, inseparable from people’s life. At this time
people needed to have their mailbox, their RSS feeds, their social networks out of their homes. And with the
support of mobile carriers in a majority of countries with the Internet offers, this was possible. This reason is
maybe the strongest one why the people started to buy smartphones.

After this, Google built Android, an OS accessible to everyone with cheaper devices and more functionalities
than iOS. And more than a simple phone OS, Android is a true mobile OS; it is possible to install it on almost every
device with a CPU, which is the other key to wearable computing emergence. Mobility rise has allowed Google to
develop Android (the truth would be, to buy Android… (Bloomberg, 2005)). Now, mobile OS are mature and could
be a support for other devices, like wearable computing. And if a wearable object has no OS, the best way to
exploit it is still the smartphone.

With all of these united, we now know:

 Where the wearable technology needing comes from

 How the wearable technology has been started
 How the wearable technology has been prototyped
 How the wearable technology is able to rise

I will now push a bit the analysis and describe the current landscape of wearable technology: who they are,
why they are developing the future of wearable computing and what are their chances of success.

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10
 2 How is composed the current wearable landscape?
After describing how the wearable computer has come to mind, let’s see who the main players in the
wearable domain are. We can sort them in three great categories: mobility giants, third party companies and
startups. Unlike wearable historic, it won’t be necessary to develop on the past of mobility with PDAs, laptops
etc… Let’s begin with the mobility companies.

2.1 Strong actors from mobility

Today, the mobility has been a really floral business for a lot of enterprises, as much for the one who use it
than the one who develop it. This fact is based on numerous proofs. For example, the smartphones are, since
February 2013, more sold than features phones (standard phones (Gartner, 2014)), or a more shocking fact:
tablets are more shipped than traditional PCs (Gartner, 2014). Today, tablets are slowly replacing the usage of
laptops in the house of Average Joe, and so on, smartphones are becoming the most used devices of people in
the world. The leaders of this industry are, in alphabetical order (non-exhaustive list):

2.1.1 Apple
We talked a bit about this company before, and it’s useless to tell again it is a huge actor in the high tech
world. After a timid return to profitability in the early 2000s, the Cupertino firm launched the iPhone in 2007 and
the iPad in 2010, getting people fancy for smartphones and tablets. Their products was the most sold of their
markets at the beginning but now, every new version of the devices are sold stably.

This loss of enthusiasm for Apple products may trigger the wearable arrival in Apple products and could be
then a renewal of the firm, which is stagnating since a few years. The main reason why people are not buying
anymore Apple products is because they don’t feel Apple is introducing new attracting features. Moreover, the
marketing strategy of Apple don’t seem to work as well as it was, only fans of the brand seems to be seduced by
the marketing sirens. But if they are not yet on the wearables market, it’s because they want their product to be
the best (Wakabayashi, 2014).

Today, Apple is rumoured to present an iWatch very soon (Farr, 2014). Even if they are not in the market at
the moment, their mobility position make them a crucial actor. And much more, when we take a glance at iOS 8
rumours, everything indicates the presence of a “Healthbook” feature (MacRumors , 2014) linked to some new
Ear Pods which would monitor heart rate (Haselton, 2014). Does an Apple smartwatch could have the same effect
than its elders, iPhone and iPad? We can’t advance anything but wait. Once more, their marketing and engineering
talent can’t be forgotten, they could be the launch pad for wearables.

An iWatch concept
Sources: http://www.journaldugeek.com/files/2014/05/iwatch-concept-nike.jpg

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 2.1.2 Google
The other mobility giant. With Apple they both run the show and make the major OS advances. Google
bought Android in 2005 and released a commercial version of this mobile OS in 2008 (a developer version was
released in 2007). This OS is the most used in mobility (smartphones and tablets) because of its open source
character, so many device builders can provide their mobile devices with Android.

Out of this in wearable, Google has been a huge actor those past two years with the Google Glass
phenomenon. This device is presented like the next killer device in high tech. Because of its fancy trailers (Google,
2012) and the great skills of Google in communication, there is a huge waiting for the Google Glass. For now the
glasses are selling restrictively, only in the USA and at a prohibitive price of $1500. Then only Google fans are trying
to buy such a product. Google also presented another wearable product called Android Wear (Pichai, 2014).
Basically, this is a version of the mobile OS Android, built for smartwatches. This OS seems to be full of promises
looking at the actual offer that lacks of good use of Android with smartwatches.

With these two cards, Google can be placed as the strongest potential challenger on the wearables arena.
But they will have to be careful, because for now, techs are still asking what we could do with glasses and watches
made by Google.

Sergueï Brin wearing Google Glass (left), Android Wear developer preview (right)
Source: http://glass-apps.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/google-glass1.jpg
https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/0xQ3y902DEQ/maxresdefault.jpg

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 2.1.3 Intel
This actor is not much known by the mainstream market, but in fact they are one of the major mobility
companies of the market. Intel’s main activity is the development and building of CPUs, and on this market, they
are incontestable leaders, far beyond AMD. They’ve earlier created the Intel architecture and are now axing their
innovation on low consumption CPUs.

For years Intel built more and more powerful processors. But they now the future of IT is about mobility
and then, for them, this means low consumption chipsets. This can be verified for example, with the Galileo project
based on Arduino motherboard (Arduino) which is a microcontroller board similar to the Raspberry Pi. Although
Intel has got great aces in CPUs, its tries to earn share markets with x86 smartphones seems to be nothing but a
failure.

Intel Galileo
Source: http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/ArduinoCertified/IntelGalileo_fabD_Front.jpg

The wearable path is taken by Intel (Karimzadeh, 2014), and confirmed by an operation they launched on
early 2014 called “Make It Wearable” (Intel, 2014) which is a challenge to aspiring entrepreneurs to make their
personal wearable technology idea come to fruition, a tangible invention that would change both the fashion
runways and the tech scene. The idea is similar to the Google call to developers’ ideas for the Google Glass, but it
can only bring some more pieces in the wearable world. Intel could be then well equipped to challenge the
wearables arena.

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 2.1.4 Microsoft
The Redmond’s company can be easily qualified as the fifth wheel of the cart in the mobility world. Yes,
but it would be too easy. Microsoft had a huge late on mobility advances, due to its former CEO, Steve Ballmer
who said “There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” (Lieberman,
2007). This choice to avoid mobility in the late 2000s has been one of the deadliest moments of the company.
Although this absence from the mobility has been bleeding Microsoft’s revenues, they engaged a race to get back
in the game with Google and Apple.

From now, Microsoft have got a small but significant number of users with their mobile devices, especially
in India (Muncaster, 2013) and South America (Microsoft, 2013) where Windows Phone is the second most
popular OS. Considering the fact the company is late compared to Google and Apple, the wearable path could be
very interesting for Microsoft. Like Apple, Microsoft didn’t presented anything officially, but their status is also
making them a company to look forward (Warren, 2013).

Moreover, the flagged OS’s company has patented a concept of smartwatch (Pachal, 2014), indicating
they will be releasing one someday. The concept is a bit singular, because the screen of the smartwatch can be
separated from the band. This time if Microsoft arrives on time, I think they could be an important competitor on
the sector due to their recent revival in high tech sector with a modernization campaign flagged by Windows 8
and Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft smartwatch patent

Source: http://top5coolnesscountdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/microsoft-smartwatch-patent.jpg

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 2.1.5 Samsung
For the neophytes, they are often assimilated with Google and Android. However, they are one of the
main foe of the Mountain View’s company. Today, Samsung is a Korean smartphone builder, leader on the market,
strong from its “Galaxy” brand (Gartner, 2014). This brand is even more influent than Android itself (Champeau,
2013) and this is the reason why Google and Samsung started to move along from themselves some years ago.
Yes because the fact Samsung helped Google by placing Android as the top mobile OS seller created a partnership
between the two companies.

But today, Samsung thinks it could get rid of Google - which is getting all of the software revenue with
Android, by releasing their own OS called Tizen (Cheng, 2014). This new OS could be the fourth contester of the
mobile world. It is an important point to talk about Tizen here, because this OS is mainly thought around wearable
devices, in the first release, with Samsung’s smartwatch Galaxy Gear (Beavis, 2014). Despite their investment in
the wearable technology, Samsung have sold their Galaxy Gears with difficulty (Boxall, 2014) due to harsh critics,
lack of compatibility with devices and its high price (Amadeo, 2013). Samsung lately released a connected band
called Gear Fit, which is selling right compared to contesters.

What we can say about Samsung is they are the most present actor on the wearable segment. They try to
be the first in place and leave no time to other giants to take a slice of the pie. They are even building a direct
contester to Google Glass with the next announced Galaxy Blink. They seem to shape as an early leader, but how
long will they rule? In my humble opinion they will have to carry on developing Tizen to take advantage of their
wearable products and distance Google in their own farmyard. But the Samsung problem is deeper than that as
we’ll see later.

Galaxy Gear 2 (left), Galaxy Blink prototype (right)

Sources: http://phandroid.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Gear-2.jpg
http://www.sammobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/gear-glass-headphone.jpg

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 2.1.6 Sony
Sony has always been a strong actor of mobility, yesterday with Ericsson, today with Android, they always
had a place at the sun in the mobile arena, and they don’t want this to change with the wearables market. For
now, Sony are selling well their smartphones (GSM Arena, 2014) despite of some operational losses (Byford, 2014).
But if Sony are not the best Android sellers right now, why talking about them? Two main reasons make Sony a
real interesting challenger.

Sony early had the front page of every IT magazine by selling its PC and TV business (Sony, 2014) and this
was a huge message to every Google and Apple : Sony wants to focus on mobility (and on video games, but this is
not the point here). And secondly, they launched in 2012 a smartwatch and a smartband, which is strengthening
the fact Sony is focusing on the mobility sector. The Sony SmartWatch was quite appreciated because it was
cheaper than the Galaxy Gear (99$ vs 199$).

With a huge experience in the high tech world, a good brand management and an activity refocused on
mobility, the Japanese company has got everything to succeed in the wearable market.

Sony SmartWatch (left) and Sony SmartBand (right)

Sources: http://store.sony.com/SNYNA_27/pimg/pSNYNA-SW2ACT_main_v786.png
http://api.sonymobile.com/files/swr10-smartband-black-1240x840-2da9bc94c4b36a0e7198dc05252efdde.jpg

I could have talked of Lenovo, Huawei or again LG, but even if those companies are selling a lot of
smartphones, they are not appealing to be wearables leaders tomorrow. Maybe I’m wrong, but at this time, the
companies I’ve cited for now are the most challenging in the wearable sector. Still, Facebook are often cited as a
next big competitor in wearable technology, especially since their recent buying of Moves (Albergotti, 2014), but
the future is for me too cloudy to advance anything else about Zuckerberg’s company. Even if we will get back to
them later.

We will now get a little bit out of the IT sector and focus on the third party actors.

16
 2.2 Strong actors from third party sectors
The third party sectors are in reality only one and only: sportswear. Among these, two giants answered the
call of wearable technology. In both cases, those companies have got an interesting rock to throw on their market.
The pioneers of wearable technology in sportswear are, in alphabetical order (non-exhaustive list):

2.2.1 Adidas
The 3 stripes brand is well known for its apparels, especially in sports. Adidas have always been a leader
in Europe in sportswear, the second one worldwide (Wikipedia, 2003). Like all multinational companies, Adidas
wants to modernize its brand management, and this begins with technology.

The German company released in 2012 a special line of shoes called F50 adiZero mi-Coach. Basically, it’s
a pair of football shoes provided with a companion which can be plugged in a computer to consult the data
recorded while the user was playing football (Adidas, 2012). Additionally, the miCoach speed cell has been
declined to a smartwatch in 2014 (Adidas, 2013).

Adidas is targeting the June 1st to release its first smartball for the FIFA World Cup with the Adidas miCoach
(Johnson, 2013). They then seem to be very active on this segment since 2012 and their strong position and
finances allow them to try and learn. But in my own opinion, they won’t do anything good until they don’t get
closer from a high tech company to help build their connected products.

Adidas smartball (left), Adidas miCoach smartwatch (right)

Sources: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000029e3a/6778/Adidas-miCoach-Smartball.jpg
http://www.runnersworld.fr/RW-WP-magazine/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/adidas-micoach-smart-run-launch-01.jpg

17
 2.2.2 Nike
The great rival of Adidas, the American sportswear company is the other great competitor in wearables
from third party companies. With the German company, they both rule the sportswear industry in the world. They
are nearly each other as powerful financially, but in the wearable sector, the fight really has a different intensity.

Even before the iPhone release, in 2006, Nike and Apple had a partnership on wearable technology. The
result was way too visionary at the time, but it was a huge advance in wearable computing: the Nike+iPod. The
concept was simple: with an emitter in a Nike shoe, linked to a sensor on an iPod Nano, a runner could record his
running information and these information could be consulted on Nike web site or on the iPod (Nike). With this
Nike and Apple launched the wearable technology race. The Nike+ concept has been then enhanced by the
American company by launching an iOS application, Nike+ Running App, which used a tracking engine powered by
MotionX that does not require the shoe sensor required with Nike+iPod (Nike, Inc.).

In 2014, Nike launched its last wearable device, the Nike FuelBand, a competitive smartband, positioning
itself as a candidate to the status of most sold smartband in the world. But, shockingly, Nike stopped its hardware
activity on wearable computing just a few days after the release of the smartband (Statt, 2014). This strategy
appears at first glance like a surrender, but this is nothing but a replacement of their activity. Nike has had a clever
move with this initiative, and I will explain how. Nowadays, every quality mobility material is built either by IT
giants or financed startups. By deporting their wearable activity to software only, they avoid the difficulty to
imagine a great hardware, which is hard for sportswear companies. With this decision, I think they are on a good
way to dominate the wearable market, in partnership with IT giants or promising startups. Adidas should watch
and learn from this.

Nike+iPod (left), Nike FuelBand SE (right)

Sources: http://archive.wired.com/news/images/full/nikeipod1_f.jpg
http://www.nike.com/content/dam/one-nike/en_us/fuelband/HO13_FUELBAND_SE_VOLT_ALT_ANGLE_1_HRF1_RGB_COLOR.jpg.dimg/1600x900q80.jpeg

We’ve then seen the third party companies are not numerous, but they seem to be implicated in the desire
to make the wearables sector evolve. They are not very significant at the moment, but Nike’s move may inspire a
lot of sportswear and textile companies. They stopped try get new data and just focus on setting up data in
different ways with new applications.

Let’s zoom onto the last group of wearables actors.

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 2.3 Startup companies
The major type of company which brought change in high tech world has always been startup companies.
And here, startups are still bringing the change with wearables. Inspired from popular culture and fathers of
wearable computing, we’ll see if they are pushing innovation more than IT giants.

2.3.1 Athos
We’ve seen the fitness seemed to be an important entry point of wearables, and this, Athos got it well.
Athos is a venture-backed startup, created in 2012 in Ontario and located in Redwood City, CA, is developing a
product for the fitness and athletic market. Their product is basically a combination of a garment with sensors, a
core module which gathers information between garment’s sensors and a smartphone or tablet and an app,
developed by Athos.

This solution is quite simply explained on their website (Athos), through graphics and videos. In terms of
coherence with the actual wearables landscape, this startup is targeting the market perfectly. They aim a niche
market, which is growing day by day, on a technology which is becoming to be mastered.

The Athos wearable device is about to be released (they expect shipping during summer 2014) and I think
this product could have success in the USA and Canada, but not yet outside of North America, because of the
restricted resources in communication and the current high price ($99 for a garment, $199 for a core (Athos)).

Athos solution for fitness

Source: https://resource.liveathos.com/image/AthosWeb/athos-info.jpg

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 2.3.2 Fitbit
Fitbit is nowadays one of the most successful startup companies in the wearables domain, in fact the
leader of the smartbands sales (Canalys, 2014). Fitbit designs products and experiences that track everyday health
and fitness. This philosophy is built around tracking user activity from a device synchronized to a smartphone and
help him to enhance his health with pertinent displaying of results.

The first product ever released by Fitbit was the Fitbit Tracker, a device to clip on clothes which was using
a three-dimensional accelerometer to sense user movement. This product had a small impact but was well
appreciated by the IT press. Then the startup started to decline its tracker in several forms, including the most
successful smartband in the market: the Fitbit Flex. This smartband tracks activity of the bearer, including sleep
patterns and vibrates when a goal has been reached. The Fitbit products are completed with a smartphone app
(available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone) which get activity tracked by every Fitbit device or, by default, by
the smartphone itself.

Today, the Fitbit startup is perfectly placed with a simple line of products, performing simple functions.
They are not so far from a coherent product with the actual market, and I’m thinking this is the smartphone
application which is ruining everything with tedious using for food and sleep.

Fitbit Tracker (left), Fitbit Flex (centre) and Fitbit iOS application (right)
Sources: http://gadgether.walyou.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Fitness-Tracker.jpg
http://static4.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-
png.h4621896b75431a4c9499334fb64c3247.pack?items=%2Fcontent%2Fassets%2Fonezip%2Fimages%2Fproducts%2Fflex%2FflexProductShot_Black.png
http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple4/v4/eb/1b/88/eb1b88f5-aa4a-d5f2-2e56-31f528c13b0e/screen568x568.jpeg

20
 2.3.3 OMsignal
One more Canadian startup is hitting the lights on the wearables scene. OMsignal is located in Montreal,
Quebec as a startup which created embedded sensors in a t-shirt, monitoring heart rate, breathing and activity
while a smartphone app displays collected data in real-time on mobile phone.

Since 2011, OMsignal are developing this high tech t-shirt and will be able to release it before the end of
2014 (presales are already open (OMsignal) ). The conception is very simple in fact: sensors are located in the
textile during the conception of the apparel, allowing them to sense users breathe and heartbeats. These sensors
are completed by a data module which records and streams continuous, real-time biometric data wirelessly from
the shirt to the phone. The concept is then very similar to Athos, but moreover, the product can be used for other
applications than only fitness and sports. By tracking heartbeats and breathing, this could be a perfect monitor for
seniors programmed to give live alert to close relations or concerned people to get help in time.

OMsignal have got a serious product, a wide range of use but a price which is maybe still high, due to the
conception of the shirts, which is not simple. Anyway, with a better communication than Athos, they are right
placed on the market, and could begin to seduce the American market, before getting to Europe with a second
iteration of the connected shirt, if the first is a success in North America.

OMsignal shirt (left), OMsignal tracking module (right)

Sources: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0442/7641/products/Fitness_Shortsleeve_BlackOrange_large.jpg?v=1398374235
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0442/7641/products/Module_Resized_large.jpg?v=1399557914

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 2.3.4 Pebble
Last but not least, the only one startup which launched its activity from a crowd funding project and, more
than that, the most successful crowd funding campaign ever (Kosner, 2012). Pebble started from nearly nothing
but an idea, create a smartwatch, compatible with every smartphone and low battery consuming. Today this
product is known as the world most sold smartwatch (Canalys, 2014).

The Pebble watch is simple and efficient, a black and white e-paper display, a vibrating motor, a
magnetometer, ambient light sensors and an accelerometer, enabling its use as an activity tracker. This can be
used as a Fitbit Flex (except for the sleep activity function) and more because a Pebble app store is open to the
developers, which can freely help the community with their apps and reveal the potential of this smartwatch.

Now, Pebble doesn’t have planned to release a new smartwatch since they just released a steel version of
their first watch. The elegance of this steel version, the open app store and the easy connectivity are all smart
points for the evolution of wearables. The price is still a bit high ($150 for the simple version) for a smartphone
assistant, but this may change in a few times. Even if it is not a great product, this is for now, the best smartwatch
and this is truly verified by its sales.

Pebble Steel (left) and a Pebble Watch attached to a bike (right)

Sources: https://d3rrgxxoyz0alr.cloudfront.net/assets/landing_pages/steel/steel-black-front-400-adbdf2130bffcf43a287c439a291b3d7.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Pebble_watch_cycling_4.png

Startup companies are full of resources, and for some of them, they surely may be bought by IT giants in a
few times. As far as we know, every wearables societies are converging to similar points:

 Put wearables in a role of smartphone companion

 Targeting fitness niche market by helping health and moves monitoring
 Releasing products carefully and waiting for “killer” ideas

After seeing their present and near future, I’ll try to explain how the wearables sector can evolve by exploring
new paths and solutions and try to find what they could have done in a wrong way.

22
 3 How this sector can evolve?
Here, we know the most important about the current market of wearable computing and how this type of
product became to be sellable. But even if it is sellable, the sales of wearable devices are not crashing the ceiling.
In my own opinion, and from what I could have learnt, this is mainly due to three main reasons.

3.1 Too much confidence in marketing campaigns

This point is mainly targeting the IT giants, especially Samsung and, in a certain way, Google.

With their marketing campaign for the Galaxy Gear and Fit, Samsung did a brutal job. They surely spent a
lot of money to make numerous videos and apparitions on papers and events. And this for what? A bronze medal
on the podium of the smartwatch sales, behind Sony and Pebble. And the more incomprehensive is the result on
the people, the mainstream market: they don’t get the point with the Galaxy Fit and the Galaxy Gear. I don’t think
they know if their smartphone will work with the wearable device, nor they know if they can replace their phone
with a smartwatch etc…

All of this media work has been shaking people’s mind, as far as I know, the only trusted technology from
people are represented by IT giants and not small startups crowd funded. This is why Samsung just slowed down
the wearables evolution with their marketing campaign with the Gear and the Fit. To launch a new product, if the
offer is not simple, this won’t work. How could you explain the success of the Pebble Watch, which has no
communication and marketing funds?

I think the not so far success and emergence of mobility with smartphones and tablets, both leaded by
Apple and late Steve Jobs made believe Samsung only a marketing campaign with a hammer crush could make
people think a product is a new technologic revolution. But this is not the point at all. The only reason why iPhone
and then iPad became pioneer devices was only because the offer was simple, even if the price was high and the
expectations were nearly absent for the iPad.

This is why I really think companies like Samsung should wait for a perfectly corresponding product to the
market expectations before put millions in advertisement. Everything has been done too early and too selfishly.
Samsung could have buy Pebble for example and try to take advantage of their ideas to create a better
corresponding Galaxy Gear for the mainstream market.

Google are going in the same wrong direction, but in a more uncommon way. They understood that the
geek population is very excited about wearable. The teasing around Google Glass is really becoming absurd and
the fans of the company are just over exploited. How could it be possibly imaginable to simply concede in the fact
of buying a $1500 device which is simply useless at this moment? Yes the Google Glass are useless for now. And
we will try to know a bit more about this product and the opinion of the mainstream market with an actual owner
of Google Glass.

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 Interview with Loïc Jacques, mobile developer at Volvo IT
Hi Loïc, how did you became interested by wearables?

Mainly because I’m born in the smartphone generation! I’m a smartphone

addict, especially Android, and this is why I got interest for connected objects
and wearables, because a lot of them are running under Android, because this
OS lends itself well to this task.

I see you are actually wearing Google Glass (laughs)! What were your first feeling
when you tried the product?

The very first impression I’ve had was “Wow!” even if it is a completely subjective opinion, I find this is a beautiful
object. To talk about the software, I was very surprised, I didn’t expect that. There is a difference between the
Google trailers, the concept videos and the reality. Despite of that I was like a child at Christmas when I tried them,
imagining all of the possibilities and opportunities we could have with Glass.

And today? What’s your feelings about Google Glass after two weeks of testing?

I don’t think we could stand back enough now, but my mind has slightly changed since. I was one of them who
thought it was a useless gadget, but now I see a lot of new opportunities for the future. I’m very enthusiast
concerning the wearables future. The smartphones opened the way and now we’ve got a highway of possibilities
right in front of us. Not only for the mainstream market, but for all the professionals. I think there is a bunch of
possibilities for example in the health domain, or for a fixer who could have a notice in front of his eyes, a deliverer,
and workers in a warehouse etc… But what I’m worrying about is this is belonging to big private corporations. We
should have a big centralized platform dedicated to wearables, avoiding those proprietary OS.

Do you think wearables could be a new object of technologic change, like the iPhone in 2007?

I think yes, but the market will need a lever product as the iPhone could have been before with the mainstream
market, independently from the users’ needs. Now, I don’t think wearables could turn on a revolution because
these products are reserved to a geek niche market. UI are not matures yet for example. But I look forward to see
products like Android Wear with Moto 360 smartwatch. If Android Wear could be open and as wide as Android is
on smartphones, this could really be a real lever for wearables. We could even imagine fashion and sportswear
companies join high tech companies like Nike and Apple.

As a regular consumer, what are for you the prospects of success for wearable computing?

This is early to talk about a success on the market, but I think this will be the case in 5 or 10 years. As I said these
products are not mature yet. The best is yet to come!

24
 The geek aspect is often evocated, do you think it requires a geek side to own wearables?

Until the beginning of 2014, I’d say yes. But now we see change, for example with Samsung and their Galaxy Fit,
not the Gear, because it was reserved to a specific audience, the UI and the ergonomics was not that great. Sony
released also a mainstream product with their SmartWatch 2. But since the release of the Galaxy Fit, we can
observe a keen interest from the people for wearables, where it was reserved to a geek and niche audience. Now
you can watch a TV commercial for a smartband targeting the mainstream market at a peak viewing time! I think
products are still inadequate, this is why it could change with a lever product.

Which sectors would you most see take advantage from wearables?

There is a lot of sectors which could take advantage from wearables, all of them I think! But to focus on some, we
talked about medicine, warehousing… But the fact is you could have a watch that gives you more than the time,
for example a deliverer who could have detailed information on his deliveries, or a backpacker who could have
detailed information on his path. We can even adapt products to driving for truckers or policemen. Yes because I
tried to drive with Google Glass, and this was difficult, even if some people can do it, I don’t think it is adapted for
a regular usage. I think another great opportunity for wearables is the home automation, but unfortunately, each
company is going on his own way independently from the market trend.

Outside of the main problems of the wearable technology (price, use adapt…), do you think the negative impact of
wearables, like propagating waves, data collection or techno-addiction could put the brakes on its commercial and
societal evolution?

I think the propagating waves are a false problem today because you can always reassure people. Today people
don’t care about this problem. The data collection could be a brake, but once again, the general public don’t really
care about, you just have to look at what people share on the Internet. Even if there is a realization about privacy,
people don’t really care about that. The first brake I would see is, like you said the price, because people won’t
pay a high price for a gadget, even more, a consuming product. In addition, the wearables has to be fashionable
objects.

Well thank you Loïc for your participation!

Thank you too!

What we could conclude of this talking with Loïc is that wearables like Google Glass are a huge product, full
of possibilities, but still unused. Plus, some problems could have been revealed by using and knowing a bit more
about one of the most expected wearable computing product. The high price is definitely putting the brakes and
the products would have to be rethought to evolve. That is true, but there is also some other axes which deserves
more attention from the companies which are developing and conceiving wearables solutions.

25
 3.2 Create and develop concepts of use
Another point which could follow the evolution of wearable computing sector is, in my own opinion, the
creation of concepts of use or the development of existing ones. Let me explain this briefly: A concept of use is
basically a way to use a product in order to do a task. For example, the fitness companion is an existing concept
of use for wearables. These concepts of use could be articulated around new applications on smartphones and/or
tablets, by new wearables or enhancements of existing wearables. Let’s see how we could find new concepts of
use through those tracks.

3.2.1 Applications
In my humble opinion, new applications should be the first lever for raising new concepts of use for
wearables. Additionally, existing applications for wearables should be rethought because none of them has widely
convinced the general public.

With the existing applications, we can denote several problems, for example the Fitbit app. The main
problems which are noticed are the data collected, which is given with no indication on what to do with, and the
input for food, sleep and sports activity which is very tedious (Pierce, 2013). What if the inputs could be done from
camera? Maybe QR code, bar codes or face recognition could be the key to an ergonomic Fitbit app.

Over this, users are dubitative in front of the data they have on their smartphone screen. The lack of
interpretation of the data is slowing down the possibilities of evolution of wearables, and this could be solved by
several ways. First of all, Nike is one of the companies which is getting a track of what could be an entertaining
and commercially viable way to give data to wearable computing bearers. They try to make sports accomplishment
a game between users and with themselves. For example, Nike+ Running app gives users cheers and try to make
goals to attain to the attention of the user. This is a good way to get entertainment with wearable devices, and I
think a lot more of companies should take this philosophy on approach. If making sport is funnier and if the miles
ran are more than just a number, this is then a valuing factor for a wearable device axed around sports and fitness.

Nike+ Running app for iOS

Source: http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/nike.png

26
 But if just creating new features for applications won’t be sufficient, this is simply the creation of new
applications that could be, in my opinion a true evolution factor for the wearables. Pebble proved it by seeing a
growing infatuation from the general public as the number of available applications were available on the Pebble
app store. More and more people can find a usage with a smartwatch like the Pebble even if the device is not very
powerful. And the reason is simple, Pebble have got an open SDK with facilities for developers, which allows a
significant number of applications births. I think this is the problem of a lot of wearables: builders have to open
their development platforms and ease the access to developers if they want their product to have a chance of
success.

Developers page on Pebble website

Source: https://developer.getpebble.com/

I think today, wearables are just underused, or misused at last. A lot of builders just see a new hype gadget
where there is only an OLED screen which can display tweets and emails received on a smartphone, but they are
totally wrong. Pebble proved us that wearables can be full of possibilities if developers are allowed to put their
imagination in the game. Same story for existing applications, some of them need to be rethought in a more
pertinent way. For the sports applications, the most important is to have pertinent data, displayed in a way to
entertain the user, or at least to give him the motivation to be more active. For other applications in general, the
camera on the smartwatches or even to smartphones connected to wearables without cameras are still pretty
much underused. There is a huge path to follow with cameras for wearables concept of use, I’m persuaded of this.

But now let’s discover my second point of evolution for the wearable computing industry, which is much
more turned on the hardware side.

27
 3.2.2 New wearables
The other great opportunity to take with evolution of wearables is to create new wearable devices. So
simple it could be, every people doesn’t share this idea, for example, Sen.se CEO Rafi Haladjian (co-creator of the
wireless-connected rabbit Nabaztag) trust in a ubiquitous computing (Michardière, 2014). Basically his idea is
there is no need to create new objects but to simply put sensors on existing not connected objects to create new
uses. I really believe myself too in such a world, but for wearable computing, this is a bit different.

A this time, miniaturization is really advanced, but companies like Intel or ARM, which drives the hardware
industry in IT, try now to reduce consumption of their chips, and not to get smaller and smaller components. This
is why we can’t expect for now micro-sensors on our beautiful Rolex watches or Gucci glasses. I think this concept
of ubiquitous computing is applicable for house automation, but not at all for wearables. One of the crucial points
of wearables is that they have to be beautiful, well designed, fashionable, and there is no acceptable way for
Average Joe to put a sensor, bigger than a coin on his watch, only to get connected to his smartphone.

In order to make evolve this wearable market, I think wearable computing builders should get closer from
fashion industry to design attractive products. If a product like a smartband would have been designed by a
company like Desigual or Guess and applications developed by a community of C++ developers, I think there could
be a good future for this type of product. For now, wearables companies are just losing the fashionable aspect
from sight. Technology is not just a geek deal, or if it is, then everybody is a geek. And in everybody, there is the
general public, the mainstream market, who will never buy a poorly designed wearable product, even well
marketed.

With this, there is obviously new concept of use to find with new form factors, or new type of sensors on
wearables. Did any society tried to make a wearable camera as a necklace? Just saying… But there must be some
new use that could be found by new sensors on existing wearables too. A team of scientists developed a patch
that could help patients receive meds the minute they need them (Duhaime-Ross, 2014). This idea is coherent
because the so-called smartpatch is described as being "good-looking". Such an idea could be exploited to have
fashionable smartpatches connected to our smartphones. Another idea of object creation is coming from a startup
called Nod which is developing a connected ring to control computers, mobile devices and even home automation
(Nod). This is a good concept in my own opinion, but it still lacks of style.

The Nod ring

Source: Mashable - http://mashable.com/2014/04/29/nod-bluetooth-ring/

This concepts of use are getting us right to the next point to make wearables evolve.

28
 3.2.3 New inter-devices communications
We talked earlier about ubiquitous computing, this is the point which is interesting us now. Today the most
of connected objects (wearables included) are connected to our smartphones. This is a good point to use our
wearables daily and everywhere, but this is drastically limiting the potential of our devices.

I am totally sure there is new interactions that could be found between our wearables and other connected
devices, and not only tablets or PCs! I mean, the Internet of things is growing exponentially (Adler, 2014) and all
of these connected devices could be interactions for our wearables, particularly with home automation. And this
track is being confirmed with the creation of a new Wi-Fi standard called 802.11ah (CNXSoft, 2014). This standard
basically widen the range of the classic Wi-Fi for PCs and tablets and is lower power consuming.

An example of application with Wi-Fi 802.11ah

Source : http://images.anandtech.com/doci/6354/Marvell.Smart.Home.Platform.png

With this, we can easily imagine concepts of use where wearables are interacting with home connected
objects. This is just thrilling to think we could just control every electronic devices of our house with a smartband
or a smartwatch. By the way, this Wi-Fi 802.11ah is being set up to fight against the proprietary technologies like
Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave etc… which are slowing down the integration of connected things in our daily lives.

Now I have detailed every point that I think are crucial for concepts of use creation, I will then evocate the
last part of my idea of wearables evolution.

29
 3.3 Restart communication campaigns on concrete bases
I evocated firstly on how wearables sector could evolve that the marketing campaigns were overexploited. I
still think it. But when the concepts of use could be coherent with what the general public could buy, the first need
would be to restart marketing campaigns and communication around the products. Though that wouldn’t be an
easy challenge. Let me explain.

Today, a huge part of the appeal of a high-tech product is founded on its communication from the selling
company. I will take an example of good communication and another opposite example: Apple and Microsoft
products.

Apple has got good products, well finished, but they are expensive and not corresponding to every needs.
Anyway, it responds to a need on the market and this is around this people that Apple have always axed its
communication. They target people with a taste of beautiful things, people who want a simple product where you
don’t have to deal with after-sales service. And to do this, they try to have a community of fans of the brand, by
cultivating the secret of their coming products and having original TV advertisements (even if this is not really the
case anymore now). This strategy works perfectly because they can sell $1000 PCs to Average Joe. For Microsoft
it’s the exact opposite, they always tried to target a large amount of people, without making anything secret or
trying to buzz around their products. Now the time has passed and they have to communicate more efficiently
since the mobility era has come. But it is clear Microsoft are pretty bad in this exercise. They sell functional
products with ingenious and interesting new features, but their communication is simply disastrous. This is
partially explaining the flop of Windows 8 and Surface. People didn’t get the point, it was less amazing than Mac
OS.

But let’s be back to our wearables. What we could learn from past, is that a best-seller product is inseparable
from a good communication and a sustained marketing campaign. This is why the aim of wearables
communication is to present simple products, where people could recognize themselves using the products. And
this by showing a variety of TV advertisements with all the different ways to use a wearable product. But this
advice is directed to big IT companies for sure.

All other companies should count on the buzz factor. Spread the word by social networks and crowd funding
communities is a trusted value. But the most important for startups, is to have a simple product, or at least a very
clear way to explain their product through a trailer video or a schema. The product has to be understandable in
its entire shape, else this product won’t be bought at all.

I have now explained, in my own opinion, how the wearable computing sector could evolve from where we
are. I showed wearable computing industry should:

 Stop trusting in the sole power of marketing

 Create concepts of use through applications, new wearables and enhanced connectivity
 Restart from scratch the communication campaigns

If such specifications are followed and their efficiency verified, the potential massive success of wearables
would have to be detailed.

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 4 What will be the impact of a potential success of
wearable computing?
I think this is important to anticipate the impact of wearables in the world, because it is a door to what to do
next with wearables. Wearables are like smartphones, the evolution of the market will drive an evolution of the
general public’s expectations. This is why we can’t talk about how succeed today in wearable computing, without
thinking to the consequences.

Every success has its impact. Mobility has taught us hyper connectivity and nomophobia (the fear of being
out of mobile phone contact). Here we could easily imagine that wearables success could enhance this hyper
connectivity but this is not the only thing to have in scope.

4.1 New lifestyles

In an over connected world, the emergence of a new technology is always changing our lifestyles, in a
certain way. Like smartphones before, I’m hundred percent sure there will be a lot of changes if wearables are
successful to the general public. I think the major changes will be around the questioning of debates we already
had with previous technologic revolutions, the new health and personal assistance axis and the privacy gate.

4.1.1 Questioning existing debates

A lot of debates has been triggered when Internet then mobility came out in our daily lives, mostly the
propagating waves and the withdrawal that technology can bring. With more and more smartphones and then, a
lot more of new wearable devices, this debates can just be intensified.

For the first subject, like we saw previously with the interview of Loïc Jacques, I think, like him, that it
won’t be a problem at all for the selling of wearables and that telecommunications and high tech companies will
do everything to assure people there is no danger with waves and risks like brain cancers. In my humble opinion I
think those problems could be true years ago, but in a Darwinian point of view, mankind is evolving, and then,
protecting itself against waves with time by evolution of the species.

But withdrawal will be a true debate, which I think won’t bother anyone at all because everybody will
accept his condition of lonely person surrounded by computers and technology. Today we have so many people
who are taking themselves pictures of their faces, sharing it on social networks just for their self-esteem. The next
step is excellently described in the movie “Her” (Jonze, 2014) where we can see a lonely Theodore Twombly, who
doesn’t communicate with his friends anymore but with emails, he only talk and then have a relationship with his
OS, and so does everybody around him (except the falling in love with an OS). This movie has a perfect approach
of our future in my own opinion. The perfection and enhancement of the technology will lead us to a selfish society
where we will use more and more our devices to less and less communicate with our real contacts.

Out of this, let’s continue with the health problem, but in a better way.

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 4.1.2 Health
The health is a big topic of the wearable computing, as we could have seen before. This type of device is
nowadays seen, on the health side, as a personal coach to be fitter and happier. This is actually an excellent track
to know what wearables could do for us in the next few years. More than just a help to lose weight before summer
time, wearables could be much more, and if wearables are successful to the general public, this will happen. The
two major axis of health development with wearables are the personal assistance and the surgery.

The high tech companies shown a lot of interest for the health sector (Champeau, 2014). They already
anticipated the future with wearables and so should startup companies do, because there is a huge market to
take. In the next few years, hospitals will have to modernize their infrastructures and their surgery methods, then
they will turn to high tech companies and will try to have new devices and software to help surgeons during
operations, like this surgeon who operated a patient with Google Glass (Borchers, 2014), though it seems to be a
marketing plan from Google, it is triggering a path for wearables. I think IT giants will be there when hospitals will
call for wearable solutions, but the startups have to take their chance by offering specific solutions right now, for
the future.

In the other hand, health sector can really be helped with personal assistance and preventive medicine.
Some prototypes has been shown since a few times like the Google Lens (Otis, et al., 2014) or rumours about the
iWatch (Farr, et al., 2014), and they all converge to a sole idea: help people detect illnesses and diseases and help
them to prevent these to come. This is a massive change to come to our daily lives. Personally, I think there is no
need of this because this could only help the growth of humans on Earth, but we will come to this sooner that we
think. Today, people care about their health more than yesterday and the need to prevent diseases and help to
cure illness by monitoring their body information is emerging.

The Google Lens prototype

Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mi6GFZvtLgM/UthX4TvBpjI/AAAAAAAAN_A/KYGNt93Ri5E/s1600/Hand+holding+-+zoomed+in.jpg

The health sector is one of the crucial sector for tomorrow’s wearable computing. To support this idea,
I’ve interviewed two person, major actors of the wearable computing nowadays, and asked their opinion about
the present of wearable technology and what future did they see for wearables.

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 Stéphane Marceau, OMsignal co-founder and CEO

How did you get the idea of OMsignal?

It comes from a few personal experiences: Frustration with healthcare’s opacity

(the “black box”), first-hand experience with breathing as a stress management
practice and simply serendipity.

How would you define the actual wearable landscape?

Embryonic. Right now it is all about activity but wearables will be about bio-signal.

And in the future, who will be in your opinion the majors actors or actions which will develop this market?

The main players will be:

 Apparel brands (Nike, Lululemon…)

 Digital platforms (Google, Facebook…)
 Electronic brands (Apple, Samsung…)

Wearable is not just functional. It is a personal statement...

In which way wearable computing will impact the public health (subcutaneous implants, health monitoring…)?

It will enable the crowdsourcing of health and wellness. The biological data in the cloud will enable the prediction
and prevention of diseases and help people in changing their behaviours.

Over time, you will assume your clothes are connected. You won’t even ask. And it will bio-stream your data in the
cloud and help you live a fitter, healthier, happier life.

Thank you Stéphane for your participation!

You’re welcome.

The vision of Stéphane is for me perfectly clear, biological data stored in the cloud will help prevent
diseases, helping people in their daily lives, and this will be assumed in time to the general public.

Let’s see what is thinking another expert in connected things and wearables.

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 Alex Danvy, Technical Evangelist at Microsoft

How did you came to get interest for connected things?

As far as I remember, I always loved various geek things. I remember the

release of the Nabaztag: awesome! A rabbit which you can interact with your
PC and is autonomous once programmed! Near than ten years after, I saw the
wave of connected objects, the general public has been affected by this
phenomenon. I’m a bit surprised it didn’t happened earlier, but today all the
elements are reunited in order to operate.

Talking about the connected things situation, how would you describe briefly the current connected things
landscape, their place in the high tech market and to the general public?

We are in an appropriation phase, a discovering phase, founders try all the easy ideas, but more ambitious projects
are on their way. The general public is going slowly without much engagement (ex: quantified self) and will adjust
the market. A part of the actual offer won’t exist anymore in 5 years, numerous other products will appear, and
the market will rationalize, segment itself and die to be then assimilated by historical markets, like it has been for
electricity for example.

And in the future, who will be in your opinion the majors actors or actions which will develop this market?

There will be some surprises, new actors, but existing actors will come back strengthened. For example: for the
thermostats there is no valuable reason Legrand and Schneider fall behind.

If we take a look to the wearables domain, out from being connected things, which fundamental differences do you
see between wearables and connected objects? What concrete economic goals do you see in the wearables
emergence relative to connected things?

Denomination are still blurry and without many interest, an object could be wearable in a moment of the day,
without being connected, and be connected without being worn at night for example, and when I say “connected”,
it’s not necessarily connected to the Internet. In which category do I place this type of product?

Then outside from blurry denominations, in which way wearable computing will impact the public health?

Issues are huge, particularly in the health domain. Whether with a light approach (Fitbit), preventive approach
(Withings) or for treatment (Medissimo), all the aspects are affected. I’m currently working at Redmond on very
interesting scenarios with hospitals. Every actors realize huge issues of connected things, like an iceberg, the
general public is only seeing the emerging part, more or less useful gadgets. But invisible connected objects are
everywhere, in our cities, buildings, transports… Everywhere. Health and energy are two huge vectors, the
economic and societal issues are big.

Well thank you very much Alex!

Thanks, I hope to read your work soon!

34
 From what Alex said, it’s clear that wearables are becoming to be a huge thing in the high tech world, but
people only see the gadget aspect for now. Health is the key to success with wearables. And to link up with this
section, it’s fair to ask where our biological data could be stored. In the cloud, as said Stéphane? Yes, for sure, and
this is what is raising one major point of wearable computing’s success impact.

4.1.3 Privacy
The privacy is an existing debate constantly taking importance. The Prism gate didn’t explode to arrange
this. Since the explosion of the dot-com bubble, privacy is a real matter for everyone. But the social networks
opened a gate that has made the debate stronger again. To cite Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO: “People have
really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more
people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time... But we viewed that as a really important
thing, to always keep a beginner's mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we
decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.” (O'Brien, 2010).

Privacy is a matter concerning everyone, and tomorrow, companies who hold our personal information like
email address, credit card numbers, age, hobbies and a lot more, will have our medical information with wearables.
In my own opinion, this is really frightening, continuing on this rhythm, there will be no limit. But have we got any
other option? I don’t think so, this is why we will have to deal with this.

But in a certain way, we will have to be very vigilant with these data, and so should companies which will
hold those data too. A biological information leak could be a stab in the back for a company which is selling
wearables devices or services, in my humble opinion.

I’ve shown that lifestyles would change with wearables potential success, in many ways from slight to major
changing in our daily lives. I will now explore the last point of change if we consider a success of wearable
computing to the general public.

35
 4.2 Growing techno-dependence
The techno-dependence is a recent phenomenon, materialized by some pathologies like nomophobia. This
is basically closing someone into a bubble of technology with no possible way to live without technological
solutions like smartphones, PCs, electronic devices in our daily lives like bank accounts or cloud computing.

Wearable computing can only cause a growth of this phenomenon. That’s a fact. I think that we are
withdrawing more and more as technology is improves itself and gain ground in and out our houses. Over this, we
are still buying and consuming more and more of technological products, sometimes in a useless way. This impact
will not have any economic issue, but to growth the electronic product sales, and despite of that, I think it’s
important to enclose this aspect.

I’ve now described every impact of wearable computing’s potential success. This consists in:

 Renewal of existing debates around propagating waves and withdrawal

 Health matters
 The importance of the safety of our medical and personal information in the cloud
 Constant growth of techno-dependence

It is now time to conclude about wearable computing integration.

36
 5 Conclusion
Through this paper, I’ve highlighted a few points that can clearly prove wearables are going to impose
themselves to the general public. But some companies will take more advantage than other ones for sure.

In my own opinion, the key for general public success is to develop a strategy axed around crucial matters of
wearables:

 Personal health
 Fitness
 House automation

Over this, the aim is to create a product or a range of products which would be easy to understand, in a
reasonable range of price, without blurry communication.

Companies like Nike or Pebble are doing things well, I think these two are going to be one of the most
successful societies in the wearables sector, waiting for Apple and Google’s move. Even Facebook, which recently
bought Moves (Moves, 2014) have a huge card to play with their big data experience.

To conclude, I think wearable computing is a fantastic dream of science fiction which is realizing, even if there
is a lot of cyberpunk aspect in the future of this dream.

Cyberpunk world with wearables?

Source: http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/7/79468/1728811-cyberpunk_2_1680x1050.jpg

37
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