Modern wrist-wear
SmartWatches tell time, work as a GPS, music player, health monitor, cell
phones, and cameras (Wearable Technology, 2016). It has the potential to
replace smart phones and some other similar devices. The social benefits of
wearable technology can be especially seen in medicine. It would be highly
valuable in monitoring a person’s health with wrist-ware watch and send an
alert directly to his/her doctor, when
necessary. In education, wearable technology can be used if it allows to type,
for example, a solution to a problem and sent it directly to the teacher.
The wear technologies
described above are still emerging. Perhaps they will be widely used during the
next couple of years. However, we never know when another disruptive technology
will replace it.
References
Mistry,
P. (2010). SixthSense: Integrating Information with Real World. Retrieved from http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/
Quora.
(2015). Sixth Sense (technology):What Happened to the SixthSense Project? Retrieved
from https://www.quora.com/Sixth-Sense-technology/What-happened-to-the-SixthSense-project
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014). David Thornburg:
Disruptive technologies [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Wearable
Technology. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.wearable-technologies.com/2016/01/touchone-interview/
Hi Lena:
ReplyDeleteQuite an interesting post. At the end of 2014, I believe it was, I read an article in NMC Horizon Report 2015 on emerging technology predicted to be adopted in the next two to three years and beyond. Wearable Technology was one of them, which featured the smartwatch. The article predicted that wearable technology will "see significant growth in the coming years, spurring experimentation in higher education because the demand for wearables is seen to be coming in large part from college-aged students; a recent poll showed that 21% of US adult students use wearables. Further, another report by GlobalWebIndex revealed that 71% of students ages 16 to 24 want to use wearable technology such as smart watches, wristbands, etc..." http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/. This clearly demonstrates that consumer demand for leisure use as well as professional use, as you described of sixth-sense in medicine, is accelerating, perhaps more rapidly than expected. I am among the interested group of older consumers who would like to own a wearable; however, I am waiting for this evolutionary technology to become more cost efficient.
Thank you, Linette. Yes,diffusion of Six Sense technologies at all levels may accelerate more rapidly than expected. It is interesting, that some of my students began using Apple Watch for cheating immediately after the product appeared on the market. And I agree that many wearable technologies are expensive.
ReplyDeleteLena