Why wearable tech needs fashion to survive and to thrive @ Wired UK:
In the future, our clothes will replace our devices. They will light up with social media alerts, producing holograms to read those updates wherever we choose. We’ll never need to remember umbrellas or coats again either — sensors will read humidity levels and tell the conductive fibres of our customised 3D-printed clothes to release waterproof chemicals, while a shift in their nanoparticles will pull fibres together for insulation. Sensors will send our biometric data to doctors, while the antibacterial fabrics protect us from viruses.
These are most definitely designs of the future but that future is not so distant: all these technologies exist in some form today. Products like Google Glass and Apple’s rumoured iWatch represent the early stages of the wearable technology market, a market that Credit Suisse has predicted will have “a significant and pervasive impact on the economy”. The “mega trend” stands to be worth up to $50 billion over the next three to five years, fuelled by the wellness and fitness sector and advances in battery and sensor technology. However, unless these technologies converge with the fashion industry, there’s a danger they will fail to become popularised and remain unaffordable.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!