When I think about the world that we are now living, I have to (I literally must) think about open source technologies, open source frameworks and products such good that became excellent platforms to build your own disrupting software, or board. We are living the same situation with wearable devices, in such a way that I am inclined to think about all of this stuff and easily identify a cyclic, predictable behavior. Once a technology or a concept starts to become part of the traditional software (and hardware) stack, suddenly clones begin to appear; and there’s a strong chance that the first to appear (as the first clone, or even the original product) is open source. Why? Well, because the well-tested open workflow allows hardware and software producers to rapidly iterate around a platform that has been already built from the ground up, and this enables the team to focus strongly on the product.
Wearable technologies are exactly like that: after we saw pretty nice things like Jawbone, Fitbit and Autographer that literally conquered the international market, many players entered this segment producing their own brand-related wearable stuff. Listening to rumors about Apple’s next step into the technology landscape, they will make an iWatch, as Samsung did with their Galaxy Gear. Google itself answered this kind of new trend with a particular and wonderful release of an Android Wear sneak preview. Once (some years ago), a friend of mine was driving while we were together on a trip; he said “you know what? Soon pluggable devices for our smartphone will be so popular, and we’ll have to carry a toolbox for all our phone-related stuff”. Luckily, the industry insisted less on pluggable devices, while it developed a strong focus on our body and sensors measuring our life. In a way, our own body became our toolbox.
We were talking about new technologies and open ecosystems growing up rapidly around new needs and new product types: let’s see some examples regarding hardware and software platforms to build awesome products – why not – with a considerably little effort.
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!
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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!