Britelite at Wearable Wednesday

During recent discovery sessions with Westfield Labs the subject of wearables was a constant topic of interest. So, to dive deeper into the world of wearable tech, we participated in Wearable Wednesday at NASA research Park on August 13, hosted by Wearable World & Singularity University.

The event provided an innovation platform to foster the blend of technology, art and humanity. It also connected innovative, wearable tech entrepreneurs to the wider global community.

The event gave us insight into the evolution of seamless integration of modern technology into our daily lives. We discovered that the designers and entrepreneurs of today have a remarkable understanding of human psychology and physiology to deliver marketable, wearable technology. However, in order for wearables to have a significant impact, this development in technology needs to be widely accepted by society.

When Sony first introduced the portable music player (The Walkman) in 1979, there was a large concern that people wouldn't want to be seen in public wearing headphones. That fear was eventually overcome, and it is now customary to see people walking around with ear buds.

Now there are products like Google Glass, which, while they sounded like a great idea on paper, have been met with an outright backlash and stigmatization from society, mostly due to privacy concerns.

The issues of integrating these new technologies into our society were discussed by the highly knowledgeable speakers at the event. The speakers included Daniel Kraft, the Faculty Chair for Medicine and Neuroscience at Singularity University; Redg Snodgrass, the CEO of Wearable World; Dennis Wingo, the founder and president of SkyCorp - a spacecraft design firm specializing in vehicles for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station; and Noor Siddiqqui, the co-founder of Remedy a healthcare system that sees technology as a force multiplier to improve the human condition.

The fast pace of technology getting both smaller and cheaper gives society the ability to expand their knowledge, perception and manipulation of the world around us exponentially. We are moving towards providing rich and meaningful connections among people, process, data and objects. As technology continues to become smaller, cheaper, more powerful – and as the number of connected devices in the world grows to 50 billion by the end of the decade – the true possibilities may go far beyond what we imagine today. Whether these technologies actually become integrated into the human experience with open arms, is something we will have to wait and see.