By Jade Kwan.
On Tuesday July 24th I attended the Wearable Technologies Conference at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It was inspiring: Fairytale Fashion, openMaterials, Eyejusters, Touchtouchy, The National Council of Science & Technology (NCST) funded project by Mutua in Kenya and, of course, a mention of Google Glass.
My top 5 list of Wearable Tech startups (Google doesn’t count) got me a winning ticket to the amazing Wearable Technologies Conference held at Fort Mason. (Thank you SFFT!). Editor’s note: So glad you enjoyed it!
Prior to the conference mostly to get into “Wearable Tech Thinking Mode,” I had the chance to learn more about electricfoxy and sneak a preview of Jennifer Darmour’s work (MOVE) with the Artefact Group in Seattle working as a leading wearable technologist and designer, an event hosted by SF Fashion+Tech & TechShop.
Jennifer Darmour and Ben Collette of Artefact (Photos Courtesy of Wearable Technologies)
So how was the conference? It was super inspiring and happily I had my notebook handy. For those that didn’t make it, here are a few companies that really jumped out at me:
Who would have thought that wearable technology was a “been there, don’t that” idea for a company in Finland? Reima clothing released their Cyberia prototype survival suit for snow-mobilers more than 10 years ago!
And with the recent buzz of the “Quantified Self”, the future is much more than your Fitbit. It’s your Pebble on your wrist, your Zeo by your bedside, and your Lumobackaround your lower back. For the swimmers, there is an underwater mp3 system and for the extreme bikers, there is an OnStar-like system (placed on your helmet).
Then, there’s the unseen. The “intelligent implants”, responsive environments, and batteries thin as paper so sturdy you could hole-punch them!
Overall, I learned a lot, met amazing people in the field (a principal engineer from Intel sat on my left, while a venture capitalist doodled on my right), and with food & drink from Bi-Rite? Can’t top that.
Jade (can link to about.me/jadekwan) is a UCSD graduate in Cognitive Science, Human Computer Interaction and after working in different multidisciplinary spaces has found a great interest in wearable technology here in the Bay Area. She is most interested in emerging technologies, ubiquitous computing, and sustainability in the world of wearable tech. You can follow her on Twitter at @oneheartmind.
Jade won the SF Fashion+Tech ticket giveaway to the WT Conference July 24th at Fort Mason in San Francisco. SFFT would like to give a special thank you to the WT Conference for donating the ticket.
