Kate Bauer cites examples of how a guy hooked up his car alarm to his mobile phone so he’d know when it went off. A UK pub had problems with graffitti in their washrooms, so they required patrons to send a text message to open the cubicle doors. This way they’d keep track of who used it.
Nike Plus was described as another good example. I use Nike Plus myself. May I say that any system that gets a geek like me to exercise, is effective! 🙂
There’s GlucoWatch (R) which monitors the body, and the Smart Bra which detects temperature changes. (Hmm, how warm would you like your milk?) Seriously speaking, it allows the user to go about her normal life while it keeps track of temperatures for her.
Another example is [Ovu](http://www.theovu.com/), a wearable fertility tracker which Bauer designed.
Tip: Do not reinvent something – fix what’s broken! For instance, the original system of measuring fertility/temperatur was complicated. She shows us a complex-looking graph. Ovu’s solution is to take the different components and connect them via Bluetooth, syncing the information using a database.
The data is still editable, in the event that the user has a fever and her temperature would spike up. Bauer’s purpose is to give users more control over their data to help them understand their health better.
Question: 10 years from now, what technology will people doing?
Right now, wearable technology is available so there’s lots of potential for the future. There may be more developments where users have more access to their personal data. Having alerts, e.g. for diabetes blood sugar levels, could empower them to do more with this knowledge.
Some people may even use devices for purposes other than what they were designed for. Bauer asks how many of us use our cellphones as flashlights, and a number of us raise our hands.
Bauer says simply searching online can point us to more information on wearable technology.
I like this panel! Definitely one of the better ones for me. It is similar to Adam Greenfield’s Ubiquitous Computing / Everyware conversation which I attended at SXSW 2006 (which IMHO is still the best panel ever to me). The examples in this current panel were a bit limited in number, but she went in depth.