Android Wear

J

juicytuna

Newcomer
Surprised there hasn't been any discussion on here about Android Wear, Googles new OS for wearables:

http://www.android.com/wear/

What are your thoughts on it? Do you think it has the potential to really take off, like android for smartphones?

I personally love the direction they've gone with it, and the Moto 360 looks drop dead gorgeous. It's a day one purchase for me as long as there are no glaring flaws (like less than all-day battery life).

Also of note is that it looks like ImgTec will be bringing MIPS to the platform and it seems they've already got some design wins lined up:

http://blog.imgtec.com/mips-processors/imagination-google-partner-android-wear-wearable-revolution

Being an early mover in a nascent sector could pay dividends for ImgTec and MIPS.
 
I think it's great. Wearable computing will probably be really big going forward, considering what has happened with cellphones. Hopefully, android getting official wearable support will kick apple's rear into gear too, there's been talk for a long time now with nothing to show so far in the way of an "iwatch" or whatever it might be called.
 
I think it's great from a technology demo point of view. I'm not convinced at all it offers much more over a phone to be a game changer. There's a reason nobody uses watches anymore: it's redundant when you take out your phone every 5 minutes.

Now if it had a heart rate sensor. That'd be a different story entirely.
 
Mize said:
What does that normally double measured heart rate?
Click to expand...

If you're asking me, LBBB (=left bundle branch blockage) is an electrical anomaly of the heart and misses a beat every once in a while.
 
I have a LBBB and the missing beat shows up very infrequently and almost overwhelmingly when I'm overly tired or stressed. If it misses all the time then something's very wrong.
 
I tough LBBB meant the two sides of the heart beat with a significant delay between them...?
 
One innocent joke and instead that the hw gets discussed it sounds rather like a cardiologists convention here :LOL: (sorry I can't really be bothered by wearables to be honest... :runaway: )
 
Yeah, it manifests as contraction with delay between the sides. I don't have LBBB with normal sinus rhythm, but LBBB (I guess LBBB-like more accurately) arrhythmia PVCs when stressed.
 
silent_guy said:
There's a reason nobody uses watches anymore: it's redundant when you take out your phone every 5 minutes.
Click to expand...
Not everyone are obsessive-compulsive about fiddling with their phone constantly, also, some of us live in countries with cold climates during long periods of the year and it's not always practical to use the phone as a watch when temps are sub-freezing combined with strong winds for example.
 
Grall said:
Not everyone are obsessive-compulsive about fiddling with their phone constantly, also, some of us live in countries with cold climates during long periods of the year and it's not always practical to use the phone as a watch when temps are sub-freezing combined with strong winds for example.
Click to expand...

In such a case you don't need a smart watch but rather a smart glove.
 
Pulling up my jacket sleeve to look at a watch on my arm is quick and effortless vs taking off my glove, opening up my jacket, pulling my phone from its pocket and pushing a button on it to light up the display to read the time, then reversing said procedure again.
 
Smart contacts, perhaps?

All in good time, of course. Probably a decade or two away at least. Google Glass Mk. XXI!
 
Nah, in two decades from now I want a hive of nanobots in my body and brain that allow for much more advanced kinds of AR and VR. It could be something like described in this Sci-Fi book: http://rameznaam.com/nexus/

But now I'm getting somewhat off topic.....
 
So if a wearable device is at least $200 say and you must have a smart phone or some other mobile device that costs several hundred as well, that limits the market.

If the wearable is complementary, why bother? Most people have their phones in their hands (or on the table when they dine) most of the time, looking at it every few minutes.

So people assume wearable must offer something like some kind of biomonitoring. Well a lot of people wear Fitbits and other sensors but are they really looking at the data they're accumulating?
 
I need new underwear.

What is next, underwear computing? Sensors in my socks. Masturbation statistics, uploaded to Google+.
Specific medical monitoring can be good but apart from that the wearable are useful for house arrest or secret spies who chase maniac villains.
 
I'm getting refractory to technology and injurious, that's not necessarily a good thing.
I have an extreme negative reaction to hype it seems (esp. depending on mood), you made me notice that works as a kind of inverted psychology which is what I was denouncing in a discussion (somewhere else) where there was an intentional Windows XP hold out.

Some people have a strong reaction about a certain "Glass" system with camera and small HUD, a really really strong reaction that may include a physical threat and a derogatory term for its users. A watch or body sensors are innocuous in comparison but some stuff may be creepy.

Some of the best uses of wearables are probably not thought of yet, maybe there's some nice things to do in workplaces or even handlebar computing, and I wish good taste is applied in all manners of design like non intrusive alerts and graphics that don't catch the eyes of bystanders too much.
 
I should've followed that post with a smile, I wasn't really offended :)

Don't worry, I'm not doing panties that will call the person's government when they detect abnormal sex activity. It's just a pair of shorts with EMG readings for sports and health monitoring.
 
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