Introduction.
The
modified Delphi method was used by the New Media Consortium (NMC) to prepare
the 2013 Horizon Report. As stated on
the NMC homepage, the Horizon Report,
Charts the
landscape of emerging technologies for teaching, learning, research, creative
inquiry, and information management. Launched
in 2002, it epitomizes the mission of the NMC to help educators and thought
leaders across the world build upon the innovation happening at their
institutions by providing them with expert research and analysis. (NMC, 2013).
Technology and
Trend.
Within
the report, ‘Wearable Technology’ is further detailed as one of the six trends
identified as most important for the next four to five years. The 2013 NMC Horizon Report notes that, “The benefit
of wearable technology is that it can conveniently integrate tools, devices,
power needs, and connectivity within a user’s everyday life and movements. Google’s ‘Project Glass’ features one of the
most talked about current examples” (p. 32).
Because of the continuing development in smart phone, sensor, and
miniaturization capability there has been a flourishing of wearable
microelectronic, computing, and networked devices. A further distinction is the ‘Quantified Self’,
a term accredited to Wolf (n.d.), which seeks self-monitoring and self-sensing
and is being manifested by means of a diverse range of products exemplified by:
* Misfit’s Shine
– a waterproof, wireless coin-sized disk worn by an individual to track activities
such as walking, cycling, and swimming.
* Jawbone’s Up –
a tracking wristband that synchs with an iPhone app (Figure 1).
* Nike’s
FuelBand – a wristband activity tracker that integrates with the Nike+ online
community and phone application.
*Maxvirtual’s Cynaps – a hat that functions as a Bluetooth voice command headset.
The
trend to further amalgamate autonomous self-tracking and communication devices
into our daily lives portends ever increasing data collection, connection, and analysis
that will have significant cultural and technological implications.
Cultural Force
Though
intended as somatic monitoring, quantified self has wider significance within a
social context stemming from lifestyle adjustments. The sharing of one’s bio information may lead
to communities of interest centered on compatible activities or needs. Similarly, such commonality could enable
companies to better align their marketing strategy and promote their products directly
to individuals more inclined to be interested in sports vitamins, energy
drinks, therapeutic treatments, running shoes and the like.
Technological
Force
Crowd
sourcing of individual biometrics may reveal min, max, median, and variances on
a macro big data scale typically not available to medical researchers studying
population health trends. In addition,
the devices could easily be adjusted to receive broadcast health warnings which
could trigger signals for individuals whose biometrics merit such sensitivity,
such as air quality announcements that alert asthma or bronchitis sufferers. Detecting and recording events will impact
the legal system in ways not yet defined.
For example, Whiton and Nugent (2007)
demonstrated wearable computer system embedded in apparel that recorded forces
exerted on the body in an effort to identify physical abuse. A public where citizens don facial
recognition and video capture devices could become a distributed surveillance
state, abdicating privacy. In addressing
urban computing, Cranshaw (2013) examines the relationship between new
technologies and societal processes to better understand the unforeseen ethical
and moral implications. Capturing still
and video images also holds potential for strengthening law enforcement
practices, such as the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing social media images and
video taken by marathon spectators. Bryant
(2013) reports on a more advanced and ubiquitous police tool which mounts a
video camera on Google Glass to captures evidence which is transmitted via
Bluetooth to a mobile device and streamed over 3G to a cloud platform for later
playback.
As
observed by the New Media Consortium, wearable technologies offer a compelling
potential to improve educational productivity. On a broader scale and longer timeline, personal
and ambient intelligent technologies will morph society and the challenge will
be to ensure responsible usage and appropriate regulatory guidelines.
References
Bryant,
M. (2013, April 5). Google Glass for
cops: How Taser plans to bring wearable, real-time tech to the police frontline.
Retrieved August 2, 2013, from http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/05/taser/
Cranshaw,
J. (2013). Whose “City of Tomorrow” Is It? On Urban Computing, Utopianism, and
Ethics. On Urban Computing, Utopianism, and Ethics.
New Media
Consortium. (2013). NMC Horizon Project.
Retrieved on 30 July 2013 from http://www.nmc.org/horizon-project
Ricker,
T. (2011, November 6). Jawbone Up fitness
band review. Retrieved August 2, 2013, from http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/6/2541783/jawbone-up-review
Whiton,
A., & Nugent, Y. (2007, October). A wearable for physical abuse detection.
In Wearable Computers, 2007 11th IEEE International Symposium on (pp.
119-120). IEEE.
Wolf, Gary.
(n.d.). Quantified Self. Retrieved August 2, 2013, from http://aether.com/quantifiedself
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