Wearable technology was one of the big themes as this year's CES in Las Vegas. One of the companies pushing the technology was Intel, with the launch of its Make It Wearable contest. Now, the company has announced the competition's first finalists.
Make It Wearable was announced by Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich, as part of the firm's CES keynote presentation. At the same time, the company also unveiled Edison, an SD card-sized PC aimed at allowing people to create wearable technology and that could be used by those wanting to enter the contest.
Intel's aim for Make It Wearable was to encourage innovation with its own technology, and it pledged to distribute more than US$1.3 million in awards to participants. The contest is split into two strands – a "visionary" strand called Dream It that aims to recognize big ideas with the potential to change the world, and a "development" strand called Build It that aims to bring to the market existing inventions that push the limits of what's possible.
In total, five finalists have been selected for the Dream It track of the Make It Wearable contest. Aditya Bansal's Run-n-Read is aimed at allowing users to read whilst running on a treadmill. The device clips onto clothing and tracks the vertical motion of its users as they jog, syncing the movement of text on an accompanying app at the same time.
Mael Flament's Peltier Jacket cools its users down when they are warm and warms them up when they are cold. It uses a solid-state heat pump to transfer heat from one side of the jacket to the other, generating electricity when the user is warm that can be used to charge a mobile device.
Wisdom Tooth is a device that can be implanted in its users' empty sockets when they have had a wisdom tooth removed. Conceived by Noa Bakish, it uses it sensors to monitor mouth conditions and eating habits.
Lovey is a small device created by Eberhard Frank that attaches to a child's clothing and monitors the voices around it, gradually learning more about each one. It helps users to monitor time spent and engagement with their kids, sending notifications if either falls too low. It also sends notifications if a child leaves familiar zones, such as a school, or if there are signs of distress.
Lastly, Clothes Can Breathe is a special fabric designed by Amira Mahmoud, aimed at absorbing human sweat and carbon dioxide to create oxygen.
Four further waves of judging for the Dream It strand of the competition will take place. Registration for the Build It strand opens later this year.
The video below provides an introduction to Make It Wearable.
Source: Intel