Wearables

If the growing proliferation of smart speakers in our homes makes you a little uneasy, researchers from the University of Chicago might have the answer: a wearable bracelet that jams the microphones in speakers, smartwatches, and smartphones alike.

We've seen a lot of wireless earbuds launch in recent years – many off the back of the runaway success of the Apple AirPods – and Samsung today launched a 2020 upgrade for its Galaxy Buds pair, as well as a bunch of phones.

Being able to track a morning jog and listen to some tunes without carrying a phone around is surely one of the key selling points of modern-day smartwatches – so why not combine the smartwatch and a pair of wireless earbuds in one compact form?

Although there are already complex prototype interfaces that track all of the fingers on a computer-user's hand, let's be honest – it's mostly just the index finger that matters. That's where the experimental AuraRing system is designed to come in.

A new health tracker produced at North Carolina State University is an interesting glimpse of what the future of wearable tech could look like, packing an aray of health-tracking functionality into a familiar form you can wear on your wrist.

Firefighting teams tend to carry hand-held devices to help them see in harsh, smoky conditions, but an American company has built edge-detecting thermal vision into a single eye heads-up display inside the breathing mask for hands-free use.

Once inside a burning building, smoke may prevent first responders from being able to see where they're going. The Haptic Helmet from Carnegie Mellon University's Engineering department could help.

The man behind the Feher ACH-1 air-conditioned motorcycle helmet, as well as luxury cooling car seats, has gone a step further and built an air conditioned baseball cap designed to keep your noggin between 12° and 22° F (7° and 12° C) cooler.

Although augmented reality (AR) glasses are potentially very useful, they can also be awkward to wear and kind of funny-looking. California-based startup Mojo Vision is developing a sleeker, less-dorky alternative, in the form of an AR contact lens.

It was seven years ago that we first heard about the OrCam, a wearable device for the blind that reads text aloud, recognizes faces, and identifies objects. Its makers are now back with some new assistive gadgets, at CES.

This year's "Innovation Award" winner in the wearable technology category at CES 2020 is a set of intelligent shoe soles that can pop out little pads on the bottom for extra grip in the loose stuff or more cushioning when you need it.

In the age of wearable computers, scientists in the laboratories of DARPA, Google, and universities around the world see contact lenses not as tools to improve our vision, but as opportunities to augment the human experience. But how? And why?