Wearables bring together techies in Toronto

There are a few hundred people in Toronto who are, in a manner of speaking, wearing their passion and belief in the potential of wearable technology on their sleeves. A group, comprised largely of people in related professional areas, has started to gather on a monthly basis to discuss the potential, opportunities and issues that could arise in this emerging field. The group, which initially started out in January as Wearable Wednesday with the idea of having a meeting on the last Wednesday of every month, has since rebranded itself as We Are Wearables. Organizer Tom Emrich told the Wire Report in a phone interview that the name change reflects how the organization wants to do more than just hold monthly meetings, though such gatherings will continue. “It was really clear that having just a one-day-a-month event was not enough for the community in terms of their enthusiasm and dedication to learning and wrapping their heads around wearables,” Emrich said. “We’re expanding now to offer hopefully some additional events, even perhaps beyond Toronto, and then also taking the idea of Wearable Wednesday into companies to help teams and companies … understand what wearable technology is about and dive deep into specific verticals like wearable technology in marketing or wearable technology in health.” So far, the group has held three Toronto meetings, which have attracted about 200 people per event, Emrich said. He said they’ve drawn a wide array of people, including those involved in wearable-technology development, app making, marketing, telecommunications and some who are simply enthusiastic users of wearable devices. Similar-themed meeting groups have sprung up in places such as London, Barcelona and San Francisco, though Emrich said there is no affiliation between those and the Toronto group. Emrich’s occupations include co-founding the Wearable App Review website and being editor-in-chief of the website Designers of Things. He’s got a background in technology marketing and strategy. He recalled attending a similar meeting group for emerging wireless technology in 2003. “Mobile was the emerging tech at the time, and that emerging tech was feature phones that could now use ringtones and wallpapers and really, really rinky-dink games, but that was groundbreaking back then,” he said. “When I started to see wearable technology being at the same place now as the feature-phone ringtone space was back in 2003, I said, ‘Whoa, I think we need to all get together in a room and celebrate this new technology, educate ourselves, discuss and learn to figure out how we can, as a community, move this industry forward, just like we did with mobile back then.” Carolyn Tran, brand strategist for a Toronto company called Push Design Solutions Inc., attended the first of the Toronto wearables meetings in January. Her company designs arm bands that can track movement and strength in repetitive motions, such as while weightlifting. The information is transferred to a smartphone or web portal for analysis. “ gives us a platform to interact with our audience that we’re targeting, as well as get more live feedback, especially in Toronto; Toronto’s become such a huge tech hub on a global scale,” Tran said in a phone interview. Tran said suggestions heard at the meeting she attended resulted in added features to the Push wristband system, details of which she would not disclose ahead of the product’s release. Tran called wearables “an industry with a lot of potential that’s starting to grow. … The potential to grow and the potential for innovation in the wearable-tech universe, I feel, is unlimited at this time.” Of the many wearable products out there, Emrich said he sees the most promise in smart glasses, such as Google Inc.’s Glass product, which he said gives people an “augmented reality experience.” “I think it’s really going to help provide a lot of context and information in our lives that will allow us to be much more social,” he said. “Imagine I’m at a meet-up and I don’t know people. My reaction if I’m kind of a shy person is to leave. … To talk to someone is hell because there’s nothing for us to talk about right away. The ice breaking is difficult. “Having an augmented reality experience where we can basically use Facebook … in real time, floating around when I need it, so I can go up to Jane, and I know three things about Jane and she knows three things about me, and we’ve kind of moved past that already and we can have a much more meaningful conversation.” Emrich added that there are many wearable products in the field of health that have the potential to improve people’s lives and be successful commercial products. “Exoskeletons, like robotics you can wear that let people who are paraplegic walk; you can’t deny that that’s a life-changing device, more than getting your text message in your eye.” Devices that can help people see better or hear better are also among the wearable technologies that are likely to make waves in the market and affect people’s lives in future years, Emrich said. He said the wearable market, which also includes items such as smart watches and biometric shirts, is likely to hit its full stride in the next seven to 10 years, and that it has the potential to be as big a deal as smartphones and tablets are now. “On average, one person maybe has one tablet and one smartphone,” he said. “It’s very rare for someone to have four smartphones and three tablets; there’s no real need for that. “With a wearable device, there is a need . Your biometric shirt is going to do something different from your smart glasses. And even in your smart glasses, you may be wearing Google Glass every day, but when you go on the ski hill or are biking, you might go to Recon Instruments from Vancouver to get something specific for sports. And then you have your smart watch and smart shoes, which are helping you with your cadence and your balance.” Duncan Stewart, Deloitte Canada’s director of technology, media and telecom, said in a phone interview that there is a lot of opportunity in the wearable-technology market, though it’s on a different scale than the market for items such as smartphones, computers and televisions. The vast majority of people who can afford those items will buy those items, he noted. He said technologies that have more “ubiquitous” appeal tend to have global markets worth about $100 billion or more. Deloitte, in its annual media technology predictions, forecast the worldwide wearable-technologies market would be worth around $3 billion US this year, with about two-thirds of that coming from smart glasses. “Will, essentially, 100 per cent of people one day want to wear a smart glass on their face?” he said. “We don’t think so. … Let me just take a look at the market for laser eye surgery and contact lenses; there’s a significant demand for people not to wear things on their faces. You look at young people and they don’t wear watches anymore. “We believe that when you look at the wearable market, it’s important to think of it as a very, very large niche.” Stewart said the market potential for wearable products is probably in the tens of billions, and much of that could be specific to certain professions. For example, technologically advanced eyewear might become an in-demand product for people like chemists or dental hygienists, he said. Stewart, who’s based in Toronto, said he was not aware of the We Are Wearables group, but added it “makes sense” that a bunch of professionals with an interest in this market would want to consult with each other. “I wish them the best, and after they read this article they’ll certainly invite me to come to their next meeting and they’ll tell me why wearables are going to be a much bigger industry than I think.” — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Wearables bring together techies in Toronto

News | April 7, 2014

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