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It has been over 30 years since the movie Back to the Future captured the hearts and minds of audiences and catapulted Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson to greater stardom. Now that I have your attention with the catchy headline which has more to do with my researching wearable technologies over 15 years than it does to the movie, I want to get to the point since I was motivated by two of my colleagues recent blogs posts.
Back in 2000 I was involved in researching wearable technologies (including smart fabrics/textronix) and was writing about things like wearable computers, smart watches, situational/contextual awareness, and wearable technologies that would service a variety of applications including military (i.e. special forces, IFF, etc.), warehousing such as pick and place, sortation and related logistics, field service (i.e. hands free) automation, biophysical monitoring and “point of care” healthcare. Back then I seem to recall that there was no “killer applications” per se but rather of cluster applications, each of which, had the potential to explode based on several different assumptions (i.e. obstacles) – many assumptions were technical and some were social and commercial.
It is crystal clear to me now that had IIoT enabled solutions been available over 15 years ago that adoption of wearable technologies would have occurred at a faster pace – smart watches and Fitbit type devices only became “mainstream” in the last few years; well over ten years since when I was writing about and partaking in radio shows on wearable computing and “Technology Couture”. Granted part of the slowness in adoption had to do with a lack of a great UEX and social norms or worries about becoming a cyborg or something.
Regardless of “what could have been”, the time for IIoT enabled and wearable technologies to form a wonderful and powerful synergy is now, thereby not only enhancing the ability of equipment to become more intelligent but for the capability of man and machine to become more productive, more efficient, more profitable and increasingly more collaborative in working together for a common goal. I hope to blog more about how wearable technologies and IIoT can help companies in just about every industry including oil & gas, among others. Now the only thing we need to worry about is whether great minds such as Stephen Hawkins, Bill Gates and others are correct in their fear that AI represents an existential threat to humanity. Only a small issue for concern, huh.
Back in 2000 I was involved in researching wearable technologies (including smart fabrics/textronix) and was writing about things like wearable computers, smart watches, situational/contextual awareness, and wearable technologies that would service a variety of applications including military (i.e. special forces, IFF, etc.), warehousing such as pick and place, sortation and related logistics, field service (i.e. hands free) automation, biophysical monitoring and “point of care” healthcare. Back then I seem to recall that there was no “killer applications” per se but rather of cluster applications, each of which, had the potential to explode based on several different assumptions (i.e. obstacles) – many assumptions were technical and some were social and commercial.
It is crystal clear to me now that had IIoT enabled solutions been available over 15 years ago that adoption of wearable technologies would have occurred at a faster pace – smart watches and Fitbit type devices only became “mainstream” in the last few years; well over ten years since when I was writing about and partaking in radio shows on wearable computing and “Technology Couture”. Granted part of the slowness in adoption had to do with a lack of a great UEX and social norms or worries about becoming a cyborg or something.
Regardless of “what could have been”, the time for IIoT enabled and wearable technologies to form a wonderful and powerful synergy is now, thereby not only enhancing the ability of equipment to become more intelligent but for the capability of man and machine to become more productive, more efficient, more profitable and increasingly more collaborative in working together for a common goal. I hope to blog more about how wearable technologies and IIoT can help companies in just about every industry including oil & gas, among others. Now the only thing we need to worry about is whether great minds such as Stephen Hawkins, Bill Gates and others are correct in their fear that AI represents an existential threat to humanity. Only a small issue for concern, huh.