Companies 'haven't scratched the surface of wearable technology'

Companies “have not scratched the surface” of wearable technology’s potential and the future will bring devices which are currently unimaginable, a panel of experts has said.

Despite standout successes such as the Apple Watch, a general malaise has hit parts of the wearable sector after major players such as Sony and Lenovo pulled out of projects, said analyst George Jijiashvili, speaking at the Wearable Technology Show in London’s cavernous ExCel centre this morning.

Including everything from smart watches, workplace accessories with in-built sensors and augmented reality headsets, wearables are used in the biomedical and manufacturing sectors, as well as in the consumer market. While there are some winners in wearables there are “a lot” of losers, said panel chair Jijiashvili, leading to negativity in the sector.

However, he said analysts agree it is still growing and the panel presented an optimistic view of the field.

“The future of wearables is vast,” Jacob Skinner, founder of Thrive Wearables. “When some of the innovations that we’re seeing in universities start to come through… that will lead to wearables that people don’t even need to talk about as wearables. They will just be essential pieces of clothing, footwear, eyewear that we already use but now have this embedded functionality.”

Companies at the event demonstrated devices ranging from gloves with in-built barcode scanners to exoskeletons designed to prevent back pain, showcased at the panel by Laevo CEO Boudewijn Wisse.

“Wearables will be in all kinds of forms that you cannot imagine now,” he said. “This is something that maybe you would not have imagined two years ago, and it will look completely different in four years.”

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