![]() As the story goes, Georgia Tech, Starner founded MIT’s Wearable Computing Project, and it was during this time that he ran into two grad students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin (now of Google fame) and had a chat with them about his customized computer glasses (which he happened to be wearing) and the challenges of wearable computing. The glasses’ reflection technology display worked by using a little mirror to scan across the user’s eye, which created the illusion of an image. ![]() Thad Starner, a founder and director of the Contextual Computing Group at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing and a wearable technology pioneer, has worn some version of these customized glasses (along with other mobile computing device prototypes) since their inception. The first version of wearable technology – “wearable computing” – was developed in 1993 in the form of a pair of glasses with an attached reflection technology display. Along the spectrum between these two examples, however, there are many, many more products – both already for sale and still in the development stage – that are part of the wearable technology boom, including technology enabled clothing, accessories and equipment, as well as mobile device applications the coordinate with and power these products. At the other end of the spectrum perhaps, is TEC Technology Enabled Clothing (TEC®), which is less like in actual technology and more of an enabling delivery device for other’s technology. Wearable computing in perhaps the broadest and most comprehensive sense, Google Glass embodies endless technological possibilities for everyday life, both real and yet to be imagined. With innovation often come challenges, and developers and manufacturers will no doubt face issues, not just in the actual development and manufacture of these state-of-the art devices, but legal issues and challenges as well.Īt one end of the spectrum is perhaps the most well known example of wearable technology today, Google Glass. While wearable technology is still in its infancy, the industry is growing rapidly as developers create new products. (That figure doesn’t include sales by mass merchants, department stores or regular shoe stores.For athletes and fitness enthusiasts, wearable technology holds the promise of delivering more and better skills, strength, speed, performance and enjoyment. Leisure Trends Group, a market research firm in Boulder, Colo., estimates that in the first three months of this year, enthusiasts bought 365,000 pairs of minimalist shoes in specialty stores devoted to running and outdoor sports. ![]() The shoes developed a cult-like following among MacDougall’s die-hard fans, and their popularity spread by word of mouth, attracting workout fanatics looking for something different, early adopters looking for the next cool thing and those for whom returning to a simpler, more natural state of things is both a quest and a lifestyle. MacDougall endorsed barefoot running - not barefoot shoes - but it didn’t take long for people to figure out that FiveFingers and its offspring could make barefoot running more palatable. He talks about Kalahari Bushmen who run barefoot for hours in the desert chasing antelope until the animals die. He quotes a Harvard professor of biological anthropology who says foot and knee injuries are often caused by shoes that make our feet weak. And by eliminating the heel lift, body weight is distributed across the entire foot, promoting spinal alignment.įew dispute that the trend took off with Christopher McDougall’s bestselling 2009 book, “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.” In the book, McDougall posits that running shoes may be the most destructive force to ever hit the human foot. Unshielded by the thick, padded soles of running shoes, receptors in the feet receive information about surfaces and slopes, training the body to respond with balance and agility. By taking the foot out of the “cast” of a regular shoe, the barefoot shoes improve the range of motion of ankles and feet. ![]() Those who believe in barefoot shoes contend the footwear uses the body’s natural biomechanics to strengthen the calf, core and foot muscles, change one’s gait and improve posture. Fila promotes them “for just about everywhere” but specifically not for running.
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