HISTORY

A History of Wearable Technology: The Inception, Background Information, and Characteristics 

       One important characteristic of wearable technology is that this new trend is not actually "new" in a typical sense. In fact, Mark Weiser, a scientist at Xerox PARC in the 1980s, was "credited with coining the phrase 'ubiquitous computing' [when he] suggested that a third wave of computing was beginning to take shape" (Raconteur, 2014). This "third wave of computing" that he referenced was the movement towards personal technology that would work its way into "the backgrounds of our lives" (Raconteur, 2014).

        The concept of wearable technology has clearly changed since its original inception, as wearable technology could date back to the earliest mention of eyeglasses in 1268 (Rhodes, 1997) because this "wearable technology" did help "pave the way for wearable computers" (Rhodes, 1997). In essence, the wearable technologies we celebrate today can be traced back to any worn technologies, including pocket watches or Walkmans; these technologies led to developments in what we currently consider wearable technologies, such as hand-held GPS or even "wrist computers" (Rhodes, 1997). In this way, the history of wearable technology is not easily defined because there are so many technological innovations that now interact to form what we consider to be wearable technology. This fact is relevant regarding the history of wearable technology because the changing definition of the phrase also determines what historical technologies are seemingly "important" to its current development.

    As was previously mentioned, there are a number of wearable technologies that led to our modern interpretation of the phrase, but many experts do agree that some of our modern technologies grew from "TV and cinema" in that "our perception of wearable tech [and] the public's appetite for its potential" came from media portrayals in the 1980s and 1990s (Raconteur, 2014). Most of our modern twists on wearable technologies date back to earlier inventions, such as the "1927 Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator" --a way to navigate using a scroll map before smart watches ever existed-- yet were adapted based on the media portrayal of what these devices were actual capable of doing (Raconteur, 2014). Essentially, The Terminator is just as important as iPods in terms of modern developments.  Likewise, life began to imitate art in regards to wearable technology, so much of our technological ideas come from the imagination of filmmakers in regards to this form of technology.

        Furthermore, as the definition of wearable technologies has changed (Racoma, 2013), we currently consider this label when discussing "head-mounted displays" or "wrist-mounted user-interfaces" (Racoma, 2013), as these are our most common uses of wearable technologies. We also use these devices for multiple purposes whereas these devices were historically and solely used for mobile computing. In fact, our modern definition of wearable technologies dates back to 1960, when Manfred Clynes coined the word "cyborg" to describe "a human being augmented with technological attachments" (Rhodes, 1997), but the concept of a cyborg was not necessarily important to all "wearable technologies" over time. Today, the word "cyborg" is more relevant because of how we now define wearable technologies.

      Today, we do look for certain specific characteristics of technologies to consider them wearable technologies. As they are now defined, these computers are "small and compact electronic devices designed to be worn by a user" that do "more than just simple calculations and information processing" (Racoma, 2013). They are also considered technologies that "expand functions, such as information-sensing, processing, and networking to things not considered hi-tech" (Raconteur, 2014). These foundational ideas for our modern wearable devices are where devices, such as the UP24 or FitBit, come into play, as a bracelet would be something that could not previously sense information, process information, or network the information. Now, many of our wearable technologies include clothing that senses information near or on the user.

Some historical wearable technologies that relate to this modern interpretation include the following:

• 1983: Toe-operated computers were used for counting cards.
• 1994: The "Forget-Me-Not" was a wearable computer that recorded interactions with people.
• 2000s: Touch displays, bluetooth, wi-fi, and GPS became more popular in a variety of devices.
• 2010: Google Glass integrates an optical head-mounted display, augmented reality, camera, web access, and voice-based interaction (Racoma, 2013).

In sum, wearable technologies include a variety of devices and date back to so many different technologies over time that it is difficult to trace a standard timeline of its development. However, an important fact to consider when looking towards the future of these devices is that it will not be long before these devices enter "the mainstream consumer consciousness" (Raconteur, 2014) and become a part of our everyday lives.