Google Glass, Fitbit, Pebble are the best of class for the new category of wearable technology.
At least when it comes to their related approaches for real time computing, the monitored self, and control at a glance.
It is distinguished by using hardware sensors and software apps in a very personal way, on or maybe even in you - as an implant.
NB: This is a viewpoint by Larry Smith, a partner at US-based Thematix.
At the Wearable Tech Expo in New York City this week, several dozen people and companies talked about how this sector would be a US$50 billion market very soon, and by some measure was halfway there this decade.
This wearable tech category was most easily separated by first movers in either the consumer (B2C) and industrial (B2B) sectors, either of which offer huge potential.
Travel consumers, fickle as they are, will certainly play with many of these new tools and toys, whiplashing suppliers and providers with social media faux pas or glorious recordings of experiences and testimonials.
But the business of travel and the thick underbelly of operations, getting the job done every hour of every day, is of greatest potential now and into the future.
Joe Fitzgerald from Deloitte proposed a dominant, cost effective benefit would be found in areas such as maintenance, training, and food service.
Ed English from APX, makers of smart glasses similar to Google Glass, but hardened for industry, piled on to suggest that there were hundreds of millions of workers that needed to perform "hands free" such as aircraft mechanics, tutorials and training for on-site to repairs, and even how to make a sandwich or stock containers.
These interactions would be delivered in real time using the safety glasses you were already required to wear by OSHA regulation or company policy.
The value-add seems fairly obvious when you can increase productivity, elevate quality, and ensure compliance for a modest expense for new hardware and software.
Focusing on the travel industry, those companies in the actual delivery of a travel experience – airlines, hotel operators, tour providers et al – should immediately consider pilot programs to understand where wearable technology will provide operational benefits.
For those agents, packagers, resellers, and others in B2C sales and booking, wearable’s can offer a new benefit and revenue opportunity to create content, measure satisfaction and experience, and allow real time reporting or metrics.
Bottom line, wearable tech is the future of what to wear at work.
NB: This is a viewpoint by Larry Smith, a partner at US-based Thematix.
NB2:Wearable technology image via Shutterstock.