What My Hearing Aid Taught Me About the Future of Wearables

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/02/what-my-hearing-aid-taught-me-about-the-future-of-wearables/385145/?single_page=true

by haomiao • 11 years ago

36 11 11 years ago

theatlantic.com

tbusa• 11 years ago

For a wearable to 'really' succeed it must be 1. Unobtrusive. 2. Elegantly hidden.

Almost all the wearables on the market today are designed to be flaunted.

k-mcgrady2• 11 years ago

> "For a wearable to 'really' succeed it must be 1. Unobtrusive. 2. Elegantly hidden."

I disagree with point 2. If you make the wearable into something that it already worn (e.g. watch) and make it just as fashionable you can succeed. The problem is that technology is an industry with almost no fashion sense. The closest product I've seen to succeeding design wise has been the Apple Watch and even it looks a bit clunky (hopefully this will change as the technology improves).

skybrian• 11 years ago

That's another form of hiding it, through camouflage as older tech. It's a good idea though.

prawn• 11 years ago

That's an unfair assessment of tech as fashion right now. Personally, I think the Apple Watch looks ugly, but things like headphones (over-ear and Apple's prominent white in-ear) have been prominent and very popular, especially as a social/status signal. A lot of design work goes into technology.

I think we will continue to see successful tech follow that prominent path, but also the hidden one you suggest. Google Glass done right, hearing-enhancements that are barely visible, slim AR/VR goggles that are more like glasses, etc.

We won't see prominent tech/fashion fade away.

klez• 11 years ago

I think the main problem this article highlights is the lack of control users have of their wearables.

We are able to run our desktops, laptops and servers (and some mobile devices) almost only on free software. Why shouldn't we demand the same for wearables? Is it even possible? If yes, will this happen? What's keeping vendors back in this sense?

k-mcgrady2• 11 years ago

> "Why shouldn't we demand the same for wearables?"

This is a nice idea but it seems to me that in order for this to work well the hardware and software need to be integrated tightly. Even Google Wear seems to be heading in that direction. I could see Ubuntu trying this but they still seem to be trying to get the phone right so it'll be 2020 before we see anything good with wearables. Maybe Google's modular phone project could lead to open/adaptable hardware for wearables and that opens the door for open/free software too.

Zigurd• 11 years ago

The typical wearable/IoT architecture has vendor-provided cloud storage, and some cloud-based processing as key elements. As with person-to-person communication, current encryption technology is hard to use in this context. Even though there's no second person involved, the cloud-based processing of your personal encrypted data makes securing it inconvenient. Vendors don't seem to be serious about making sensor data secure for individuals.

TeMPOraL• 11 years ago

They want to lock you inside their ecosystems because that's how they can make more money off you. Simple as that.

If your mission is really to improve the world, giving your users access to raw data and freedom in controlling the device is no-brainer. But that rarely happens, because improving human condition is just a marketing ploy. So instead you get cloud nonsense that isn't really designed to serve you.

Most consumer hardware companies (and that includes especially printer vendors) could do the world a big favour by having courage to admit that whatever companion software they'll write will likely be crap, and leave that to the community.

jerf• 11 years ago

One could argue that eventually the market will settle on peripherals interconnected by something that could be open. I don't need a "smart hearing aid" with cloud connectivity... I need a quality hearing aid whose sole job is to take a secured audio stream and play it with as much quality as it can muster. I can carry the processing unit in my pocket and drive it with anything I want. I don't need "smart glasses" with integrated cloud this and proprietary that... I need glasses that take a secured stream of video data and display them with all their might. I don't need an integrated... etc etc. There's no reason the machine in my pocket driving them can't be open.

This is, of course, not what will happen at first. It will take time for the "race to the bottom" to produce this result.

I'll say this though. I don't consider myself terribly ideological on this point, but in practice I probably am. I am not turning over my hearing and my vision to a company, or indeed any organization. If it's not open, I'll play the luddite. It's not worth it.

Jemaclus2• 11 years ago

I have a Bluetooth enabled hearing aid, and this guy is spot on with everything. I started off with an analog hearing aid -- when it broke, you took it in and got it fixed. Nowadays, my hearing aid syncs with my iPhone, syncs with my computer, remembers where I've manually set the volume and next time I'm there, re-sets it for me. My hearing is better than it's ever been -- but now when things go wrong, I often don't know. It's very frustrating.

But it's getting better every day. I have hope and optimism.

I recently gave a talk about hearing loss, and one of the things I said was that hearing aids make us practically cyborgs. If a hearing aid can help me with my profound hearing loss, imagine what we could do for hearing people -- make your already fantastic hearing even better? Sounds like a win/win to me.

I'm excited about the future -- but I also keep in mind that wearables pose many problems, just like this author pointed out. If we can solve those, we're well on our way to cyborg-hood...

Jemaclus2• 11 years ago

I would also point out that the iOS software for my iPhone is really, really basic and unsophisticated. I'd love to figure out how to hack it myself and write my own software. I guess I should learn Obj-C first... ;)

What My Hearing Aid Taught Me About the Future of Wearables

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