Google Glass is at the forefront of wearable tech's charge onto wrists and brows, but there are other actors on the stage and other players on the field.
While Google is quarterbacking the wearable tech movement, it understands that it needs the help of other tech companies to push Google Glass and the Android Wear platform forward. Google's Glass at Work program is bringing in developers to support the smart glasses with a firm foundation of enterprise applications.
Google Glass may have a tough time fitting in on the streets and in cafes, but it's finding a home in offices and at work sites.
Glass at Work partner Augmedix is enjoying rapid expansion as its software and study on clinical documentation is drawing it funding and a workforce that's poised to make Google Glass a standard tool for physicians. Augmedix' study found that 99 percent of patients in its case study were comfortable with their doctors using Google Glass during consultations -- the startup has secured $3.2 million in funding and has brought in 36 employees.
Wearable Intelligence, another Google Glass startup, has also enjoyed success with bringing smart glasses into health care facilities. The company has taken measures to ensure that the wearable tech doesn't violate any HIPAA or FDA regulations and doctors are already raving about Wearable Intelligence's adaptations of Google Glass.
John Halamka, a doctor and CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, recalled how Wearable Intelligence's custom Google Glass aided him when a patient was suffering an allergic reaction that caused brain hemorrhaging.
"Patients in extremis are often unable to provide information as they normally would," says Halamka. "We must often assess and mitigate life threats before having fully reviewed a patient's previous history. Google Glass enabled me to view this patient's allergy information and current medication regimen without having to excuse myself to login to a computer, or even lose eye contact."
Google Glass needs more than software to enable wearers to fully realize the potential of the tech and Thalmic Labs is already working to empower smart glass users with better control over the tech.
Thalmic Labs' Myo armband translates hand and arm gestures into input smart glasses can interpret. The company has already prototyped software that melds the armbands' gesture-sourced data with the smart glasses' software and it's working to churn out more.
Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren has recently unveiled its Polo Tech shirts.
Right now, the sensor-knitted compression shirts are designed to relay wearer biometrics to smartphones and cloud accounts. But it isn't a stretch for the shirts to serve wearer biometrics, such as stress levels and calories burned, to Google Glass.
