Hold on. My arm is vibrating, I need to take a call...

So it's becoming quite clear that mobile technology is on the brink of the next big thing. What is that next big think you may ask? Well, it looks like wearable technology is about to take off in big and important ways. Please read on...










You have probably heard about the technology giant Apple's murmurings about an iWatch, which is proposed to be announced sometime this year. Apple have a team of around a hundred designers and the VP of Technologies, Bob Mansfield has also been moved to Apple's Special Projects division as of July this year. It is rumoured that it "may perform some of the tasks now handled by the iPhone and iPad". So it's reasonable to assume that it will make and take calls, store and playback media, text, handle apps, have limited browsing ability, be all touchy-feely and make you think you are a secret agent of some kind. Let's hope it tells the time. Sidelong glances aside, if there is a company that can make wearable tech desirable, its Apple. Read more thoughts, feelings and opinions here.

Not to be outdone, all the other major players are getting in on the action. Samsung are on the same development drive with the Samsung Galaxy Gear, and Sony are already ahead of the game in a way with their Sony Live View Touch (now on its second iteration). You can buy one for about a hundred pounds and it apparently talks to the Sony Xperia Z. Kind of like a matching clutch bag and shoes for the tech savvy. Nice.

Lynette Jones, a senior research scientist at MIT is going a bit further though. She says that your skin has about as many sensory receptors as your eyeball. She argues that it is underused for receiving information. Her recent work focuses on dense haptic feedback. If you aren't familiar with that, think this: when your phone vibrates in your pocket, that is haptic feedback. Jones proposes that we can wear things that could give us certain information by vibrating in different ways. Stop thinking dirty thoughts. I know you are doing it. Sat nav socks maybe? They vibrate when you have to turn left or right? Earrings that vibrate when you have replies to your social media posts?

It seems that we really are living in the future and remember, in just two short years Marty McFly will arrive and we may have all of the things and more that he sees in the movie. Life reflecting art you say? Maybe so, but where is my flying skateboard?

See you soon,

W.