Why use a wearable?

The advantages of wearable computing.

Augmentation

Like any technology, wearable computing extends the reach and capabilities of a person. Wearables can provide enhanced communication, memory, sensing, recognition, and logistical skills. A wearable can filter your calls, provide a reference, monitor your health, remind you of a name, and help you catch a bus.

Agency

Unlike many technologies which work for someone else, a personal wearable is designed to facilitate, enhance, and work for the wearer. The user trusts the wearable because it belongs to them, because the interaction provides the user with sufficient oversight and understanding, and because the software's operation is understandable and open to evaluation (open source).

Privacy

Context awareness requires knowledge of context, which is gained through sensing and interpreting data from the wearer and the wearer's environment. This would be a privacy nightmare if this information were not under the wearer's control. The agency of the wearable turns the potential nightmare into a trusted, valuable resource.

Consolidation

Consolidating applications into an integrated context-aware environment allows for the elimination of redundant batteries, wireless network interfaces, packaging, etc. More importantly, it allows a top-level attention manager to broker all of these applications to make the best possible use of the wearer's personal bandwidth.