Rumor: Apple and Google are Working on Wearable Computers

Some folks already wear their heart on their sleeve, and now, according to an article from The New York Times, Apple and Google want you to wear your computer there too.

We all do it, we walk down the street, constantly staring at our mobile device like it holds the secrets to the universe. And who knows, maybe somewhere down deep inside her, Siri does as well. The point is, we’re not going to put our devices down and actually pay attention to the world around us, so let’s face it, technology will have to solve this problem, right?

Reporter Nick Bilton writes:

Wearable computing is a broad term. Technically, a fancy electronic watch is a wearable computer. But the ultimate version of this technology is a screen that would somehow augment our vision with information and media.

Over the last year, Apple and Google have secretly begun working on projects that will become wearable computers. Their main goal: to sell more smartphones. (In Google’s case, more smartphones sold means more advertising viewed.)

Google’s secret X labs are reportedly working on preipherals that attach to your body or clothiing, and would communicate information back to an Android smartphone. Those familiar with work in the lab say Google has hired engineers from Nokia, Apple, and universities who specialize in “wearable computers”.

Mr. Bilton continues:

Apple has also experimented with prototype products that could relay information back to the iPhone. These conceptual products could also display information on other Apple devices, like an iPod, which Apple is already encouraging us to wear on our wrists by selling Nanos with watch faces.

A person with knowledge of the company’s plans told me that a ‘very small group of Apple employees’ had been conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices.

A curved-glass iPod is one idea under discussion. The device would wrap around the users wrist, and would then communicate using Siri, Apple’s personal assistant software.

The smartphone would act as the hub to bring these devices together. Researchers say the smartphone is almost never more than three feet away from its user, often mere inches away from their bed at night.

“Years ago, researchers envisioned these tiny computers transmitting information to the Internet,” said Yael Maguire, a visiting scientist at M.I.T. and Harvard . “It wasn’t what we envisioned, but it happened. It’s called the smartphone.”

Michael Liebhold, a senior researcher specializing in wearable computing at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., predicts that the next step in technology is the blurring of the real and virtual worlds.

Over the next 10 years, Liebholdhe envisions people wearing glasses, and eventually, contact lenses, with built-in displays.