The Edge of Wearables: When Will Society Take the Ultimate Leap?

New wearable technology will soon have the capacity to become skin-deep, but society might not be ready to adopt it just yet.

If your socks told your feet how to run faster, would you wear them? If a camera embedded in your scarf filmed your daily interactions, would you wear it? Do you use even half the functions your smartwatch offers?

Credit - NYC Media Lab (CC BY-SA 2.0) Flickr

“People will wear clothing and accessories that reflect their individual style, and if the embedded technology delivers a tangible benefit, they will embrace it,” said Sandra Lopez, director of strategic alliances for Intel’s New Devices Group. People certainly embrace wearable technology when it’s meaningful or beneficial to them. But while technological developments in wearables continue to grow at an exponential rate, there’s been some question as to how ‘smart’ our tech really needs to be.

We are at a tipping point in technology, where growth of the wearables industry is surpassing cultural acceptance and adoption, said Scott Amyx, founder and CEO of Amyx+McKinsey, a wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) strategy and development agency. “Technology is one thing, but the adoption curve is [proving to] be very incremental,” said Amyx. While adoption may be slow, statistics show the wearables market is booming...