Tag: wearable gadgets

Wearable technology named after empowering Katy Perry tune

| August 8, 2014

The aptly named product is designed to be worn by women as a form of self defense mechanism.

Yasmine Mustafa has designed a new form of wearable technology that can be worn by women who want to feel self assured and empowered everywhere they go, in the way that the designer feels when she hears the song called “Roar” by Katy Perry.

That’s why she gave her mobile gadget the same name as the hit song.

The purpose of this wearable technology is to help to keep women safe from assault and is the latest invention that Mustafa has created. She is one member of a team of five that is currently working on a version of the small mobile device that works as a flashing light and a high pitched alarm that can work to attract attention to someone who is being attacked, while distracting, disorienting, and hopefully scaring off the attacker.

The Roar wearable technology is a small and lightweight module that is about the size of a quarter.

Wearable Technology inspired by Katy Perry songThe design of these wearables makes it easy for a woman to attach it to nearly anything, from clothing to shoes, from handbags to jewelry, or even to a smartphone. Mustafa explained that “The alarm and flashing light will startle the attacker, providing the victim with an opportunity to escape.”

In order to use this mobile device, the wearer simply needs to press a button and the light and sound functions will begin. Moreover, a text message with a link to the location of the wearer is also automatically sent to the people who have been pre-programmed into her contact list. Mustafa added that the device can also activate a call to 911 emergency services.

Mustafa is the head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Girl Develop It program. She was inspired with the idea after having gone on a trip on her own for half a year to South America. While she was there, she said that she had come across an “overwhelming number of women who had been assaulted.” Once she returned to her own home town, there were reports that there was a young woman who was raped in her own neighborhood of Center City. She’d had enough and decided to use wearable technology to help woman to protect themselves against these attacks.

Wearable technology may go out as fast as it came in

| May 30, 2014

A research firm is now forecasting that the werarables market could have gone out of fashion by 2016.

According to the predictions that have been produced by a research firm regarding the wearable technology market, those mobile devices may already be edging toward the crest of a wave that could soon come crashing down.

The market is estimated to be made up of as many as 48 million device shipments, at the moment.

These wearable technology devices include everything from smatwatches to head mounted displays to fitness trackers, and even patches that adhere directly to the skin, among others. At the moment, many of them – particularly in the activity tracking category – are flying off the store shelves nearly as quickly as they can be placed there. However, if things go as has been predicted to NPD DisplaySearch, the hype will reach its maximum by the end of 2014, and it will only decline from there.

In fact, the wearable technology predictions are dramatic enough to say that the demand will be all but wiped out.

Is wearable technology a fadThe NPD DisplaySearch report said that the actual hype that these wearables are generating has already started to fade. It stated that unless the prices fall considerably or there is a wearable device that is launched that offers the ability to become an essential tech gadget comparable to the role currently played by the smartphone, then there is a very real risk that smartglasses and smartwatches will be seen as nothing more than a fashion fad and they will be gone as quickly as they arrived.

According to the NPD DisplaySearch director of European TV research, Paul Gray, “We expect that the dynamics of the wearables market will be similar to DVD, LCD TV, smartphones, and other digital consumer markets with commoditised hardware.” He also added that prices and margins will fall when the market begins to include more from Samsung, LGE, “and other large, cost-efficient manufacturers.”

That said, the report also acknowledges that the actual evolution of wearable technology devices remains unknown, and there is still a great potential for one or several styles to be able to find the necessary consumer niche.