In 2013, more than 6 million “wearable devices” (source: IDC) or technological devices that can always be carried with them as they are literally wearable. These include glasses, bracelets, chest straps, shoes, watches, hearing aids, belts, accessories and other clothing items.
Driving the demand is the sports sector with stopwatches, pedometers, lap counters (for swimming), heart rate monitors and personal odometers. Then there is theEntertainment, with music and photography at the top of the list of most used applications, then the medical sector with different systems ranging from remote monitoring of patients to the simple archiving of vital parameters or calories of food in one's diet, ending with the detective technology, with different gadgets from 007 and the one in the service of safety (for example the avalanche transceiver for ski tourers).
From a technical point of view, the devices are divided into three main categories: those that are limited to gather information and who need to be connected to a PC in order to store, share or process data; those that in order to be fully operational must anyway to depend or from a pc or a smartphone and finally the devices completely autonomous.
All these devices take advantage of the availability of software that mainly combines four key aspects: the geolocation, Internet connection, cloud archives and social community. For example, a skier wearing a "Recon Snow 2" (eye mask) can keep track of his off-piste runs, rework the route taken or even measure his jumps. The GPS antenna inserted in the visor locates the skier geographically and in real time, the Bluetooth module allows connection to the Internet (via mobile phone) to automatically archive the data collected (speed, altitude, calories burned, etc ...), the cloud service storage allows you to have this data available on any computer from anywhere in the world and a social network makes the experience shareable online.
The father of all "wearable" devices, the most awaited and perhaps also the most contested is undoubtedly "Google Glass” or the search engine giant's project for a pair of augmented reality glasses. This device, produced in collaboration with Luxottica, has already made its debut in some countries and it is only thanks to its success that it has been possible to highlight some important aspects to take into account that concern privacy not only gods users, but also of the people who find themselves interacting, willingly or unwillingly, with those who own these devices.
Cloud services have recently been in the eye of the storm precisely because of the questionable reliability on the cyber security front. Saving one's telephone book, photos, videos, passwords, credit card codes, one's sensitive data, the trace of the geographical position on the Internet, in order to always have them available on the move, risks being a challenge for the bad guys on the Net who know how to use this data for their own profit. Social networks also generate almost the same concern in those who are simply "tagged" in one of the myriad activities carried out by wearable owners. Not to mention the problem of those who have chosen not to post any kind of personal information online and find themselves in a friend's cloud address book with so many details that they don't even imagine.
Yet, according to IDC forecasts, by the end of the year global deliveries of wearable devices will reach 19,2 million (+209%), to reach 2018 million in 111,9 with a average annual growth of 78,4 percent. In 2013, worldwide, over 70% of sales concerned i more complex devicesi.e. autonomous ones. The objects that consumers appreciate the most are the bracelets and above all the watches (the SmartWatch), closely followed by the glasses.
Also in Italy the market is ready to take off and a growth, compared to 2013, of more than 190 percent is expected, for a total of around 700 units sold. In 2018, almost 3 million wearable devices will be delivered, with an average annual growth of 2013 percent in the period 2018-67.
