Wearable computing is the next big wave in electronics, according to various self-proclaimed oracles in the technology industry.
That's why there's all this recent hubbub about Google Glass, the Internet-connected glasses-mounted computer. It's also why rumormongers won't cease in discussing a possible Apple watch of some kind. And it's why your neighbor won't take off his Nike FuelBand or Jawbone Up or Fitbit, even though it makes him look like he just got discharged by the local hospital.
If you've ever seen or read a work of science fiction, it becomes rather clear as to why wearable computing technology is embraced with such zeal: aside from being more aesthetically appealing than today's mostly cuboid electronic devices, it is a step closer to the convergence of natural and artificial embodied by the cyborg, the person made superhuman thanks to the biological integration of electromechanical elements.
Not everyone wants to fuse transistors to their precious skin. But putting on a pair of glasses or a watch or an LED-studded rubber wristband? Yeah, they can get behind that. (Especially if it spells an end to the hunched-over position we all take regularly while using today's mobile devices.)
Rackspace, the U.S. IT hosting company, has an indirect stake in all of this. While it doesn't manufacture fancy glasses or anything like that, it does provide storage and other services for businesses in the cloud. In short, if the future is more Internet-connected than it is today, Rackspace and its peers stand to profit.
To explore this future, the company commissioned a study on wearable technology from the Centre for Creative and Social Technology at Goldsmiths, University of London. The survey asked 4,000 adults in the U.S. and U.K. for their thoughts on the concept.
Their responses were rather interesting.
Thirteen eyebrow-raising data points:
So who are these people, you ask? A mix of curious experience seekers, productivity pursuers and the health conscious, according to the study.
For more about this, read my colleague Steve Ranger's interview with researcher Chris Brauer, the fellow who led the study.