The history of wearable computing goes back at least 50 years, back when the military began developing displays built-in to headgear worn by pilots. A decade later brought wearables developed to determine how fast roulette wheels were spinning and the 1979 saw the launch of Sony's WalkMan. Jody Ranck's latest report for GigaOm covers this past, the present and potential future for wearable computers with a special focus on those developed for healthcare and fitness.
While many of the devices in the wearables category today are wristworn and most of the headline grabbing devices are augmented reality plays, like Google's Project Glass, real innovation will likely take the form of smart clothing. The opportunity for passive monitoring is huge and wearables that take the form of things we already wear are much more likely to find adopters. I stopped wearing a watch as soon as my mobile phone could display the time. As innovators like Misfit Wearables follow the lead of pioneering companies like Zephyr Technology and Exmovere Holdings, watch this space.