Wearable tech through the ages – everything prototyped, imagined and realized since 1922

Wearable tech through the ages - everything prototyped, imagined and realized since 1922 3

Wearable tech is all the hype right now. But could Henry Ford be right about all the wearable tech makers when he said “I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work. Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years before, I would have failed. So it is with every new thing. Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready, and then it is inevitable. To teach that a comparatively few men are responsible for the greatest forward steps of mankind is the worst sort of nonsense”?

And if Henry Ford were right, then how did wearable computing look like a century ago? Have we made progress in this area of technology over these hundred years and if yes, how does progress look like? Has technology progressed to finally achieve what it was created for – to help humans become better, more efficient and to travel to places we would not otherwise go – or has it helped us to automate everything so perfectly that we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the output of these machines?

As we shall uncover in the post below, Henry Ford is almost completely right and today’s wearable tech devices seem to have been inspired by predictions and imaginations of the past. Take a look!

PS. If you want to find out more about each time period, be sure to click on the link below each picture/video.

Read more: Can Wearables Help You Reach Immortality?

1922: A radio in your top hat

Image credited to Gizmodo – Wearable Tech In 1922 Was a Radio Inside Your Top Hat

 

SEE ALSO:  Lucia Thalman: How lifelogging and self-tracking can be used by a long distance triathlete

1926: In-ear headphones

Image credited to Gizmodo – Wearable Tech In 1922 Was a Radio Inside Your Top Hat

 

1930s: Electrical headlight to find an honest man

Video credited to HarmoniousPosh – Clothing Of The Future – Clothing in The Year 2000

 

1940s and 1950s: Wrist Radios

Image credited to Thomas Baekdal

 

1961: To cheat at roulette

Image credited to Engadget – Gaming the system: Edward Thorp and the wearable computer that beat Vegas

 

1972: Shoes to triumph Black Jack

Image credited to Vegas Tripping

 

1980s: Head-mounted computers

Image credited to Steve Mann – Wearable Wireless Webcam and Telemetry

 

1992: Wearable computers

Video credited to Nanoforge1 – Discovery Channel Beyond 2000 Wearable Computers 1992

 

The new millenium: All kinds of fitness trackers to get you moving

Image credited to Fjord

 

2014: Sleep tracker for your TV-viewing experience

Image credited to Mashable – Wristband notices when you fall asleep and records your TV show

 

Beyond 2015: Detecting cancer on first appearance

Google

Image credited to The Atlantic – Why Is Google Making Human Skin?

 

Beyond 2015: The blind will see

blind

Image credited to Yahoo – New Wearable Tech Could Help Blind People See

 

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