Welcome to The Wearable Weekly, your trusted guide to all things wearable tech. If you only have time to read one thing about wearables this week, this is it.
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Industry Highlights
Wearables for social good: UNICEF debuted its UNICEF Kids Power program, which gets kids off the couch in North America while helping those malnourished in developing countries. Elementary schools across America are given fitness bands that track steps and convert them into points, which kids earn, turning them into nutritional packets for kids in need.
Wearables for environmental good: A 3D-printed bikini that can filter out pollutants from the water while you swim won the Reshape15: Wearable Technology competition. The flexible 3D printed net bikini holds a “sponge” which soaks up pollutants, which can only be released at high temperatures.
Wearables for medical good: The EpiWatch app from Johns Hopkins researchers uses the watch’s sensors to monitor patients with epilepsy. This is the first Apple Watch app to make use of Apple’s ResearchKit framework. Researchers hope to use this data to create algorithms necessary for a seizure-tracking app that will send out a push alert when the Watch detects the onset of a seizure.
Statistics & Forecasts
VR and AR are expected to generate about $150 billion in revenue by 2020 says Manatt Digital Media report (Fast Company)
Funding for wearables startups — not just health-focused wearables — is on track for a five-year low according to a new report from CB Insights (MobieHealthNews)
Survey: 83 percent of Apple Watch owners said device contributes to their overall health (MobiHealthNews)
Only 24% of IT pros are proactive when it comes to wearable security says Ipswitch survey (FierceMobileIT)
Device Announcements
GPS-enabled Mooch smartwatch for kids launches (Express)
Modular smartwatch BLOCKS kicks off Kickstarter campaign (CNET)
Swatch announced immediate availability of its NFC-enabled smartwatch, Bellamy, in China, capable of conducting mobile payments (Apple Insider)
SubPac Launches the M2 Wearable Tactile Audio System (PR Newswire)
JINS smart glasses to be available for purchase in Japan November 5 (Engadget)
Tag teases Connected smartwatch ahead of November launch (Forbes)
Funding, Crowdfunding & M&A
Qualcomm Sells its Vuforia AR Business to PTC for $65M (Re/Code)
Number of internet users in the UK who own wearables set to double from 7% to 14% in 2016 says survey (Wareable)
8i 3d rendering and VR experience platform startup raises $13.5M Series A round (TechCrunch)
Canadian startup iMerciv raising funds for its wearable for the blind on Indiegogo (PR Newswire)
Niantic Labs raises $20M from Nintendo to turn world into an augmented reality playground (Variety)
Major Milestones
Nuance brings voice recognition capability to Android Pebble users (MarketWatch)
CNN broadcasts the first VR presidential candidate debate (Motherboard)
Microsoft Lab working on multi-person augmented reality under Project Comrade (CNET)
FIFA looking to create wearable tech standards for world football (Wareable)
Moff adds Android support to its wearable toy (PR Web)
Landmark Entertainment Group rolling out VR platform next year (Fortune)
FitLinxx, makers of AmpStrip, announced it has discontinued consumer product to focus on potential medical applications (Engadget)
Rumours
Google patent shows solar-powered contact lenses able to scan the environment to identify pollutants and allergies (IB Times)
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