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Wearable PCs Boost Worker Productivity
By Ryan Flinn
This article has been reprinted with
permission from The Norwalk Hour.
Looking to show companies their future, Norwalk-based Technology
Marketing Corporation, or TMC, is hosting its first annual Wearable
PC Summit in May. The summit's goal is to introduce organizations
and corporations to the devices, clothes and other products that
incorporate computers and that have the potential to increase worker
productivity.
These devices include a bar code scanner in a ring that is wirelessly
connected to a computer. A worker taking stock in a warehouse can point
the ring at the bar code and the product will be registered on the
company's computer.
"So this way the worker doesn¹t have to pick up the box, move
it somewhere, and point a (ups scanner) gun at it," said Michael
Genaro, vice president of marketing for TMC." It can save a lot of
time."
Other devices available or soon to be include eye glasses that double
as a computer screen, watch computers, and anything else that tech
companies can think up. By showcasing these products and having speakers
talk about their business applications, Genaro said he hopes companies
realize how they can make workers more productive and gain higher
profits by investing in these technologies.
More than 600 attendees have already signed up for this year¹s PDA
Planet show, of which the Wearable PC summit will be one of the
specialized areas highlighted during the show.
"All of these markets run on ebbs and flows," said Genaro
about hand held devices, tablet computing and wearable computers.
"But (wearable computers) seems to be the most promising."
One analyst thinks that within five years, wearable devices could be
as wide spread as cell phones are today.
Tim Shea, an analyst with Venture Development Corp., a technology
market and strategy research company based in Natick, Mass., is speaking
at the Planet PDA event. His company has conducted surveys on the
potential market size for wearable products, and said that the in the
next three years, companies will begin to integrate these devices with
their workers. Consumers will follow, he said, and begin to buy these
products as the prices drop below $1,000.
"I wouldn¹t be surprised to see people buying them for
Christmas gifts this year," he said, although mostly by early
adapters with deep pockets. Until then, large corporations and the
military will probably be the drivers behind the technology. But as of
Monday, another player has entered the field. A company called "Xybernaut,"
released a statement on Monday announcing a partnership with the Blue
Jays baseball team.
According to the press release, Xybernaut will provide Blue Jays
staff with a "Full PC-equivalent wearable computer," connected
wirelessly to a flat screen display, the company's database and a mobile
credit card processing system. This will allow team representatives to
roam the crowds waiting in line and sell them tickets. The hope is to
reduce lines, cut down on ticket scalpers and generally give visitors a
better experience at the ballpark.
If the technology works well, Shea thinks the other teams will
quickly pick up similar systems.
"It an evolving process, but it is going to happen," he
said.
Not every one is so confident. Glenn Bassett, director of the
business school of the University of Bridgeport, was initially surprised
to hear the term "wearable PCs."
"Wearable?" Bassett said with a laugh. "My first
reaction is, what the hell would it add?" Taking inventory and
reacting to the market demands have already sped up tremendously in the
past decade, he said, and as new technologies come out to continue that
trend, CEOs will react differently.
"Anything that is an attempt to speed up the market is going to
go in spurts and starts," Bassett said. As technology speeds up, he
said, it exceeds human ability to keep up with it, so that companies
eventually need machines to run things. "And you better hope
there's no bug in the program," he said.
The Wearable
PC half-day workshop will be held on May 13, 2002 at the Boston
World Trade Center in Boston, Mass.
Ryan Flinn is the business editor at The
Hour Online. He can be reached at 354-1047.
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