Wearable Technology
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2014
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From smartglasses to smartwatches, tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung are investing big money in technology that you can wear. They're designed to keep us eternally connected, fully fit and super smart. But will they go mainstream or are they still the preserve of the gadget geeks? Evan Davis and guests discuss how fitness bands that measure how far you walk and how deeply you sleep could transform our healthcare. And hear about the intelligent fabric that's set to revolutionise the way US and British soldiers are kitted out.
Guests:
Andy Griffiths, President, Samsung UK and Ireland Asha Peta Thompson, Co-founder, Intelligent Textiles Joss Langford, Technical Director, Activinsights
Producer: Sally Abrahams.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this program. |
| 0:02.7 | In this edition of the bottom line, |
| 0:04.7 | Evan Davis and guests discuss wearable technology, |
| 0:08.5 | smart watches, smart wristbands and intelligent fabrics. |
| 0:12.7 | Hello and welcome to the program, |
| 0:15.1 | and our topic today is wearable technology, |
| 0:18.0 | from smart watches to smart glasses to health trackers to flexible circuit boards. |
| 0:24.0 | Wearable tech is sometimes seen as the gadget you didn't know you needed and probably don't. |
| 0:29.2 | It featured on a recent episode of The Apprentice from which you could be forgiven for thinking |
| 0:33.2 | that wearable technology simply amounts to a couple of flashing lights fitted to a jacket or |
| 0:37.8 | a jumper. But the Apple's, Googles and Samsung's of the world are investing big money in |
| 0:43.8 | the sector, not to mention a lot of smaller companies too, and between them they're coming |
| 0:48.4 | up with a lot of fascinating new ideas and applications. My guests today are all involved in the world of wearable tech |
| 0:55.6 | and they've each brought a piece with them and they can show it to us. So let's start by taking a few |
| 1:00.2 | minutes to meet each of them. And first, Asha Peter Thompson, who is co-founder of intelligent |
| 1:05.4 | textile to which develops electrically active fabrics. Asha, what have you got to show us? |
| 1:10.8 | I've got a piece of fabric that |
| 1:12.6 | literally gets rid of wires and cables so it can pass power and data through the actual fabric |
| 1:18.0 | itself, meaning for our application that we use it for for soldier systems, it means he doesn't |
| 1:23.3 | have to carry so many batteries. It also means that he has no snag hazards. Right. Now we've got |
| 1:28.6 | contracts with US military, US Marine Corps. We're looking at this. This is just a normal piece of |
| 1:34.1 | body suit in camouflage colours. So this is like a flat jacket. It's a ballistics vest, but also as well |
... |
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