Internet of Things & Wearable Technology Insights

Sunaina had landed at the Delhi airport in the wee hours of the morning and was in a cab when she noticed the driver taking a detour. That made her uneasy. He said he wanted to fill petrol. But the car was entering unknown territory and he was refusing to stop.

So she did something James Bond would do. She reached for her glass pendant and pressed it twice…

Sunaina is not her real name, but her story is. And unlike what happens to many women travelers in India, nothing untoward happened in this case. The pendant – actually a gadget called SAFER that can send out SOS alerts – might have saved the day.

“It served as an empowering device. The woman could convince the driver that he was being monitored,” says Paras Batra, co-founder of Leaf Wearables, the startup that makes SAFER....

Wearable computing is going more mass market.

We’re not talking just about smart watches or fitness trackers, but actual clothing that’s being made ‘smart,’ thanks to embedded technologies.

Like fitness trackers, smart clothing generally needs a companion mobile app so the wearer can receive information captured by the smart thing being worn.

One latest example of smart clothing is the Ralph Lauren polo shirt that can transmit workout information to a smartphone.

But wearables can be a range of things, including sensor-infused devices, clothing that reads biometric data off a body, a body mounted camera or smart glasses....