How wearable tech can open new worlds

The potential for wearable technology to transport individuals to whole new realms.

The potential for wearable technology to transport users to completely new universes

Many of us already use fitness trackers and smartwatches every day, so wearable tech is already a part of our daily lives. The wearable tech market is expected to grow by 24.6% each year and be worth more than €156 billion by 2024, says the analytics company GlobalData. Smartwatches are the biggest and fastest-growing segment, followed by fitness trackers. However, wearable tech is about a lot more than just tracking your health and steps.

The Teslasuit looks like a wetsuit, but it is actually a full-body haptic feedback system that uses electro-muscle stimulation (EMS) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to simulate a wide range of real-life feelings and sensations based on visual simulations seen on a screen or headset.

In the same way, the Teslasuit Glove, which is worn over the hand, has an "exoskeleton" that creates resistance and gently pulls fingers during grasping movements to give the feeling of holding a solid object. This lets people touch and feel things in a virtual space. This level of wearable tech can help make the metaverse real.

Paul Nickas, Vice President of Global Partnerships at Teslasuit, says, "You need to use all of your senses for it to be a real metaverse experience." "You need to be able to take that experience way beyond what it would be if it were just VR." At the moment, people in the metaverse see it as an experience that they can hear and see. "The metaverse experience is being able to feel with what we have, which is the glove and the suit."

Also in development is technology that can be worn on the feet. The motorised shoes of EKTO ONE are made of carbon fibre, which is light but strong. They can move in any direction in the virtual world.

"Being able to move around in the metaverse is going to be important if we're talking about a virtual world that's just like the real world and can be explored," says Brad Factor, founder and CEO of EKTO VR. "With our robotic boots, you put them on over your shoes, put on the VR headset, and when you walk, it feels like you're really walking through the environment [on the screen]."

Right now, wearable tech is too expensive for most people to buy. The Teslasuit costs $13,000 by itself. At these prices, the market will take wearable tech slowly and in small amounts, but the industry is working on making cheaper wearable tech.

Ihsan Anabtawi, CMO of Microsoft UAE, says, "How do we make this more accessible to consumers?" "That's the big question for the industry." He adds, "Hopefully, we'll get there."