KERV CONTACTLESS RING

The Wearable Technology Show (WTS) was back in London for its third year on March 15th and 16th.
While the show was full to the brim with smartwatches, fitness trackers and VR apps, there were a number of unconventional products on display this year, as well as some standout innovative lifestyle gadgets.
Here is PCR’s roundup of the most exciting things we saw at WTS2016:



KERV CONTACTLESS RING

Kerv is the world’s first contactless payment ring. The ring wearer can make payments anywhere in the world that displays the contact payment symbol, including in stores, coffee shops and on public transport. If you lose your wallet and your phone dies in the middle of London at 3am and the only way home is via a charming night bus – which doesn’t accept physical money – you’ll be thankful for having a Kerv ring on your finger. 

TOMTOM BANDIT ACTION CAM

TomTom had a number of products on show, including wearable tech for golfers, but the Bandit action camera caught our eye. It aims to make the act of editing all your super-exciting video as easy as possible. The camera itself has a number of motion sensors, so after you’ve finished filming you can open the Bandit app on your smartphone, give the phone a shake, and collect all the pieces of footage that had the most movement while filming. The app then puts it all into a handy video for you to upload to social media.  

EMFIT QS

Another world’s first, the Emfit QS is a contact-free sleep tracker. It gives the user a detailed description of their sleep quality, stress level, and progression of recovery. The innovative thing about this is that you don’t need to wear a chest strap or wristband. You don’t event need to turn the device on or off, just place the strip under your mattress.  

VTIME VR SOCIAL NETWORK

vTime is the first VR social network. It’s like a cross between Second Life and Skype, with Sims-style avatars. Using just a smartphone and a VR headset, vTime lets you meet, chat and interact with friends, family and, if you desire, strangers. There’s a number of virtual locations to hang out in and it currently works with the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. 

BABYPOD

Babypod claims to be the only device that can ‘stimulate vocalisation of babies before birth with music’. Babypod emerged within the research line carried out by Institut Marquès on the effects of music from the beginning of life. Unlike some of the other similar products out there, instead of play music through a device strapped to the mother’s abdomen, they pump some soothing tunes through a speaker that is ‘easy to insert and remove’ from their vaginas. Yes, you read that right.

CORNER BLOK-IT

Corner is wearable tech for boxers. By slipping on a pair of small, bluetooth trackers to their handwraps, boxers can track every punch, block or combination to build a full picture of their performance. It monitors punch types, speed, power and accuracy without interfering with the boxer’s routine.

ATHEER GLASSES

Atheer aims to bring AiR (Augmented interactive Reality) computing to deskless professionals at Fortune 1000 companies. The platform combines AR with intelligent gesture, voice and head-motion interactions as well as real-time rich-media collaboration. Wearing the see-through AiR Glasses enables a worker to view rich information critical to workflows, interacting with the information naturally and collaborating with remote peers – without the need to hold any device.

TESPACK SOLAR SMARTPACKS

Tespack’s solar smartpacks promise to be ‘the most efficient and lightest’ in the world. They had ultra-light battery packs, extra-thin solar panels for bags at the show. Using the devices, one hours of sun can fully power a phone.

VUZIX VIDEO HEADSET

Vuzix has combined a headset and headphones to create the iWear – video headphones for big screen HD entertainment. A representative on the stand stressed that the device is not intended to be used in the same way as say, the Oculus Rift, rather for fully immersing yourself in a film or a video game. It does however, have VR capabilities included.