Where, Oh Where, Are the Wearables?

 Masud Syed, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, MHL, LLC

Remember when you were a kid and all of your favorite super heroes and secret agents had watches, glasses, or rings? The Green Lantern had a ring that granted him incredible power, Robocop had augmented vision, and Penny from Inspector Gadget had her high-tech watch with video chat capabilities. The futuristic accessories that we used to daydream about as kids are now a reality and companies such as Sony®, Pebble, and Samsung have jumped into “high gear” to produce “high tech gear.” An analyst from Berg predicts that in 2017, shipments of wearable tech will reach 65 million units. In addition, a report done by Juniper Research states that by 2018 the wearable tech industry will be worth $19 billion dollars.

In order for wearable technology to be successful it still has to give you access to the content you need. For example, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 + Gear allows you to receive calls, emails and texts all from your wrist and the Smarty ring offers connectivity without lifting a finger. MHL® is the perfect connectivity technology for wearables because it seamlessly mirrors all of your content from a smartphone or tablet to a larger display, all in HD.

MHL is already found in the Sony HMZ-T3W headset, which allows you to experience immersive 3D video with 7.1 surround sound and rests comfortably on your head. It is the first wearable to incorporate MHL and a product we demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. Movies were displayed from the phone to the device giving users a unique and truly portable video viewing experience.

The future is in your hands…or on it. What wearable would you put MHL into next?