Information overload? • Wearable sports technology raises safety concerns
If you think the desktop Web and the smartphone were occasions for info-overload, get ready for wearable computing, which isn't waiting for the 2014 release of Google Glass. On ski slopes and on the roads, we're about to embark on a societal experiment regarding the dangers of fragmented attention. How many people will master multiple streams of incoming information while racing down a hill or driving on a freeway? And how many will crash?
Safety advocates say the concept of high-tech displays for goggles — and for other sports eyewear — is information overload run amok, particularly when people are using them at high speeds. Yet Oakley, based in Foothill Ranch, Calif., is one of a handful of sports eyewear companies betting that thrill seekers and athletes crave the equivalent of a cockpit dashboard while skiing, snowboarding, cycling and running. The companies are in the vanguard of the next wave of personal technology, called wearable computing, which promises to further shrink the barrier between users and the information they seek.”
