Taiwan’s annual consumer IT trade fair IT Month 2013 will begin on 30th November at the Taipei World Trade Centre. With 1765 booths the organisers are expecting to attract around 910,000 visitors. This time around the fair aims to highlight health care devices and wearable technology such as smart watches and Google glass spectacles.
At the fair, an entire area of the expo is utilised to focus on wearable electronic technology. Since earlier this year, wearable devices have been making headlines, promising to become the next big thing, as they attempt to change what it means to be ‘connected’, with the potential of extending the always-on connection even further. For now, these devices are still largely confined to hobbyists, early adopters and the wealthy - however expectations are still high even as the devices launched so far fail to deliver in sales number.
Some innovative wearable devices designed for healthcare will be displayed at the fair. Visitors will have the chance to try out devices such as the smart watch which can sense irregularities of the user’s heart rate and then notify family through GPS or Wi-Fi networks. Also a location-aware bracelet for the elderly that can send out distress signals is going to be featured. Of course, this are just a small snippet of what will be shown at the fair, some things will be under cover to be headlining announcements at the time.
An interesting and innovative technology that will also make an appearance at the fair is a sound-sensitive baby crib from Huijia Health Life Technology, offering parents a way to track the breathing patterns of their infant and lower the risk of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SIDS).
The kids you see with iPads are definitely getting younger...
If you are interested in other innovative products you can find the top 100 products selected by the organisers of IT Month (in English) on this website.
We are yet to see a ‘must-have’ wearable device launched in 2013, and we think that a combination of the current price points and the ‘shrug inducing features’ of products revealed so far are definitely barriers stopping companies successfully popularising their products. We hope that this fair will show off to some interesting new products that help kick start the wearable devices megatrend.
