A scenario analysis of wearable interface technology foresight

Abstract

Although the importance and value of wearable interface have gradually being realized, wearable interface related technologies and the priority of adopting these technologies have so far not been clearly recognized. To fill this gap, this paper focuses on the technology planning strategy of organizations that have an interest in developing or adopting wearable interface related technologies. Based on the scenario analysis approach, a technology planning strategy is proposed. In this analysis, thirty wearable interface technologies are classified into six categories, and the importance and risk factors of these categories are then evaluated under two possible scenarios. The main research findings include the discovery that most brain based wearable interface technologies are rated high to medium importance and high risk in all scenarios, and that scenario changes will have less impact on voice based as well as gesture based wearable interface technologies. These results provide a reference for organizations and vendors interested in adopting or developing wearable interface technologies.