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Wearable devices, or "wearables" for short, have enormous potential for uses in health and fitness, navigation, social networking, commerce, and media. Imagine video games that happen in real space. Or glasses that remind you of your colleague's name that you really should know. Or paying for a coffee at Starbucks with your watch instead of your phone. Wearables will transform our lives in numerous ways, trivial and substantial, that we are just starting to imagine.

"Digital Art Director Dhani Sutanto has been developing a line of wearable Oyster Cards for Londoners and envisions a future of DIY wearable devices."

Head-mounted wearable computers present a bit of an interface problem. Voice-based head-mounted systems impart the impression that a person is murmuring to him or herself, and accelerometer-based systems that rely on head movement make users look like they have a nervous tic. One solution to the head-mounted-computer user interface conundrum involves hand gestures. Enter a new Google patent that seems to be the search giant's answer to controlling its Project Glass augmented reality system. Titled, "wearable marker for passive interaction," the patented system, which just went public Tuesday, would use a reflective infrared identifier placed on a user's hand to track and identify the user's gestures.

Yet there's something intriguing about the concept of augmented reality, the notion of enhancing objects in the real world with virtual sounds and images and additional info. And when Google revealed earlier this year that it was developing glasses that will be part wearable computer, part digital assistant that flashes relevant data right before your eyes, augmented reality (AR) no longer seemed such a digital parlor trick. The geek gods had spoken. In fact, recent analysis by the London firm ABI Research concludes that the next big phase of AR-now largely played out on smartphones and tablets-will be through wearable tech. That's when the technology will become truly functional, when your glasses are able to tell you everything you want to know about the restaurants and stores on the block where you're walking.

"Augmented Reality, or AR, involves the projection of information onto our physical landscape through some form of assistive device, such as the heads-up displays (HUDs) used in many aircraft, the use of a mobile device with a camera to photograph a location and add information or the upcoming Google Goggles, which promise a wearable AR experience. "

From medication reminders to wearable body sensors, mobile health solutions will become a vital part of our lives and many organizations' services.

hocolate printers. Corporate "health meters" based on the Facebook posting of employees. Wearable devices that jolt wearers with the functional equivalent of an electrical shock when they do something harmful to their long-term health. Ask 60 or so entrepreneurs, executives, policy makers and other experts to imagine what the connected world might be like 20 years hence, and those are some of the ideas you'll hear, along with many, many more.

"The healthcare industry is experiencing off-the-charts growth in data generation. Growing numbers of clinical solutions generate more data every day--including electronic medical records, communication systems, and digital image archiving. On top of that,  wearable sensor networks compile information on patients' heart rate, brain activity, sleep patterns, temperature, muscle motion, and numerous other clinically useful data points. This enhanced ability to capture data from everywhere generates massive sets of information. This information is invaluable for healthcare and modern clinical practices--as long as we can manage it properly."

A camera-equipped ring could help the visually impaired identify objects and read text.