Apple Breaking Into Wearable Computing?

The next sexy industrially designed thing to come out of Apple might not be something you put in your pocket. It could be something you wear. News is that Apple has hired wearable-computing guru Richard DeVaul to work on some new prototyping for Apple. Here’s the scoop…

MacRumors.com compressed the ComputerWorld story and gave us the juicy bits. Richard DeVaul, whose notable startups include AWare Technologies (accelerometer based health-applications for iPhone) has been scooped up by Apple for some top-secret innovation.

His official title is now: Senior Prototype Scientist for Apple Inc. The best part is, no one even knows what he’s working on. It’s so secret, in fact, that according to ComputerWorld…

DeVaul will be working under Jonny Ive in a secret lab focused on wearable computing technology where only seven people besides Ive and CEO Steve Jobs know what he is doing.

Wow. The story got picked up because last month DeVaul’s LinkedIn profile changed to note he was working for Apple. But the interesting part is that it says he’s been working for Apple for 3 months already. DeVaul’s claim to fame, other than AWare Technologies is for ‘memory glasses’ which, according to ComputerWorld “is a heads-up display  focused on the problems associated with wearable memory support technology.”

It’s not usual for Apple to be working on this sort of thing. Back in September of 2009, patents for Apple’s own video-display glasses popped up on PatentlyApple. How soon do you think it’ll be when we’re all be wearing iGlasses? Not anytime soon, but expect some interesting integration between your body and technology to come sooner than later. Remember, the iPhone was once shown off connected to a blood-pressure machine.…