Wrist Drones, Robotic Hands, Smart Pendants: The Future of Wearable Tech Has Arrived

(Open Bionics)

Smartwatches, fitness trackers, and augmented-reality glasses are so 2013. Tomorrow’s wearable technology will fly off your body to snap a photo of you. It will know where you’re going and quietly steer you in the right direction. It will heat you up or cool you down on command.

And it will do it all while making a decisive fashion statement.

On Monday, Intel announced the winners of its Make It Wearable contest, where wannabe gadget developers vied for more than $1 million in funding. What each wearable has in common is that it was developed using Intel’s Edison computer-on-a-chip prototyping platform.

A panel of seven judges from the technology, retail, and fashion worlds evaluated dozens of entries, picked 10 finalists, and then selected first, second, and third place winners, who divided $800,000 in funding between them. Here are the top three contestants and a few honorable mentions.

Drone homeThe judge’s choice for top wearable, and the recipient of a $500,000 check: Team Nixie, which invented a drone with a built-in camera you wear on your wrist. Fling the Nixie into the air, and it will buzz around above your head, snap a photo of you, and then return boomerang-style to your wrist. Call it a selfie on steroids