After some further searching I came across a number of other wearable tech items. This time the focus is on emotions, moods and textiles. I think to be a successful wearable it needs to be seamlessly integrated so that you barely notice it is there. This is an area where fitness trackers fall short and often they are a little over-sized with poor battery life.

An ideal solution would to have a wearable powered by the wearers own kinetic energy. There is tech that already uses kinetic energy but as far as I can tell it only saves this energy to a battery as an ’emergency charger’ for your phone.

A lot of people are talking about the new ’emotion’ band called Feel. A prototype was displayed and this years CES show in LA. It contains four integrated sensors that measure the body’s skin temp, blood volume pressure and galvanic skin response. Based on that data the app creates a visualization of your emotion levels throughout the day. Alongside this it will offer personalized suggestions based on the data to reduce stress and offer the wearer opportunity for self improvement.

This app that comes with this band can also offer guided meditation and breathing exercises, set and track wellness goals as well as make the band vibrate when it senses you are in a stressful situation.

Something like this integrated with textiles would make a good feedback loop for the teacher if pupils were to wear them in class. It does however open up a whole new discussion on personal intrusion. Would this device give too much away about yourself? What if you pride yourself on your continuous poker face, the last you would need is a little gadget on your arm blowing your cover and suggesting that you may not be as cool under the surface as you would like everyone to think that you are.

Besides that this is an exciting discovery, one that could open the door for more personalized approaches to learning.