The recently concluded WebRTC Conference & Expo, which ran last week in Santa Clara, Calif., brought with it a host of new products and solutions for the rapidly-growing Web real-time communications (WebRTC) market. Some products, however, managed to stand out from a crowd of already-impressive materials and bring home some extra honors. Plantronics is no stranger to award-winning products at the WebRTC Conference & Expo, and managed to repeat its victory at the Atlanta event this year.
Plantronics previously won the honor on the strength of integrating WebRTC environments and Plantronics' line of audio devices. But, for the second time, Plantronics won the WebRTC Visionary award thanks to its Wearable Concept 1 device, a device that showed how WebRTC can be integrated into wearable technology that itself incorporates a variety of sensors.
The Wearable Concept 1 device contains not only sensors for head tracking, but also for detecting both free fall conditions and taps as well. It's all contained in a small headset device that looks a lot like the Voyager Legend device, but that significantly steps up the features set to direct audio and add extra sensors. Extras like sensors to measure footsteps and a thermometer that can tell the device is being held in a warm human hand are also in the device.
Plantronics even took the extra step to make free source code available for those developers out to add headset functionality to other WebRTC environments. The combination of a demonstration that was referred to as “outstanding” by WebRTC Conference & Expo producer Phil Edholm and the sheer idea of what Plantronics set out to do with its Wearable Concept 1 system made it, as Edholm noted, “...the clear choice for this honor.”
In the flood of new technologies, new devices, new products and new solutions that come out, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that this is still a very young technology. We're seeing amazing innovations come out on all fronts, and we're seeing this technology used in a variety of ways. But a system like Plantronics' Wearable Concept 1 is offering something even more than what the WebRTC market normally provides. It's one thing to be innovative in a market full of innovators, but to be innovative to an innovative market, well, that's an order of magnitude of innovation than is regularly seen. There are plenty of potential applications for such a device, from fitness tracking to customized gesture controls to avatar controls—gaming applications become possible as well—and well beyond.
Innovation is one thing that the WebRTC market is likely to see more of, and as technology continues to improve and provide more possibilities, we're going to see a lot of stuff like this come out. Only time will tell just where it all goes, but WebRTC is likely to be a big force in terms of keeping us connected for some time to come, and devices like Plantronics' Wearable Concept 1 are likely only to help.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
