Every Friday we share three people that we’re following on Twitter, and we think that you should follow too. This week, we’re following the people that aren’t happy with simply using wearable technology as a consumer device – but want to find ways to put it to work and make some jobs a bit more futuristic.
Blast from the #wearabletech past!@IBM's Wearable computer from 1999:http://t.co/ZKXbrkUGSe
— Brian Ballard (@BrianBallard723) September 23, 2014
Brian Ballard, CEO, APX Labs
A lot of media focus in the wearables tech space lately has been on the hardware makers. Which makes sense, since it feels like we’re still trying to figure out what form wearable technology will take in these early days – a watch we wear on our wrist, or glasses we put on our head? But APX Labs is taking that hardware and putting it to work with its software layer that connects those devices to backend ERP systems, like Salesforce1 as they demonstrated for us while at Dreamforce. Ballard shares updates about his day-to-day work as CEO of APX Labs and also finds some web content gems about wearable tech like the video above.
Excited to announce our funding… even more excited about the partnerships we're putting in place and getting… http://t.co/K04JY1UWB8
— Andrew D'Souza (@andrewdsouza) September 24, 2014
Andrew D’Souza, President of Bionym
Formerly the president at Waterloo, Ont.-based education software firm TopHat, D’Souza is now putting is entrepreneurial skills to work at Bionym, a wearables tech company in Toronto that is looking to use your unique cardiac signature as a way to authenticate you for a variety of different situations. Bionym just released its first wrist band hardware to developers and is looking for help to build around its concept of a platform for persistent identification. Follow D’Souza not only to get the latest on this emerging company, but to get an inside view of someone that’s active in Toronto’s startup community.
https://twitter.com/srlake/status/525093287762591744
Stephen Lake, CEO, Thalmic Labs
If you’ve watched the Iron Man movie and you’re just counting down the moments until your workspace transforms into a gestural-controlled interface with floating holograms, then you’ll be a fan of Thalmic Labs. It’s working on the gestural interface part with its Myo arm band that translates the movements of your arm and hands into input for computers. Developers have already been working with hardware units for weeks and Thalmic is starting to be put to use by several partners, including APX Labs. CEO Stephen Lake is very active on Twitter, sharing lots about Thalmic Labs and also looking to connect with others.