INNOVATION September-October 2015

Recon’s smart glasses help athletes, such as American professional triathlete and Ironman champion Andrew Starykowicz, train more effectively, without taking their eyes away from what they doing. PHOTOS: RECON INSTRUMENTS

The caregiver can then start early intervention practices, like swinging on a swing or putting on noise-cancelling headphones, to keep the child calm and avoid a meltdown.” The same information can be used for self- regulation by the child as he or she gets older, and may even, says Palmer, “help the child become more independent down the road.” Others who may benefit from the technology, she says, include people with dementia or post- traumatic stress disorder. Both Servati and Palmer and their teams have established companies to ensure they can take

advantage of commercialization opportunities for their current prototypes. Servati’s company is called Texavie; Palmer’s is Awake Labs, whose Reveal device won the 2015 Canadian Global Impact Competition. Other Vancouver-based wearable tech firms, such as Recon Instruments, have already capitalized on the wearables trend. Recon co-founder and chief technology officer Abdollahi, P.Eng., agrees with Servati that smart fabrics are the leading edge, but believes a lot of room remains for “hard” wearable devices developed to meet specific needs. In his company’s case, this means for fitness and fun.

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