Like in all industries AI is on everyones lips also in wearables, according to John Holmgren, CSO at LumeoTech.
— We believe that 2024 is the year where it will actually be more AI hardware than earlier, he predicts. Last year was more that we could see people implement LLMs in different softwares — now for the hard stuff! I also believe that we will move in to a world where the phone will not be as relevant as it is now — but this is probably 10-15 years from now.
The Swedish startup is working in the field of wearable tech, aiming to better bridge humans with technology.
— We believe wearable tech can be so much more than just on your wrist and that’s why we create new attachment technologies that makes it possible to wear wearables on new places. Our first commercial technology is an attachment technology that works on textiles. You can attach any wearable electronic or IoT on clothes without preparing the surface. This can be used for wearable cameras, wearable lights, smart home buttons, motion trackers, airtags — just your imagination sets the boundaries. Our future technologies are attachments for fur and skin.
— We are not focusing on creating the wearable itself but we rather come with an ingredient for the product developer, licensing the technology to companies that are developing their own wearables.
Take us through your technology.
— The textile attachment is a modular system that creates temporary seams between the soft fabric and the hard electronic. Imagine a steel thread making a thin loop and grabbing the fibres. Since it’s modular, you can scale it up so it fits your product need. The steal threads are so tiny so they don’t ruin the fabric.
The venture, Holmgren continues, has experienced several challenges along the way — and has learned a lot.
— The company started out with another consumer product that was copied back in 2019, and to come back from that was probably the hardest. We have also been blessed — or cursed, depending on how you look at it — with a technology that can be used for so many things which has given us a hard time of what to focus at times. We have learned that a patent is only good if you know how to use it.
You’re a global brand and just secured new funding, working across Europe and also in Asia. What are the main differences between the markets?
— The European market is great for wearables — we have some amazing companies like Whitings and Oura driving the innovation. We also have a lot of innovation within the Smart textiles industry which is a separate nisch in wearables. The Asian market is even better for us though, that’s where almost all the world’s electronics are made. The speed of things in Shenzhen is crazy! Everyone is competing and looking for a competitive edge which means that you are more likely to take a risk and try new things.
The attachments for fur and skin that you mentioned, when will we see them?
— The fur attachment is working and could launch within a year but we need to focus on the textile for now. The one for skin is more early in development — we might have a MVP during 2024, Holmgren shares. He adds:
— We have gotten our first big orders and we will manage them and scale up our manufacturing. We will also bring two gen2 products to market that is our own to drive cashflow, a phone holder for traveling called MoMag and another product that I’ll tell you about another time. Speaking of AI, we also have a very exciting AI assistant product coming up later this year.
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