1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,960
Google Glass might be the first thing many of us think of when someone says stupid, pointless, wearable device,

2
00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:10,620
hear that almost every day, but surprisingly enough, it was far from the most ridiculous

3
00:00:10,620 --> 00:00:14,000
thing that corporate America thought we should strap onto our bodies.

4
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:20,720
For example, take a look at this thing. It's called the Poma, made by a company called Zybernaut.

5
00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:26,300
That, amazingly, was not in the business of making late 90s Saturday morning cartoons.

6
00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:31,520
The Poma came out back in 2002 and was actually a full-fledged computer

7
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:34,760
that made you look like you just walked off the set of Star Trek.

8
00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:39,620
It ran on Windows CE, you know, that obscure version of Windows for embedded systems,

9
00:00:39,620 --> 00:00:44,460
and rocked a meager 128 megahertz CPU with 32 megs of memory.

10
00:00:44,460 --> 00:00:51,800
That's incredibly underpowered by today's standards, but back then, yeah, it was still pretty bad for 2002.

11
00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:55,160
The one-eyed display had an 800 by 600 resolution

12
00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,560
with the idea being to replicate a 13-inch monitor.

13
00:00:58,620 --> 00:01:02,420
But it turns out, completely obscuring one of your eyes

14
00:01:02,420 --> 00:01:06,540
isn't such a good idea. People reportedly kept running into walls

15
00:01:06,540 --> 00:01:10,180
while trying to use it. Your choices of input were either an odd-looking

16
00:01:10,180 --> 00:01:16,420
optical mouse you could use to click individual letters on an on-screen keyboard, or an actual physical keyboard

17
00:01:16,420 --> 00:01:20,540
you could strap to your forearm like the greatest hacker that ever lived.

18
00:01:20,540 --> 00:01:25,560
Needless to say, with a $1,500 price tag and poor battery life, it didn't sell well.

19
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:32,160
Even with Zybernaut trying to make the Poma seem like the pinnacle of cool, almost got there.

20
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,760
Next up, Beauty and the Geek, not to be confused with the reality show.

21
00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:39,760
This was a concept we saw back in 2012,

22
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,960
and looked like something right out of a really lame version

23
00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:48,240
of Cyberpunk 2077. Instead of taking a keyboard and mouse with you,

24
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:52,740
why not just put it in your pants? Beauty and the Geek was a pair of black jeans

25
00:01:52,740 --> 00:01:59,220
with orange stitching that could have been reasonably fashionable, but literally had a working keyboard

26
00:01:59,220 --> 00:02:03,620
sewed in right over your junk. Aside from the downside that typing in public

27
00:02:03,620 --> 00:02:06,980
could now be misconstrued as something rather indecent,

28
00:02:06,980 --> 00:02:10,060
the concept tried to take convenience to the max

29
00:02:10,060 --> 00:02:13,340
by also building in speakers and a wireless mouse

30
00:02:13,340 --> 00:02:16,660
that hung from a strap. I also don't really know how you're supposed to

31
00:02:16,660 --> 00:02:21,180
wash these things, so it's not surprising that these high-tech trousers never made it

32
00:02:21,180 --> 00:02:24,340
past the concept stage. The next thing we're going to tell you about

33
00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,960
actually did make it to market, and was a heck of a lot more practical

34
00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:33,640
than the wearable PC or the keyboard pants, but unfortunately, it sucked big time.

35
00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:38,960
This thing is called the Ring by Log Bar, and it was supposed to be a hyper-minimalist

36
00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,240
and ultra-convenient way to interact with your tech.

37
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,360
You'd slip it on your finger, and then complete tasks like sending texts,

38
00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:51,920
turning on the lights, and changing channels on your TV all by drawing simple gestures in midair.

39
00:02:51,940 --> 00:02:56,540
So many people were captivated by the idea of waving your fingers in the air like a moron,

40
00:02:56,540 --> 00:03:03,100
that it raised over a million bucks on Kickstarter. But the Ring broke the cardinal rule of technology.

41
00:03:03,100 --> 00:03:06,140
It didn't work. When a user got in touch with Ring's support

42
00:03:06,140 --> 00:03:09,740
and told them the gestures only worked around 5% of the time,

43
00:03:09,740 --> 00:03:12,700
he was apparently told that, yeah, that sounded about right.

44
00:03:14,300 --> 00:03:17,420
Yikes! It also didn't help that the Ring was so large

45
00:03:17,420 --> 00:03:21,180
that it looked like you were wearing a piece of metallic calamari on your finger,

46
00:03:21,180 --> 00:03:26,080
and given that it sold for a not nice price of $269,

47
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,440
it was quickly panned as one of the worst wearables in history.

48
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,880
I just hope no poor soul out there got this gifted to them as a wedding band.

49
00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:37,520
But I do hope that you enjoyed this video. Hey, thanks for watching.

50
00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:41,360
Like the video if you liked it. Dislike it if you disliked it. Check out our other videos

51
00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:46,200
and comment below with video suggestions. And don't forget to subscribe and follow TechWiki.

52
00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:49,960
We're a YouTube channel, and you can find us right here. There's the URL up there.

53
00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:52,260
So we'll see you right back here soon, okay?
