The Society for Information Display (SID), in collaboration with IHS, today unveiled the final program for its Wearable-Flexible Market Focus Conference (MFC), part of the four-day Business Track being held during Display Week 2015 at the San Jose Convention Center.
Wearables are one of the hottest emerging trends in today’s marketplace, with new products and new companies emerging almost weekly. Held on Thursday, June 4, this event will center on “Challenges and Opportunities for New Form Factors and Applications,” exploring where wearable-flexible technology is headed and how technologies can get adopted into the commercial market.
Display manufacturers, system-level companies and leading industry analysts will discuss the current state of the wearable-flexible market and discuss technologies that will enable future growth. Speakers from some of the industry’s biggest innovators—including Pebble Technology, Imagination Technologies, E Ink, Corning, Mozilla, Intel, ARM and InvenSense—will cover topics such as battery technologies, software applications, designing flexible materials and more.
SID President Amal Ghosh and Paul Gray of IHS will kick off the event, followed by two special wearables keynote addresses. The first speaker is Sidney Chang, Business Development for Google’s Android Wear, who will talk about what display manufacturers need to know in order to best optimize their displays for Android Wear. Margaret Kohin, SVP of Business Development at eMagin, will discuss how the company is bridging the gap between avionics defense and consumer products for head-mounted displays. Five themed sessions will follow, providing the audience a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with wearable and flexible applications.
Session I: What Are Wearables for, Anyway?
This past year has seen an explosion of wearable devices, ranging from smart watches to smart clothing, and health and wellness applications. This session will analyze current and future use cases of wearable technology and what is required from displays and touch to capitalize on product and technology trends.
Session II: Wearable-Flexible Market Overview
IHS’ Gray will discuss the current state of the flexible display market, providing an in-depth overview backed with relevant market data.
Session III: Panel Discussion – Power: The Elephant in the Room
Design, display performance and end-user requirements for wearables are the most talked about subjects, but battery life can be the most critical factor for success. Speakers will discuss battery technologies and energy-harvesting solutions being developed to address the market’s needs.
Session IV: Software: Diversity or Monoculture?
Developers face a unique challenge as they race to design apps for the smaller displays and different user interfaces of wearables. This session will uncover the challenges faced by software and app developers, as well as the numerous opportunities that lie ahead.
Session V: Enabling Fresh Design Ideas: Designers’ Dilemmas and Solutions
As companies flock to the wearable-flexible market, it becomes increasingly difficult to marry consumer-oriented products with available and emerging technologies. This panel session will focus on design dilemmas and discuss the backplanes and materials that are being developed to meet designers’ needs.
Additional speakers and topics for the Wearable-Flexible MFC can be found at www.displayweek.org. More information on the other events that are part of the Business Track being held throughout the week—the Business Conference, the Investors Conference and Touch MFC—can also found on the website. Media interested in attending Display Week may contact Marie Labrie or Carolyn Entressat [email protected].
