Sony Seeks "SmartWig" Patent for Hairpieces With Camera, Sensors

Sony Corp. (6758), which popularized

portable music players with the Walkman, is seeking a U.S.

patent for “SmartWig” hairpieces that could help navigate roads,

check blood pressure or flip through slides in a presentation.

The wig would communicate wirelessly with another device

and include tactile feedback, Sony said in the filing with the

U.S. Patent Trademark Office. Depending on the model, the

hairpiece may include a camera, laser pointer or global

positioning system sensor, it said.

The development of wearable technology such as eyeglasses,

watches and earpieces is expanding as consumers seek new ways to

integrate computers into everyday life. The race to gain a

foothold in a market that Juniper Research estimates will jump

about 14-fold in five years to $19 billion is luring companies

including Sony, Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930)

“It is an object to provide an improved wearable computing

device,” Sony said in the patent application. “The at least

one sensor, the processing unit and the communication interface

are arranged in the wig and at least partly covered by the wig

in order to be visually hidden during use.”

The wig could be made from “horse hair, human hair, wool,

feathers, yak hair, buffalo hair or any kind of synthetic

material,” Sony said.

Three Prototypes

The device was invented by Hiroaki Tobita, who works at
Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc., and the application was

made May 10. Saori Takahashi, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Sony,

confirmed the application.

“It has not been decided whether to commercialize the

technology or not,” Takahashi said by phone. “The research

process is continuing.”

There are three prototypes, including the Presentation Wig

that has a laser point and can change PowerPoint slides by

pulling left and right on the device. The Navigation Wig uses a

GPS and vibration to direct the user, while the Sensing Wig

gathers information from inside the body such as temperature and

blood pressure, Takahashi said.

The company already has wearable devices on the market.

Sony introduced its SmartWatch 2 earlier this year, offering a

second screen for users of the Xperia smartphone. The previous

model was introduced last year as a slightly smaller successor

to Sony’s LiveView watch.

Samsung, Google

Sony has been studying new wearable devices and customers’

needs for them, Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai told

reporters in October. The maker of Xperia handsets has said it’s

considering applying its image sensors to wearable computers and

hand-gesture TVs as it expects smartphone revenue to peak in

about 2015.

The company plans to seek growth in developing the chips,

already used in smartphones and digital cameras, for products

such as self-driving cars and medical equipment, Yasuhiro Ueda,

senior vice president for Sony’s image sensor unit, said in a

September interview.

Samsung, Asia’s largest technology company, last month

registered a design in South Korea for eyeglasses that can show

information from a smartphone and enable users to take calls. It

released the Galaxy Gear smartwatch in September.

Google’s Glass are wearable computer spectacles that can

take pictures and videos and share information via the Internet.

It may be available this year or next, according to a company

blog.

Iriver Inc. (060570) released a headset in the U.S. with a small

sensor that shines light into the ear to track a user’s heart

rate, distance and speed traveled, and calories burned.

To contact the reporters on this story:

Grace Huang in Tokyo at

xhuang66@bloomberg.net;

Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at

myasu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Michael Tighe at

mtighe4@bloomberg.net

Sony Seeks "SmartWig" Patent for Hairpieces With Camera, Sensors