HP envisions wearable wireless hub

Zdnet reports on a new vision for a wearable UWB wearable hub.

HP has revealed its vision for the future of mobile devices by unveiling, as a concept, a wearable wireless communications hub. The hub — which resembles a wristwatch and would be worn on the arm — would handle a user’s connectivity requirements. All the individual’s other mobile devices would then communicate solely with the hub.

Sounds like a good idea, but it’s posiiton somewhere in the fututr, when old geezers will still be using Bluetooth devices.

McKinney said users would set up a personal area network using ultra wideband (UWB), but also Bluetooth if they were still using today’s devices. All the radios for external connectivity — whether 3G, WiFi, WiMax or any other bearer — would be contained in the hub.

An earlier version will be available, but just don’t sit down

McKinney estimated that it will take until 2016 for a hub resembling a wristwatch to be commercially available. Before that it would go through several iterations, he said, first appearing as a credit card- sized box that could be carried in the user’s pocket.