Google is hoping a new Software Development Kit (SDK) will help facilitate the development of wearable hardware and applications that can run on that hardware.
Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome & apps for Google, made the announcement during a talk Saturday at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
According to Bloomberg, Pichai said Google envisions consumers wearing connected devices that go far beyond the smartwatch, including clothing with embedded sensors.
Google of course has been testing its Google Glass prototype with a select group of users. The company hopes to bring the connected eye glasses to the market in the near future.
The wearables market has been taking off recently, with a variety of fitness bands and smartwatches. Canalys forecast that more than 17 million wristbands will ship this year. In fact, Canalys predicts that what it has coined the “smart band” segment will hit shipments of 45 million by 2017.