Start Living in the Cyberpunk Future by Wearing These Kickstarter Electronic Gauntlets

You’ve surely noticed that like half of all sci-fi worlds feature some kind of ubiquitous wrist-worn electronic gadget. What do they do? Mostly they glow and give actors something to tap at. But some of them have neat functions and now that’s coming to the real world in the form of these Titan Gauntlets launching on Kickstarter.

I don’t think there is any way you could describe the Titan Gauntlets without using the word “cyberpunk.” And I’m positive I’ve never seen a product that has felt more like something from a video game.

Each Titan Gauntlet is a kind of wearable electronic foundation for a whole bunch of different modules that attach magnetically to expand the base functionality. And we’re not just talking about mundane and boring functions like heart rate monitoring or step tracking. This is cool sci-fi stuff, like a drone that launches from your arm, a powerful flashlight, a multitool, and something akin to a mega smartwatch (or a mini tablet).

That’s just the beginning, because users in the community will be able to develop their own modules that work with Titan Gauntlets. At that point, imagination is the only limit.

And the Titan Gauntlet is, itself, a fully functional device. It can do the usual Fitbit-style biomonitoring stuff (heart rate, step counting, blood oxygen sensing, and so on). It can also do smartwatch-style stuff (compass, clock, weather, calculator, etc.). And, of course, there is an AI assistant. This one is called “TANNIS.”

For a certain kind of person (I see you, friend), Titan Gauntlets are just plain cool. This is the cyberpunk tech that we’ve seen in media for several decades now. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it may be too early, kind of like how Google Glass was too early when it first appeared in 2012 and got trashed in popular culture. But being an avant garde early adopter always comes with risks.

Apparently, the risk is worth it to at least 130 people, who have already raised more than $66,000 in campaign funding. If you want to join their ranks, you can back the Titan Gauntlets Kickstarter campaign until March 28th. Super early birds can get the Titan 1 by itself for $279. Rewards should ship in October — though I think that may be overly optimistic for a production timeline.