Wearable tech: 3D nails latest thing in bling

Want new, fancy nails? There’s an app for that, and many other fashionable ideas for the digital generation.

Beauty App

“Wearable technology” is emerging as the next big thing in a world where an image-obsessed generation with an insatiable hunger for all things digital is marketing fodder.

The future of digitally activ­ated fashion was the buzz theme at the Queensland University of Technology’s sold-out Creative 3 conference last week, with some of the world’s most successful start-up entrepreneurs, whose business models are based on ­creating smartphone and social media applications, passing on valuable know-how to hundreds of industry newbies, and some who have already made a successful foray into the field.

For Melbourne-based Meta-verse Makeovers chief executive Thea Baumann, venturing into Asia’s beauty market has been a lucrative lesson in the appeal of “glam, wearable tech”.

Through her futuristic line of Metaverse nails — false sets which are embedded with codes and marketed to nail bars and ­salons across Asia — interactive holograms are activated by a downloadable 3D social application which is triggered when the phone is shone over the specially designed nails.

Metaverse has patented the technology behind its 3D-games on fingernails.

Of the 93 million young women who fall into her “post-90s, active on social media” category, 31 million live in China alone, making Shanghai and Hong Kong ideal locations for the company’s satellite offices.

“The concept of scanning your body and fingers to make an image appear is a new way of ­interacting with and marketing to the digital generation,” Ms Baumann said. “This is just the start of micro-billboard, unique, wearable content.”

Australia’s creative industries employ more than 6.2 per cent of the national workforce and generate about $90 billion in revenue.

The sector was recognised as a driver for economic growth in the Brisbane 2020 New World City action plan, while the state government’s $180 million Advance Queensland plan has a strong focus on start-ups.

QUT Creative Enterprise Australia chief executive and Creative 3 curator Anna Rooke said the conference demonstrated the importance of backing future power sectors of the Australian and global economies rather than relying on traditional industries.

“Sometimes Brisbane’s creative start-up community is underestimated when compared to international hot spots such as Silicon Valley, but we have some of the best and brightest talent here,” Ms Rooke said.

“Through Creative 3, we’re bringing successful entrepreneurs from around the globe to Brisbane, to help our Australian start-ups access capital, connect and grow in confidence.”