Apple Hires 'Wearable Technologies' Expert

Apple has hired itself a new Senior Prototype Engineer, and if his previous experience is anything to go by, Apple could have something special in the works.

ComputerWorld reports that Richard DeVaul has a background in wearable technologies and a PhD in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT.  At MIT, he worked on new human-computer interaction techniques for wearable, mobile, and portable applications and his Ph.D. dissertation was on a product called "The Memory Glasses," a heads-up display focused on combating the problems associated with wearable memory support technology. DeVaul says that with the Memory Glasses he can improve performance on a memory recall task by a factor of about 63 percent without distracting the subject.

DeVaul's LinkedIn status shows that he joined Apple in January of this year, but it's unclear as to what he's actually doing there. According to CW, DeVaul will be working under Jonathon Ive in a secret lab focused on wearable computing technology. Rumor has it that besides Ive and Steve Jobs, only seven people know what he is doing.

Speculation suggests that he may be helping Apple with a couple of iPod headset designs that the Cupertino-based company has already patented.

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