Ears Follow Eyes as Target in $1.84 Billion Wearable Boom

Google Inc. is going after consumers’ eyes with its Glass Internet spectacles, and Samsung Electronics Co. went for the wrist with its Galaxy Gear smartwatch. Iriver Inc. is seeking to connect another body part: the ear.

Last month, Iriver released a headset in the U.S. with a Tic-Tac-sized sensor that shines light into the ear to track a user’s heart rate, distance and speed traveled, and calories burned. Startup Looxcie Inc. sells an ear-mounted camera, and other ear-based devices have been patented by the likes of Intel Corp. and Samsung, or developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Keio University.