Divided as we may be on the right and wrong places to wear Google Glass, the numbers have spoken: the wearable electronics' market for humans is about to explode into a $6 billion festival by 2016. In development are wristbands, health-sensing tattoos and more.

That tech is also reaching our four-legged friends. Researchers around the world are building trackers and sensors — animal-friendly ones that are light, waterproof, and activated by bites, tugs and taps of the nose. Not long from now, they'll help humans track the health and ailments of their pets, and even let man's best friend finally talk back.

The FIDO — Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations — research team at Georgia Tech wants to give some of our smartest helpers a voice.

"If a dog could communicate clearly with a human being, there are so many ways it would be life-changing for the human and even life-saving,"Melody Jackson, associate professor at Georgia Tech and director of the BrainLab, told NBC News. Jackson herself wears a FitBit "all the time" and she also has six dogs.

Jackson and a group of researchers at the university including Google Glass pioneer Thad Starner, are building communication tools activated by bites, tugs and taps of the nose.

Since 1995, Jackson has trained assistance dogs for Canine Companions for Independence, and she's using some of that experience to help train assistance dogs to use sensors that are activated by gestures that uniquely canine. 

The group has tested two different bite sensors, a tugging sensor worn on the dog's back, and a motion sensor detector, like those in paper towel dispensers in public restrooms. "We wanted to see if the dogs would wave their nose at it," Jackson said. "The dogs figured it out better than I figured out the paper towels."

Though the team tested FIDO on highly-trained assistance dogs, Jackson believes any dog would be able to pick up some of these tricks. Her own Border Collie, Sky, and Pappillon, Lazer, have been in the lab and Lazer's quite good at pushing the sensor with his nose, Jackson said.

Not too long from now, when a seizure assistance dog senses that her owner is about to have an episode, Jackson hopes the dog will be able to push a button on a vest, or tap a sensor with his nose to send a text message: "Stu's having a seizure, here's where we are now. Love, Fido."

'Like a FitBit on steroids' Whether you're a person or a pug, having a wearable tracker that's waterproof is always handy.

In the United Kingdom,Cassim Ladha and his fellow researchers were testing the water-resistive ability of a new wearable sensor that people could wear as they washed up. He tested it by strapping it