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WearableComputer

Revision r1.2 - 10 Dec 2003 - 19:01 GMT - TWikiGuest

Summary

I want to build or buy a wearable computer suitable for use at all times and as inconspicuous as clothing, glasses, or a fancy watch. This is a sci-fi dream, but it seems possible with current technology - it's just a bit pricy at the moment. Shouldn't stop me from throwing some notes & thoughts together though. I've babbled about this before - see Blog:000308.

Desirable qualities:

  • Long-lived battery life
    • 10+ hrs of battery life?
  • Physically inconspicuous rig
    • Small & light
      • Pocket-sized
      • Multiple belt modules
      • Small backpack / messenger bag sized
      • Vest sized
    • Socially transparent
    • Inobtrusive in daily use
  • Modestly powered CPU
    • Low-end laptop equivalent
    • If networked, shift heavy work to servers at home
      • But the networking would probably be over something wireless like 802.11b. Driving the radios takes power, so perhaps it's better to do more stuff locally than waste power phoning home?
  • Ubiquitously networked
    • Wireless ethernet equivalent where possible
    • Roam using cellular data services
  • Ubiqutous yet inobtrusive user interface
    • Situational flexibility
      • Change UI scheme and I/O devices depending on context
      • Full keyboard & monitor - at a desk
      • Tablet device - at a coffee shop
      • Wrist LCD screen & pad - at a meeting or while walking
      • Monocle & twiddler - at a meeting or while walking
      • Voice, sound, vibration - while walking or driving
      • Vibration - at a movie, if expecting urgent msg
    • Output
      • Lightweight monocle on glasses
      • Smaller wrist-mounted display for alternative
      • Vibration feedback
      • Sound feedback, loud & public or earphone & private
    • Input
  • Construction
    • Custom design, build, wiring, etc
    • Off-the-shelf construction
    • Bluetooth for new devices?
    • USB everywhere

News

Bookmarks

General

Wearable Computing @ MIT Media Lab http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/
Wearable Computing @ CMU http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/vuman/www/home.html
Wearables @ VASE Lab http://wearables.essex.ac.uk/
Wearables Central http://wearables.blu.org/
MIT/IDEO project http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/mit-ideo/index.html
Xybernaut wearables http://www.xybernaut.com
A Wearable Computing course @ UMass http://www-anw.cs.umass.edu/classes/cs691w/
Wearable Tech Web Ring http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=Wearables;action=list
Wearable Computing page @ earthlink http://home.earthlink.net/~wearable/
Many wearable links from Emmanuel Mungia Tapia http://web.mit.edu/emunguia/www/links.html

User Interface Hardware

Eyeglass-mounted displays http://www.microopticalcorp.com/products.html
KeyGlove? (home-brew) http://www.eyetap.org/wearable/keyglove.html
KeyGlove? variant http://www.wirejunkie.com/resources/wearable/keyglove/
Acceleration Sensing Glove (virtual keyboard) http://bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/~shollar/fingeracc/fingeracc.html

User Interface Software

Emacspeak http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/
jAugment http://www.informatik.uni-rostock.de/~mawol/jaugment/index.html

When I grow up, I want to be a computer scientist
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