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...but you can not get more information than exists out of an image.

True, but you can get some good results with poor-quality video:

Video Orbits

This looks a whole lot like what Steve Mann has been doing for several decades. He was doing research on wearable displays at MIT for a long time, now he's at the University of Toronto.

Not to say that his way of doing things isn't freakishly strange, but he's definitely a leader in the area:

• His research:
  http://wearcam.org/
• His company?:
  http://eyetap.org/mann/
• Brief summary of him:
  http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_f air_projects_encyclopedia/Steve_Mann
• CNN article:
  http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/14/in ternet.cyborb.ap/
• Same article at space.com:
  http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/cyborg_man n_041012.html

I met him at a lecture he gave at McGill last year. I think he's a little out in left field, but he's also very bright, and deserves credit. He's been wearing this kind of laser device for some time now, and doesn't seem to have any retinal burn-in.

I think that you'd have to consider the intensity levels involved, it's a matter of wavelength, intensity and duration of exposure. It's quite possible that the 3 combined make this extremely safe. My approximation is that you probably risk more eye-damage from looking directly at a halogen desk lamp bulb.

His system is more interesting, because he includes a camera, and does image processing to include relevant information about the outside world onto the retinal image that is being displayed: ie. names of people (yes, little laser overlayed name tags), recalling facts and so on. I'm not sure how successful his systems are, but the way he speaks about them, they work fairly sucessfully.

This concept has been around awhile and is known as sousveillance or inverse surveillance.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance
See also http://wearcam.org/

NBGeek

This idea has been proposed before by Slashdot's favourite cyborg, Steve Mann. http://www.wearcam.org/

Many comments so far seem to grouse about the limitations of the 3-D interface vice the 2-D interface. Instead think about such an OS with head mounted display and gesture recognition technology. Now you're talking about an immersive computer experience and croquet would seem to be a good step in that direction.

With all its advantages please mention the disadvantages when comparing it to other os's. like:

• price
• platforms it can run on
• choice of desktops flavours
• did I mention price

Apple lost me ever since the ][e with greedy dealerships, multiple $'000 price tag, closed hardware and limited peripheral market. (Though it was fun having a *cr-apple* re-assembled by a mate who shipped an apple clone over from singapore as electronic parts). I realise for those who want a *consumer grade* product and are willing to pay good money for it (though I note iMacs go for $400-$800 AUD) this may be a *sensible choice* to spend their $$$.

But I also appreciate and enjoy having my software COSHER.
PS: I realise with osx you have to a degree have this option, but how many consumers would realise they can take full advantage?

Your wind resource depends a lot on where you are. Roofs of buildings tend to be very sheltered, and not quite the most efficient place to put a wind turbine. Solar -- in both its photovoltaic and hot-water-heating modes -- is probably a better bet for most domestic roof installations.

If you want to find out more about this, I can't recommend Home Power magazine highly enough. There's also a good crowd on energy nerds who hang out at Talk Energy who might be able to help.

I think you're looking for Cyborg Steve, and he's from UofT not MIT. Could know something about some kind of a electronic magnifying glass to zoom in on maps or books but I don't think he'll be able to offer any real assistance.

Many of you talk a good game of prior art, providing oodles of weblinks that supposedly prove your searching brilliance and the Patent Office's ineptitude. However, after looking over the "prior art" references cited in this thread, I fail to see any that would actually fully read on Xybernaut's claimed subject matter.

For instance, both the Nomadic Radio and Smart Cow Collar lack a display controller, and from all appearances also lack any computer components enclosed in the collar that can movably extend outside the collar adjacent to the user's face.

Simply mentioning that the Gumstix computer is small enough to fit under a collar doesn't remotely cover the myriad of claimed limitations in Xybernaut's patent.

This Hewlett-Packard paper merely states, "A collar mounted near-field transceiver allows connection to head-mounted peripherals." Again, nothing about a display controller (or any other computer components) movably extending from inside to outside the collar.

The Invisible Computer talks optimistically about a future when, "Computers will be in your collar, so you can whisper when you talk with them and hear without bothering others." The specific operational structure of Xybernaut's claimed invention is not here either.

Levi's Industrial Clothing apparently comes, "Armed with a remote, [so] you can switch between [an MP3] player and [a mobile] phone, while earphones and microphones are concealed in the jacket collar." No mention of display control. No mention of collar component extension.

This 'Enter the Cyborg' article further describes Levi's Industrial Clothing as having, "a microphone hidden in the collar, and retractable earphones [that] extend out from the shoulders for listening to both music and phone calls." So we have computer component extension -- but from the shoulders, not from the collar. And still, mind you, no display controller enclosed in the collar.

This Carnegie Mellon University paper reveals, "The general areas we have found to be the most unobtrusive for wearable objects are: (a) collar area..." Okay, great. But yet again, no display controller and no collar extension.

The closest prior art comes from Accenture's Personal Awareness Assistant. However, the earliest mention of the Personal Awareness Assistant on Accenture's website appears to be January 2002. And Xybernaut's invention was filed on January 2, 2001. Besides that, saying Accenture's mini digital camera constitutes a "display controller" would be a bit of a stretch. Regardless, Accenture also fails to say anything about "input/output connectors" or "peripheral ports" -- as claimed by Xybernaut. So another dead end here.

Now you may well make the argument that Xybernaut's invention is an obvious variant (where "obviousness" is completely subjective and easily disputable) of the above prior art. But that position is dramatically different from declaring Xybernaut's invention not to be novel. For Xybernaut's invention not to be novel, you would have to find a piece of prior art dated before 2001 that contains each and every limitation recited in claims 1, 11, 20, or 22 (a

So does this mean that Prof. Steve Mann's 'borg sunglasses are cool now? :-)

So does this mean that Prof. Steve Mann's 'borg sunglasses are cool now? :-)

... Unfortunately, some new concepts like Thin Clients, and Software Services are bringing us back to the bad old days of mainframe computers when a private message sent from one person to another could easily be intercepted by a corrupt official. ...

Ouiki Glogs:Rationale for attribution-free online communities ~ [steve mann, wearcam.org]

I think a better way to put it is, "I want my languages COSHER and prefer Computer Science over Computer Secrecy", [Steve Mann, wearcam.org]. It doesn't necessarily mean someone is smarter but it might mean they think better.

I think a better way to put it is, "I want my languages COSHER and prefer Computer Science over Computer Secrecy", [Steve Mann, wearcam.org]. It doesn't necessarily mean someone is smarter but it might mean they think better.

Have a look at the book
Intelligent Image Processing. It describes how to make an EyeTap which is definitely what you want. To date these devices are not available for purchase :(

for these reasons alone I love living in a place where if I'm outside it can be hard to be captured by image because of the size of the country.

the closest we have to cctv in melboure was some cameras put up in sept-oct '81 for CHOGM. This of course in under review as the 2006 commonwealth games are being planned.

But getting a shirt and some dacks at a local store on the weekend illustates how insidious observation has become. I picked up a buiness card seeing where was an online ordering option and I happened to notice the terms of condition for entry into the store.

If you refuse to have your bag searched the company reserved the right to use video images to refuse entry into *any* store in the future indefinatly.

• ``For YOUR protection, a video record of you and your establishment is being transmitted and recorded at remote locations. [insert darkglass here on shirt] All criminal acts prosecuted.''

  Steve Mann, Shooting back.

The problem for me is twofold, double standards and unnecessary data collection. Double standards becuase I bet the store owners and company in question would object if I did a steve man on them and put them under surveillance , secondly the potential for abuse or mistakes made using this approach.

In a country where noise is made about *free speach*, *innocence before guilt* and *privacy* I'll make less of a noise when pollies allow visual transmission of 100% of parliamentary procedure and not cut transmission due to parliamentary standing procedure to avoid honourary members falling into disrepute.

for these reasons alone I love living in a place where if I'm outside it can be hard to be captured by image because of the size of the country.

the closest we have to cctv in melboure was some cameras put up in sept-oct '81 for CHOGM. This of course in under review as the 2006 commonwealth games are being planned.

But getting a shirt and some dacks at a local store on the weekend illustates how insidious observation has become. I picked up a buiness card seeing where was an online ordering option and I happened to notice the terms of condition for entry into the store.

If you refuse to have your bag searched the company reserved the right to use video images to refuse entry into *any* store in the future indefinatly.

• ``For YOUR protection, a video record of you and your establishment is being transmitted and recorded at remote locations. [insert darkglass here on shirt] All criminal acts prosecuted.''

  Steve Mann, Shooting back.

The problem for me is twofold, double standards and unnecessary data collection. Double standards becuase I bet the store owners and company in question would object if I did a steve man on them and put them under surveillance , secondly the potential for abuse or mistakes made using this approach.

In a country where noise is made about *free speach*, *innocence before guilt* and *privacy* I'll make less of a noise when pollies allow visual transmission of 100% of parliamentary procedure and not cut transmission due to parliamentary standing procedure to avoid honourary members falling into disrepute.

More background.

Steve Mann's idea of inverse surveillance (or "sousveillance") is that constantly recording everything around you is your defence against being recorded by autorities. It allows you to defend yourself by presenting your side of the events, using cameras that you control.

Recording everything, everywhere, may produce some odd societal consequences, but like cell phones, we will probably just absorb it into our daily activities.

Disclaimer: I think Steve Mann is a bit of a kook, but he has some interesting ideas.

People are already freaking out about cameraphones in dressingrooms/lockerrooms. And Net-accessible smartphones inside corporate offices. Then there's the gargoyle who's been barred from surveilled stores for looking the cyclops back in the eye.

This seems very consistent with current politics, where Presidents (and their VPs) testify before committees unable to take notes, and public documents are supressed, then released only for in-person public review, barring recording. Has amnesia become the required state for modern people? Is Anderson/Enron record shredding the default in the info age? Who's looking at you, kid? And will you ever remember that night on Bourbon Street until the video appears on BitTorrent during your Congressional campaign?

Holy crap, this one runs XFree86. I want one.

A little offtopic, but enough people whinge about badly submitted posts that I thought it would be worth thanking the submitter for clearly outlining the links to large files and videos as well as providing mirrors.

Incidentally, I'm not normally the paranoid type, but video-(b)logging all face to face conversations? Seems a little risky/extreme. For the general public that is, as opposed to whacky cyborg professors.

I can't wait to see what Steve Mann is up to. He has got to be the biggest nerd of all time.

See for yourself.

I think he's cool.

This looks exactly like Steve Mann's EyeTap device. Which, incidentally, runs Linux.

Time to mention our local cyborg Steve Mann again. His system is constantly recording, with a buffer that runs several minutes back. If he decides he has just seen something worth keeping, he can signal it to save the last several minutes and/or start recording immediately into a buffer that won't get deleted. (There's no need to sit down every night and sift through your entire day on fast-forward. That would just be silly - you'd have to spend every other day watching your life flash before your eyes!)

I remember that episode. And here's some more related tech from the MIT Media Lab's wearable computing timeline:

Steve Mann has a web site with more info on wearable cameras.

This apparatus was profound, not because of its small size, but because it could be used convertly, to time the ball on a spinning roulette table. This was an important contribution to the notion of Existential Technology, e.g. technology of self-determination of the individual free spirit, in one of the most unfree environments this side of a prison, namely the environment of a gambling casino. It was quite remarkable that the free will of the individual can still prevail amid the repression and surveillance under the watchful eye of organized crime.

i think you are referring to Steve Mann

also, did you realize that it is illegal to count cards in blackjack? even in your brain? if they have reason to believe that you are counting cards, even in your head, they will kick you to the curb.

I don't know if it's just me, but the first model in the first picture is the only one who looks even half-Borg. What kind of technofashion show is it when the only man-made stuff visible under all that clothing and skin is gonna be the ol' Two of Thirty-Eight? Where's the chrome, dammit?

When I clicked on the link, I'd kinda hoped for something a little more like a wearable technology fashion show. (Ummm, and yes, we do need more women in Engineering.)

Motion to change venue to Fark and let the Photoshoppers have at it. All in favor?

Wow, Microsoft's just invented something Steve Mann has been doing for, oh, well over a decade in various forms...

Next up: purchasing a license to sit.

I remember reading about this, like forever ago.

It's called "Video Orbits," I guess. Originally, it was made to make panoramic stills from video. But it can also do the same thing mentioned in the article, sort of scanner like.

Here's the writeup and
you can download it over here.

I played with it a bit using the movie function of my digital camera, transfering to computer, then using

mplayer -vo png movie.mov && mogrify -format pnm *png && estcement.pl *pnm

(make sure the binaries and scripts are in your path)
You can play with the $steps= line in estpairwise.pl to change the settings. also, i like to take out the -display in estpairwise.pl, in order to speed things up, otherwise it draws each image on screen as it tries to match them up.

will produce cemented.pnm.

This works both as the article talks about, like a scanner, but it also makes kickass hires panoramic shots from crappy 320x240 video.
Note: turn off automatic brightness/ auto white balance when taking your video, or it make look a little funny.

no idea if any of this stuff works under windows. but it works like a charm under linux.

Geekier-than-thou Steve Mann already demonstrated this as video orbits, and there has been plenty of other work on the same subject. Most of the research actually looks at general mosaicing, not just documents. Use with cell phones so far has simply been limited by the limited availability of cell phones with video capability, not by any conceptual problems.

Geekier-than-thou Steve Mann already demonstrated this as video orbits, and there has been plenty of other work on the same subject. Most of the research actually looks at general mosaicing, not just documents. Use with cell phones so far has simply been limited by the limited availability of cell phones with video capability, not by any conceptual problems.

You can even get the code from sourceforge, although now he seems more interested in his studies into what he calls "Comparametric Toolkit", which seems to mix Video Orbits with software based on the Wyckoff principle (how to get high dynamic range pictures from one underexposed pic and one overexposed pic, for those who don't RTFL).

I suppose the amount of processing power in those phonecams must be insane, or maybe the algorithm they use is more generic, but it is good to know all this Moore's Law horsepower applied towards useful stuff, not just Laracroftish games (ducks).

Finally, it is worth of note that, although Mann's software is now GPL (I don't recall it being Free, or even released, last time I checked three years ago), at least one of the algoritms is under US Patent5,706,416, which of course is not nice, unless he plans to license it free of charge for GPL software.

You can even get the code from sourceforge, although now he seems more interested in his studies into what he calls "Comparametric Toolkit", which seems to mix Video Orbits with software based on the Wyckoff principle (how to get high dynamic range pictures from one underexposed pic and one overexposed pic, for those who don't RTFL).

I suppose the amount of processing power in those phonecams must be insane, or maybe the algorithm they use is more generic, but it is good to know all this Moore's Law horsepower applied towards useful stuff, not just Laracroftish games (ducks).

Finally, it is worth of note that, although Mann's software is now GPL (I don't recall it being Free, or even released, last time I checked three years ago), at least one of the algoritms is under US Patent5,706,416, which of course is not nice, unless he plans to license it free of charge for GPL software.

Meet the wearcam!

http://wearcam.org/
http://wearcam.org/orbits/alanalda.html

Meet the wearcam!

http://wearcam.org/
http://wearcam.org/orbits/alanalda.html

The following expose, written under extreme duress, is the result of an information leak out of ESR's SourceForge fortress that is the center of his refinery compounds and gas chambers within his insidious Gas Barony.

The information did not come cheaply, however, and that is why I believe that this story must be published: a troll, in the guise of a hired Hessian mercenary, infiltrated ESR's SourceForge compound with the fullest of confidence among the dread Slashdot Moderators and the loathed GNU Patrol. It is in this expose that I detail the significant information the document that the covert troll gave his life to bring me contained.

ESR, ARROGANT GAS BARON, EXPOSED!

(ref If You Want Me...)

I'll come to your meeting or presentation and donate my time. Yes, that's right, I'll do it for free (the first time, anyway).

Yes, that's right, folks, he'll do it for free (the first time, anyway)! See, ESR's time is so valuable, being that he can't be away from his home network of 386s running Linux, that he has to limit his time to one free presentation per group. Not that that's an unreasonable request for any other person... It's just totally arrogant because he pretends his time is worth enough to limit it to only one free presentation per group. Hell, if people were not so easily fooled by his Refinery wealth, they'd realize he should be paying them to even attend the presentations he currently speaks at. Please, someone, put a leak in this Petroleum Fiend's ego!

Anyway, on we go...

If you are not a local Linux user's group, you can make your request more attractive to me by scheduling a double-header with the local LUG...

Here we have another example of ESR's total blind arrogance. Assuming that he swings enough weight around to include his herds of unwashed Linux users at any event that he presents at.

Of course ESR knows he can, at a whim, call upon the GNU Patrol and Linux users and have them beckoning at his feet for orders (which usually are to buy cases of Jagermeister), and include them in any presentation's audience by sheer force of number... But ESR has darker plans behind the quote above.

The statement above is evidence that, simply, ESR is trying to spread the diseases of Linux zealotry, poor hygiene, and Communism, using the very organizations that pay for his lifestyle, dumbly hypnotized by his Black Gold wealth, as a catalyst for his viral teachings, in hopes of converting those caught in his wake. A wake of stench thick with idealism, crude oil, and BO.

(I'm free the first time. But if you're a profit-making entity and you decide you want my time on a regular basis, I'll have to think up a consulting rate.)

Ah, yes. He'll have to think up a consulting rate. ESR will estimate how much he wants paid to brainwash hapless victims.

ESR is obviously delusional as seen above: he doesn't have a consulting fee that he uses already simply because he's never consulted before. He's never held a regular job, in fact. Yet he thinks that there are those that would consider such a thing. Fortunately drug testing and hygiene codes have kept him out of the computer industry work force as of yet...

...I want my plane fare prepaid and pre-booked. If there's a hotel stay needed I want the room tab guaranteed, incidentals and meals and all (no chintzy base-rate-plus-tax-only stuff; I loathe having to argue with the front desk).

and

If you're a big company or a conference that charges admission, I expect you to pony up for business class or first class (so my travel exhaustion will be minimized) and I don't ever want to have to even look at the hotel bill.

Want, want, loathe, expe

There is a videoconferencing watch, running linux! Its right on this page.

one-handed input device
aremac
I've seen ones that look just like sunglasses, but can't find a pic now.

Sensefilters sounds suspiciously similar to what Prof. Steve Mann in MIT has been proposing. See http://wearcam.org/

But any new invention has its first implementation that is usually not very comfortable or sleek.

They also had the Wright Brothers airplanes there, and the old airplanes certainly were not very ergonomic by our standards of today.

So how about equal rights, e.g. put the surveillers in jail as well.

So how about equal rights, e.g. put the surveillers in jail as well.

But just because something is your property doesn't make you immune to the law.

Your store exists inside a city, which exists inside a state or province, which exists inside a country, etc..

Not to mention that it was built on stolen land, if you really want to get technical about ownership.

But on another level, there's no such thing as ownership (just stop paying your property taxes for a while and see what happens).

So I see no problem with sousveillance or other forms of inverse surveillance, if for nothing more than personal safety.

If you think his MIT co-students invented any of this, take a look at http://wearcam.org/shootingback/nn.mpg where you can see an excerpt from an interview with Medialab Director Nicholas Negroponte. It's pretty clearly acknolwedged that Mann invented this work, and brought this idea into the Medialab, even if his co-student (one in particular) doesn't want to admit it.

RWM illustration.

Fundamentals
link to mediated reality.

If I were in his shoes, with all these ideas (30 years ahead of his time) I would be saying fsck GNU! I'd be partnering with Adobe, Microsoft, and make some money selling implementations.

Given what little appreciation has been shown for
what is given away freely (even Stallman is seldom
appreciated), I'd be taking a serious look at using a subscription-based model for all the websites. For the amount of hits that wearcam.org, eyetap.org, etc., get, even just a penny a year subscription would produce a fortune. And I'd be stopping all manner of free talks, or free advice. If you hate the guy that much, at least don't take him for a free ride!

If I were him, I'd be renting a store front, installing some surveillance cameras, and selling shrink-wrap software implementations of VideoOrbits.

Anyone who's actually making real change in the
world attracts a lot of wrath from un-appreciative
people.

Mann, Stallman, Gates, or anyone else who's
changed the parameters of our world is hated by
many. But at least Gates has some money to sweeten the hatred.

RWM illustration.

Fundamentals
link to mediated reality.

If I were in his shoes, with all these ideas (30 years ahead of his time) I would be saying fsck GNU! I'd be partnering with Adobe, Microsoft, and make some money selling implementations.

Given what little appreciation has been shown for
what is given away freely (even Stallman is seldom
appreciated), I'd be taking a serious look at using a subscription-based model for all the websites. For the amount of hits that wearcam.org, eyetap.org, etc., get, even just a penny a year subscription would produce a fortune. And I'd be stopping all manner of free talks, or free advice. If you hate the guy that much, at least don't take him for a free ride!

If I were him, I'd be renting a store front, installing some surveillance cameras, and selling shrink-wrap software implementations of VideoOrbits.

Anyone who's actually making real change in the
world attracts a lot of wrath from un-appreciative
people.

Mann, Stallman, Gates, or anyone else who's
changed the parameters of our world is hated by
many. But at least Gates has some money to sweeten the hatred.

So if nothing else, sousveillance
(inverse surveillance) can explore a balance of
individuals.

Examples of sousveillance, such as the Rodney King beating,
show us the other side of the story that surveillance
cameras never show us.

Had the police seen the video camera of the King beating, they'd
likely have tried to destroy that data as well.

Online glogs
(cyborglogs) at least balance the equation.