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If I saw someone wearing that, I would think they were a total goofball--beyond just geeky, into the realm of "do you realize how freaking silly that looks". Perhaps in 5 years, wearable computing won't be so odd... but right now it would look goofy.

One opening I do see for this, however, is in industry. Just as the Xybernaut (a commercialization of Steve Mann's work in wearable computers, IIRC) is selling to workers who need easy access to computer data without the heft and inconvenience of a separate machine, this will probably sell to people who need it. I could see it replacing the handheld scanners that UPS and FedEx people carry now, or allowing utility workers (telephone, internet, electricity) to run line tests or check things without climbing down from a telephone pole or running back to their van.

If there's a will, there's a way to do it. The real thing here is that there is no such thing as unbreakable security. Even if you leave me no external ports, I can still use my camera phone to take snapshots of my screen as I display the sensitive data and then email it to anyone I choose. How do you stop that? Cavity search all employees every morning? C'mon! You have to pay me a *lot* more to put up with that.

What about the USB storage devices that mimic other things? Like this - a watch - http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/7899/ or this - a pen - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1618595,00.as p. Or how about one of these babies - http://www.xybernaut.com/itemList.asp?categoryID=2 8. It's not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes and can be used to transmit data out of a data center via a cellular card. Hook up a hub and .... I know, because I've seen something similar at least twice already.

Frankly, how crappy are you to your people that they're doing stuff like this? I think this is a real wake up call to the industry to look at how employees are treated and/or compenstated. If you think it's bad stateside, how bad do you think it is overseas where they're making $8/hour?

2 cents,

Queen B

They exist in some capacity. This site sells a few www.xybernaut.com/. Looks like they even run linux!!

I am somewhat involved in product development for portable machines for law-enforcement, so have a bit of an idea about what is what in portable land these days. First of all, "cheap" is a relative term - with these things, much like all else, you get what you pay for. If this would be your employers only reliable bridge with the outside world, I would have a good think about system criticality, and the relative worth of such.

Secondly, I assume from your question that you are looking for an off-the shelf solution in terms of software. There are plenty of off-the shelf systems that do TTS, but you may need to look at custom stuff, depending on the physical state and limitations of your employer.You may want to consider getting something done in-house, so to speak.

Hardware wise, in terms of form-factor, functionality and ruggedness, you may want to look at any of the current crop of handtops out there. However, they may be a bit expensive in terms of value for money. Tablet PC's are a bit expensive, and can be a bit fragile. They are also unwieldy. On the other hand, they give you a very good price/performance ratio, so could equate well in terms of value for money. Battery life may also be an issue. Finally, you can look at using wearable systems - they have come a long way, and with the right kind of setup, they can really be what you are looking for. From that link, you may want to look at the MA-TC system or the Xyberkids system. both have pro's and con's. However - they are really, really expensive - but I would probably go with the MA-TC platform, with a good HMD system.

Software wise, I would go with Linux as the core OS - can't beat value for money, stability, and software availability. I would combine that with Dasher for the input system, linked perhaps with Festival.

Also, to your employer: don't underestimate the value of working with professionals that know what they are talking about.

In 2001 the Xybernaut POMA/Hitachi WIA came with Wince 3.0 and a 800x600 head worn display.

There was no screen nor keyboard, but there was an optical thumb mouse. Fortunately, it had USB, so you could attach a keyboard. However, there was no audio in which meant there was no speech recognition. Moreover, it was running an hitachi SH-4 CPU which meant there was hardly any software. Especially drivers for devices.

The display also fit poorly. Xybernaut has since stopped selling them.

We'll see what happens this time especially since the new display is much cheaper and doesn't come with a system.

http://www.hitachi.us/Apps/hitachicom/content.jsp? page=PressReleases/details/Hitachi,%20Shimadzu,%20 Colorado%20Microdisplay,%20and%20Xybernaut%20Coope rate%20for%20WIA.html&path=jsp/hitachi/aboutus/Pre ss-Media/

http://www.xybernaut.com/company/public/outside%20 articles/electronic080601.htm

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/articles/AT927776 5970.html

Xybernaut sell all sorts of wearable computer gubbins. The MIT Wearables Lab is a fantastic resource for wearable computing.

Apparently, wearable PCs are proving to be a viable and lucrative technology for businesses like FedEx and major utility companies, but the US military loves them, too. For instance, Xybernaut, (NASDAQ:XYBR) will be on the receiving end of a long flow of Pentagon contracts in the coming years. I read in another article, that, by 2008, the Pentagon plans to outfit the entire military with wearable PCs. Combining GPS location of U.S. forces, with satellite imagery location of enemy forces, our soldiers may be able to get a complete view of the battlefield and their position within it, real-time. "G.I. Joe, you are here *".

What? No offerings from the Starship Fucknozzle?

We research wearable computing so we have quite a similar set of requirements to you. The board that we use is an ADS Bitsy which support either winCE (yup some peeps still call it that after all this time) or linux (hooray!). Take a look at their site for details. I'm not sure about ruggedness though, we put it inside a custom metal case so it can take a bit of a battering. We let student loose on them fer gods sake!

At one of the last wearables conferences I went to though I remember a talk from Xybernaut which sticks in the head as they claimed to have invented the concept of wearable computers to a room full of researchers working in the field, quite amusing. But anyways, they do a range of full blown windows / winCE devices in very rugged cases that were actually really good - but the battery life sucks on the fullblown windows ones. Try their site here.

you could stack and overclock those babies if you were willing to store your rack in liquid nitrogen. Even better, you could make Superconducting Plutonium Pentium V chips and run the whole thing in a liquid helium bath. If space and performance are really such problems, this is the solution. Meantime...I will stick to maxitowers with huge power supplies and redundant cooling systems. If you really want small and expensive check out the wearable systems from Xybernaut

Sounds like you want either a reflective LCD display or one of those fancy-schmancy computer google thingies. Looks like Xybernaut (among others) offer such things for sale. Just search for wearable computers.

Granted a bunch of people wearing opaque computer goggles, possibly with computer gloves navigating their own private 3-d world might make for an odd looking group to an uninitiated visitor. Make sure to keep a few regular CRTs and schedule visits carefully.

this company has been making wearable computers for a long time...

Xybernaut already has wearables for sale. They've already got contracts with branches of the U.S. military, so swinging a deal with the space jockeys shouldn't be too hard.

Xybernaut makes a similar system.
They also sell a wearable.

Even wearables are struggling to get 640x480, which is the smallest screen I would use for anything 3D.

On the upside, Nokia has a very good history of being innovative in the mobile market, more power to them. If they can get a usuable 3D device to market, I'd buy it.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy playing Doom on a Nokia 9210

I enjoyed Quake on my iPaq too =)

Here are a few links for wearable computing vendors that have displays you might want to look at. Xybernaut partnered with IBM to take over the wearable project if I remember correctly.

Xybernaut
MicroOptical

Strength of this offering is in industrial grade ruggedness, modularity and completeness - businesses are not likely to buy a one-of-a-kind wearable from a geek next door; they want volume, reliability, FCC, CE and UL approvals, repairs and support, and much more - something that only a stable business can offer.

Also, the $6000 price tag is not particularly unreasonable for a commercial wearable computer, eg. Xybernaut's stuff isn't much cheaper. Last year I had the job of purchasing a wearable for our lab -- we almost went with the earlier model of CharmIT, but in the end decided that we needed a bit more power and expandability, so we rolled our own. Had the Crusoe version existed then, we quite probably would have chosen it.

Cheers,
-j.

Xybernaut already does this. They had several large industrial clients, like telecom workers, who used the wearables for "hands free" computing / reference.

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon

Xybernaut owns nearly all of the significant patents in the Wearable Computing area. Perhaps it's the patent royalties that are causing Charmed to have such high prices (can't just be economies of scale...)

We have a long Wired article talking about poor Mr. Whatley and all the suffering he's going through, a quote here and there from the website in question, a single comment from Xybernaut's lawyer, but not a single link to Whatley's page for everybody to see exactly what was considered libelous. In fact, it doesn't look like Wired tried very hard (if at all) to get Xybernaut's opinion and mostly just wrote a little sob story about poor Whatley. Did I somehow miss the part where the article said "Xybernaut officials weren't available for comment?"

Like it or not, libel is libel, and just because you're free to say what you want doesn't mean you're not responsible for what you say. Of what was shown of what Whatley said, it could very easiily be libelous.

"I have been dealing with the Newmans and XYBR and they are the most incompetent management I have ever seen,"

Wouldn't it be interesting if Whatley had had no dealing with Xybernaut prior to the lawsuit? How many managements has he seen in order to make this comparison?

"If Steve Newman was not a relative his job would consist of ... 'Would you like fries with that?'"

Has he seen Newman's resume? Has he even met Steve Newman face-to-face? Is Newman really a relative, or just somebody that happens to share a last name? Hell, has anybody even checked to see if there's a Steve Newman working for Xybernaut? Anyone?

I have checked and there is a Steve Newman on the executive board, and he does share the last as somebody else on the board, but since the bio links aren't working I can't find out if they're actaully related. However, at the very least the fact that Steve Newman has a doctorate suggests that Whatley's claims of his lack of education might be just a tad unfounded.

If you simply believe everything you're told by the media, whether it be AOL/TW or Slasdot, you're no better than the mindless sheep you claim to despise.

According to this story at Wired, Xybernaut's Mobile Assistant® V product will be used at COMDEX Chicago by the event staff to reduce queues. I could envision two different ways that slashdotters could protest. If they are actually going to attend, they could wear something that states their position about the company and its practices. If they are not going to attend, but live in or near Chicago (big place, should be a few around somewhere), they could do the usual protest thing on public property at the border of the convention (I'm sure the COMDEX people would never allow them in the convention area).

Defendant Whatley said: If Steve Newman was not a relative his job would consist of ... 'Would you like fries with that?'"

According to the company's Web site:
Dr. Newman is the former President and CEO of Fed American Inc., President and CEO of SANDCO American Corporation, and President and CEO of SAN Medical Corporation. A graduate of the University of Rochester School of Medicine, he also has degrees from UCLA and Brooklyn College. Dr. Newman's articles and presentations on the future of technology have been distributed worldwide.

On the face of it, Whatley's statement is wrong, defamatory, and made with wreckless disregard for the truth. The only question is whether $450,000 is an appropriate penalty for what he said, that is, did Newman or the company suffer that much in damages or did Whatley's conduct need a substantial judgment to deter him in the future.

The main line of Whatley's defenders appears to be that nobody should take what he says seriously, a curious position for people who claim the moral high ground over corporations.

With so much true stuff that needs to be said, why would anyone waste their time on malicious nonsense?

Well, after posting your opinion on Slashdot, why don't you let Xybernaut.com know what your feelings are? I always thought what they were creating was pretty innovative.

But after reading all of this, they leave a bad taste in my mouth. If you feel the same, why don't you send an email to public relations

off of the xybernaut contact page there are a few addresses to complain to. i'm sure i'm not alone in being a person who has considered purchasing their stuff, perhaps they should know how much they've pissed us off.

I don't know if you have such a position (or if one would call it exactly a "Fellow"), but I'd like to be a sort-of Soros Fellow based around New York City who is also an Information Technology staff member. Essentially, I'd like to wander around the Open Society Institute (as well as the larger Soros Foundations Network) and create and deploy "open source" technology for knowledge management and digital libraries (including open content) to help other Soros Foundations Network staff do their jobs better, while at the same time make available that technology outside the Soros Foundations Network under open source licenses (and integrate back in community generated improvements as well). I'd naturally be happy to instead be a more conventional Soros Fellow who just works on some Digital Library projects of my own design (I have a couple in mind) but I think helping with Soros Foundations Network's immediate knowledge management needs (or at least the subset shared by others) would serve as inspiration to create all sorts of wonderful things over the long term, which other foundations and other individuals might find of great usefulness -- and the hope is perhaps they might even improve on them a little in the process and share those improvements back to us.

While I know any foundation would not match private sector pay, what would interest me most in working with the Soros Foundations Network and get my full-time (plus some) devotion to it is if my employment agreement ensured all software I developed for the foundation could be released under an open source license of my choice or into the public domain. Also, I'd want to talk about open content licensing issues in regards to any large work undertaken in the digital library space. That would help me weave together various threads of my life into a whole cloth. Currently I work for six to eighteen months at a time doing proprietary work for clients, and then take some time to work on my own projects. In both cases I end up a little too isolated for being the most productive I could be.

Here is my perspective on the issues of our day and what I think I can help with at the foundation. You may find this of interest even if we do not work together in the future.

Due to continuing exponential growth of computer chip manufacturing capability (predicted by Moore's law), computers are predicted to be a million times bigger in capacity, faster in speed, or smaller in size (pick one at a time for a constant price) within the next couple of decades. However, exponential growth in technological capacity is also occurring in a variety of fields besides computing. Technologies for power generation, CAD/CAM, materials, nanotechnology, communications, positioning, robotics, artificial intelligence, transportation, biotechnology, and collaboration are all increasing on their own exponential curves. That growth is also interacting with the exponential changes in computing and the other fields in a synergetic way. Cars that drive themselves are just one example of a technology around the corner that will change the face of society -- something only made possible by several of these trends coming together. We are heading for an age of abundance (although the future is still far from assured given continuing risks from arms races in part driven also by technological imperatives). Raymond Kurzweil's latest web site makes the issues clear: http://www.kurzweilai.net/ And it also makes clear how there are both opportunities and dangers: http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?m=2

When I audited a course in Soviet Politics [snipped] around 1984, one idea bounced around was that because the Soviet Union was highly centralized, if they did decide to switch to a democratic capitalist model, they could do it overnight. Yet, nothing was further from the truth when Gorbachev actually started Perestroika a few years later -- because old ways of doing things, old habits, old customs, old relationships, and old world views were slow to change. Now, fifteen years after the initiation of Perestroika, that area and its economy is still in disarray, and the people living there as well as their environment have suffered greatly as a result.

The same may well be true of Western society as we transition into this age of abundance made possible by all this technological advancement. In the age of the internet, many of the old competitive ways of doing things such as obtaining local benefits while passing on external costs no longer make much sense (if they ever did), yet the new ways are still forming, like the chaordic vision of organization advocated by Dee Hock. http://www.chaordic.org/ As we move into this age, "gift" economies may take center stage, such as the gift economy behind Linux and much of the interesting content on the internet. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_12/barbroo k/ The realization is still slow to dawn that we as a society now know enough and have enough potential wealth to have plenty of each of nature, technology and society for everyone. Perhaps that was always true and we had just forgotten it.

Buckminster Fuller http://www.bfi.org/ brought this issue up decades ago as "Design Science", but such ideas are at odds with a lifetime of conditioning to believe in an economy of scarcity, and so they move very slowly. People are still caught in thinking we must choose between countryside, gadgetry, or humanity. We can have all of these things -- if we use the knowledge we already possess in a collaborative way to reconcile issues of self interest with the greater good through innovative practices. Perhaps not all conflicts can be resolved, but many of the basic life-support ones about adequate water, minimal food, clean air, decent shelter, livable communities, conserved biodiversity, and innovative education can. To do so requires that we include this upcoming transition to an age of abundance in our thinking about economic policy, foreign affairs, and domestic political issues. It also requires preserving the digital commons in terms of free access to basic information about the essentials of life (and how to make them). The OSCOMAK project http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/oscomak was a step in that direction, but I have not had enough time to develop it. I would hope I could continue to pursue it in some way in conjunction with the Soros Foundations Network, since for example such information might help developing nations bootstrap their economies.

What excites me about working with the Soros Foundations Network is that I would be involved with people who care about such things, and we could all be working to make similar things happen together, all made possible by far-sighted gifts from George Soros.

As the Soros Foundations Network moves forward, I would like to play a role helping articulate a vision and strategy that balances these three aspects (nature, technology, society) amidst the upcoming potential of prosperity made possible by advanced information systems and other products of the exponential growth of technology. I would also like to help create the information systems that the foundations network itself uses for internal communications, internal education, and external communications. These systems could be built using an open source collaborative model allowing the Soros Foundations Network's own needs for knowledge management to create another gift for humanity in terms of freely available tools for collaboration and knowledge management, leveraging the work of existing collaborative communities where possible, and adding to them where there are special needs.

For example, why shouldn't each on-the-go Soros Foundations Network staffer have (if they desire) a belt-worn wearable computer and tri-band cell phone to keep them in touch with the network's digital library from anywhere in the world? The hardware exists pretty much off-the-shelf for this http://www.xybernaut.com/ and will only continue to get better. The software is still something to be wrestled with though, and that is a challenge I would relish. Similarly, why shouldn't the Soros Foundations Network have a situation room with hundreds of display screens monitoring world issues, the progress of grants, and the initiatives of other foundations? Again, the relatively affordable hardware for such a room exists now off-the-shelf -- the software is the main issue. http://www.unigraf.fi/PAGES/multiscr/videowall.htm These are the sorts of things I would like to create for the Soros Foundations Network and, if done primarily as open source, for the world.

The internet also makes possible a fine grained sort of collaboration which was never practical before (such as through using threaded email lists or discussion sites like http://www.slashdot.org/ ). Such collaborations might help in advancing the Open Society Institute's mission. Yet such collaborations produce new legal issues (or, more correctly, put new twists on old ones). There is a related paper my wife and I wrote that talks about clear licensing as a way to promote collaboration which I will be presenting for the SSI Conference on Space Manufacturing in Princeton the beginning of next week. I'd be happy to send a copy after the conference is over if it is of any interest. It touches on some of the broader non-technical issues that directly effect how IT can be used for the common good.

Unfortunately, it seems many non-profits (including schools) see the internet as a potential profit center for selling information (whether that is realistic is a different issue). To that end they prevent others from making derived works from their materials (as a byproduct of restricting copying to create artificial scarcity), which in turn limits fine-grained collaboration to improve technical artifacts. So, there is much to be worked through here in terms of the bigger picture.

While large corporations can play a role in developing such technology (just wave money in front of them), they aren't exactly going to be out front cheer leading and inventing the open source information tools an open society needs (since there are many other short-term profitable things they can focus on, typically involving financing by people with proprietary interests in information management). Yet, as individuals, many of the people in such organizations would love to work on such projects and could make convincing pitches to management if given half a chance and a shred of economic justification. And many other individuals outside such organizations will give freely of their spare time to help make such efforts happen.

Leading by example is almost always a good idea. As Alan Kay said, "the best way to predict the future is to invent it". If we are to have an open society, we need to invent open technology to go with it. Somebody has to make that technology. This is an area the Soros Foundations Network can play a leadership role while at the same time helping achieve its other goals through open source efforts.

But with out a hatachi brand name...

This is exactly the same as Poma from Xybernaut

It is infact very similar to the Xybernaut Poma. For people who want to see what it looks like when it's on, there are two farily good
pictures of people wearing them in this PDF brouchure.

Or at least, I believe it is. It's been mentioned here before.

The Xybernaut Poma is their OEM version of the direct-from-Hitachi model. Fifteen hundred bucks US gets you delivery before the end of Q1 2002.

It runs Windows CE, has no audio inputs, and I don't think anyone on the wearables mailing list has actually gotten one yet to see what development will be like, but it's very interesting, at least.

this looks just like the xybernaut poma?

poma

Maybe they can put up an excellent wearable device, but they sure don't know how to code HTML tables!

:-)

..this new Poma doesn't seem to use the same cables as the other Poma..

A little light on the specs, although the headmounted screen is 640x480 and it runs WinCE.

Actually the display looks to be 800 x 600, according to the link you posted:

A better view of the world
Forget about trying to view graphics on a tiny PDA screen. Poma's headmount display is built for optimum comfort and functionality. The one-inch full color 800 x 600 SVGA viewing screen sits below your eye, weighs approximately 3 ounces and provides a viewing area resolution similar to that of a desktop monitor from two feet away.

And I wont get one until they can at least get there technical specifications in focus properly!

added to which, it doesn't look all that comfortable to wear or use, either.

Incidentally, if the submitter sent in a link to the BBC talking about the new xybernaut Poma, maybe it would have been a good idea to include that link?

I assume it was this story.

And the image on that page really does show off how stupid a user can look. It's shown off by Xybernaut president Edward Newman and he really does look daft with all those wires dangling off his headband.

They say that in the future the screens will be 'integrated into the lenses of glasses'. Until that day I think they'd be better off keeping to a good sound card for output device, even though it requires more effort (short-term memory usage) to listen to something than read it. This unit is somewhat underpowered for decent speech synthesis though, at 128 mhz it would be something of an effort.

Oh, and finally, would you really enjoy using an 'equivalent to a 15 inch colour screen' at 640x480? Somebody in a past slashdot discussion described this phenomenon as 'pixels the size of fists'. Ouch.

Besides, until these things get to this size, and have decent current PC type specs, they'll never become mainstream anyway.

Something that goes in front of the couch

1. The digital lifestyle product, perhaps similar to the
2. Nokia Media Terminal, perhaps with a DVD burner to save your home videos and recorded programs

Something that goes in your pocket

1. A PDA or perhaps a portable digital media device, like the iPod with a large color screen. I miss my Newton!

An upgrade

1. Flat panel iMacs, a really fast G5, etc. this would be disappointing, given the hype

My take: Hitachi has an expensive (and therefore slow-selling) product called the E-Plate. So, someone gets the bright idea to repackage this bad boy with an even more expensive and power-hungry display solution.

And this improves on the iPaq how?

-Mr. Cranky (dvd_tude)

Xybernaut has been doing this for quite some time. There are also quite a few single board computers (SBCs) that are a very good base to build your own wearable. EMJ is a good place to find out more about SBC's. There are instructions for building your own matchbox server at the Stanford wearables page. With the addition of a HUD, this could easily be converted to a wearable. You can even order your own pre-made matchbox server here.


Enigma

If you want a computer screen - not TV - right in your face, there's this company called xybernaut that makes "wearable PC's", so you dont have to leave your (or a) computer behind when you go grocery shopping.

It appears they're shipping a Pentium MMX type computer with a head mounted 640x480 resolution monocular display (errrr no 3d graphics but your shopping list is right there with you projected into the store) - has voice recognition.

It however doesnt appear they've really come out with some grand new improvement over the last year - their processors are all pentium MMX from 200 to 233 mhz... Maybe they're cash strapped.

Also the Yahoo index on wearable PC's doesnt really show a lot of promise - most of the companies manufacturing hardware need a lesson making websites, so you'd wonder where we're heading with this kind of technology.

For too much info on this visit the temple of geeks at http://www.mit.edu and search for wearable computer.

• Wearable Computer
• Wearable Computing Intro Page
• Wearable Computing Portal
• Wearable Computing Resource Page
• WearableGear.com
• Wearables Central
• Wearables WebCrawler Search Engine
• Wearables Webring
• WearableTech Corp.
• Wired News: Annotated Reality
• Wired News: Intel Chips In On Future Devices
• Wired News: Waiting For Wearable Wearables
• Wraith Projects
• Xybernaut

Impossible means no one's done it yet.

Here I have a whole bunch of links to further information about wearable computers and "enhanced reality" for anyone interested:

• A Brief History Of Wearable Computing
• Affective Computing
• BBC News: Japan Eyes Wearable PC
• Charmed Technology
• CNET.com: 10 Technologies That Will Take Over - #8
• CNN: Excuse Me, Is That A Monitor On Your Head?
• CNN: MIT 'Cyborgs' Bridge Gap Between Man And Machine
• CNN: Turn On, Jack In, And Geek Out With Wearable PC
• CNN: Wearable Systems May Cut Labor, Save Time
• CNN: Xybernaut Now Has Linux For Wearable PCs
• CNN Poll: Do You Want A Wearable Computer?
• Computer For The 21st Century, The
• ComputerWorld: Wearable Computers - Digitally Attired
• Context-Aware Computing
• CTHEORY: Body Delirium
• DisplayWear Incorporated
• Extreme Computing
• Handykey, Inc. Wearable Computing Page
• Houston Chronicle: Future Phones Home, The
• ICBorg
• Intelligent Information Filters And Enhanced Reality, by Alexander Chislenko
• ISWC- International Symposium on Wearable Computers
• Marvin Elizondo's Wearable Computing Page
• MicroOptical
• MIT-IDEO Wearables Intro
• NetWork Fusion: Armani, Karan, Xybernaut? 02/01/999
• PBS: Scientific American Frontiers Transcripts - Inventing The Future (Aired Fall 1996)
• PC World News: Wearable PC To Debut At Comdex
• PopSci.com Headlines: CyberFashions
• Slashdot Articles: Wearable PCs Under Linux
• Smart Rooms
• TechWearable
• TekGear
• Wearable Computer
• Wearable Computing Intro Page
• Wearable Computing Portal
• Wearable Computing Resource Page
• WearableGear.com
• Wearables Central
• Wearables WebCrawler Search Engine
• Wearables Webring
• WearableTech Corp.
• Wired News: Annotated Reality
• Wired News: Intel Chips In On Future Devices
• Wired News: Waiting For Wearable Wearables
• Wraith Projects
• Xybernaut

Impossible means no one's done it yet.

What do you expect?

Seriously though, I found out about this early last week, as Xybernaut announced in a press release that X-Files would be showing off their equipment. Unfortunately, they were really nothing more than props (the head-mounted displays), and really didn't add anything to the show.

If XYBR really wanted to show off their stuff, they should make a Snow Crash movie.

Getting back to the violence bit, that's a hard question to answer. Women are not *as interested* in FPS, or shooters of any kind (well, my wife likes Area 51..). Then again, there are definate differences between the female and male minds. So it's hard to say that it's a testosterone thing, or men need to get out their agression lest they take it out in another way. Unfortunately, I think it would have to take a lot of research to find the links. And research means there'll be data, and data will be skewed by whoever reads it.

Is there more violence in the US? Probably. Is violence increased as a percentage of the population? I don't know. Is said violence a result of watching too much South Park/3 Stooges/Baywatch? Could be.

Time to strap on my mobile Xybernaut
and the <a href="http://www.microvision.com">Microvison</a> display (which scans images directly to the retina using a laser). Then nobody will find out that I'm reading /. while sitting in boring corporate meetings.

Yes I know, I'm somewhat too early. But perhaps same time next year?

The receipe VA Linux + Xybernaut + Crusoe
would IMHO give birth to one of the hottest
markets for computing, the world has ever seen.

VA Linux would have the money, Xybernaut would
have the know how (and some nice patents) and
Transmeta would have the right piece of silicone.

Imagine a Linux powered wearable computer with
wireless connectivity to the Web. Any thoughts?

A rule in advertising says that you should always
present the benefits of your product and not
bash the competition. Your customer should think
about you and not about the other guy.

It is IMHO a bad sign for Novell's state of health,
that they are falling back into such tactics.
Time to sell NOVL and buy something with a
future (like XYBR?)

"Well, well, well. Less than twenty-four hours 'til Ragnarok and I haven't a stitch to wear."

Billions of people around the globe are thinking this very thought. Don't be part of the mass of cannon fodder awaiting their fate on January 1st. I'd like to help others survive and prosper after the Y2K "situation" by describing the preparations I've made over the past year for tonight's Big Event.

1. The Car
Nothing says "I'm a survivor!" like a cool set of wheels, which is why I have a 1971 Plymouth HemiCuda with a 426ci/425hp V8.
I took out the rear window and rear seats, and welded in two 55-gallon drums as reserve fuel tanks.
I filled the trunk with cement so I could ram other vehicles in reverse during "Road Warrior"-type scenarios.
Due to the weight of the cement in the trunk, I had to replace the rear shocks with solid steel bars, so the suspension is pretty stiff, but boy does it have some range!
I've mounted a 20mm cannon (originally from a AH-1 Cobra helicopter) - that I bought on eBay for $35K - to the roof of the car so it faces forward.
It fires when the left turn signal is activated.
I use a Xybernaut wearable PC for aiming, and I adapted the anti-wobble feature of my camcorder to stabilize the cannon during vehicle movement and firing.
There is a radiacmeter attached to the grill, so I'll know when I'm approaching former urban areas.
I didn't have time to cut a hole in the hood to accommodate the huge intake of the supercharger attached to the engine, so I just left the hood off.
The exhaust system has been removed as a vestigial performance-hindering remnant of a civilized era.

2. The Duds
I have a fire-resistant Nomex jumpsuit dyed to match desert terrain, as all terrain will soon be desert terrain.
For formal occasions, black leather chaps are acceptable, but the buttless kind will make you the laughing-stock of Bartertown.
Accessorize with low-slung pistol holster, gas mask, and black leather jackboots.
Bandoleers are in this year, but only for survivors with crew-served weapons.
Fine-grain leather driving gloves will assist you in controlling your vehicle when driving through fallout-blighted areas.

3. Food
Pound-for-pound, dry dog food has ten times the nutritional value of boiled potatoes, and it can be stored longer, too!
Dog food for older dogs is often packed with fillers that you just don't need, but Puppy Chow is geared towards growing dogs, and has more than enough nutrition.
I'm towing a U-Haul trailer full of it, with a few cases of surplus MREs from the Gulf War for special occasions.

I hope I've provided some insight into the preparations necessary for surviving the coming hard times.
I am interested in having a traveling companion to help with driving.
Any fertile females interested in repopulating the planet should contact me at TheSurvivor@militia.mt.us

If you are interested reading about a company that in the business of creating *real* wearable computers, check out xybernaut. They are even marketing Linux capable versions.


...anactofgod...


{Xybernaut + Linux + Bluetooth + Beowulf...hmmmm...}

Well, you have to consider what you really want it for. Conveniently, if what you really want is a palmtop, there's an easy option open to you: buy a palmtop.

Xybernaut, the manufacturer of the $10,000 wearable system from the above Hammacher-Schlemer(sp?) ad, isn't really trying to sell to consumers; their target is big industrial clients. If you're wearing something for your job, who cares what it looks like as long as it gets the job done? And it does. They focus on the "hands-free computing" aspect-- the computer is designed so you can use it no matter where you are without touching it--so they really want speech recognition, which means big processing power, which means Palms are out. But if you're lying upside down under a tank with a bolt in one hand and a wrench in the other you can say "where does this part go?" and it'll show you the schematic-- very handy.

Not so great for a day at the mall, though. The "Wearable Computing" research community tends to focus on the "ubiquitous computing" aspect-- you have a computer with you running all the time wherever you go-- for which palmtops have really captured the consumer market niche even if you have to strech the word "wearable" to include stuffing it in a shirt pocket. The I/O isn't as seamless as an MIT Lizzy or Xybernaut MA IV-- it takes 2 hands to write/type input into a palm computer and the output isn't spoken to you or held continuously in your visual field-- but they *do* fit in a shirt pocket and they're easy on the battery power and software to do all sorts of nifty stuff is readily available.

So far, nobody's really gone after the consumer wearable market in a big way, that I know of. And when they do, the killer app will probably be some sort of "Augmented Reality" toy or tool. Something that genuinely needs all that processing power and the visually intrusive head-mounted display and so on. There are less dorky-looking displays-- I'm still waiting for MicroOptical Corp to release their almost-invisible eyeglass displays to the general market-- but you still have to shell out the bucks for them and that puts a limit on how many people will.

So, I don't think it's just the dorky look or cumbersome heft that's keeping wearable computers off the fashion pages. Some people will put up with anything, as long as it's worth it. But for most people it isn't really worth it-- yet.

For a more pro-wearable view, and some good links, check out Steve Mann's take on the subject-- a prolific wearable pioneer.