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More On The Linux Wrist Watch
Gareth writes "CNET has more information on IBM's wrist watch running Linux, including an interview with the vice president of research." A lot meatier than we had yesterday. It looks legit, but it's still looks pretty impractical (despite scoring many points on the old cool-o-meter).
Its clear in the article that IBM does not expect the Linux watch to become a product--but is a research prototype. Practical or not, I can think of many lessons learned from this effort. Just as a proof of concept, that Linux can be run in tiny devices--issues like power consumption, memory requirement, display readability--this can come a long way to proving to skeptics that Linux has vast untapped potential. So, broaden your minds and stop asking insipid questions like "is it practical"? Practically, in this case, is not the point.
HP-UX Watch: Rock solid and fast, but uses the incompatible base 8 time system. (ever tried compiling network apps on HP-UX?)
New Amiga Watch: Holographic time display, weighs less than a nickel, does your laundry, and speaks 193 languages, but no one's ever actually seen one.
BeOS Watch: Same as the New Amiga watch but it actually exists.
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
Most likely that is supposed to be "daily alarm" which you no doubt figured out.
I bet whoever wrote this page was Japanese, and they didn't know exactly how to spell "daily" in English, so they used the kana spelling to guess. Unfortunatly, the Japanese have neither an l nor an r sound, just one that is kind of in-between, so when our hapless translater fell upon this sound he guessed, incorrectly.
I read the internet for the articles.
I'm sorry. I REALLY like Linux and all, but this seems to be akin to a small war to CNN coverage-wise here.
It's a FRIGGIN WRISTWATCH.
Jesus. I can only imagine the stop-the-presses-obsess-over-this coverage the day they get Linux running on The Clapper.
Ignoring the fact that we don't have the technology yet to put a viable GPS receiver into something that would fit into a wristwatch, wouldn't a watch that automatically changes time zones be nifty? Automatically keeps in synch whenever it's around a network providing NTP services?
What about an alert device, a messaging end-point for critical monitoring services on your network. Forget sending a message to your pager (20 seconds to 5 minutes or more delivery time), just send a UDP packet to a process on your watch, and get an instant alert or textual page right then and there. Respond with equal ease.
Granted, these things could be done with specialized software specifically designed from scratch to be put into a watch, but why re-invent when you can re-use? Linux provides the perfect framework for all sorts of experimentation like this. That's what makes it cool.
Expanding upon the other reply to this post, in order to do any real CLI interaction with it, I imagine you'd have to connect a real input device. The screen/wheel or whatever other buttons the watch would posess are probably meant to interact with applications designed for the watch. They don't expect you to be interacting with a shell prompt during normal usage, they expect you to have a "watch" app running and handling input via the standard interface.
Besides, how geeky would it look to have a big bulky keyboard (even laptop-sized or smaller) connected via a thin ribbon cable to a tiny screen strapped to your wrist. Imagine how annoying it would be to type and watch the screen at the same time. Heh.
The point is, IBM is interested in open source only insofar as it makes money. While I was there, I attended a seminar on open- source software run by one of IBM's hot intellectual property lawyers, where he did nothing but warn us about the "viral" nature of the GPL and LGPL and advise us about how to circumvent it.
Vovida, OS VoIP
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
Vovida, OS VoIP
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
But then again a stripped down kernel might be small enough that its not worth reinventing the wheel for an embedded resource/process manager. Anyone have any figures for exactly how big the kernel in that puppy was? I think the memory stored in it was sort of overkill as well. Better to cut down the memory and increase the battery life. This is definitely a place that Crusoe-style power management technology would also be a win. Let the CPU in the thing only use as much power as it needed at any given moment.
Even so there are advantages to using Linux. It means the API is open and programmers can go and set up their own programs to run in the watch as well. Not that I can see a huge range of programs that people would want to run in their watch. A PDA is slightly more usable in that regard for general computing. But no doubt others will manage to think of uses for such a system beyond simple databases and pager/appointment notification. Oh yes, and telling the time as well.
But the interface shown in that one picture we had the other day won't cut it. You don't want any of the conventional command line shells here. GUIs won't hack it here either, I don't think. This is one of those cases where I think you'd be better off defining the thing as a TERM of some sort and uses curses or something similar to manipulate the screen. And I'm being unimaginative when I say that I can't quite see the full point of a color bitmap display there, but I'll say it anyway. A postage stamp screen just doesn't give you much manuvering room for graphics. A PDA is nearing the bottom end in my personal taste on such things.
The inputs are going to be the buttons on the watch. At best you can make them analog buttons and get some degree of pressure sensitivity but that is all. Something like a calculator watch isn't going to hack it. And given a bunch of other problems I don't see voice input on these things either. Too awkward holding your wrist up to your mouth. That defeats the whole purpose to having something on your wrist.
Its an interesting proof of concept but needs a bit of work in the usability area.
I checked out that link, and was surprised to see that the feature list included:
"Dairy alarm"
Now *that's* an odd thing for a watch to do. Does it let you know when your milk is going bad? When you're getting close to a lactating animal? I'm confused.
Of course, I'm also off-topic. Oh, well...
--- Chris
The nice thing about using Linux is that it scales to all of these levels, has the flexibility to allow third parties to add capabilities later, has a huge installed user and developer base to mine for cool applications, is incredibly stable and reliable, and is powerful enough to facilitate uses none of us have yet thought of (multi-user capabilities to allow users to securely move data between watches, lend watches to friends without having to worry about the privacy of their own data, etc. etc.). Give it a nice, friendly palm like GUI and it would be a truly killer app.
[1]Video Phone capabilities optional
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Has anyone seen this a href="http://www-4.ibm.com/software/is/mp/linux/au dio/ibm_linux-02.avi"
commercial on TV yet? If they put it on TV, it would really prove that
IBM is going to try to push Linux, much more than
this watch does.
Preventive War is like committing suicide for fear of death. - Otto Von Bismarck
xdaliclock -cycle.
now that would be a fun wristwatch
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
I mean it....
I do NOT want to see this in the stores...
I hear just about enough about problems with "Linux" that are problems in ONE distrobution, problems that no longer exist or problems that exist in the PC hardware design not in Linux.
[This on top of the FUD]
I do not need to be told how horrid Linux is by former Linux watch users...
Great proof of consept... wonderful.. Linux on a watch. Horray. It's done.. now stuff it in the nearest trash receptical and work on some other neat toy.
I don't actually exist.
The watches also include an infrared and wireless radio connection and a touch-screen display.
This could make meeting interesting people a lot easier.
Imagine you're at a public place (a bar, a conference, a bus). Your watch contains some things you're interested in or that make you interesting (let's say you speak a weird language, have some furniture you want to sell, loved Stephen King's latest novel, are looking for someone to go white-water rafting next week). This information is continuously broadcast from your watch. Other people wearing/using a similar device can see a small picture of you if something catches their interest. They can then walk up to you and start up a conversation. Or if they're shy, call you or send an instant message.
Some years ago, I read that there was more computing power in a particular digital watch than there had been in the whole world in 1962!
This article has made me think about that more deeply - nowadays, there is more computing power in this digital watch than in a 10 year old PC.
As Jeffrey Harrow would say, "We've only just begun!".
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
A little planning goes a long way...
"However, the physical components we use to interact with a computer are not the only problem."
True.
"...more of the problem lies with the actual interfaces (ie: GUIs)." False.
"Most GUIs fall short or delievering a natural way of navigating, controlling and interacting with a computer."
How do we know that there ARE any natural (for humans) way to interact with a computer? A computer is totally unlike anything in evolutionary history, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to learn that most (all?) people just plain CAN'T comprehend it.
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So because it would be difficult (impossible?) to interact with the computer, the computer is useless? Let's see what you think after I remove all microchips from your home, car and workplace.
How would Linux on a watch be useful?
Telemetry: A million uses summed up in one word. Spies gathering intelligence. Scientists/Doctors gathering data (from the environment and/or from the wearer). Security officers (including police). Tracking/homing.
Data access: Sure, you can't do much general computing--but every (digital) watch has buttons. How about a "what's my current location" button with some GPS software installed? How about a modified Timex DataLink that links DIRECTLY to my PC (wirelessly)?
Communication: We laugh about Dick Tracy, but cellphone small enough to wear on your wrist would be revolutionary.
I thought of all the above while I was writing it. Surely someone who is actually involved in the field will think of many many more immediate uses. Then there is the "new platform" effect: Once everyone has a watch running Linux, what else becomes possible? No one predicted the Internet would explode once everybody had a PC...
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Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
I know that IBM has been working for decades trying to modify the mystical "programming instructions" for AIX, and have been unsuccessful to date. Even multi-billion dollar companies have been unable to change their own operating systems. =)
---------The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Who really knows. Make the thing available, and let the market sort everything out. Was the Palm Pilot was too feature-rich to be of use? Are mobile MP3 players of any use? Does anyone actually need 8+ hours of battery time for a laptop? Do users need more computing speed?
Release the thing. The market will discover uses. When the laser was invented, it was billed as "a solution in search of a problem." The wristwatch form factor may not be what folks are after, but the size might be.
Hey, how about using this to put a 1983 era mainframe on your wrist? According to the article on the linux->mainframe emulator I read the other day (see http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20000801S0002) the mainframe runs nicely on 8 megs of ram.
Anyone running MVS on their wrist would have to qualify as cool.
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
Linux on a watch seems like an excellent idea in itself, but bulky digital watches have to provide some application beyond simply telling the time and scheduling appointments to be cool. I am the proud owner of a Casio Protrek GPS watch which has to be one of the largest and ugliest watches ever created (See the image here), yet gets far more attention than your average Rolex. The new Casio camera and MP3 watches are also looking good.
So a Linux watch that ran MAME or even Mozilla via the IR link would have enough street cred to allow you to answer the "wow, what a huge watch, what does it do, is it an electronic tag, are you on parole?" type questions. Something that size that allows you have a to-do list unfortunatly dosn't.
And if Arnold Schwarzenegger starts wearing it, could it then be considered StrongARM powered?
Like I implied yesterday - Linux on a watch is nothing new:
A GNU/Linux Wristwatch Videophone
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
So, when can we get the Dilbert ring with which we can surf the net one character at a time?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Of course.
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"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
If they don't distribute their application, they don't have to release the source. The GPL allows for internal use without redistribution.
[Note that the QPL does not have this clause; technically, everyone who rights an extension to QT is in violation of the license until they release the code -- even if they're only using it internally (e.g. when it's not done yet). They are required instead to pay a large fee for usage of the "professional edition". Since this is turning into a rant about QT anyway, let me just say that you're never going to get truly cross-platform code with the QPL because windoze use requires the professional edition also. GTK for windows may suck at the moment, but it eventually will be a good, free toolkit for windoze and *nix. QT has no such chance.]
--
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
You mean... a B***olf cluster of those things? We could tell time like nobody's business!
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Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
Hey that's real innovation!
Maybe they are simply going to research on gnu/linux and then rewrite everything to their current operating system of choice.......they wouldn't, would they?
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
Humm, Steve Mann has developed a Linux powered wrist watch back in 1998. It was published in the July 2000 Linux Journal as well. http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue75/399 3.html
Three words: DNA-derived personality simulations.
Or is that four? Or six if you expand the acronym?
Who knows.
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Kind of ruins the post I guess. This is the real link.
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They may also have thought that the watch could have an overly simplified menu system, and display data as requested. Since it is just a prototype demonstrating that it's possible to run Linux on a wrist-watch, it makes sense that the user interface isn't well thought out yet. If they ever planned on marketting it, they'd probably need to add some more buttons. Plus the battery only lasts two to three days, making it not the most useful of watches.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
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I agree with you 100%. However, the physical components we use to interact with a computer are not the only problem. True that the keyboards and mice are not the most intuitive of devices, but I think that more of the problem lies with the actual interfaces (ie: GUIs). Most GUIs fall short or delievering a natural way of navigating, controlling and interacting with a computer. We have to learn to look past the typical idea of a computer consisting of a 17" monitor, a large box to which all the paripherals connect to a machine that people can interact with and incorporate into their everyday lives without changing their habits. The goal (of software development and computer design) should not be to use the system but to create computers and software that are unabtrusive and fit into peoples everyday lives without the people having to change and mold around the computer.
Woman repellent?
-- the most controversial site on the Web
Mac Watch: Straps to leg, made of transparent material and sphere rolls instead of hands to indicate global postion in relation to the Sun.
Sun Watch: Hands spin too damn fast too read.
mv
Yeap. A few good uses actually. Don't think of "The linux watch" think of it's components:
1) The linux operating system cut down to run an embedded system on an extremely small piece of hardware.
2) The small hardware. A wristwatch sized piece of equipment made by IBM to brag about their advances in shrinking the size of equipment.
3) The marketing. Non computer users and newbies know about watches. They are small. The fact that a computer can be the size of a watch gets more "Oooh" and "Ahhh" from the public than say...a computer the size of a 286 chip. It makes IBM look really good to make a device like this and the average person will remember it better than doubling the RPM's in a disk drive, or making a 2GHZ processor.
I think it's a good idea, and even though the watch itself is pretty useless, it's a good practice for them, and hopefully it precedes something useful.
Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
Excuse me, do you have the time?
<Linux Watch user>Yes, just a sec
[root@localhost]$date
Tue Aug 8 10:
<BATT LOW>
<BATT LOW>
<BAT
DAMN! I would swear I recharged it last night! Well, it's ten something, does that help?
<Random person> Umm, yea. Thanks (runs away)
Steven
-- I have marked myself unwilling to moderate-- I don't have other accounts to artificially inflate the karma of
Before Linux, IBM's research group had lost its enthusiasm for operating system work, Goyal said.
Linux, though, is ideal for research environments because its open-source nature encourages innovation that's not hobbled by licensing negotiations, he said.
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
- Linux is cool. IBM know it and works with it. BTW, IBM also worked in order to adapt their Intellistations to BeOS (see the result here).
- They are known for their machines quality : I remember productive 80286 Xenix servers that still work perfectly along fabrication chains in factories.
- They are also known for their developments: Compare the performances of the JDK1.2.2 that came with the Caldera OpenLinux2.4 and the one that was made by IBM.
- IBM has patented loads of things. In fact, IIRC, they have an entry about this in the Guinness book of records. So, they are innovative (even if patents may be "stolen" - these are not my words - , all of these can't obviously have some irregular origin).
- IBM doesn't focus on manufacturing products or computer. They are rather, IMHO, an R&D company. Which means that they are asked to develop solutions for a given problem ; hence the watch, hence the PC (The problem was : "Give me a quick and dirty computer to type some letters on"), hence Big crack, hence Kasparov defeat (Actually, this was a consequence of their researches in both AI and supercomputing), hence more advanced solutions...
- IBM are known for projects which might not be paying before decades (e.g. 3D mollecular synthesis in some Swiss labs). So, who seriously think he will be here to collect the big bucks ?
Anyway, they are powerful but want us to trust them. Just do it. because in this case this also helps validating the concept of Free Software.Conclusion, if it's good, IBM will work with it, however reluctant the "partner is". (In this case, Be wouldn't help IBM as they had too much to do with their own stuff, that's why IBM contacted distributors and bypassed Be Inc.)
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
Having read the articles and looked at the pictures, how do I use the thing??? There's no keyboard, no stylus/grafiti thing, just an IR and radio comm thing. It syays it has a touch screen, but does it do handwriting recognition or something? no mention of this. So do I pull out my Palm and IR link to type in commands? Or do I need to bring my wireless keyboard with me? I will believe that there *might* be uses (I haven't found any) if I can use it somehow.
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This may have the "coolness" factor, but it has precious little else in the way of utility. Leaving aside the questions of what point is there running Linux on a wristwatch since this is a "proof of concept" (i.e. scientists being paid to muck around with stuff they like), the fact of the matter is that human computer interaction is woefully lacking at the moment.
Until we can offer some alternative to the anachronistic technologies we are using today to interact with computers (keyboards? mice? not exactly intuitive for Joe Sixpack are they?) extending the domain for computers is going to fail.
We desparately need a new paradigm in HCI, because the ones we have at the moment just aren't applicable to things like wearable computers.
P.S. And I don't mean voice control either.
Combine Telemetry and GPS and you have a "seeing-eye-watch" for the visually impaired (or blind for forward thinking people). I would think that a device that could tell you you are moving "North" down the "1600 block" of "Maple Street" and you are about to step out into the street in front of an on-coming bus, might be a practical application.