Wearable Internet Appliance

z)bandito(_X writes "Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Shimadzu Corporation, Colorado MicroDisplay, Inc., and Xybernaut Corporation are working on a Wearable Internet Appliance. Looks like it runs Win CE 3.0, but if the price is right it could be a big advance for wearables getting a big manufacturing name like Hitachi in on the game. It's an SH4 processor with Type 2 Compact Flash and an 800x600 display that works with glasses. A good picture of the pretty nice looking device is here, and the specs are here." This looks like a good way to seriously injure yourself.

Comments

Contrarian BS

[FastT]

What a load of sterotypical, contrarian Slashdot crap. How do you know they haven't done testing? Sony's i-Glasses have an auto shutoff feature so that you are forced to take a break after a certain amount of time. Obviously, they've thought about the impact to consumers--are they the only ones? What about all the manufacturers of the displays? You think their engineers haven't designed them around the limits of the human eye, much less used these things for extended periods themselves?

My God, man, corporations are practically defined as incredibly greedy, wholly self-interested entites. Do you think they aren't going to do something to make sure they don't get their asses sued before releasing a product?

Nobody knows what the long term effects of wearing a tiny screen a few inches away from your eye might be, and nobody has bothered to find out.

Really? Go ask Thad Starner and all his friends--they've been using them continuously for literally years.

<ot>Damn cracked-out moderators will mod anything up on a Friday night. Why does self-serving, contrarian criticism of a Slashdot article so frequently make someone "insightful"?</ot>

Re:Wireless internet..

[tapiwa]

I disagree.

When mobile phones and pagers first came out, they were used for business, primarily ... doctors etc. Later, as prices fell, a lot more people got them, and a network effect later, a lot of us cannot live without our mobiles.

Having information at hand will be a requirement will be a must for the businessman of the future. A CEO addressing a group of stock analysts will want to know 1 minute b4 he speaks how his stock is doing.

A salesman will want to be able to confirm delivery date to the customer by checking available factory capacity, and also book/reserve this capacity by placing an order in realtime.

The possibilities go on.

While these devices will span an entire entertainment category, do not discount their business / work usefulness!