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Next Generation Xybernaut Wearable
shanenewsom sent in linkage
to a story running on the BBC
which talks about
the new Xybernaut Poma. A little light on the specs,
although the headmounted screen is 640x480 and it runs WinCE. But it
really does look like the first practical wearable. It should be
available in March. Update: 01/21 18:52 GMT by T : Reader Eureses points out that the display is actually 800x600 rather than 640x480.
I saw an interview with a head honcho from Xybernaut a month or two ago on the Space channel. They showed this thing, and I'm almost positive he said it would run either Windows CE or Linux.
IIRC, though, it was still priced pretty high(several thousand dollars).
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
Debian already runs on the SH4. The SH7751V they seem to have chosen has a 0.9GFLOP FPU so it's capable of pretty decent Divx encodes and decodes. This unit could make for a pretty decent portable DVR.
Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
Moreover, you don't have to be an ergonomic engineering genius to figure out that the design they have is not going to stay where you put it. Even one ounce eyeglasses need to have nose braces to keep them from falling off. Besides that, without semi-transparency (like these guys), the device just blinds you -- fine for a desk but it can't help mobility any. (Ever tried working on an old style microscope for several hours?)
Incidentally, according to an old CNN article, Xybernaut cut a deal with microvision to distribute head-mounted laser displays within the year. Since the article is old, maybe its not happening anymore, but it would seem to be a good reason to wait on these devices improving a little.
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