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Heads-Up Wearable Display
selfsealingstembolt writes "Looks like the guys at NASA are trying to combine some existing technologies into a wearable computer. At the moment it is designed as headset combined with a small box to wear at your belt or so. The interesting part is, that they are looking for new technologies at outside sources (companies, educational institutions, ...). The design is still subject to change, but the general idea is great."
Couldn't agree more about the inviting derision / theft / 'ass kicking' aspect, but I think we should remain a bit broad-minded about potential future uses.
Given that they will eventually make them as innocuous as, say, glasses (either normal corrective ones or Matrix-style RayBans) and perhaps get around to using wireless comms so you don't have the tell-tale (and rather ridiculous) umbilical cord trailing down from your ear to some main unit, I can think of some useful future applications if they integrate with GPS.
Ever been out on the streets looking for something or someone? Imagine a discreet heads-up navigation aid. I'm not suggesting anything so fancy as face recognition nonsense or whatever (e.g. for security people tracking faces against known offenders) - that can wait. But a simple integration of GPS with a pair of smart sunnies could easily result in - 'turn left here for a shortcut to the nearest public Gents' and so on.
Aegilops
Personally, I want a wearable computer for privacy reasons. I take a commuter train for about an hour one way to and from work, and like to work on stuff (specifically, I'm working on a novel in my spare time) while I'm on the train. In fact, I even have a Visor Prism + keyboard that I used to use to this end.
:-(
:-) That and apparently the screen protectors don't work so good in the type of lighting conditions one would find on the train.
Note, I said that used to use it. Fact is, when you pull out a laptop or whatever on the train, it seems everybody wants to look over your shoulder at what you're doing. They especially like to pry it seems when you are using a PDA + keyboard, because they don't seem to be all that common yet.
When I'm writing a horror novel with graphic violence in it, the last thing I want is someone looking over my shoulder so that I have to explain why I'm writing about people getting hacked to itty bitty pieces. This made me uncomfortable back in the day, but since 9/11, I wouldn't dare work on the thing on an airplane, lest I get accused by some brainless stewardess of being a terrorist or something.
If I had a wearable however, no one would be able to see my screen but me. I could write my book/play quake/surf porn/whatever, and no one would be the wiser. I could even work on sensitive corporate documents/code without having to worry about being so easily spied on.
Now if only they weren't so expensive
And yes, I have seen other solutions to this problem, i.e. overlays for your screen that either only transmit the screen's contents when viewed at a certain angle (i.e. straight on), or that require you to wear special polarized glasses to see the screen. However they seem a little too obtrusive for me. If you look at your neighbour's laptop, and all the screen shows is a bunch of locks and chains (like this product), then you're probably going to either start asking them questions, or start wondering what they're looking at that is so secret. With a head mounted display, you'll probably think they're too weird to be bothered asking them questions
Not that the current generation of head mounted displays aren't far too obtrusive as well, but at least with a head mounted display, I could get a virtual screen size of 21" or so with a decent resolution, rather than a piddly laptop display, or even worse, and even more piddly PDA display with a crap-ass resolution.
Mechanik
The wearable offers you what you can't get out of a PDA. Instant access.
The PDA has an appointment book, but if you want to check it, you have to pull it out, open it up, turn it on, go to the appointment book, and then look at the days. This takes time. A wearable is already on, you just have to bring up the appointment book. The alaram feature reminds you when a meeting is going to happen. Your wearable could keep your next 2 appointments in view, and with GPS and access to MapQuest or something similar, could tell you about how long it would take, with approximations for traffic.
Pulling out your PDA and trying to take notes in Graffiti is painful - it's very hard to keep up with a conversation. But with a wearable, you can type instead of write. Bringing a keyboard may not be an option, but a Twiddler allows you to type quite quickly with one hand, far better than Graffiti, anyway.
Imagine access to financial reports at the meeting with the boss without a laptop. Imagine in-view access to directions as you look for a client's office. Imagine sending someone an e-mail when you remember to do it. Imagine updating your to-do list while on the phone on the subway, without fear of dropping something. Imagine making changes to the database while the meeting is going on. Imagine never worrying about forgetting the CD you burned becuase you have the data with you. Imagine never worrying about someone else using your computer and messing up your settings.
If none of these things interest you, how about: Imagine reading slashdot during the meeting. Imagine reading slashdot on the subway. Imagine looking for new jobs while during the new policy meeting. Imagine being able to correct people by getting actual data at your fingertips. Imagine watching the Simpsons while you stare at a monitor covered with Excel sheets. Imagine organizing your MP3 collection during business hours. Imagine EverQuest.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
It's all about convenience - hardly anything ever invented has been pure "necessity." The wheel and the aqueduct are convenient inventions, but are by no means necessary. They're at least as "annoying" as cell phones - lord, those wheels are noisy rumbling down the road... and those aqueducts! What an eye-sore!
But all of these things, cell phones included, improve our lives more than just superficially - cell phones can be used to call your sorority sisters... or to call for an ambulance. If the benefits, both for convenience and for improving quality of life, didn't outweigh the annoyances that accompany a technology, it wouldn't survive.
All that musing aside, the bottom line is that, while you're at home denying the march of technological progress, I'll be e-mailing and calling my friends using my portable hardware and meeting everyone at the movie theater. To each his own, I guess.
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Spiral out... keep going.