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Ultra-Cool Wireless Wearables
moonboy writes "I just saw this story linked to from Ars Technica. Motorola and Frog Design have recently released information about some awesome new prototypes for wearable computing with wireless capability using Bluetooth technology. The wearables group will include a WDA (Wearable Digital Assistant) which will serve as the communications hub, the Wristable, Goggles, Digi-Cam, Comport, Radio-button, and the Intelli-pen. Very cool stuff!" Prototype seems a strong word....
"The Wristable serves the same function and has the same technical description as the WDA, but it is worn on the wrist. The display is black and white."
Now where does the full-colour-display picture
come from?
Am I the only one that thinks the wearable market, at least for right now, is a little overrated? Most people will admit to at least a small amount of suspicion that technology is taking over our lives. Many mention that they leave their cell phone's and PDA's *behind* when they want to be more productive, and express concern about the amount of technology (like cells, complex radio setups) that distracts drivers.
But HUD's in glasses, wireless pens, etc... isn't this all just geared more towards satisfying the cliche markets? Is there anything useful out there?
I can imagine a purpose for current PDA's--they're an appropriate size, and with a screen that can display a substantial amount of information, all with an acceptable battery life. And I can imagine that Bluetooth would be useful in a portable PDA-like system, but it seems like just like buzz on these "prototypes."
On the less negative side, there is potential for coolness. My Mac is already Bluetooth-capable so after donning all this electronics, I could watch DVDs with the HUD while on the can, or write on a pad in bed with the pen motions captured and translated into an electronic document. Whoa.
I've heard much talk about "wireless computing" and "computing on the go" and communication anywhere and I dont believe in any of it. It may be great to carry an entire computer with you wherever you go but i'd never want to. I would hate my company being able to get in touch with me wherever I go (they can be quite of a bother sometimes!) and I'd hate my wife being able to contact me to on a guy's night out. It is more trouble than worth if you ask me. I'll just stick with my good old Motorolapager i've had since 1997 and get in touch with whoever needs me when _I_ want to.
Bluetooth is encrypted. Although it may not be the worlds best encryption system it's a few steps over the others in the business.
This is interesting future, but certainly we'll have to make some kind a "failsafe" encryption, that at least is wery difficult to break. If you make this common, you could risk that someone cracked your watch, to get out some , lets say, passwords. Then he maybe could get further into the high security devices you wore. And since it is wireless, it would be wery difficult to find whom that had taken it. A PAN network cant be that small that it only reaches a feet or something. Usually they go at least 20 feet, and at that range, it would be difficult to see who's monitoring you. Of course, you could have a limitation on one foot, so that you had to put your watch up against the main transmitter or somthing, but then half the point would be gone. So, at least I think so, most people would be suspicious as long as it was a possibility that some other person was reading your scheudle.
Anyway, the problem is not your scheudle, but for example if they could get your passwords or something, or even, if you were at a high posisition, get the "top" secrets of your company. And when you moved around, the governement could track you. This would give big brother a new dimension. Read the story written by John Bing , called "Big brother's carneval" for more (funny) abbrevations on this topic.
Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
This is hardly innovative. Gauntlets, PDAs, and HUDs have been around on the market, in sci fi, and cobbled together by hobbyists for decades to varying degrees.
The most significant hurdle for wearables is not styling. It is in developing a user interface and applications designed to be used while walking around, not sitting at a desk or standing still.
Real innovation will be when someone develops the wearable equivilent of the desktop metaphor and wearable equvilent to the mouse for input control. Sorry, current PDA menuing and compass navigation is insufficient.
When the industry gets serious and looks to marketize products like this, I hope they have more vision than simply re-purposing existing user interface mechanisms (and hire me to design the embedded UI). Wearables could be the next killer app.
"You have liberated me from thought."
I think there's numerous applications for wearable technology. The whole desktop/keyboard paradigm has evolved from machines which took up an entire basement - even the best PDAs are still basically trying to fit a conventional office setup (phone, organiser, calendar, word processor, etc.) into a tiny little magical electric gizmo. No wonder people end up leaving them behind when they want to relax. At the other extreme, personal stereos are a great example of wearable technology. They don't read email, they don't browse the web - hell, most of them even use a good old-fashioned cable to connect the player to the headset - but they work, they're useful, and they've gained enough acceptance that you can wear headphones on the train without looking like a freak.
I was reading recently (don't recall where, sorry) about a set of goggles with a build-in camera and HUD, that would OCR Japanese characters on notices and signs and display their English translations. Even if it only worked with basic words like 'hotel', 'metro', 'toilet', this would be of huge benefit to English speakers lost in downtown Tokyo. This sort of angle could be a major selling point for wearable kit once it matures. With GPS, wearable hardware would be able to tell where you are and which direction you're facing - you wouldn't need a keyboard or voice interface to tell it where you were, 'cos it would already 'know'. It'd be like those infrared audio guides in museums, only it would work everywhere. Imagine wandering the streets of Prague or Athens, looking at some wonderful old building, and being able to find out who built it and when without having to dig out the guidebook and hunt through the index.
My point is, everyone's thinking about wearable tech as a way of taking things with you - email, phones, internet access - and missing the potential killer apps which you just *can't* do with desk-based hardware.
-- Open Source: It's mad, but you don't have to work here to help.
I think at this point, Moto is in an 80's Chrysler state. They are putting out ok stuff, but not innovating in design and especially advancing standards or creating new concepts. Chrysler finally learned this wasn't the way to go and started producing the Prowler, the Viper, The PT Cruiser, and even the concept car from 5 years ago, the Atlantic; was WAY AHEAD of it's time. Some of it's features will be in the soon to be released Maybach. But alas, they were purchased by Mercedes. This is possibly the way Moto will go. I think a conglom like Masushita (Panasoinc) or maybe even Sony will buy them out within the next 5 years. Both of those companies have diverse needs for embedded processors, Moto's real money. Sony has always seen merit in the Apple side of computing and could make HUGE inroads with such a purchase. Sony Pres (see mac web sites) recently said he wishes he could buy Apple and has wanted to for a LONG time.
Which segways into this; Moto best exemplifies what I'm trying to say by the lack of innovation and forsight into the PowerPC processor that is used embedded in Cisco routers and as the G4 in Apple products. Motorola single handedly has cost Apple market share. They locked Apple into the processor and made the PowerPC such a proprietary RISC implementation that no one even wanted to copy it. Finally, they have released the Altivec core technologies to IBM, one of the PPC AIM partners. I beleive the muscle and R&D at IBM will bring great things to the PPC line and soon with the Power 4 and Power 5.
Another segway. Truthfully, these products are almost here in some form and two years as the article states for these "revoltionary" products to be realeased will be behind the curve. Moto will just be another player in the market and probably even higher priced. Moto isn't as recognized the name as it was for the 30's 40's 50's generations and few see why they should pay a premium for their products rather than say a Sony something or other.
The pen is basically here from Logitech (bluetooth ink and digipen), the Glasses are basically here from Sony (glasstron), the watch has been here without a big company or mass apeal for nearly two years, the PDA by means of the Zaurus or iPaq, maybe now the Sony P800, and the wireless headphones already exist in close to the same form factor as the article pitched. All of the things I mentioned now have bluetooth too!
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
So, yes, these kinds of products will eventually appear. They will probably be boxy and more traditional looking because people likely feel silly running around with gadgets that look like sex toys or sunglasses that are appropriate for a three-year-old. And their release date will depend on such mundane factors as when their power consumption will be low enough that they will be usable. What good is a futuristic wrist PDA, after all, if it only runs for 15 minutes?
Isn't it going to be a pain in the butt to have a separate battery in each "wireless" component?
I'm sorry, but I just don't understand why these companies are continuing to implement Blue Tooth. With the maturity of wi-fi 802.11b, 802.11g, and coming soon UWB, why would anyone choose BlueTooth??? It has inferior bandwidth and inferior range.
Why would I carry around a WDA that has a range of 30 feet if I'm lucky, when I can wear the same thing that has 10 times the range and 10 times the bandwidth?
I think its time that companies who stupidly spent billions on developing BlueTooth humble themselves and realize they made a huge mistake with their investments and move on, rather than try to push this inferior technology onto the market. To bluetooth companies out there - I'm not buying it!
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