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Wearable Technology Fashion Show

Posted by michael on from the beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-camera-holder dept.

jlouderb writes "I know, it's been done before. But at the recent CTIA show I stumbled onto a wearable computing fashion show. It was weird. I had my camera and filched a copy of the show script. Combined together, you get a bizarre pastiche of scrawny models attempting to make phones, notebooks, video cameras and more into fashion statements. Just too surreal for words."

2 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Not a mature technology by any means, but soon by drkhwk82 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wearable computing is a technology that simply hasn't come to maturity yet. Things need to get smaller. But as some further down this page have done lets look at the possibilities.

    First, realize that the human body isn't designed to support any large quantity of hardware where most of the sensory organs are clustered, consequently we have to seperate the display from the CPU. The torso is an ideal place to put this sort of thing, both for weight purposes and for its relitivly easy access for the user (try typing on your head sometime).

    As for applications, the possibilities are limitless. I'll stick to Augmented Reality for most of my examples.

    1.) Imagine a surgon with a system capable of integrating the data from Xrays, CAT scans, and other probes on the fly and displaying that data in real time, actualy altering the view of the patients body. This amounts to fewer head movements, faster surgeries (particularly key in an ER), and fewer mistakes. This same principal can be extended to an auto mechanic, or any number of other occupations.

    2.) Tired of lugging your laptop, cellphone, PDA, etc around? Meet the ultimate virtual office. A pair of MEMS projectors mounted on a pair of sunglasses traces the "office" in 3d onto your retinas. Tracking systems (much like those allready in use today) track the movement of your fingers in relitive position to your body. By tracking these movements the user can type on a non-existant keyboard and navigate a 3d "desktop" in real space. Metaphors provide interfaces for important applications. Integrate an audio device with this and you can easily move your entire office to the bench in the park without anyone being the wiser.

    It doesn't take a lot of immagination to work out how this could be an amazing application. Yes, right now it looks like a bad cross between C3P0 and a Electircal Engineering project gone awry. Nonetheless, in 10 years you'll probably see it integrating into the lining of a designer series of jackets, sunglasses, and hats worn by every trendy highschool and college kid in the country.

  2. Re: Fashion. by baudilus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're forgetting about the MOTR people out there. We all know that the most nerdy people couldn't care less about the look of their tech, they just care that it works. Conversely, no matter how cool it looks, the high fashion snooty types would never WEAR a phone. That's just too lowbrow.

    Ah, but then there's the majority of people out there that would think, "How cool is that phone! I have to get one!" Believe it or not, those are the people that drive sales like the iPod mini and things that seem wasteful to us /.'ers. Those are the people that these things target. Lots of disposable income, average IQ.

    gg