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Seven-Ounce Linux 'Wrist PC'
An anonymous reader writes "A European research and development firm has announced a seven-ounce, wrist-worn wearable computer with a 2.2 x 2.8-inch color touchscreen. Eurotech's WWPC (wrist-worn PC) runs Linux or Windows, offers a wealth of standard PC interfaces (WLAN, Bluetooth, IrDA, USB, SD-card, etc), and has patented technology that puts the device to sleep when the user drops their arm. It can detect motionless user states, and serve as a location-transmitting beacon, thanks to a built-in GPS receiver and 'dead reckoning' technology. The company also claims six hours of battery life under 'fully operational' conditions."
A European research and development firm has announced a seven-ounce, wrist-worn wearable computer concept with the possibility of a 2.2 x 2.8-inch color touchscreen. Eurotech's WWPC (wrist-worn PC) would run Linux or Windows, offer a wealth of standard PC interfaces (WLAN, Bluetooth, IrDA, USB, SD-card, etc), and has patented technology that could put the device to sleep when the user drops their arm. It would be able to detect motionless user states, and serve as a location-transmitting beacon, thanks to a built-in GPS receiver and 'dead reckoning' technology. The company also claims six hours of battery life under 'fully operational' conditions."
there we go, fixed that summary for you
FTA:
Eurotech describes the WWPC as a "user-centric, ubiquitous computing" concept, suggesting that the device is not yet available in product form. The company did not respond to availability enquires by publication time.
so stick this on the Duke Nukem wish list
Having worked part-time at Eurotech I've seen a working version of this device and it seemed to have all the external features claimed in the article. It was running Linux and I used it with the touchscreen. It also had an USB connector and a memory card slot.
I was not working on the device so I do have any exact information about the project or its status. However, it is definately not vaporware as in Duke Nukem Forever, but rather a working physical device.
Disclaimer: all views and observations are mine and not representative of Eurotech.
I'm sure that end users are not their target market. This could be a useful form factor for industrial handheld computers. It will be too bulky and ugly for people to wear in everyday use, unless they start making this thing like a sandbenders:
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
If this photo is correct (looks a little bit strange), the device runs GPE, a pretty nice handheld interface used by several linux handheld derivates and based on GTK+. Since GPE uses a real XServer, porting applications is quite easy (you can even run them remote), as opposed to OPIE, which uses the framebuffer directly. Nokia's maemo platform has many similarities to GPE, I hope that both projects profit from each other.
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
"I've seen a working version of this device and it seemed to have all the external features claimed in the article."
u xwatch/linuxwatch.html
IBM had a working Linux watch years ago, and plenty of people saw it working, but it still became vaporware.
http://www.research.ibm.com/WearableComputing/lin
Actually, just about any embedded, ROM-based OS, with ROM-based applications, is by definition more secure than a disk based OS for trival use. No matter what, you can always hard reset and be back to start in about 60 seconds. And with my Wince machine, I back it up daily onto a CF card, with three days worth of backups in my pocket at all times. Even if I'm running off of a solar panel on a three week camping trip, I can be back up and running in under 5 minutes. Try doing that with any desktop OS.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
And as a follow-up, before people start making jokes.
:-P
:-P
1) Yes, Canada does have the internet. We have had it for almost as long as the States, and on average, we actually have better internet connections up here than you guys do.
2) No, not all Canadians say "eh". You guys are thinking of Eastern Canadians. I live in Western Canada. Although I do know a guy from Eastern Canada who says eh a lot, it's kind of funny.
3) No, our heads don't flap around when we talk (thanks a lot South Park)
4) No, we don't live in igloos. Some natives in the very north, largely uninhabited part of the country, do, but most of us have never even seen an igloo outside of film.
5) No, we're not all "goofy".
6) No, we don't sit around and drink and smoke pot 24/7.
If I've missed anything, let me know
Pfffft. I routinely move over 20000lbs of weight only in my hour long exercise routine, and I do it nearly every day, and when I don't do that I do aerobic excersise, and I find it quite refreshing... I'm fit, but it's not that hard, there are people who do much more.
A little math tells me that it makes for a power consumption of 200W, so in the course of an hour I would require at least~180kilocalories, but of course my body and my muscles are nowhere close to 100% efficient. I've previously estimated that my workout is good for burning 500 calories, I'd say that's close. 3000 gallons of milk is a bit over 20000lbs. Assuming you lift every gallon of milk an average of a half meter high (that's what I used for my calculations, and I think that's generous as sometimes machines lift the weight higher), then your work for the day is roughly equivalent to my workout for an hour. If I kept up the pace all day, I'd never make it, but I'd also have lifted the equivalent of a fully loaded F-14 Tomcat 3 feet vertically assuming I did. That's pretty impressive I think. Spreading that work out across a whole 8 hour day, however, would be a cakewalk.