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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."
It targets emergency rescue, security, healthcare, maintenance, logistics, and "many other" applications.
Many other==geeking which may be further qualified as: Listening to you MP3s, watching videos, playing games, wandering around various cons talking to it and having it respond "by your command", "I can't do that, Dave", "danger, Will Robinson", or actually trying to impress the heck out of that jerk executive with his Ferrari laptop that he's not such hot stuff anymore. Alas, ...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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
Hmmm... This thing i wear on my wrist says they're not poisonous!
Defnite ban from using in flights, & @workplaces.
I actually had a thought of a miniature wrist-type PC with bluetooth. Transmit between your watch and a "full" system and be able to share documents, etc. That'd be neat. :-)
From the article:
"It...has flexible left- or right-handed straps"
That, or add-in another $500 for image stabilisation. Pencils down.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
"Through reuse of the popular Faraday Flashlight mechanism, as long as you keep surfing porn, the battery remains charged."
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
Who would ever wear such a thing? It looks ridiculous. Completely style-free. The girls would laugh at you.
Oh wait...
...it can detect motionless user states...
But can it detect fap-fap-fap-fap-fap motion?
Perhaps it will usher in a new era of pr0n?
Steve
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
According to its website, Eurotech's corporate strategy is to "define and penetrate new and emerging markets."
I didn't realize that my neighbor's WEP encrypted access point qualified as an emerging market, but hey.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Stuff to wear to guarantee you'll not get laid if going to a bar.
This must be something that tops that list haha...
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
This device does not look comfortable at all - from the artist's rendition it wraps around at least 1/3 of the forearm and half the length from the wrist to the elbow.
I would imagine it feels similar to wearing a cast...or maybe an arm-mounted chastity belt.
Have you seen my stapler?
Reference picture
I don't understand why they always insist on designing wearable computers like this to work from the back of the wrist the same way a wristwatch is worn. It would be far more ergonomic to turn your hand palm-up, and it would have the added benefit of giving the screen a measure of protection as it wouldn't be sticking out from your arm.
This is a very cool device, though. I'd buy one if I had the money and could see a practical use for it.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
So with a 2" touch screen, and roughly .5 sq inch finger tip, that gives me 16 touch recognition points on the screen? :-)
"puts the device to sleep when the user drops their arm."
Hmmmm, will it detect if the user raises his arms to defend himself from people who are trying to steel his lunch money?
Now that's a death ray!
That's what we need, for the geeken to build up their biceps - if you know what I mean! ;-)
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Chips are readily available for g and that support WPA. Really - imagine walking around the city wearing one a wireless device that is trivially crackable - you are just asking for trouble.
At least with a g chip that supports WPA, you can downgrade to WEP if you *really* want to run around with your pants down.
...Detective Tracy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dicktracy.jpg
We're living in the future of the '30s...
Now you can have the best Leela costume ever!
Note- EMBEDDED LINUX or WINDOWS CE. These are operating systems designed to work in minimum memory. For instance, unlike Microsoft Word 2003, Pocket Word 2002 is perfectly capable of editing a document IN PLACE on the virutal disk without making a second copy in memory, and executing entirely out of ROM, thus using almost no Program Memory at all.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I had no idea I could just draw shit in 3DSMax, make up things it might do and get it posted on Slashdot like it's some kind of actual product.
I'm goin' home and drawing up my new hovercar. It may have top speeds of up to 300mph, and will be able to run on hydrogen, propane or the laughter of children.
Having this thing attached to your wrist is gonna make it really hard to look at the screen while you're... oh wait, I can just put it on my other arm. Nevermind.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
In other words, a mercury switch.
Doesn't Xybernaut still have submarine patents on near every wearable computin device? I know one of thier submarines technically covered digital wristwatches...
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.
ok, we need to have a discussion on the meaning of "wearable." i could put backpack straps on any dell at best buy and it would be "wearable." the question is whether i am willing to wear it, not whether i am capable of wearing it.
At least with a g chip that supports WPA, you can downgrade to WEP
At last! A serious post unrelated to porn jokes, I think!
if you *really* want to run around with your pants down.
Alas. No such luck.
If I'm going to wear something that big and geeky on my wrist (I don't even wear a watch anymore, since the advent of the cellphone), it'd better have two features I'm used to wrist cuffs having from tv shows:
1) make me invisible (Galactica 1980)
2) deflect bullets (Wonder Woman)
Judging from the picture in the article, even the T-1000 likes this new gadget. He can keep all of his "detailed files" on the wearable PC, allowing him to be "a more efficient killer."
I may not speak for everyone, but I certainly would not entertain wearing something on my wrist that weighs nearly half a pound...
Still, one could always use it as an exercise aid, or as a substitute for 'brass knuckles'
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.
and has patented technology that puts the device to sleep when the user drops their arm
Erm, also known as a... tilt switch? not enough? try 3 switches, one for each dimension. still wanting? use one for each DOF. no? Measure some arm drops, run them through a an auto-correlating neural net and compare with input data. Seriously, I see no reason to patent this stuff.
I reckon that either they've created something totally ingenious that they can sell the rights to for a whole lot more than they can make out of wrist PCs (unlikely), or they patented something that is bloody obvious already.
They are two seperate issues. There's absolutely no reason you can't do WPA or even the full 802.11i with a 802.11b only chipset. The reason you don't see a lot of vendor support for WPA on old 802.11b chipsets is simply because vendors are lazy and don't want to backport the WPA support to older, largely abandoned chipsets.
AccountKiller
Modern PDAs have an awful lot of power these days, more so than my pentium pro desktop from a few years ago. Where they fall flat IMO is in the display. I can't get much done with a 3 by 4 inch display. But if all the batteries, memory, and processor spread out around my waist, I wouldn't really notice the weight, and a full screen translucent display in front of my eyes that no one else can see would be pretty cool.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
"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
Why does it have to be wearable? I'd much rather have a PDA that doesn't attach to me wrist, fits nicely inside of it's case, which also fits nicely inside my pocket. When I want to use it, I take it out of my pocket and flip the case open. If I'm on a crowded subway, it's much less likely to get scratched or damaged, plus no one will see it and think "That guy has money, I should go mug him." I really can't see any practical use for a wearable PDA, at least if it wasn't so hideous I'd understand.
Yes, but does it include a self-destruct device that can destroy enough rainforest to cover 300 city blocks?
-Peter
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.
... mobile product descriptions that talk about weight without the heaviest components. TFA states The WWPC weighs seven ounces (200 grams) without straps/batteries, Eurotech says. I will bet the batteries are the heaviest component, Seven ounce total weight for a device I carry around on my wrist might be bearable. However, I will bet the total weight is over 15 ounces and I could only imagine wearing that if I was a muscle builder.