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Wearable PCs
Shawn writes "Interesting article on wearable PCs. Brief mention given to Linux / Beowulf, and 'an undershirt with 64 linked processors.' " God I'm a sucker for
this stuff. "Hi, I'm Rob, and I wanna be a borg". This isn't anything really breaking or exciting, but its still neat.
An appliance computer is properly designed when people they are so transparent people stop calling them computers. For example, I don't call my car, cell phone, or refigerator a computer, even though they all have them now.
That should put a dent in the nudist on the late shift. Fight Nudisim! Wear Computers!
I swear I've read 200 stories from Rob about wearable computers. It's like a broken record. STFU unless it's groundbreaking, finished, retail product! DAMMIT!
Not to mention bandwidth crises, latency, COST (unless you think you're gonna get your own personal transmitter/receiver and a frequency band to use it). I'd rather have a computer on me than to deal with the sheer cost of running the equivalent of a cell phone 14 hours a day. Wireless is fine...I teach the subject at school...but uh...I'd rather be independent.
Yes, using a cpu as a comb fells nice and soft. He do it, I do it, many do it...we are just normal as you, just a little freaky...
It appears that you have the "freak" half of the equation down pretty good.
The screen image would be transluciently superimposed over whatever you're looking at. Cursor could follow eye movements. Tap jaw to click (only active while screen is being displayed). No keyboard needed. Having one of those CDROM encyclopaedias (much smaller of course) built right into your brain for easy reference would be nifty. Ore replace the encyclopaedia with the text of K&R, or some O'Reiley books, or some RFCs. Nifty!
Ummmm, imagine the possibilities....
With some sort of wireless lan, you could have people networking their brains together. People could "chat" with one another over this lan.Who would've thought that IRC would be the protocol of the Borg collective?Later the implants would be able to relay more than just visual information. Other sensory data could be fed right into the nervous system. 'net porn could become quite addictive. Cops could call up criminal data on demand. Doctors could call have medical reference data stored in their brain. Programmers could have text from some O'Reily books, or RFCs in their brain. Kids in school would store cheat notes right in their brain or "talk" to others oveir their local brain lan. There would be benefits as well as drawbacks to such technology. Scary or not it will happen someday. Maybe lots of countries will ban such research in human/machine integration (like the US + others banned human cloning). But SOME country will allow it and people will go there to be augmented. Technology cannot be stopped by laws.
well? how? :)
Harlan Ellison wrote Catman.
I went to U of T, and just graduated from there with an electrical engineering degree. Professor Mann is a freak, plain and simple. He's incapable of interacting normally with human beings. Just look at his web page -- you'll see what I mean!
Yeah, I know, I can type faster than I can talk too and I'd still use a keyboard for serious data entry. (Writing code by voice would suck big time). But for the kind of things people are currently doing with a stylus on a Palm Pilot, voice input would do fine, it's just a matter of getting cheaper, faster, lower power hardware to run it.
I agree whole heartedly. I would give almost anything to have a computer 'built' into me. I would even give up my faithfull palmIIIx That I recently got to do this. Heh...but I will only take that route, if I can run linux, or some other unix varient on it...The whole windows things gets annoying...Last thing I want is en extention of my brain crashing at an odd time...while driving, having sex, or something just as bad...I can just see it... Err, sorry officer, I was rebooting myself, and didn't see the kid on the rolerblades... or, Umm, hunny, Can we stop for about 30 min, I need to reinstall microsoft brain again...be right back though... Those are things I would deffinitly not want to have happen. Well, in conclusion, I think this type of thing would greatly help everybody...Have wireless networks built in...so you can converse with anybody within about a 1/2 mile radis of you, not just text, but audio, video, whatever...Trade mp3's with the guy in the car ahead of you, or teardrop (probably some equilivent), the guy who cuts you off...You can immagine the fun...Plus it brings up the issue of real computer 'viruses' that actualy affect the person. That would be quite entertaining... Slater, xpurple I actualy have an account, but I don't remember my password...it's writen down on my linux boxen at home...but I'm not there :)
Use your wearable's webcam to grab a picture of someone's face, run a face recognition on it, tap into his government's surveilance records, and ask him all sorts of personal questions about that affair he's been having with his secretary...
Funny you should mention that... I use a 486sx25 to brush my cat.
Since I know he reads slashdot, I'd like to invite Mr. Martinez to post a followup here for stuff that may have been too geeky and technical for the intended audience of an ABCNews article. Anyone else want to hear what he has to say?
--
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
"Thank you for calling the Help Desk. How may I help you?"
"Well, when I try to reboot my underwear, it just gives me a wedgie."
"What OS are you running on your underware, sir?"
"Microsoft Windows for Cotton Blends"
"Sorry sir. We can't help you. To fix this problem would require us to be able to unravel the source code and Microsoft doesn't allow that."
"But I chose Microsoft because it seemed Microsoft-y and smooth against my skin! Without fabric softner!"
"We're sorry. May we suggest the new distribution of Linux from Procter and Gamble?...."
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
Stay warm in your duck blind this winter. If you start to get a chill just perform some intense statistical analysis or process weather pattern data with the new Beowulf thermal underware from Cabellas. You will quickly learn to adjust processor load to find that "just right" temerature zone. You will enjoy worry-free outings knowing that _your_ underware is fully Y2k compliant, and has an average battery life of 4 full hours*. Act now and get an exteded 6 month warranty free**.
*Estimated run time using optional 400 cell mobile battery cart.
** Waranty void if user fails to follow propper grounding procedures before dressing. Warning: Overclocking will void waranty and may result in burn injury.
-=-=-=-=- osjedi uses Debian GNU/Linux. -=-=-=-=-
Today Seattle authorities seized the underware of a young hacker accused of breaking into government networks. "We were able to prove the suspects guilt by placing a 'sniffer' program in his shorts last week". The police crime lab also reported that upon examining the shorts they found evidence that the young hacker had contracted the Melissa virus.
-=-=-=-=- osjedi uses Debian GNU/Linux. -=-=-=-=-
I have met Thad Starner, and he, as well as most of the wearable community, uses a Twiddler. The Twiddler is a one-handed chorded keyboarded, which is amazingly fast if one knows how to use it.
--Ivan, weenie NT4 user, Jon Katz hater: bite me!
--weenie NT4 user: bite me!
"Computers are nothing but a perfect illusion of order" -- Iggy Pop
Hmmm... not the sort of thing I'd want to wear in the summer. It's hot enough, without having 64 CPUs warming you up. What's the heat dissipation of the thing. Do you need to wear heatsink backpack?
Speaking of which, I hope it's waterproof. Hate to have a little sweat taking out the system.
Reminds me of the wicked with of the west... splah her with water and she'll scream "help me! I'm shorting! Shorting! aaaaaaauuuuug!"
This is all starting to remind me of an old science fiction story, Catman, in which the main character was part of a group of people that started replacing parts of their bodies with metal and assorted electronics. I guess the goal was to become totally machine. I wish I could remember the author but I think it was in the first Dangerous Visions collection. I've seen several movies that I'd bet were influenced by it.
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That's right. He doesn't want to see it posted on Slashdot unless he can buy from the Sharper Image catalog. It was such a waste of his time that he had to take time to post a snide comment about its being put up on the site.
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CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Har, har!
This will give a whole new meaning to 'electrical shorts', won't it.
"Honey, would you iron and format my pants for me?"
I suppose the shirt will be marked 'dry clean only' huh? 'Wash separately, with like OS flavors'. I HATE those! I bet it will only come in beige.
But if a friend offers to give you the shirt off his back, it will actually be welcomed.
Thank you, I do birthdays, weddings.. I'm here all week.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
I think the whole idea of a wearable computer is silly. If we put the funding into improving wireless telecommunications, we could all just run an X session from our servers at home.. no matter where we are.
Will the GAP do onsite calls if I find a bug in my shorts?
Or a short in my trousers?
How will this force moths to evolve?
When I throw my clothes together in a pile will they Beowulf?
Will the drycleaners stop going through my pockets looking for stray homeless 5spots and just try to hack into my zipper for my financial info?
I find this fearful only because I still use the rock slab to do my wash.
The question remains: do we want to slip into our computers the way we slip into our clothing?
Well, I know I do.
However, this sort of thing is not practical with a keyboard. An alternative is necessary; I'd like to see something along the lines of a cyberglove that's used with a piano-like virtual keyboard; I believe the guy who invented the mouse made one of these (no urls handy, sorry) but it never took off.
I was in one of Thad Starner's classes earlier this year, and he talked about this a little. He takes notes into seperate files for each event (class, conference, meeting, etc...). He uses a piece of software called a remembrance agent, which shows a list of files relevant to whatever he's typing in emacs at the moment. Go here for a (unfortunately partially raw-latex) description of the remembrance agent and various ways Thad uses his wearable in daily life. This is the page of readings for his class, with various other interesting wearable papers.
I think you meant "when they are so transparent that people....."
Karnal
As soon as someone designs a computer than can be implanted into the skull, I'm going for it. If it requires cabling, circuitry etc. to be attached to the outside of my head, so much the better. I have a morbid fascination with becoming a mechanical freak.
The only question is how comfortable would it be to wear? I can handle having a battery attached to my belt, and *maybe* a pair of glasses that aren't too heavy that contain a small screen, but being loaded down with a full Borg armor suit can't be too appealing. It's a nice idea, but I'd rather just sit down and do my typing, as opposed to blindly stagger around on the street playing Quake and then getting hit by a bus 'cause I'm not paying any attention to where I'm walking.
On other other hand, going to the grocery store would be a lot more fun -- just imagine how freaked out the old lady that gives out free samples of ice cream would be.
-S
What else are you going to call it? A calculator? a word processor? a telephone? Those are all taken, and all of those serve on specific function. The thing about a computer is that it can do almost anything, and limiting it to "Something that drives me around" or "something that lets me talk to people" is bad. The examples with cars and stuff are backwards -- these are older devices that got computers added to them.
Then again, maybe you can call it a "control panel" and have a couple of terminals hanging on your walls, kind of like in the halls of the Enterprize, and they would show the status of the laundry, what channel your teenager is watching a 1am in the morning, a record of your traffic violations... Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather walk up to something and push buttons on it than walk around IN something.
As a side note, it would be neat if the energy generated by walking and breathing could be used to power the wearable.
-S
New York (August 24,199): Death of men at the altar in holy matramony killed from wearable PC's.
Life's short. Play hard. Owowowow.. stitch in my side!
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Build it into a tuxedo!
Woohoo, that's me! This is my thesis this year; Steve Mann is my thesis supervisor. I'm actually not working on the shirt itself, but on the software that will run the shirt. We're going to put together a modist beowulf cluster to do testing and development on, then if and when the shirt gets done, we'll port our stuff to it.
Michael Gentili
- He's just some guy, you know?
I wish Neil :) It looks like the netwinders have been nixed because of funding ($250G is a little pricy) so instead I'm scrounging around for discarded 486s. Know any handy place where I can pick some up for free?
:)
P.S. No matter how much you wish it, you are NOT object oriented
Michael Gentili
- He's just some guy, you know?
Uh, so new and interesting prototypes shouldn't be discussed here, on the site for geeks who are interested in cutting edge, non mainstream technology? Wearcomps will not be a "retail product" for a while yet. There are numerous boundaries that need to be surmounted first. Part of that process is discussing the limitations of the technologies that we have now, and how to get around those limitations. It's what Steve Mann does with his cyborg group at U of T every Friday afternoon, and I don't see why people on Slashdot can't contribute their thoughts and feelings too.
If you're not interested in indepth discussion of new ideas and technology, then go read CNN.
Michael Gentili
- He's just some guy, you know?
You don't have to refocus your eyes. The laser eyetap device projects the image right on to your retina, so it has an infinite depth of field and is always in focus, no matter where you're looking.
Michael Gentili
- He's just some guy, you know?
Posting anon I see. Nuff said.
Michael Gentili
- He's just some guy, you know?
You'd be absolutly amazed by how much info just sits in the history file. Got a URL to save? Dump it at the command prompt. Phone number to remember? Dump it at the command prompt. I'm not kidding here. :)
Michael Gentili
- He's just some guy, you know?
on the undershirt cluster? Do you use fdisk or Tide?
George
Our external storage - first cave paintings, then clay tablets, scrolls, books, recordings, and now computers - lets us store the information and put our brains to work on the knowledge.
We don't have to remember the endless details (wish I could find a link to Feynman's "map of the cat" story!) and can spend more time on the knowledge rather than the easily recorded and retrieved information.
In net discussions, I often pause to go seach for some little fact. I would love to be able to do this in real time conversations.
(For instance, can you imagine political debates where the candidates could instantly call up, say, the federal budget figures, or their opponent's voting record, or any statistic they needed? And the folks watching at home could instantly check them on it?)
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
The reporter mentions a pair of eye glasses that one of the dudes from MIT has that look normal except for a glow from one lens but they don't show a picture of em.. perhaps if the reporter was wearing a web cam he could have took some decent pictures.
How we know is more important than what we know.
cool thanks.. those glasses look kick-arse.. how long will it be before we get 640x480x256 resolution on a prescription lens with encrypted wireless transmission built in. :)
How we know is more important than what we know.
cool.. check this url: http://computer.org/conferen/proceed/8192/81920048 abs.htm
How we know is more important than what we know.
I'd hardly call a cluster of 64 netwinders "modest"!
--
This
Thad's wearable is unobtrusive from my point of view (I'm a student at Ga Tech), and pretty cool.
There are some interesting rumors about what he got to do with it over at MIT.
Hi I'm Stu, I want to be a borg too.
"Please do not reply if you're an evil alien! Thanks"
Just be careful not to wear those boards over anything personal...pin-ends probably wouldn't feel too good on delightfully tender nipples.
I'll just wait for the skull-jacks, my self.
-- I'm sure this is amusing to someone.
Really current IO is pretty clunky for this kind of proposition. To have to refocus your eyes or have a free hand in order to interface with a computer greatly reduces the utility of always-present devices.
Recently, speech recognition and synthesis have been approaching 'adequate' - HERE is a niche for these technologies.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/Thad.Starner/
Just because it works, doesn't mean it isn't broken.
I have followed wearable computing for some time now. I look forward to when the MicroOpticals are available via retail.
What I'm more interested in is how to folks like Starner & Mann actually organize their data. They must collect and manipulate an enormous amount of data. I also know most wearable folks are Emacs fans. What are folks doing to keep all this info accessible?
I have given some thought to powering a laptop from muscle motion, and I concluded that reflexively bouncing your knee up and down (with your toe on the floor) could be tapped to generate enough power to run a modest computer. This does, however, makes it difficult to put a laptop on top of your lap. As long as you're walking around it would be trivial to generate some tens or hundreds of milliwatts from the flexing of the soles of your shoes; I put over a kilonewton of force on my foot when I step down, and 5 mm of motion is 5 joules right there. I don't see similar possibilities from breathing.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
I keep threatening to build one, but my wife either
a) doesn't want to be seen in public with a synth-pop cyborg
b) is wary of any project of mine that involves soldering irons
or c) all of the above.
Considering all the electronics I'd have to learn, this might be a good thing...
No Longer a Menace to Society.
Alexandria Morrigan born 2/22/01 l. 20.5in wt. 7 lbs. 5 oz.
I use a soket 4 pentium 60 to comb my hair... does that count for anything?
bortbox