Slashdot Mirror
IBM launching wearable PC
ari{Dal} writes "New IBM wearable PCs with eraser sized mice should be released by the end of the next year.
" With viewable-equivalent 14" screens, speech-recognition software and probable cost of 2000$, I think my carry-on bags for flying just dropped by another one.
I might be first on slashdot but I'm way behind in the wearable game. Hands up people who realize the signifigance of wearables? Who agrees that a few key technologies will fall into place and in 15 years society will be *totally* different and completely based around wearables. Real Person
Yeah, this came out late last year, when Big Blue revealed their "micro-drives". With Nokia & Sprint pushing wireless digital (voice & data), we are getting close. What it needs is a gig or ten of the new super high density RAM that is always about to come out. Add a wireless digital voice/data link and some kind of dangerously high capacity power supply (fuel cell?) and... "WE ARE BORG, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE..." (Somebody had to say it)
Stephenson portrayed Gargoyles as being societal outcasts. I want one of these though. There's nothing wrong with walking down the street whilst partially absorbed in the latest /. story. I think it'll be a few years to come, however, before a guy can score in a bar whilst wearing one.
Come to think of it, that could become a serious challenge within the computer nerd community :-)
Lessee... Say an inch tall and 5 inches wide by 6 inches long... 30 cubic inches... 24 and change per cubic foot, call it 28 if 4 are placed vertically in the empty space... So 56 in 2 cubic feet... 112 in 4 cubic feet... Mmmm.... Fill a room with them, that's a lot of processing power for the size. >:)
Yeah but we're aiming for maximum mobility here. So take thirty guys and outfit them with the machines. Use IR for networking and give 'em all motorcycles. Boom, you've got the first geek motorcycle gang and a highly mobile Beowulf cluster all in one.
Remember, we've got to reach the state line before the MS Troopers do.
Rumble pack? Hmmm... endless uses for that concept... would add spice to the "live sex shows" over the internet... would make "rumble pack feedback" in Quake games a lot more (ahem) intense... would be a real pain to clean them off for recharging, though.
3) Are the drivers open-source?
4) Why not BSD?
5) Am I first post?
>> And just because I like computers doesn't mean I want to wear one all the time.
I *hate* watches but I wear one because it tells me what time it is.
The point is that the meta-applications that wearables will provide are so beyond your imagination right now. It's like trying to imagine what acid is like before doing it.
Some people take steroids to enhance their physical abilities. Wearables will enhance people's mental processing in a similar fashion. We like to call it Augmented Reality.
Real Person
It will have to have internet connect, the Palm VII already does, and is lighter and smaller. I would imagine the cell phone would be built into the thing, along with IR beaming, perhaps, but the CDMA network is going to have to upgrade to handle 256k or better multiple transmissions. I would imagine that stock brokers on the street would have these gizmos first. But if cheap enough, they could be come as ubiquitous as cell phones. Reminds me of the 'gear' on Earth 2, as well as the gargoyles in Snow Crash. In fact, if it hasn't been copywrited. . . MapQuest had better keep up with this. . .
Target? Every hear of concealed carry? Cuts down muggings to nil. Further, if you are jacked in, and have a microcam built-in, and ICQ or IM, and of course with the cellphone built in your location will be known, if anything happened to you response could be swift. The muggers would leave you alone. Of course, this will be the opposite of being a blank. Big Brother will also always know where you are and what you are doing.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....
You're deluded.
They can already track you by your cell phone or pager. Triangulation from the towers you are currently handshaking with. Not as precise as GPS, but good enough for an alibi, or a manhunt.
With irda, you don't need a dock.
Not according to NSI's whois page
I tend to disagree. As a college student, these things, cell phones, pagers, and palm pilots are common. But what it shows here is that you have some part of your life organized. It's not in anyway goign to pick up a chick when you ask a girl for her number and whip out your palm pilot.. but it does say a little about you. I own a pager, and a pilot.. i also own a laptop which is always carried around with me.(mostly cause i can do my assignments on there wherever i might be).. but i find that that turned out to be more of a status symbol than anything.. even though i didnt intend it to be. sK
I have this vision of an old caveman sitting with his back to the fire as he fondly remembers the old days. "In my day we didnt have any fancy schmancy fires, we huddled together on the dank floors of our caves for warmth and we liked it that way!" His friends all fall asleep as he prattles on about the decline in family values since the practice of huddling became obselete.
"You were clustering with that bimbo from down the street last night, weren't you?"
I've seen a few "wearable" input devices. The
;-)
one most reasonable so far was a one-handed
thing.
But what I'd like to see is a 1.5 handed thing:
A "keyboard" you wear on one arm, and input
with the other. It would still have to be a
"half" keyboard, presumably. But I would think
the chording would be a lot simpler than the
other devices I've seen so far.
I suppose this is sort of like the old nintendo
"power glove" thing. Except that it wouldn't have
a "glove", it would just be a wrist-band.
(Picture one of those obnoxious Conan barbarian
leather studded wrist thingies. Now imagine
pushing the studs
If you must have a chick magnet status symbol, go for the old, reliable penis compensator, I mean Porsche. Nope, sorry. All the guys I've done with Porsches were average-to-well-endowed. Besides, money is enough of a turn-on. You must be thinking of Mustangs..
Uh, try again.. Unless, that is you just registered it- in which case, you're a very sad individual.
What you're writing about above (goggles with cameras on the outside) is straight out of "The Hacker and the Ants" by Rudy Rucker. He called it "Stunglasses" when you're looking out to the world through your goggles. Als the "virtual keyboard" and feedback in gloves are straight out of this book. Did you make a mis cite or did Mr. Rucker lift these ideas(perhaps the other way around) FYI Hacker and the ants published 1994 I haven't read "Virtual Light" Unfortunatley Rudy's deck wasn't portable.
Why not a pair of wrist bands as input devices? They would each have a pair of tiny mercury switches (or some such) for position sensing in place of a mouse. Sensors in the band would "read" the position of the tendons in the wrist and thereby the position of each finger (go ahead, grip your wrist and move your fingers). Project a virtual keyboard onto the screen and you can type!
Are you kidding Fool?!? That could be the time this has the MOST use. If it interfaces with a GPS, it could be used to access friving directions, traffic maps, etc., without having to look away from the road!
It will not be a war, it will be a slaughter. In wars people die on each side. In this war the techs will just destroy the stupid in one fail swoop.
Dude man, take the plastic off the wrapper before you smoke it...
-Rich
The problem is that some people change their lifestyles to fit the tool, not use the tool to fit their lifestyle.
There's a fine line between having something being adopted in the workplace and wrapping a noose around your neck with some hideous tool. I've been there, I've had it happen. It was impossible to escape from work. If work wanted to happen at 3am there was no way for me to avoid it. It was depressing.
Be careful what you wish for you just might get it.
For a PDA type application that would be much better.
You can then look at a bit of text, take a snapshot, OCR it and personally summarize it then stick it in a database. Who wants to TYPE stuff like that in?
You can also look at a person, recognise/acquire their face, link it to their business card, add comments or whatever.
Later on you can recognise them on the street, or even ask your Personal Digital Enhancer (PDE) to tell you if it sees or hears them.
You could perhaps even silently communicate with them as you pass them the street using wireless networking. Modern style telepathy.
PDAs suck. Personal Digital Enhancers are cool!
Night/Infravision anyone?
Cheerio,
Link.
Oh come on! Get real.
Answer: No. If any thing they're intrigued, think you're an important person, and maybe even think you have a lot of money.
www.nakedgirlsnextdoorwearingcomputers.com
Sorry, it's already been registered.
Yup. Given that IBM demonstrated up to 2400 BPS data transfers using the huiman body, the WHOLE group could join hands and network.
The only questions then are:
1) Do you form a bus or a ring?
1a) If its a ring...who holds the token? (or tolkin if its a reading circle?)
2) Can you wear one of these while having sex? (The Boeing wanting these for mechanics...think of the digital kamra sutra manual)
Brings whole new ideas to 'personal networking'.
How does this work? I've got pretty good eyesight but I can't focus on something that's only 1 inch from my eye. Would it work for people who need glasses, or would they have to use contact lenses? Would reading something this close to your eye cause damage to your eyesight? The "focus" would actually be "un-focused" (compared to "normal" vision). If you "un-focus" the right amount, it will appear focused to your un-corrected eye. I played with a tv that had its screen (a tiny color LCD) mounted in a pair of sunglasses a couple of years ago. By playing with the focus, I could get a clear image without my glasses. It is the same as using binoculars (sp) without your glasses.
I mean, just look at the bags under the eyes of this guy. They must have had a lot of Penguin Mints to get those ungodly things....
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
Nobody is forcing anybody to use any new tech. If you learn to use the technology, instead of letting it use you, you'll always be much better off. If you choose to use your PDA a lot, like I do, then that's fine. Not using it is also fine, but seems a great waste of money. I have a cellphone/pager but I also have voicemail and the understanding that I'm not going to drop everything and respond to every page or call. I don't own a laptop because like you, I don't see the need, but I do own a Palm so if I choose to check the weather or movie times or area codes while I'm out, I can. I think that the solution to the information overload everybody is always talking about is discipline in using technology, not less technology.
Also, who decided that '4 sticks of butter' was a acceptable unit of measurement? As long as we're making stuff up, I drove about the length of 5 million gummi worms to work today. What the hell?
The Twiddler's a popular model, made by Handykey (www.handykey.com).
The quote in the article is "anyone who would buy a laptop would buy one of these". That's not true in my opinion.
I'm not saying they're cool, and I'm not saying, as an uber-geek, I won't own one. But to make a blanket statement that people who buy laptops (my sister the computer illiterate as a good example) will buy these is a bit too optimistic.
Werd.
With a lens of course. This has been a solved problem for a long time, in other HMDs.
However I would object to the virtual image being like a 14" monitor at "normal" distance. Since it's virtual anyway, why be so limited? It should be like an 80" screen several feet away. And I hope it's transparent, so you can see the scenery at the same time (transparent xterms with no extra programming effort, heh).
Hell yeah! Let's get it going.
The usual problem with small and valuable things: cell-phones, wallets, wearables etc. is that some one is always lurking in the nearest bush trying to steal them. And something the size of that thing at 2500$! I can imagine a pickpocket reading this article and having an orgasm.
LINUX stands for: Linux Inux Nux Ux X
FRA: STFU GTFO
> 112 in 4 cubic feet...
@ 2500$ a piece!
LINUX stands for: Linux Inux Nux Ux X
FRA: STFU GTFO
So when you log in to your *-acount you say your username and passwd out loud! |)
LINUX stands for: Linux Inux Nux Ux X
FRA: STFU GTFO
>You can get the illusion of a screen being further away by having TWO screens...
That still wont help(encreasing the differance between the apparent stereoscopic- and lenz-focus- distance just makes it worse actually). That just fools the stereoscopic depth perseption(spell?). The problem is that the eye still has to focus at a wery close range. This problem is solved by having a lenz attached direcly at the mini-screen.
LINUX stands for: Linux Inux Nux Ux X
FRA: STFU GTFO
1) Does it run Linux?
:)
2) Can you Beowulf some together?
I'm truly sorry, but they need to be asked.
>Maybe I'm missing the point, but are we so
:)
>wrapped up in technology that we can't walk down
>the street without bringing our computer with us?
The whole point is that we now have a *choice*. Same thing with cellphones or pagers. If I don't want to be disturbed, I turn them off or leave them home. Simple.
Years ago, in the days before itegrated circuits, if your car broke down on the highway, a hundred miles from Nowheresville, you had to wait for someone to stop and help you out. Nowadays, folks can call a tow-truck company instantly. Believe you me, that's important to someone who has to drive 160km per weekday in an 8 year old car.
>Can we no longer survive two hours without
>e-mail, the Net, our cellphone or Fax?
I know I can, but constant Net access isn't important to my studies. Cellphones and daily email, however, are.
>People are getting so addicted and dependant on
>technology and information that I wonder where
>family values will be in a few years.
Warning: "Family values" speech detected. Interest level decreasing... interest level now at zero.
Seriously, I don't think this is a problem. We'll adjust, just like we always have in the past. Have a little faith in humanity, friend. We're more adapable than we realize.
>What about sports?
Being a lazy couch potato, my initial reaction is to say that sports can take a flying leap up my ass. But that would be rude. So I'll say instead that sports can take a flying leap up my butt.
>What about nature? Until we put CPU's in
>birds, I guess birdwatching will lose it's
>appeal. Oh I forgot, some animals _do_ have CPUs >in them.
You just reminded me... I really want an Aibo. But not a Furby. I don't trust Furbys. They look like Gremlins. Except Furby don't have exploding gas tanks. Wow. That got offtopic fast. Need... caffeine... now...
Truly portable computers don't really change anything. Humans have always been dependant on technology of some kind, whether it's a hunting spear or a water treatment plant. The only real difference is the degree of sophistication.
Plus, it's just *too* cool a gadget to pass up.
I was told tonight by an HMD maker that shall remain anonymous (for a while anyway) that if he can put together a run of 1000 800x600 SVGA full color LCD based monocular HMDs, that he could get a price point of $500 per unit.
Would any of you buy this?
BTW, you can check out the occasionally mobile/wireless CarlaZone web cam. It uses the Nogatech mobile video kit with microcam, and a Metricom Ricochet wireless modem, on a laptop stuffed in a messenger bag.
Staying alert makes you look nervous and a prime target. It helps once you get mugged, but doesn't help preventing mugging.
Showing supreme confidence by ignoring the world around you is much more likely to hold off muggers.
Just my experience.
Tob
More to the point:
:)
Imagine user walking down the street, or sitting in a tube trainm reading email/web/news whatever.
The friendly neighbourhood mugger notes this non-threatening person, in a world of his/her own, wearing very expensive PC hardware, and in no position to escape or fight back.
Can we say "target", ladies and gentlemen? I wouldn't fancy your chances of getting insurance on one of these things!
Acronym
Why, on earth, would you want a mouse?
If you're supplied the voice-recognition software, why can't you just *tell* it what to do? Maybe have two buttons on the system, for and , to put you into command mode ("menu bar,start email", "attention, email window"...),
and the rest, you interact with they programs by speaking.
Of course, then you'd have to be able to read, and you'd, why, you'd save space, not having stupid, fuzzy incomprehensible pictures, but plain words....
mark "I hates meeces to pieces!"
"Icon: a small, fuzzy, indistinct picture, meant to replace a perfectly clear and comprehensible word" - the Engineer's Dictionary
Folks, let's do it *now*, before these things come out, and become common, so that they can put warnings on the box:
WARNING: IT IS ILLEAGAL TO USE THIS WHILE DRIVING!!!
mark "wants a legal, 100' range, static generator, for people who can't walk and chew gum, but drive cars (BADLY) and use cellphones at the same time"
I can see it now. Folks wearing computers while driving to work down the interstate playing Doom....
~afniv
"Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
~afniv
"Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
Richard von Weizs
> What about nature?
Wearables give you a better opportunity to visit the Blue Room and still get work done.
> I guess birdwatching will lose it's appeal.
A complete bird-watching reference manual is 1" from your eye. No need to keep a journal either, since the wearable can record your observations.
Let the assimilation begin!
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
absorbed in the latest
There is. You are going to get overrun by a bus or get your wallet stolen...
There are still apps for these. When used with a keyboard they are much more convinent than a laptop on trains, planes or during installations.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Likewise, we all want our technical toys to be smaller, so "pioneers" building very expensive wearable computers don't impress me that much--they are doing what is natural. But a company that figures out how to produce them competitively and at a price I can afford, that's the real innovation to me.
And how are you to be able to connect it to other things? SR232? USB? IR? Bluetooth?
Wearable computers will not be for personal usage, or at least at first. Someone will not do their term papers, business papers, spreadsheet analysis on these machines (unless they are "docked" I guess). The beauty of the wearable computer is a person has access to information for input/output. Wearable computers will start in niche markets: Surveyors/Civil engineers in the field, mechanics working on specialized machinery, and others.
Voice recognition is coming along well. Between using a mouse or pointer like object and voice recognition technology, a lot of input or interaction can be achieved with a computer. Enough interaction to satisfy the needs in many niche markets.
That is,
- in a airplane, I would plug the PC in a slot on the seat in front of me and then work on the medium-sized (flat) screen (also mounted in the back of said seat) and the keyboard provided by the airline
- in a hotel room, I would plug the PC on the desk and play with the hi-tech toys (VR helmet for example) (I guess that in a low-priced hotel, I would have to settle with a ms natural keyboard
:) - when visiting my family, I would finally be able to finish Quake VIII instead of quaking from acute withdrawal symptoms.
This would be OS/Machine-independent.All we would need is a standard to prevent turning this dream in a nigthmare. The basics already exist: USB, Firewire.
But... then, we would really need true PnP OS and devices.
Oh well, time to wake up!
PS: I apologize for my bad english (It isn't my mother tongue)
>Palm Pilots are still a status symbol, but I doubt they're chick magnets. From my own experience I can assure you, they indeed are. Looking at the Contacts database right now, I can see several phone numbers of girls I have met on the train, while I was fiddling with my Pilot and them coming right up to me going all "Oooh! What's that thing?" Great conversation starter and a place to put their info, all in one small package.
Trying this again. I really should use the preview button....
>Palm Pilots are still a status symbol, but I doubt they're chick magnets.
From my own experience I can assure you, they indeed are. Looking at the Contacts database right now, I can see several phone numbers of girls I have met on the train, while I was fiddling with my Pilot and them coming right up to me going all "Oooh! What's that thing?" Great conversation starter and a place to put their info, all in one small package.
Granted, you have to use a board with an Intel chipset, and the hardware support is rather limited (but much better with 4.5). It seems to me though, that the speed, stability, and ease of use of Be make it a much better choice for a wearable system, especially from an end user's standpoint. Of course, all every end user seems to want is their Windows, and their solitare, but hey, they should least have another option for an OS, and Linux seems to scare them beyond belief. Hell, sometimes Linux scares me beyond belief.
Gives a hole different slant to virus and worm transmition.
In my opinion the best two defences against mugging are staying alert to the environment around you, and knowing when and how to apply self defense moves.
Staying alert is likely the most effective of the two. Any semi sane mugger won't attack someone who's seen them. Being oblivious to your surroundings is asking for trouble.
I've had two people attempt to mug me. Both failed and went to the hospital if they were lucky. I'll admit I didn't stick around. At the time I had strong fast legs from running and bicycling. My self defence coach taught me to use my strengths along with common moves to break out of holds. Break hold, spin, and kick then RUN!!!
Hmm,
/. on the walk home? V. Cool.
I wear a rather strange lens combination in my spectacles: -1 in my right eye, +4 in my left. I also have astigmatism (sp?) which complicates matters.
So how will I see this screen properly? Will the screen have to have some kind of lens attachment?
Some posts mention direct retinal projection as a way of viewing the screen, pretty cool, huh? What would be really great is if I could build one of these into my current spectacles and not look like I've visited locutus of borg's optician...
But being able to read
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
Supposicell... with the copper coloured bottom. Also available as a rumble pack.
IBM japan has the prototype online. Should have learnded Japanese first tho. Pictures I can understand.... ;)
t ml
http://www.jp.ibm.com/News/leads/980912/index.h
-- my 7XL is not yet invented
Think online maintenance manuals.
Think in-the-warehouse pick-and-pull applications
A wearable PC would be highly useful anywhere you need both technical documentation AND both hands free.
Maybe I'm missing the point, but are we so wrapped up in technology that we can't walk down the street without bringing our computer with us? Can we no longer survive two hours without e-mail, the Net, our cellphone or Fax?
People are getting so addicted and dependant on technology and information that I wonder where family values will be in a few years. What about sports? What about nature? Until we put CPU's in birds, I guess birdwatching will lose it's appeal. Oh I forgot, some animals _do_ have CPUs in them.
Woa, stop the ballgame man! I need to check my RHAT stock!
Seriously, i can see how it can be useful for office workers but just as the cellphone, people will take this office-bound technology and transform it into a leisure necessity.
Now that was a tad unnecessary..
I personally don't have a cell or a pager because I don't like to be in contact with people. I hate the fact that somebody can just ring me up. It's frustrating. I can afford a cell phone, but I just don't want one. My palm IIIx on the other hand....
Lowmag.net
A little reminiscent of the ones the Dominion crews use in Star Trek DS9, don't cha think?
Hopefully without the headaches and nausea associated with the frequency those run at. I seem to recall only cardassians and Dominion Gengineered species can use them.
That and you'd get dizzy be seeing through the ship.
But it would be useful to have motion recognition/pattern recognition like they use at boeing...
Lowmag.net
IBM will have to be careful here. A lot of the luster and the coolness factor will be lost if they even contemplate putting their recently announced ID chip in this machine.
Trying to track me is bad enough, but trying to track me while I'm wearing my computer starts to look a lot like the movie "Enemy Of The State".
They could drop the price to $100 and I wouldn't buy it unless I could clip that chip or install an OS that wouldn't allow the chip to function.
Russ
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
Or.. your just one of the people who can't afford a cell phone so you find a reason to attack it.
The muggers might not think of it until after they hear that several of their friends are on mandatory vacations because of it...
Three people replied in a minute with the same idea. I rest my case.
I don't see this product on IBM's site. Nor a press release. I'd like to get one at that price, but this is just another Wearables intro in pop media.
Uhhh, from the IBM product website:
"Our wearable computers will bring user interaction to new heights. For example, when email is received the user is automatically notified by the unit which sticks a pin in their eye."
Hotnutz.com
I wouldn't.
But if I was some technician who needs lots of technical manuals easily and quickly, I wouldn't mind wearing this for the job. But I won't wear this thing down the street. In between, I'd probably keep it in a briefcase and walk down the street with the case.
I may be paranoid, but would someone want to be caught with $2000 worth of equipment sticking out? It's not the bulkiness, no, but *personal safety*. Until everyone has one, walking down the street with an obviously expensive piece of gear is inviting trouble. Probably good enough to kill for.
Soon in the news: "Person killed on the street: was reading Slashdot before death" }}:-) Or gives new meaning to "Blue Screen of Death".
I don't see a keyboard. How do you type things?
You could have some sort of keyboard device in your pocket - like those things where you can produce any letter by manipulating 4 or 5 keys in different ways. Of course, to the casual observer it might look like you were engaging in a game of 'pocket billiards' - geeks' image are bad enough already!
Exactly. Much like the idiots who insist on using a cell-phone while behind the wheel, I imagine the casualty rate of early adopters will be quite high.
Anyone with one of those pieces might as well be wearing a neon sign that sez 'rob me blind'.
Not to mention the fact that the computer itself is going to be worth $2000+ (not counting all those nifty add-on options). There's gonna be a pretty decent street value for one of those things.
Kids will finally be able to stop robbing each other for their sneakers, and move on to some real valuable property.
Just one more way to thin the herd, I guess.
--sugarman--
Possibilities include voice input (urgh) or some kind of Grafiti-like language on a small pad.
Decent displays look a lot easier than decent input devices.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
You indicate that having one of these devices will make a "geek"(TM) more anti-social. I dont think so heres why: I have a very bad memory for names. If I have one of these gadgets (and the right database program) when I meet a person at a party, then I can use this device to locate there record in my database and I will instantly know that my friend max warned me to never talk politics with this person (unless I am of his/her party) and that this person likes cats. Now I have a place to start a conversation with this individual (e.g "how is you cat?"). This device will allow users to share info about people they meet. This device stands to give geeks an edge in social setings, not the opposite.
Also thing about the busness uses: you are at a convention and a guy walk up and says "Hi, how are you!", now you just look up his gender/haircolor/eycolor/etc and you can respond, "Bruce, how did those merger talks go?".
Admitidly you will need time to work out a database catolog system that works for you but with practice I could probably find you in under 10 seconds. And It would look better than responding "uh, who are you?".
And as to privacy concerns about such a database 1) I am makeing private comments in it for personal reference, so I am not going to share it with just anybody. 2) I will probably access it by name (at home) and by gender/picture (at a party) so it is not like it will be indexed by there SSN or anything.
There are several companies that already sell
wearable computers and they are very expensive
they start at 2500. Most have voice rec and some kind of keyboard mouse thingy.
Hell I have been saveing my dough to build one myself. Just need $1000 for a K6 366, $250 for twiddler keyboard mouse, $800 for hi-res glasses, $75 for a 1gigHD, and depending on what motherboard I get maybe a pccard modem most come with 10/100 ethernet, USB,serial, some have video builtin.
Elephant: a mouse built to government specs
I admit I do have an Internet connection and I use it regularly....
...at work. Infrastructure and Unix environmental support deems it necessary I have a connection.
But I'm not bashing technology. I'm bashing peoples' conceptions that it it is necessary.
In the workplace, these devices will only be used by employers to give them an excuse to have their employees in a sort of always-at-work mode...
I'd see someone wearing these things on their eye and not say "that's cool," but I would be left saying "Wow... how sad." No one, and I mean that, no single person needs to be that connected, 24/7/365.25.
...Yes... more on than they currently are with laptops, pagers, cell phones, pdas, SecurID, etc. ad nauseum. I don't know about anyone else here, but at 5pm work stops and I go home. There's also an hour break in there for lunch.
Sorry, but I just don't understand.
-m
'scue me for posting too quickly.
Question: Has any chick been turned off because you wear a beeper?
Yes, my wife, because it might beep anytime and ruin the moment.
Question: Has any chick been turned off because you wear a cell phone?
Yes my wife, because a customer might call at any time and ruin the moment.
Though it's only a data point of one.
George
Further, if you are jacked in, and have a microcam built-in, and ICQ or IM, and of course with the cellphone built in your location will be known, if anything happened to you response could be swift. The muggers would leave you alone.
I'm curious, have you ever called the police? The last time I called 911, about midnight, after coming home and finding our house burgled but not knowing if the burglar was still inside, it took them about 20 minutes to arrive.
This also assumes that the muggers are acting rational and have done a risk analysis on how long it takes for a gargoyle to summon police versus how quickly they can run/bike away.
What you really need to do is hook up an EKG to the serial port, so if you get shot or stabbed, the ambulance gets paged, and if you don't get a response in 3 minutes, the coroner's office gets paged.
George
I'm not a chick, but I live with a few.
I've had to do the cell phone/beeper thing as part of my job, and when I see someone with one I pity them.
A beeper hasn't been a status symbol for 10 years. The only reason I would carry one now would be if I wanted to trigger my disconnect one to get out of a social situation.
A cell phone hasn't been a status symbol for 5 years. To me, it's just a sign that you're a lackey and the man has you on a very short leash. A geek might be impressed by an Iridium phone, but a non-geek would think you have a very old cell phone and can't afford a spiffy tiny one.
Palm Pilots are still a status symbol, but I doubt they're chick magnets.
If you must have a chick magnet status symbol, go for the old, reliable penis compensator, I mean Porsche.
George
Think how many hotties are going to be turned off by someone constantly wearing one of these, even if you explain how you have the entire illustrated Kama Sutra available, as well as links to four different chat rooms where you can ask real time advice when having sex.
A-and even if a computer wearing geek gets a hottie in bed, what happens when you get a BSOD?
"That felt good, why did you stop?"
"My OS crashed, I don't know what to do next."
And soon enough, we'll have web pages like www.nakedgirlsnextdoorwearingcomputers.com .
I kind of agree with Stephenson here, people who end up using these things constantly and in social environments are going to be rude, boring and shunned, gargoyles indeed.
Count me out of society based on wearables, if you please. Just because I can change a tire doesn't mean I'm going to walk around with a jack hanging from my belt, just because I like music doesn't mean I always have a walkman/discman on, and just because I like computers doesn't mean I want to wear one all the time.
George
If you're a wearable computing fan, you're probably thinking: "So what?"
I completely agree that IBM producing a wearable unit without any major technical innovation is largly duplicating the work of other companies. The difference is that this legitimizes the industry in the minds of many industry executives and normal users. Just as the news that Microsoft has heavily invested in some obscure technology sparks curiosity, the IBM announcement, like the IBM version of the Palm Pilot, will get wearables in to many corporate settings through the front door.
I personally have concerns about the social effects of wearables. Just as I don't carry a pager or cell phone, I'm not sure that I want the office constantly projected on a monitor centimeters from my eyes. I certainly don't want an employer requiring that I do so. But, I do want a wearable for personal use.
I'm glad to see IBM getting involved. This should attract considerable publicity and spur competition in the wearable market.
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
Maybe they are in ties with Transmeta making this pc be able to interact with any other pc by using a co-processor type thing, talked about in the Transmeta discussion, emulate processors and make things work even if the processors aren't compatable. Never know. Sounds like it could work.
Good is never enough, when you dream of being great!
Of course, this reminds me of a fake advertisement in a 1984-vintage computer magazine for the Micro Man-Frame. It featured Direct Retinal Graphics (DRG), an integrated keyboard (strapped to the guy's waist), and an easily stored battery back (don't ask.) Does anyone remember this?
"But always she's the spectre of uncertainty I first endured, then faded, then embraced..."
I must say, this is awfully cool. What's more, it's cheap. For $2000, you can bet I'll get one. It's probably useless; but I'll feel like the Uber-Geek with this baby on!
I can already hear the arguments...
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."
Voice control is the best thing that IBM can come up with? That's pretty sad. Anyone who has used today's voice recognition software knows that it pretty much sucks. You have to speak very slowly and very clearly in order to get it to understand you. IBM has to know that this speech recognition will not work for your average geek walking down the street - there's simply too much other noise.
The best input device, IMO, is a full-size 101-key IBM keyboard. (104-key KBs suck!) Of course, this is not an option for a portable computer, so IBM had to come up with something else. The Twiddler keyboard looks like it wouldn't be bad, but I've never tried it. I think that for this application, the best input system would be a touch-sensor tablet that's connected (both physically and informationally) through a high-speed serial connection and uses handwriting recognition for inputting characters.
Just my 2 cents.
-Ender
Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
One of the problems with wearable PCs is not just the bulk, but the methods for providing a monitor of some sort.
From the picture shown in the article, looks like they've taken up with a small display rig that wraps around the side. A little reminiscent of the ones the Dominion crews use in Star Trek DS9, don't cha think?
Definitely cool.
The monitor, about half the size of a pen cap, sits about an inch from the eye, giving the user the illusion of reading a 14-inch screen at normal viewing distances.
How does this work? I've got pretty good eyesight but I can't focus on something that's only 1 inch from my eye. Would it work for people who need glasses, or would they have to use contact lenses? Would reading something this close to your eye cause damage to your eyesight?
HH
Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes.
She's just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings.
Solitaire is the first thing this will be used for.
And when we get head installed systems Solitaire will also be the first thing this will be used for.
Ok. I'm tired of hearing about Media Lab and Xybernaut.
Check out Carnege Mellon's Institute for Complex engineering Systems. They've been doing the wearables for as long as anyone else.
I did a lot of undergrad work for this group, and their projects are as good/better than the stuff coming out of Media Lab, you just don't hear about it. Their wearable for speech translation currently translates between english, croatian, french and I believe one of the oriental languages (?). Pretty interesting stuff.
Sig:
Barbeque is a noun. Not a verb.
You bash technology, but you're still checking Slashdot, suggesting that you 1) have an internet connection, and 2) use it regularly. Ironic, no?
Tools shouldn't be used for the sake of using tools. But they shouldn't be avoided because they're new either. That's the sort of mentality that left people saying "my 1200 baud modem works fast enough for me..."
If a given instrument can help solve a problem faster, why shouldn't you use it?
Some of these things may just be toys too. I sat next to a guy on an airplane who used a PII 400mhz laptop with a 15" screen to play solitaire. But if technology has potential value, it will quickly be adapted to meet the needs of the workplace.
It may be a bit bulky, but it's still important. Once a major company introduces a product onto the market, other companies will try and refine the concept in order to steal some of the action. So it's a matter of time before someone ups the ante by slimming it down, turning up the power, and using the body to network wireless components (CPU in shoes, HD in wallet,)
[drool, drool....]
I see a lot of comments alluding to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and I see 0 comments relating IBM's new "innovation" to William Gibson's Virtual Light. In fact, I'm rather disappointed by that. What I would like to see in a portable computer is fusing of miniturized camera technology *AND* miniturized computer technology. Put a pair of very small digital cameras on the goggles and the interior of the goggles can have a screen for each eye. The camera can broadcast the view of the room around you as the background, and overlay your text, graphics, favorite tv channels, etc) onto the image you're recieving from your environment.
As far as input devices, how about a glove with sensors in the fingertips? When you push a button on the back of the glove, a "virtual keyboard" could pop up in your vision and you could "type" on it just like a real keyboard. Maybe even with little pressure pads in the tips of the gloves' fingers, so that when you make "contact" with a key, the pad presses lightly back against you.
Having a computer effectively attached to your retina would make for super-keen LSD trips, too!
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
=(.\')=
Granted Speech while a lot better then it once was still has a way to go. It's takes some training but after that it flies along.
My Uncle uses Via Voice because he can't type fast enough, and I've watched him use it and it's pretty impressive. When I sit down to it I get "Purple monkey dishwasher" statements in my sentances. :)
Command Recog on the other hand is a heck of a lot better. Check out Game Commander. This has to be one of the best I've seen so far. I use this with Tribes which has 50-60 key combinations all preprogrammed into it, so for example I just say "Eject!" and game screams "Hit the Deck!" and ejects me out of the ship I'm flying or I say "Preload one" when I'm in an Inv Station and it loads up set one favorites then kicks me out of the inv station.
The level of training this required was 0%
But... voice while is all fine and dandy is no good if you get background noise.
As a new input device I would like to see something different then the norm.
How about a squeezy ball that can be used to feedback mouse/keyboard input? Would keep the RSA away (least in the hand :)
IMHO.. met the chap, most boring hour of my life. Neal Stevenson is much better.
Granted, FNM could then stick a knife into FNG and take his stuff, but I think if confronted with this sort of "instant" notoriety, the average street thug is going to be freaked out and spooked off rather than encouraged.
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
$2500 for a complete system, however, is starting to sound good. It's about the price of a nice laptop, and I think the market has indicated that it's about the price people are willing to pay for a nice laptop. I doubt they'll sell lots of them, and the ones they do sell will be to very niche markets (Mobile techs and maintenaince people, companies like Boeing who want to have their workers able to do stuff like pull up schematics while waist-deep in the wing of a 777, geeks who want wearables, etc.) but at that price, I'm sure they will sell some.
Also, with IBM's recent commitments to Linux and open-source in general, I'll bet they'll make sure it will run either Windows or Linux. They do have their ViaVoice speech API available for Linux, at least in beta form, so I can see them easily building a special distro that includes their ViaVoice for Linux for these things.
Now if they'll stick a wireless ethernet on it, I'll pull out the checkbook and pre-order today!
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
http://Boole.Stanford.EDU/thumbcode
One idea is for the machine to recognise the Thumbcode via switches placed at "...twelve contacts somewhere on the palm or thumb side of the phalanges and one the tip of the thumb."
I hope they get Jerry Ryan to model this device. Oh please assimilate me 7, I won't resist.
When these things catches on, then how will it look when madmen are playing Carmageddon (or similar) while cruising downtown ?
Or Multiplayer Midtown Madness ?
And so we come inevitably closer to Neal Stephenson's concept from Snow Crash of "gargoyles"...
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Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll. - Rev. Lovejoy
It's not as if people with loud walkmans are annoying enough on the bus...now we'll hafta put up with hoards of geeks having Quake netorgies!
Also, any ideas on the possiblities of having cellular modems or something similar for remote internet access? I'd love to be able to check email (and slashdot) incessantly.
Finally...battery life? How many AAs would it take to run it for 12 hours?:)
-growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional
In regards to input, we could scrap the whole keyboard / mouse interface altogether. Scientists have been working, for quite some time now, on a brain -> computer interface, to pass commands from thought to execution. The first test subject, a mentally challenged young man, seems to be working out well. Obviously, we're years away from being able to write code just by thinking about it, but, the possibility exists.
It will be interesting to see who lines up when we create computers the size of nanochips, which are implanted behind our eyeballs, display images directly to our retinas, and have wireless highspeed connectivity. Multiplayer Quake, anyone?
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| big bad mr. frosty
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In my darker moments, I sometimes think that the incredible proliferation of portable electronic devices--cell phones, pagers, PDAs, laptops, wearables, etc.--is intended not to give you freedom, as their makers and advertisers promise, but to keep you chained. Tools of the corporations, to enslave the masses with invisible chains. The idea of a wearable PC really scares me sometimes.
Then it passes, and all I can think is "cool!" And you know what? That's even more frightening.
the privacy angle seems interesting - I can sit and browse whatever i like in any situation without anyone being able to look over my shoulder - maybe Personal Computer is a term we should have saved for this. No compromise required. In fact of course it's just revolutionary and we can have no idea - the first decently powerful mainstream-priced one of these will change everything, but I'm betting end 2003 for that.
I actually just went to a presentation by Chris Thompson on 'Wearable Computing' early this afternoon. Chris is with University of Georgia Tech Research Institute. http://wearables.gatech.edu Some of the things I learned today: He had with him a wearable PC consisting of headgear, complete with single eye piece video screen, microphone and headset speakers. He was jacked into a P266 unit that he wore around his belt. It weighed approximately five pounds. He was running Windoze95 but YES, LINUX could run on it as well. It had a hand held mouse attached to the unit but he mostly used voice commands to control it. It also had wireless network capabilities which means 'Always Jacked In'. He gave a good presentation and I recommend checking out their web page for more info.