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Photos From Wearable Computer Fashion Show
Bud writes "Behind this URL you can find photos from the wearable computers fashion show at Internet World 99."
This is pretty disturbing. Definitely worth a good laugh or three. Then again... models ;)
is it just me, or was this more of a fashion show
appealing to people who like the "futuristic" look?
I couldnt even see any displays in a lot of those
pictures =/
why cant they just show what some of these
wearables would look like when people wear normal
clothing?? (not that I didnt enjoy the models...
YUMMY)
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
Is there any information or links on the specification of any of these devices?
What do they do? How to program or develop applications for them?
How much RAM? What kind of processing power?
What kind of input? And what kind of output?
Why are there no photos demonstrating the usage of these devices?
Thanks for any information on this.
P.S. Being a toy/console/gadget coding geek I would like to know programming information for any of these silly toys.
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer
3D Realms/Apogee
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer
caption:"Hands Free Poultry Inspection System: Food inspection workers need to make written reports without tying up their hands. Designed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, this voice activated computer can allow poultry workers to create reports completely hands free. "
direct link
Much Love,
"S"HM
*****
(I refuse to spellcheck out of contempt for your belief system)
To save you time, I have links to the only two pictures you really want to see
:)
Pic One
Pic Two
None of these really show that much in terms of wearable computers, mostly just dumb looking shiny costumes, so you might as well just look at the two that show some skin and go back to coding
Finkployd
on his shirt. Man, that guy's got ATTITUDE! Either that, or he's really hung over.
When I go outside or travel I am usually happy to leave my computer behind. All this means is that you can look like a moron with a computer strapped to your waist. Not that getting a few e-mails is bad, but most phones do that already. We have the Palm VII, phones with web browsers, and pagers that send and recieve e-mail. Why do we need this wearable crap?
Or are they dry clean only?
I attend one of the schools where there is active research into wearable computers. After overhearing a discussion on the possibility of eye damage due to the amount of time spent closely viewing a computer screen with one eye, I am now very skeptical about wearable computers. I would hate for them to become like cell phones (y'know they might cause brain tumors but we've already gotten so used to using them it's hard to stop), the killer app that might actually kill you. I am now interested in how much research is done to see if potential eye damage is expected and if so how it will be combatted.
I for one know that with the amount of time I already spend in front of a computer risking carpal tunnel syndrome, it would be a real b*tch to add possible eye damage to my list of occupational hazards.
well folks, this consolidates it. After seeing this my insomnia worsend 8 fold.
I'm not going to be able to sleep for at least 3 more years.
Even being a wearable enthusiast...
I'm like.... frightened.
Researchers in the lab are reportedly bumping up against physical limits, so frequently that it doesn't seem accidental. They hope many of the obstacles will turn out to be surmountable, though it will require a breakthrough to get beyond the current limit, the so-called "Moore's thong".
Look at the article (or just the abstract if you're lazy) here.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
"The Girls of the Internet. Oooh, I'd go online with them any day!!"
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Did they let the undersexed designers of these devices meet the models? I would figure out how to cram a beowulf cluster into a bikini if it meant I could hang with Vendela.
Damn! I mean, there's only one OS to commit to. And with the advent of the Athlon, there's only one CPU. And with the GeForce 265, there's only one video card. And only one SB Live!...
...
Crap!
Now I have to worry about color coordinating my new PC to my suit?
"Honey, which PC goes better with pin-stripes?"
"Oooh, those ribbon cables really bring out the gleam of your FireWire ports."
"Don't you know you're no supposed to wear beige after Labor Day!?"
"Is that a joystick in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
... and my personal favorite
"That Beowulf cluster would look great crumpled at the foot of my bed. How'sa 'bout it?"
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
- A lightweight operating system. Of course, that means running PalmOS. Sad to say, Linux doesn't have the applications for this kind of situation (yet?).
- Cryptofinancial Privacy. Use iButton(s) to store things like private keys and other cryptofinancial information. For now, I'll have to be content with GNU Keyring on my Palm IIIx. Confinitiy's PayPal gets a poke in the eye until they get their act together and make a Linux installer for their Palm software.
- Real Style. Not look like something from Logan's Run. Technology is at its best when its subtle and unnoticable. A Palm device in your pocket or purse is pretty unnoticable (until you start using it, then the Unknowing clamor about it 'Ooh, what is that?')
- Cesium-133 Timepeice Accuracy. It should know how to set its time/date from the Atomic Clock in Fort Collins, CO.
- Where are ya?. If you're going to put in any kind of radio receiver, you might as well throw a GPS receiver in it so you don't get lost. Or, at the least, be really annoying when you can say "If we keep walking at this rate, we'll get to Fargo in 345 days, 6 minutes, 35 seconds!"
- Remote control. A really strong IR transceiver for remote control applications. It would be really nice if I didn't have to get up off the couch to grab a remote. Cripes, I've got like 10 of them on the coffee table.
Note that I do not advocate the MP3 player, etc. I think the wearable is more about control-- control of your financials (ala the new Wallet), control of your time (ala never worrying about what time it is), your style (ala don't be a fashion slave), where you want to go (ala I know how close I am to getting somewhere) and your stuff (ala CHANGE THE CHANNEL ALREADY! TURN OFF THAT TELETUBBY CRAP! ARRGGH!).Otherwise, I think the show was mostly an opportunity to show off sexy-sexy models wearing either Goretex or shiny black vinyl. :)
_______
computers://use.urls. People use Networds.
God says it should be the God/Wearable Computer Fashion Show.
While the products make up the operation part of the fashion show, without the breasts, it wouldn't be complete.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
I've seen this a couple of times before and could swear once it was from a link from a /. link.
Fashion, my foot. It's just the usual bunch of MIT people, one of whom happens to be a former model who understands PR and how to put together a press event, which when you think about it is itself a newsworthy development in the hardware arena. This ugly stuff and the company's ugly website got quite a bit of coverage back in October.
Quick, somebody hire an image consultant for Steve Mann.
I saw the show while at InternetWorld. It was quite bizarre- in the middle of the downstairs 2nd-class booth space, there was a giant open area with a runway. The "company" sponsoring the show (InfoCharms) is a startup straight out of MIT that obviously hasn't hired any marketing people yet: the "booth" was littered with product concepts presented low-budget academia style.
/. already.
:-)
Besides a lot of skin, what was shown was a combination of bizarre fashion-industry interpretation of "futuristic" clothing with a definite retro spin, costumes from "futuristic" movies and tv shows, concept device mockups, and real wearable computers. The latter were few and far between, and nothing that hasn't been discussed to death on
The show was fun to watch, if only for seeing two amazingly different worlds colliding. The fashion people seemed to waver between excitement about being on the "leading edge" of something potentially huge and a patronizing smugness about bringing something hip to the poor, uncultured geek heathen. I think some of the attendees were genuinely interested in wearables, but the models definitely were a primary attraction. The pictures really don't do justice to the skimpiness of many of the women's outfits.
At least 4 of the people that started Infocharms are my close friends, so they've been pretty good about sharing what's going on with the company.
Obviously, the InternetWorld show was pure media exposure. I know it, you know it, and they know it. But the "normal" press and media don't. What they're trying to do is get Wearables to the point where cellphones, Walkmans, and police radios are: simply an inobtrusive part of your garb. Remember that Sony, Panasonic, et al. do this EXACT SAME THING every time they roll out some new gadget - it goes to some electronics show, worn by some under-nourished girl or an over-pumped dude wearing clothes you'll never see on the street. It's all about hype.
Remember folks, these are supposed to be specialized devices. Just as you don't expect your Walkman to be a full-blown AV rig, your Wearable isn't going to be the place you do all your coding at. Instead, they're specific-purpose devices. Infocharms hopes to be like one of those mobile-accessory sites, where you shop at their site for any one of a bunch of specialized computers that are no bigger than a walkman. Good goal, the problem right now for them is execution and marketing (as someone pointed out). Yeah, they do need to work on that a bit...
Also, I have had discussions about the possible eye-strain for the PrivateEye and other viewers. The general concensus is that you don't use them enough to cause problems (even Thad, who has worn that thing for almost 8 years straight, probably doesn't actually look at it for more than an agregate of 1 hour/day. And he's an extreme example.). The even better news is that the follow-on displays, which are generally embedded in your glasses like a HUD, or painted directly onto your retina with a laser, are no more of a problem than a CRT. Obviously, you shouldn't spend many long hours with your eyes at a single focal point. But with wearables, you'd be really hard-pressed to do this at all, whereas with CRTs....
Oh, and in case anyone who knows is reading this, I still think the first picture looks like Dana, don't you? Hi Dana! :-)
-Erik
There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
"With this device, under development at Georgia Tech, a cancer specialist can gather data using a sensor glove."
And then this image. Notice if you will, the part of the "doctor's" hand covered by the glove.
Think about it...
-=-=-=-=-
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
I don't think we're too far off from that. AT Burning Man '99, a lot of people were wearing costumes or clothes that had electroluminescent wire sewn into them. EL wire comes in about a half-dozen colours and glows like neon when a current is run through it. Some people simply had it connected to a small battery/transformer assembly on their belts, while others had some small pocket sequencers that allowed them to create "chaser" effects. It works well in a rave/club context, and also a safety context -- you were less likely to drive your bike into EL-adorned people (certain parts of Burning Man are pitch black at night).
I'd like to see a communications protocol used by DJs that would broadcast information such as the name and artist of the song currently being played. In a large club setting, it's not always possible to press your way to the DJ booth and ask -- and if you've ever read the "Moody DJ" comic strip series, you know why it's not always a good idea to ask.
There's a large contingent of rave kids who now bring their own African drums to raves to play along. Those things are large enough to embed a ruggedized computer. With Bluetooth wireless technologies, you could surreptitiously order ecstacy from a similarly equipped dealer. Imagine, a new double entendre: e-commerce!
I was surprised that none of the models had a computer stuffed into those tiny knapsacks that women at clubs seem to favour. That seems like a pretty good place to mount a computer without looking ridiculous (depending on your fashion tastes) or at least overly techo-fetishistic. I'm sure a teeny knapsack could hold a computer to interface with the top-secret networks that connects women from across the globe together. You know -- the information network with access terminals in women's washrooms. That's why women go to the washroom in twos -- two people have to enter a part of the decryption key simultaneously. Really, guys, I swear this is true.
Once you fight your way past the bimbos and the crowd shot (is that Bill Gates?), some of the technical wear looks very functional. Check out the funding: "Carnegie Mellon devices funded and supported by: The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance, Sandbox Advanced Development, DARPA, and The Telxon Corporation." Nice cash flow there.
Ok. Granted the Hands Free Poultry Inspection System should be in a copy of Skin Two but take a look at that audience. These people do not get laid often enough
What depressed me the most was the complete lack of any links to the hardware in question (even most of my searches came up empty.)
I guess the term "Vaporware for the Vapid to Wear" finally applies.
No Zen is good zen
I'm certain these specific wearable PCs will catch on with the public as much as the quasi-futuristic fashions do.
What a beatiful parallel! A handful of pictures shows you how impractical and almost insane today's futurist mania has gotten in both fashion and tech.
What could be farther from the everyman or everywoman than high-tech and high-fashion?
Personally, the whole show looks like the sort of thing Wired gets parodied for ("We're hip. We're with it. We get it! Really! Stop Laughing!"). Very few of those looked like anyone had done even basic UI thought - the very first picture has a wearable that is less convenient than a desktop PC! I was also disappointed to see that the designers still think people find the heavily drugged look appealing, too.
If the staff had portable computers, if those portable computers had wireless data access and if we had a paperless office (too many ifs, but you get the idea) then staff could again actually achieve something for most of their calls outside the office. This is why we need wearables. Once Bluetooth hits, I'm there - mobile, Palm, headset, all wireless connected. Will call you from the future to tell you how it goes ;)
Am I the only one who thought of a "exotic dancers" with computer chips covering the important parts of their breasts (instead of stars or whatever)?
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
I'd rather not have to carry a bag with the stuff tossed in it, because then I'd have to keep finding a place for the bag. I'd much rather that I was just wearing my technology...
After writing what I did, I thought about it for a while, and then read this reply.
Real estate is more of a cut-throat, live-on-commission, always-having-to-work job. But it is almost instantly gratifying and correlated to the pay you receive and the time you put in -- Lawyers, doctors, etc, (read: professions that consumers want instant-access to).
I see that happening, but I also see my worst fear happening: sitting on the beach on a Sunday morning on Oahu, then getting paged in my eyeball by my job telling me that I have to work on my vacation.
The flip side is, however, more attractive...
I'm sitting on the beach on a Sunday morning on Oahu, I get paged in my eye telling me to fix something at my job on the mainland and I never once ever see the office. The beach is my office, and I'm never cooped up in a cube ever again.
Talk about a paradox.
-m