Surrounded By Cyborgs: ISWC2000, Take 1 43
Excuse me, is that a StrongArm?
A survey of the show floor reveals that wearable computing in the year 2000 is still a small, specialized field. Despite cyberpunk literature, Max Headroom, AT&T "You Will" commercials and cell-phones equipped with earbud mics to get us used to the idea, the cost and discomfort of wearing one's own computer still makes it anything but mainstream. Input devices are awkward, displays are expensive and for the most part too obtrusive for casual use. The interface discomfort is more than just physical, too -- it's semantic. Many of the computers demonstrated at ISWC 2000 will run the same applications as your desktop PC (since they're based on shrunken X86 hardware), but simply aren't built for it when it comes to interface. Typing a letter is still easier at a standard keyboard and a conventional monitor than with a forearm keyboard and a monochrome eyepiece, in part because "typing a letter" is something we're much comfortable with in another setting. The niche that wearables will fill is still being hewn -- by the people at ISWC, in fact.Unlike Comdex, CES, or even Linux World, there are no hordes rushing the door seeking T-shirts and yo-yos. The attendees mostly seem focused on the technology at hand, and catching up with what their academic colleages or business competition are doing. As you might expect, that means improving battery life, devising and improving useful applications, tweaking both input and output devices to be more intuitive, and making the actual hardware of wearable computing more comfortable.
Three basic groups come to strut their stuff at this kind of event: Systems vendors, component manufacturers, and academics. In a field as technical and experimental as wearable computing, rigidly separating the three is difficult sometimes. Besides which, some of the companies which could be selling wearables are at present still circling the outskirts before entering the field outright (like IBM, whose Linux-equipped wristwatches were demonstrated to oohs and aahs, and Compaq, whose iPaq is belt-mountable and capable, but not a "wearable computer"), and some former industry bigwigs have returned to academia, like Steven Schwartz, who headed research for Xybernaut before migrating to his current position at the MIT Media Lab.
The few true systems vendors tend to be focused on industrial and government applications, the kind of roles that can justify the latest, most capable hardware even if pricey: that means their market is focused on high-margin sales and hardware which doesn't much see the shy side of $3,000, but which is polished and presentable with ergonomics, true wearability and niceties like voice recognition and wireless communication present and accounted for.
The component vendors, on the other hand, span a huge range -- everything from budget displays (like the $500 M1 from Tek Gear) to materials which could serve as the infrastructure for future wearable systems, like the high-tech fabrics developed by Bekaert -- Bekaert's Douglas Watson showed me spool of thread I assumed was some sort of fortified cotton, or perhaps silk, but which turned out to be stainless steel. "It turns out that steel ends up having many of the same characteristics and flexibility as cotton or polyesther, when you get to the same filament diameter, he said. And at a company called Foster-Miller, Senior Engineer of Materials Technology Brian Farrel showed off the items on a table display which included military-stength cloth straps through which are woven nearly any kind of data cable, from USB to fiber-optics, or in some cases electical power connections. Foster-Miller also had vests stuffed full of haptic sensors, developed as part of a program to help fight spatial disorientation among pilots. (A gentle nudge from one of the sensors helps orient pilots who may have briefly lost their true orientation.)
Companies specializing in nothing but display systems, like MicroOptical and Liteye wowed visitors with their latest displays as well. The most-worn displays among the wearable-equipped, though, seems to be the lightweight Micro-Optical.
And probably most important in the long term, there are academic groups -- research groups from CMU, Columbia, MIT, and GA Tech are all represented. Xybernaut and VIA may sell complete systems to industrial users and the military, but universities are still the biggest source of design ideas and basic research in everything from software to analysing the potential of wearable hardware to cause musculoskeletal distress. (More about academic types on Friday.)
Established players
If you're looking to buy a wearable system outright (or have a few pitched to you), ISWC is one of the few opportunities to try on a range of devices and actually play with wearable computing outside of the design studios and graduate labs of elite universities, and without forking over thousands of dollars.There are relatively few companies who've been around long enough or sold enough computers to call major players in the wearables market, but two old names in the young field are VIA and Xybernaut, both of which had booths on hand to demonstrate their latest machines and give hints about future models.
Xybernaut, perhaps the best recognized name among wearable manufacturers, demonstrated several variations on their XXXX. While it's hard to not call many of the devices around the floor "futuristic," Xybernaut's sleek machines practically define the term.
VIA (from high-tech Minnesota) showed their devices, too: their current model, the VIA II, is about the size of two very fat wallets, and flexes to allows the sides to fit comfortably against the body. Plans are also in the works for a model integrating a low-power 600Mhz chip and 128MB of RAM. (Now from where does that sound familiar?) The folks at VIA promise an announcement about that new model at Comdex, but there aren't that many lines to read between here.
Not-so-established players
Tiqit, a commerical offshoot of work at Stanford's Wearable Computing Laboratory, demonstrated their "matchbook sized" machine (I say more like a pack of cigarettes), which they claim is the world's smallest complete x86 PC, and that it is shipping now. Unusual in that it relies on a 486 chip rather than the ARM, StrongARM and low-power 586s which seem to dominate the show, the Tiqt instead favors sheer tininess over computing power. It still has enough muscle to serve web pages, edit text, and do most of the functions that wearables are called on to do at present, with the exception of processor-intensive chores like speech recognition.Another academic offshoot, this one from Georgia Tech's famed wearables program with Thad Starner is called Charmed Technologies (about which more in the second installment) -- but check out their site for plans free for your use to build your own wearable computer case, fitting standard PC104 board, before it gets slashdotted.
... but then I'd have to kill you.
John Murray, Director of Software Engineering for Pacific Consultants LLC, was showing off something a bit more exotic than even the other complete wearable systems: field-computers that PCLLC is building in limited quantities for the U.S. Army, having beaten out giants like Raytheon to build for the Army the ruggedized wearable system known as Land Warrior.
The system is built for abuse -- connections are all military-grade and waterproofed. This all comes at a weight cost that probably puts military-spec wearables off most people's list: around 16 pounds worth of electronics, batteries and cabling is joined by an external antenna the diameter of a gun barrel, a shoulder-mounted GPS receiver, a small flat-panel display and a full-color 640x480 prism display manufactured by NAME. The processing unit (a 166MHz Pentium processor on a PC104 board, mated to 800MB of flash disk and 64MB of RAM) is carried separately from the radio-spectrum communications module, which contains a standard 802.11 card.
Ron Hill, a retired Army Sergeant (first class), and now with the Omega Training Group, was in full camo dress and wearing the system. Murray pointed out that the cable connecting the wireless module to the CPU (worn around Hill's back) is actually a USB connection, finegled into military-style cable and connectors. Other than such specialized connections, though, the componenents themselves are fairly standard, just ruggedized.
If the weight wasn't enough to dissuade you, though, this might be: all told, Murray says the system costs ten to twelve thousand dollars per person. "But we're still early on. Those costs should drop considerably as we increase the numbers. That cost is with each system being built one at a time, and we're a small shop."
Right now, the system is running windows 2000; part of that was expediency, because we only had 9 months to develop the thing, and part of that was because the military wanted it to run with certain pre-existing pieces of software." Murray admitted interest in switching to a real-time OS such as QNX, or perhaps a Linux-based real-time system.
Try this on for size
Not everyone fits into one of the neat categories of vendor or academic, though, and not all of the wearables at the show look like bladerunner props, either. Jonny Farringdon, Senior Scientist in Wearable Technologies at Philips' UK Research Laboratories, held forth in a booth festooned with heat-sensing bras, gloves which measure sexual arousal (well, galvanic skin conduction), and other oddities which might not seem odd for long. Specifically, two of the jackets on display at the booth went on sale this month in Europe as part of Levi's Industrial Clothing Division line."4 of the jackets [in that line] contain fully-integrated electronics," he says, pointing to a khaki parka, as he begins unfolding and peeling the velcro around a multitude of pockets and flaps to reveal the inventory of a small electronics store scattered through its folds, and headphones which snake through the fabric. "Microphone in the collar, GSM mobile phone, MP3 player, remote control. All hidden and discrete -- it looks like you're wearing a jacket."
He demonstrates the system integration built into the jacket/system with a sample phone call. "Let's say some one rings you up It knows, it switches the music off, it patches the phone call through the same headphones, you talk -- not into the collar, you just talk -- and when you're done, it hangs up and switches the music back on." And it works the other way, too. "If I want to make a call, I dial by saying your name, it looks at your number, connects the call, switches the music off. If the call is taking a long time to connect -- as GSM calls tend to do -- it plays me music in the background, then when the call connects it switches the music off. I can play you my MP3s through my phone."
Check back Friday for more on the academic aspects of the ISWC2000 in Take 2: Vested Interests.
Re:word "computer" a badge of shame (Score:1)
Wouldn't they then be referred to generally as ubiquitous computers?
Ubiquitous computing [ubiq.com] is usually thought of as computers placed ubiquitously throughout our environments, but not worn, and interacting with us. This would work well in combination with wearable computing since the wearable and the ubiquitous computers would likely each gain much by interacting with each other.
Seen this before? (Score:2)
wearables resource (Score:1)
Wearables.net [wearables.net]
Re:A ploy (Score:1)
---
Re:What does this mean? (Score:1)
Plans are also in the works for a model integrating a low-power 600Mhz chip and 128MB of RAM. (Now from where does that sound familiar?) The folks at VIA promise an announcement about that new model at Comdex, but there aren't that many lines to read between here............
What does that mean? I need some help reading between the lines! Michelle
The the low-power chip would be possibly Intel's new low-power 600Mhz Pentium III or more probably the revolutionary Crusoe processor made by Transmeta [transmeta.com]. Most Slashdotters are big fans of Transmeta, which only recently began shipping products.
Use the search tool at the bottom of the Slashdot homepage to search for Transmeta articles.
Re:And??? (Score:1)
Kinda makes you think that these researchers really really need ...
As anyone who saw the BBC's TV broadcast on wearables at Philips will have seen, there were (shock horror) both men and women actually working on technology there.
Correct link for build-it-yourself wearable (Score:3)
Sorry, "Fargo" was FICTION. (Score:2)
Thanks, timothy, for perpetuating the stereotype of Minnesota as a technological backwater. It seems strange to me that Georgia has readily been accepted as a technological center, whereas the home of Honeywell and the place where the AS/400 was designed (Minnesota) is generally assumed to be backward and hickish.
Also, the proper link to VIA would be: http://www.via-pc.com/ [via-pc.com]
Why to wear (Score:2)
Aren't cyborgs more than just clothing? (Score:3)
By that token, I'd think someone with a cochlear implant and the electronics to run it more of a cyborg than the army guy. The experimental myoelectric or nerve controlled arms for amputees clearly qualify.
Perhaps a powered exoskeleton qualifies, but it's got to be hard to take off. The gizmo Ripley used in Aliens doesn't qualify, either.
Re:Sorry, "Fargo" was FICTION. (Score:1)
Military adopts USB?!?!?! (Score:1)
Re:Ultra-hyper-mega-WOMAN (Score:5)
I am an older (49), grey-haired, female who often works as documentation specialist (including Web design/coding, and tech writing). When the first laptop came out, I was using it; when the first decent (i.e,. meets my specs) wearable computer comes out (even if it costs thousands), I'll be wearing that, too.
Working as a consultant (when it's not just a tax dodge for the corporations involved!) means taking along one's own tools -- software, especially, and that implies specific hardware often. I want an integrated phone, too, to make staying in touch with clients/getting new clients easier while I'm working. I don't want to carry any PDA unless its keyboard works properly -- and that means full-size keys, preferably arranged vertically unless I'm seated (i.e., a hinged keyboard I can wear around my neck) -- so just put PDA-type software in the whole package, please. Finally, I want a scanning wand to make text [re]entry easier.
These things are not only practical, they'll be considered essential for all students/scholars, computer-using consultants (which category will grow to include architects & space-arrangers, educators, and most other professionals), family members, soldiers, etc. Long ago I predicted laptops would be the locus of most action in research/development; I was right about that, and I'm right about wearables now.
Well, I don't know about you... (Score:2)
But I'm having a hard time imagining even a medium crowd (like downtown Helsinki during the lunch breaks, which really isn't very much compared to other cities) where every single person is wearing gargoyle gear. I mean, I carry a cell phone on my belt most of the time but I wouldn't want an entire computer on me at all times. Even charging the cellphone roughly once a week is a hassle (as in, I have to remember that the phone is there) so you probably can imagine how much trouble it would be to recharge a battery on a wearable computer that's supposed to be active most of the time; if you turn it off at times why not use a laptop (like normal people do) instead of a wearable 'puter?
I mean, what are you going to do? Hang your clothes in a special recharger-and-coathanger contraption every evening?
Anyone hear anythign on the Daeyang Cyvisor? (Score:1)
Also for those who care, Handkey corp is taking pre-orders on the new mdoel of the Twidller, the T2. They are suppsoed to ship Dec 1 and if you pre order you get 10% off and get to be one of the first in line to buy one (Twiddlers are produced in small numbers and sell out pretty regularly.)
Re:Sorry, "Fargo" was FICTION. (MN *is* high-tech) (Score:1)
3M, Honeywell, U of M --
The stereotype of MN (or Georgia, or Tennessee or a lot of other places which I think get sterotyped even more badly) as backward is one that's obviously wrong and I certainly was not promoting it. I was pointing out that it's a high-tech place (esp. Minneapolis) even though it's not thought of that way by most people outside of it. VIA is even one of the fastest-growing companies not only in MN but in the country.
Sorry if it sounded otherwise to you.
timothy
Re:Well, I don't know about you... (Score:1)
Cornell's Alternative Energy Lab is working on a pair of pants that have thousands of hinge-generators in the legs, so you produce electricity while walking. The technology is years away, but there will be a solution to the problem.
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
Upgrarable wearables? (Score:2)
What are other people's expereicnes in this area?
Re:I think Transmeta, but VIA would not disclose (Score:1)
Sorry, I thought those were your words. If that's what they said, they're not talking about an Intel chip.
(And I believe it's you, T)
-Zoyd
Twiddler2 (Score:2)
Link for handykey.com [handykey.com]. I have a T2 on order. Read this wear-hard post from Handykey president (and practically sole employee), Dr. Chris George [blu.org].
Xybernaut Question (Score:1)
Re:the next generation (Score:1)
word "computer" a badge of shame (Score:3)
the next generation (Score:3)
And??? (Score:3)
Measures sexual arousal?? Heat-sensing bras?? Do I notice a particular trend with features like these? Kinda makes you think that these researcher really really need girlfriends.
Then, of course, there's the problem of shorting out your clothes due to "moisture".
Geek meets artwank (Score:2)
On the subject of cyborgs ... (Score:2)
I'm surprised there was no mention of cyber-guru Kevin Warwick [kevinwarwick.org.uk]. The man's a genius.
Hehe. Actually Kevin is a buffoon with enough letters after his name to fool clueless media types (and even, shockingly, the Royal Institution) into believing his drivel. The only thing he's a genius at is self-promotion ... he's quite well known in the UK tech community now. Visit the site above for an update on his activities.
A ploy (Score:2)
Re:the next generation (Score:2)
Don't you? All I want is a HUD with crosshairs for meetings with the bosses.
Food processor (Score:1)
Ultra-hyper-mega-man (Score:2)
Surely the way to go is in the palmtop area. People would be much more comfortable with a wallet-sized thing, perhaps with unfoldable screen to get a readable area.
Who, apart from real geeks, actually wants to wear peripherals?
I'll take anything above 386... (Score:2)
Re:Military adopts USB?!?!?! (Score:3)
The great thing would be a system that would display a topographical map with markers for all of your fellow squad members and any annotations that might be useful, such as enemy positions, objectives etc. Plus you could use the system to direct mortar and artillery fire. A really sophisticated system would integrate data from remote sensors, such as RPVs.
Re:word "computer" a badge of shame (Score:1)
I see your point, though. We already make distinctions between computers and game consoles
Re:And??? (Score:1)
and how long it'll be before they have live webcasts of said testing =)
(yes, i'm single
Re:toast? (Score:1)
Cyborg: outside and inside (Score:1)
inside: A person which is in very close contact with CPU and external memory through an yet unknown interface.
When a brain isn't enough for memorizing a lot of information or calculate something you wouldn't mind being a cyborg.
I have a 386 behind my left ear.
Re:Aren't cyborgs more than just clothing? (Score:1)
Re:A ploy (Score:1)
Re:Geek meets artwank (Score:1)
it's a complicated task, you have to close your eyelids, scroll down your browser and open your eyelids when the next article is before you.
Something Awful on wearable computers (Score:2)
Awful Link of the Day [somethingawful.com]: Extreme Computing - The Cyborgs (thanks David) [extremecomputing.com] - The title claims, "The future is now." If the future is hundreds of graduate students wearing pounds of wires and hunks of metal on their head, I might as well shoot myself now.
Our "techno future"? "Techno integration"? What kind of crap is this? People are taping mp3 players to their skull, big whoopdy doo. It doesn't mean they're a cyborg, it means they shouldn't be trusted with any more tape.
What does this mean? (Score:1)
Re:Aren't cyborgs more than just clothing? (Score:2)
I'm much more willing to grant eyeglasses, hearing aids, and pacemakers to cyborg status. As mentioned, maybe something clothing-like that just isn't as easy to remove as clothing. (I know, corsets, etc.)