Smart Clothing: The Shift to Wearable Computing

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Smart clothing—-the combination of
mobile multimedia, wireless communication,
and wearable computing—-offers
the potential to make personal computers
even more personal.
In the early 1980s, when I first experimented with
wearable computing and wireless communications,
people thought some of the apparatus I wore looked
quite strange, so I didn’t wear it much; it was both
physically and socially awkward. People were
shocked by the visceral combination of human and
machine. Even later, with the advent of portable and
laptop computers, people were still taken aback by
the combination of a human wearing a computer—
there was something markedly different in the way
others perceived a system attached to my body
rather than carried in a briefcase. When I did wear
it, I basked in a tremendous sense of self-empowerment,
for it seemed the computer was more part of
me than it was a separate tool.
My wearable computer was
not the first with wireless communications.
Thomas Bass, in his
book The Eudaemonic Pie, describes
shoe-based computers of the
1970s designed and built by
physicists and other researchers
in California, for the purpose of
assisting them at playing roulette.
It was remarkable they were able
to design these computer systems
to be so unobtrusive as to pass
the ultimate test of unobtrusiveness—
the casino test—-where
they would survive the scrutiny of
croupiers and pit bosses.
My goals were different: I was
more interested in functionality
and capability than in concealment,
and ended up with a more
cumbersome system, although
over the years, it has become smaller
and lighter to the point I can
now wear it for extended periods.
On my hat, an antenna wirelessly
connects to the Internet
through a network of antennas
I’ve erected on rooftops of various
buildings, including the
tallest in Cambridge in order to get some degree of
connectivity from nearby cities. This gives me Internet
access but because the system is experimental, it
is down some of the time, so I am not always able to
stay online.
Having an Internet-connected computer wired
within my clothing has allowed me to read my email
via my smart glasses (eyeglasses with miniature sensor
array and cathode-ray tube), say, while standing
in line at the bank.
The miniature cameras and computer screen
inside my eyeglasses provide me with a dual-adaptation
space. Unlike the standard multimedia computer,
cameras and microphones point where I’m
looking, not at me. This provides the computer with
my perspective, and permits me to explore some of
the more fundamental issues in visual memory and
computer-mediated reality. Other sensors such as
infrared and radar, enhance and extend my sensory
capabilities, allowing me to explore some new concepts
in synthetic synesthesia,
which might someday be of
assistance to the visually challenged.
In the future, perhaps
we’ll become cyborgian—-our
clothing will significantly
enhance our capabilities without
requiring any conscious
thought or effort.
With the advent of the
World-Wide Web, I’ve explored
connectivity of a new form. If
you take a look at http://
wearcam.org, you may be looking
at whatever I am looking at
right now. The Wearable Wire-
Smart Clothing: The Shift to
Wearable Computing
v S t e v e M a n n
V i e w p o i n t
The author and his wearable
multimedia computer/
personal visual
assistant. The apparatus
includes a miniature computer
screen and sensor
array in the eyeglasses,
Internet connection, and a
multimedia computer with
special-purpose video processing
hardware.
less Webcam has been both an exploration of a new
form of personal visual connectivity and a personal
imaging system. Personal imaging includes a visual
memory prosthetic that serves as a visual sketchpad
with which to take notes. A personal imaging system
may also be useful as a tool for visual artists and the
next generation of photographers.
My wearable system currently has 64MB of RAM,
a Pentium 90 processor, and a 1.2GB hard drive.
Smart glasses, smart shoes (with an array of sensors
that provide information about my footsteps), and
smart undergarments electronically sense, for example,
my heart rate, skin resistance, and body temperature.
Should someone pull out a gun and demand
my money, my smart clothing might respond appropriately
(video capture/transmission at maximal
frame rate, and so forth) by virtue of the sudden
increase in heart rate without any increase in physical
exertion.
As a personal safety device, ubiquitous use of
smart clothing may have the potential to turn the
world into a small-town community—-a global village—
as barriers of time and space fall. However,
privacy is indeed an important consideration and
part of my inspiration. What I envision is an alternative
to the proliferation of Orwellian pole-top surveillance
cameras. Government-installed surveillance
cameras are typical of many U.K. cities, and coming
to U.S. cities soon. (In Baltimore, the government is
already installing a large network of video surveillance
cameras throughout the city.) I am hoping,
however, that instead of asking the government to
install cameras everywhere to reduce crime, we might
begin wearing cameras. What I envision is more like
David Brin’s Earth than George Orwell’s 1984.
Privacy will also be an important consideration
with respect to the various sensors we may choose to
wear. For example, smart clothing may some day be
interoperable and interconnected, so that it keeps
track of our physical condition and allows us to
decrypt this information for evaluation by a doctor.
The recent proliferation of wearable computers
(such companies as Phoenix Group Inc., CPSI, and
Intervision are currently making wearable computers)
suggests we’re moving in the direction of smart
clothing. However, many of the wearable applications
envisioned, such as the land warrior (military),
the intelligent maintenance aid, or various applications
in the workplace [2] would be better described
as smart uniforms. A smart uniform can be issued to
a soldier or employee at the start of a job, and then
taken away after the job is completed.
There is a fundamental difference in the
perception people have about their
own clothing as compared to an issued
uniform. Although people can become
quite familiar with their uniforms,
whether worn in the military, certain workplaces, or
schools, the individuality of personal clothing, and
the pleasures associated with its selection and wearing,
should be extended to computing. The full
power and enjoyment of this synergy between
human and machine will be realized only when the
computer is owned, operated, and controlled by the
wearer, giving rise to truly personal computing.
Examples of wearable technology at the extreme
opposite to the personal wearable are ID transponders
that have been rejected by many employees,
and the monitoring devices attached to some criminals
[3].
These devices are owned, operated, and controlled
by a remote entity; some have the capability
to provide the wearer with an electrical corrective
signal (euphemism for electric shock) when the
wearer does something against the will of the entity
that controls the system (e.g., ventures outside a prescribed
boundary). This prospect is as Orwellian as
pole-top surveillance cameras. I hope we don’t see a
future in which people (such as employees of a particular
company) are required to wear smart clothing
so a manager can see or record exactly what any
particular employee does at any time.
Smart clothing has the potential to provide a very
intimate form of interaction with the wearer, as it
exists within the wearer’s personal space. As such,
there is both the danger it could violate this personal
space,and offer the safety and capability to provide
the wearer greater control. I do foresee that
like the cellular telephone, pager, pocket calculator,
notebook computer, pocket organizer, and
wristwatch, eventually wearable computer systems
will be owned, operated, and controlled by the
wearer—much like one’s own clothes.