26-03-2011, 03:46 PM
[attachment=11090]
Abstract
Softwear : New Generation of Wearable Computers
Envision a personal computer that goes far beyond Tom Cruise's wearable informant in
Mission Impossible - a computer that actually fits into the heel of a shoe and is powered
by the mechanical energy of walking. This is no longer a fantasy, but a reality.
There are many of us who walk around like packed horses with laptop, cell phone PDA and
Pager. Not all these things help everywhere. It is also absurd that these devices can’t talk to
each other. several advancements from the research in hardware, software and communications
Are changing the world.
Let me show you around these technologies, and the way they can simplify anyone’s life. The
Idea of the new wearable technology is not intended only for personal entertainment, like many
Of you may be thinking. Let’s go around the world of wearable computers to know more.
With computing devices becoming smaller and smaller it is now possible for an individual to don such a device like a hat or jacket. It is clear that these technology will enable us to extent the desktop resources(including memory computation and communication) to anywhere in travel. Also this constant access, augmented by a battery of body mounted sensors will enable a computer to be sensitive to the activities in which we are engaged and thus allow the computer to participate in an active manner as we perform our tasks. This area includes computer science, computer engineering and psychology.
Other than being a portable computer, a wearable computer must be an adaptive system with an independent processor. That is the system must adapt to the whims and fancies of the user instead of the user having to adapt his lifestyle for the system. The system must be perpetually on and must provide seamless information transfer whenever the user requires it.
history
The concept of wearable computing was first brought forward by Steve Mann, who, with his invention of the ËœWearCompâ„¢ in 1979 created a pioneering effort in wearable computing. Although the effort was great, one of the major disadvantages was the fact that it was nothing more than a miniature PC. Absence of lightweight, rugged and fast processors and display devices was another drawback.
The 1980s brought forward the development of the consumer camcorder, miniature CRTs etc. brought forward the development of the eyeglass mounted multimedia computer. With the advent of the internet and wireless networking technologies, wearable devices have developed a great deal.
After its invention wearables have gone through 18 generations of development, with research going on at prestigious institutions like MIT, Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon University.
The six devices to be introduced represent the new frontiers in the development of wearable technology. They are:
1. Nomad “ Wearable Audio Computing
2. DyPERS “ Dynamic Personal Enhanced Reality System
3. Wearable Cinema
4. Affective Computers
5. FAST “ Wearable Computing for Factory Personnel
6. Computerized Clothing
NOMAD WEARABLE AUDIO COMPUTING
The Nomadic Radio provides an audio only wearable interface and acts as a unified messaging system. Remote information such as email, voicemail, hourly news broadcasts, reminders, traffic reports etc are automatically downloaded and presented to the user in a seamless manner. The presentation is such that it produces minimum disturbance to the user.
Working
The audio-visual recording module accumulates buffers containing audio-visual data. These circular buffers contain the past 2 seconds of compressed audio and video. Whenever the user decides to record the current interaction, the system stores the data until the user signals the recording to stop. The user moves his head mounted video camera and microphone to specifically target and shoot the footage required. Thus, an audio-video clip is formed. After recording such a clip, the user selects the object that should trigger the clip's playback. This is done by directing the camera towards an object of interest and triggering the unit (i.e. pressing a button). The system then instructs the vision module to add the captured image to its database of objects and associate the object's label to the most recently recorded A/V clip. The user can select from a record button, an associate button and a garbage button. The record button stores the A/V sequence. The associate button merely makes a connection between the currently viewed visual object and the previously recorded sequence. The garbage button associates the current visual object with a NULL sequence indicating that it should not trigger any play back. This helps resolve errors or ambiguities in the vision system.
Whenever the user is not recording, the system continuously scans its field of view to check whether any of the objects in its database are present. If so the video clip is played back as instructed. The recording, association and retrieval are presented in a continuous manner.
Object Recognition System
In order to recognize an object, multidimensional histograms of the object image are taken and is compared with the histograms of the images in the database of the system. Similar histograms were considered as a positive recognition. In order to test whether such a system would work, an experiment was conducted in which 103 similar objects were scanned at different image plane rotations and views points.
Hardware
At present, data transmission is via wireless radio communications, which makes mobility of the user, limited. In the future better data transmission methods could be evolved. The main components of the DyPERS system are shown:
The HUD is a Sony Glasstron display with semi-transparent display and headphones. A video camera with wide eye lens is used to increase field of vision and is mounted near the userâ„¢s forehead to remain in the line of sight. The A/V data captured by the camera is transmitted using a wireless radio transmitter to a workstation. Here the captured video is split into image clips and compared to various images in its database. The required data is then transmitted back to the user. The clips are then displayed on the Glasstron HUD. Two A/V channels are used at all times to transfer data bidirectional.
Applications
The applications of such a device are tremendous. Some of them are:
Daily scheduling can be stored easily and associated with a personal trigger object.
An important conversation can be recorded and associated with the persona„¢s visiting card.
Online instructions could be provided for an assembly task.
The device could be used for crime prevention by recognizing the criminal by comparing with earlier records.
1. What is a Wearable Computer?
A wearable computer is a computing device small and light enough to be worn on one's
body without causing discomfort. Unlike a laptop or a palmtop, wearable computer is
constantly turned on and interacts with the a real-world task. Information could be even
very context sensitive.
A typical wearable computer consists of a battery or human powered computing unit and
is carried on a belt or in a jacket. The display would be with a head mounted unit
typically projection system on the regular spectacles. The input is either voice driven or
with wireless wrist mounted devices. The data storage is local and does not depend on
any network connection. For hardware and software to comfortably follow you always
around, and seamlessly integrate with your style of living, they must merge into softwear.
Developing wearable computing requires as much attention to the medium as the
message.
Softwear, being a new dimension in the world of computers, demands a phase shift in the
human interaction mechanisms. Let us start our detailed discussion of the wearable
computer, with this new implementation of computer & human interaction. The
traditional desktop metaphors of command line interface or windows-interface are indeed
not at all suitable for wearable computing. These interfaces require a constant user
concentration & interaction while performing any task, which is not affordable for a wearble computer. The concept of wearable computing was first brought forward by Steve Mann, who, with his invention of the in 1979 created a pioneering effort in wearable computing. Other than being a portable computer, a wearable computer must be an adaptive system with an independent processor. That is the system must adapt to the whims and fancies of the user instead of the user having to adapt his lifestyle for the system.
The six devices to be introduced represent the new frontiers in the development of wearable technology. They are:
1. Nomad Wearable Audio Computing
2. DyPERS Dynamic Personal Enhanced Reality System
3. Wearable Cinema
4. Affective Computers
5. FAST Wearable Computing for Factory Personnel
6. Computerized Clothing
wearable computer. The user's hands simply may not be free, or the environmental
conditions may prevent a good audio input at the time.
Human interaction is just one of the examples of several design requirements in the
discussion of wearable computers. You must realize that this is a paradigm shift. Hence,
you must not compare any of the features to a personal computer or a laptop. Think of a
wearable computer in a new dimension, and not in traditional terms. To better understand
our discussion ahead, assume a situation of you being in the role of an Aero plane pilot.
As you walk into the cockpit, you see a sensor indicating a negative correction for zero
tail wind. You walk down to the engine room to do a personal check, but need some
design specs to isolate the problem. Can you really afford to delay the flight while
someone gets the blueprints, or you proceed for the take-off risking all the passengers?
You don't need another person to help you; wearable computer comes of use in these
situations. You may browse through the circuit diagrams or manuals while you actually
keep inspecting the components & circuits.
2. How does a Wearable Computer look?
A typical wearable computer will have a motherboard worn inside a fashion garment,
connecting all the components of the system. The components will be placed at different
parts of the body as per the user convenience; power pack and storage in shoes, display
and mic on the glasses and keyboard input on the wrist. User input to the computer is
either mostly voice driven or sensed from gestures or body motion. The display and audio
output generated by the computer will be relevant to the context and environment.
The below pictures will give you a better idea of how a wearable computer looks like, the
component details and the finished personal garment.
Let's now look at the components of the wearable computer in detail.
Fig. Component details of Wearable Computers
Finished Product – Wearable Computers
3.Human Interface System (Humionics)
The user interface for a wearable computer is fundamentally different from those of the
regular computers. The ideal human-computer interface for use in a wearable
environment would be one which listens to its user, understands what the user has
asked it to do as a combination of speech recognition, gestures and a bit of machine
vision. The results should be presented back to the user in an intelligent manner, when it
is most appropriate and in a suitable format.
Consider an example, a quality inspector looking at car bodies that are going on the
assembly line. He may ask his wearable computer, "when I point that the car on my front
has a fault, scan its serial number and record the error", while pointing the location of the
serial number. This type of interaction with a wearable computer, using spoken sentences
and gestures, fall under the category of multi-modal and intelligent user interfaces.
4.Sulawesi Architecture
A framework called Sulawesi has been designed and implemented to tackle the crucial
challenges in a wearable user interface. This framework gives the wearable computer an
ability to accept input from any number of modalities, and to perform if necessary a
translation to any number of modal outputs. This system that has been designed
consists of three distinct parts,
• Multimodal-multimedia based Input system, gathers raw data from the various sensors
The system gathers real world information through a well-defined API. The current
implementation includes keyboard input, network input, speech recognition input, video
camera input, G.P.S. input and infrared input. This stage helps in connecting devices on
the fly, and provides a device independent abstract layer. Any necessary pre-processing
of the data is done in the next stage.
• Agent based core system, contains a natural language processing module and
service agents
The core of the system contains a basic natural language processor, which performs
sentence translations. This converts a sentence into a command stream from which two
pieces of information are extracted, which service to invoke and how the output should
be rendered. A service manager is responsible for the instantiation and monitoring of the
services. The service manager also checks and queues commands to provide resilience
against system failures.
• Proactive and Wearable Output system, decides when and how to render the results
from the service agents
The output stage takes a modal neutral result from a service and makes a decision on
how to render the information. The decision is made based on two criteria, what the user
has asked for, and how the system perceives the users current context/environment.
If the user has asked to be shown a piece of information, this implies a visual rendition. If
the system detects that the user is moving or busy with an activity (through the input
sensors), an assumption can be made that the user attention might be distracted if results
are displayed in front of him (Imagine what would happen if the user was driving)!
In this case the system will override the users request and would redirect the results to a
more suitable renderer, such as speech. A successful wearable user interface must
combine different types of input and output, depending on the user's context and needs.
5.Operating System & Applications
The operating system and the applications are specifically designed bottom-up for a
wearable computer, to address the humionics. These should satisfy the below criteria,
• Shall be constantly available to the user - always on, ready and accessible
• Shall not require the constant user attention or interaction
• Shall serve to augment user's intellect and senses
• Shall be unobtrusive and unrestrictive to the user. The user shall be able to walk
around, ride in a crowded bus, or even hang glide while using it. This aspect is also
true for the hardware components of the wearable computer
• Always communicate with user within reasonable time limits
• Shall be able to communicate to other systems & external world
• Provide the best use of the 3D object space to scatter the application windows, a big
shift from the regular 2D monitors. It is important to understand that the user has a
much bigger and deeper view for work area in wearable computers, which needs to
be used
6.Augmented Reality
Wearable computing introduces new concepts 'mediated reality' and 'augmented reality',
which are very interesting to know about.
Mediated reality refers to encapsulation of the user's senses by incorporating the
computer with the user's perceptive mechanisms, and is used to process the outside
stimuli. For example, one can mediate his/her vision by applying a computer-controlled
camera to enhance it. The primary activity of mediated reality is direct interaction with
the computer, which means that computer is "in charge" of processing and presenting the
reality to the user. Augmented Reality combines real world scenes and virtual scenes,
thereby augmenting the real world with additional information. The computer must be
able to operate in the background, by providing enough resources to enhance but it
should not replace the user's primary experience of reality. This can be achieved by using
tracked see-through display units and earphones to overlay visual and audio material on
real objects. This technology adds value to the human knowledge, memory &
intelligence.
An example of an AR application is a guidebook as above. As the tourist walks around
the library, his wearable computer uses sensors, for example a combination of GPS and
head tracking equipment, to detect his physical position and orientation. Some text
describing the library is shown on the display unit over the actual building. The wearable
computer assists further in enhancing the value of the real world experience by using
augmented reality.
7.Display Systems
The output device of a wearable computer could be either a head-mounted display
(HMD) unit with an earpiece or only the earpiece for some applications. Though there
could be several other display devices intended for specific applications, HMD systems
are of interest in the conversation of wearable computers.
There are two different types of HMD systems.
The first one, intended for industrial or regular use will have a see-through lens and a
small projection system. Only on need basis, the processing system may project the
output data onto the lens. The projection usually happens only on one of the lenses and
the other lens remains free for clear vision.
The second type of head-mounted display is of blocking type and requires the full-
attention of the user. This is mostly for 3D modeling, is used for understanding complex
mechanical design systems or for personal entertainment requirements.
The HMD systems shown in these pictures have both the earpiece and the mouthpiece
built into them. The HMD systems are already well deep into the development cycle as of
today, and do support several attractive features like wireless connectivity, external
connectors for audio & video, and control settings.
Abstract
Softwear : New Generation of Wearable Computers
Envision a personal computer that goes far beyond Tom Cruise's wearable informant in
Mission Impossible - a computer that actually fits into the heel of a shoe and is powered
by the mechanical energy of walking. This is no longer a fantasy, but a reality.
There are many of us who walk around like packed horses with laptop, cell phone PDA and
Pager. Not all these things help everywhere. It is also absurd that these devices can’t talk to
each other. several advancements from the research in hardware, software and communications
Are changing the world.
Let me show you around these technologies, and the way they can simplify anyone’s life. The
Idea of the new wearable technology is not intended only for personal entertainment, like many
Of you may be thinking. Let’s go around the world of wearable computers to know more.
With computing devices becoming smaller and smaller it is now possible for an individual to don such a device like a hat or jacket. It is clear that these technology will enable us to extent the desktop resources(including memory computation and communication) to anywhere in travel. Also this constant access, augmented by a battery of body mounted sensors will enable a computer to be sensitive to the activities in which we are engaged and thus allow the computer to participate in an active manner as we perform our tasks. This area includes computer science, computer engineering and psychology.
Other than being a portable computer, a wearable computer must be an adaptive system with an independent processor. That is the system must adapt to the whims and fancies of the user instead of the user having to adapt his lifestyle for the system. The system must be perpetually on and must provide seamless information transfer whenever the user requires it.
history
The concept of wearable computing was first brought forward by Steve Mann, who, with his invention of the ËœWearCompâ„¢ in 1979 created a pioneering effort in wearable computing. Although the effort was great, one of the major disadvantages was the fact that it was nothing more than a miniature PC. Absence of lightweight, rugged and fast processors and display devices was another drawback.
The 1980s brought forward the development of the consumer camcorder, miniature CRTs etc. brought forward the development of the eyeglass mounted multimedia computer. With the advent of the internet and wireless networking technologies, wearable devices have developed a great deal.
After its invention wearables have gone through 18 generations of development, with research going on at prestigious institutions like MIT, Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon University.
The six devices to be introduced represent the new frontiers in the development of wearable technology. They are:
1. Nomad “ Wearable Audio Computing
2. DyPERS “ Dynamic Personal Enhanced Reality System
3. Wearable Cinema
4. Affective Computers
5. FAST “ Wearable Computing for Factory Personnel
6. Computerized Clothing
NOMAD WEARABLE AUDIO COMPUTING
The Nomadic Radio provides an audio only wearable interface and acts as a unified messaging system. Remote information such as email, voicemail, hourly news broadcasts, reminders, traffic reports etc are automatically downloaded and presented to the user in a seamless manner. The presentation is such that it produces minimum disturbance to the user.
Working
The audio-visual recording module accumulates buffers containing audio-visual data. These circular buffers contain the past 2 seconds of compressed audio and video. Whenever the user decides to record the current interaction, the system stores the data until the user signals the recording to stop. The user moves his head mounted video camera and microphone to specifically target and shoot the footage required. Thus, an audio-video clip is formed. After recording such a clip, the user selects the object that should trigger the clip's playback. This is done by directing the camera towards an object of interest and triggering the unit (i.e. pressing a button). The system then instructs the vision module to add the captured image to its database of objects and associate the object's label to the most recently recorded A/V clip. The user can select from a record button, an associate button and a garbage button. The record button stores the A/V sequence. The associate button merely makes a connection between the currently viewed visual object and the previously recorded sequence. The garbage button associates the current visual object with a NULL sequence indicating that it should not trigger any play back. This helps resolve errors or ambiguities in the vision system.
Whenever the user is not recording, the system continuously scans its field of view to check whether any of the objects in its database are present. If so the video clip is played back as instructed. The recording, association and retrieval are presented in a continuous manner.
Object Recognition System
In order to recognize an object, multidimensional histograms of the object image are taken and is compared with the histograms of the images in the database of the system. Similar histograms were considered as a positive recognition. In order to test whether such a system would work, an experiment was conducted in which 103 similar objects were scanned at different image plane rotations and views points.
Hardware
At present, data transmission is via wireless radio communications, which makes mobility of the user, limited. In the future better data transmission methods could be evolved. The main components of the DyPERS system are shown:
The HUD is a Sony Glasstron display with semi-transparent display and headphones. A video camera with wide eye lens is used to increase field of vision and is mounted near the userâ„¢s forehead to remain in the line of sight. The A/V data captured by the camera is transmitted using a wireless radio transmitter to a workstation. Here the captured video is split into image clips and compared to various images in its database. The required data is then transmitted back to the user. The clips are then displayed on the Glasstron HUD. Two A/V channels are used at all times to transfer data bidirectional.
Applications
The applications of such a device are tremendous. Some of them are:
Daily scheduling can be stored easily and associated with a personal trigger object.
An important conversation can be recorded and associated with the persona„¢s visiting card.
Online instructions could be provided for an assembly task.
The device could be used for crime prevention by recognizing the criminal by comparing with earlier records.
1. What is a Wearable Computer?
A wearable computer is a computing device small and light enough to be worn on one's
body without causing discomfort. Unlike a laptop or a palmtop, wearable computer is
constantly turned on and interacts with the a real-world task. Information could be even
very context sensitive.
A typical wearable computer consists of a battery or human powered computing unit and
is carried on a belt or in a jacket. The display would be with a head mounted unit
typically projection system on the regular spectacles. The input is either voice driven or
with wireless wrist mounted devices. The data storage is local and does not depend on
any network connection. For hardware and software to comfortably follow you always
around, and seamlessly integrate with your style of living, they must merge into softwear.
Developing wearable computing requires as much attention to the medium as the
message.
Softwear, being a new dimension in the world of computers, demands a phase shift in the
human interaction mechanisms. Let us start our detailed discussion of the wearable
computer, with this new implementation of computer & human interaction. The
traditional desktop metaphors of command line interface or windows-interface are indeed
not at all suitable for wearable computing. These interfaces require a constant user
concentration & interaction while performing any task, which is not affordable for a wearble computer. The concept of wearable computing was first brought forward by Steve Mann, who, with his invention of the in 1979 created a pioneering effort in wearable computing. Other than being a portable computer, a wearable computer must be an adaptive system with an independent processor. That is the system must adapt to the whims and fancies of the user instead of the user having to adapt his lifestyle for the system.
The six devices to be introduced represent the new frontiers in the development of wearable technology. They are:
1. Nomad Wearable Audio Computing
2. DyPERS Dynamic Personal Enhanced Reality System
3. Wearable Cinema
4. Affective Computers
5. FAST Wearable Computing for Factory Personnel
6. Computerized Clothing
wearable computer. The user's hands simply may not be free, or the environmental
conditions may prevent a good audio input at the time.
Human interaction is just one of the examples of several design requirements in the
discussion of wearable computers. You must realize that this is a paradigm shift. Hence,
you must not compare any of the features to a personal computer or a laptop. Think of a
wearable computer in a new dimension, and not in traditional terms. To better understand
our discussion ahead, assume a situation of you being in the role of an Aero plane pilot.
As you walk into the cockpit, you see a sensor indicating a negative correction for zero
tail wind. You walk down to the engine room to do a personal check, but need some
design specs to isolate the problem. Can you really afford to delay the flight while
someone gets the blueprints, or you proceed for the take-off risking all the passengers?
You don't need another person to help you; wearable computer comes of use in these
situations. You may browse through the circuit diagrams or manuals while you actually
keep inspecting the components & circuits.
2. How does a Wearable Computer look?
A typical wearable computer will have a motherboard worn inside a fashion garment,
connecting all the components of the system. The components will be placed at different
parts of the body as per the user convenience; power pack and storage in shoes, display
and mic on the glasses and keyboard input on the wrist. User input to the computer is
either mostly voice driven or sensed from gestures or body motion. The display and audio
output generated by the computer will be relevant to the context and environment.
The below pictures will give you a better idea of how a wearable computer looks like, the
component details and the finished personal garment.
Let's now look at the components of the wearable computer in detail.
Fig. Component details of Wearable Computers
Finished Product – Wearable Computers
3.Human Interface System (Humionics)
The user interface for a wearable computer is fundamentally different from those of the
regular computers. The ideal human-computer interface for use in a wearable
environment would be one which listens to its user, understands what the user has
asked it to do as a combination of speech recognition, gestures and a bit of machine
vision. The results should be presented back to the user in an intelligent manner, when it
is most appropriate and in a suitable format.
Consider an example, a quality inspector looking at car bodies that are going on the
assembly line. He may ask his wearable computer, "when I point that the car on my front
has a fault, scan its serial number and record the error", while pointing the location of the
serial number. This type of interaction with a wearable computer, using spoken sentences
and gestures, fall under the category of multi-modal and intelligent user interfaces.
4.Sulawesi Architecture
A framework called Sulawesi has been designed and implemented to tackle the crucial
challenges in a wearable user interface. This framework gives the wearable computer an
ability to accept input from any number of modalities, and to perform if necessary a
translation to any number of modal outputs. This system that has been designed
consists of three distinct parts,
• Multimodal-multimedia based Input system, gathers raw data from the various sensors
The system gathers real world information through a well-defined API. The current
implementation includes keyboard input, network input, speech recognition input, video
camera input, G.P.S. input and infrared input. This stage helps in connecting devices on
the fly, and provides a device independent abstract layer. Any necessary pre-processing
of the data is done in the next stage.
• Agent based core system, contains a natural language processing module and
service agents
The core of the system contains a basic natural language processor, which performs
sentence translations. This converts a sentence into a command stream from which two
pieces of information are extracted, which service to invoke and how the output should
be rendered. A service manager is responsible for the instantiation and monitoring of the
services. The service manager also checks and queues commands to provide resilience
against system failures.
• Proactive and Wearable Output system, decides when and how to render the results
from the service agents
The output stage takes a modal neutral result from a service and makes a decision on
how to render the information. The decision is made based on two criteria, what the user
has asked for, and how the system perceives the users current context/environment.
If the user has asked to be shown a piece of information, this implies a visual rendition. If
the system detects that the user is moving or busy with an activity (through the input
sensors), an assumption can be made that the user attention might be distracted if results
are displayed in front of him (Imagine what would happen if the user was driving)!
In this case the system will override the users request and would redirect the results to a
more suitable renderer, such as speech. A successful wearable user interface must
combine different types of input and output, depending on the user's context and needs.
5.Operating System & Applications
The operating system and the applications are specifically designed bottom-up for a
wearable computer, to address the humionics. These should satisfy the below criteria,
• Shall be constantly available to the user - always on, ready and accessible
• Shall not require the constant user attention or interaction
• Shall serve to augment user's intellect and senses
• Shall be unobtrusive and unrestrictive to the user. The user shall be able to walk
around, ride in a crowded bus, or even hang glide while using it. This aspect is also
true for the hardware components of the wearable computer
• Always communicate with user within reasonable time limits
• Shall be able to communicate to other systems & external world
• Provide the best use of the 3D object space to scatter the application windows, a big
shift from the regular 2D monitors. It is important to understand that the user has a
much bigger and deeper view for work area in wearable computers, which needs to
be used
6.Augmented Reality
Wearable computing introduces new concepts 'mediated reality' and 'augmented reality',
which are very interesting to know about.
Mediated reality refers to encapsulation of the user's senses by incorporating the
computer with the user's perceptive mechanisms, and is used to process the outside
stimuli. For example, one can mediate his/her vision by applying a computer-controlled
camera to enhance it. The primary activity of mediated reality is direct interaction with
the computer, which means that computer is "in charge" of processing and presenting the
reality to the user. Augmented Reality combines real world scenes and virtual scenes,
thereby augmenting the real world with additional information. The computer must be
able to operate in the background, by providing enough resources to enhance but it
should not replace the user's primary experience of reality. This can be achieved by using
tracked see-through display units and earphones to overlay visual and audio material on
real objects. This technology adds value to the human knowledge, memory &
intelligence.
An example of an AR application is a guidebook as above. As the tourist walks around
the library, his wearable computer uses sensors, for example a combination of GPS and
head tracking equipment, to detect his physical position and orientation. Some text
describing the library is shown on the display unit over the actual building. The wearable
computer assists further in enhancing the value of the real world experience by using
augmented reality.
7.Display Systems
The output device of a wearable computer could be either a head-mounted display
(HMD) unit with an earpiece or only the earpiece for some applications. Though there
could be several other display devices intended for specific applications, HMD systems
are of interest in the conversation of wearable computers.
There are two different types of HMD systems.
The first one, intended for industrial or regular use will have a see-through lens and a
small projection system. Only on need basis, the processing system may project the
output data onto the lens. The projection usually happens only on one of the lenses and
the other lens remains free for clear vision.
The second type of head-mounted display is of blocking type and requires the full-
attention of the user. This is mostly for 3D modeling, is used for understanding complex
mechanical design systems or for personal entertainment requirements.
The HMD systems shown in these pictures have both the earpiece and the mouthpiece
built into them. The HMD systems are already well deep into the development cycle as of
today, and do support several attractive features like wireless connectivity, external
connectors for audio & video, and control settings.
