A contemporary advance in IT

Wearable Computers
(Which revolutionize the world..)
BY
K.Akhila, Shazia.
JNTUH, Karimnagar.
Abstract:
Technology has become such an
important part that it is now wearable.
Wearable computers can be defined as
data gathering and disseminating
devices which enable the user to operate
more efficiently. These devices are
carried or worn by the user during
normal execution. They are efficient way
to access the personal information
accessed from human input. The clothes
that you wear have now become smart
enough to know your emotional state
.Wearable computers are based on
surface computing. The term referred
for the use of specialized GUI. Instead
of a keyboard and mouse, the user
directly interacts with a touch sensitive
screen. Skinput is a technology that
appropriates the human body for
acoustic transmission allowing skin to
be used as an input surface. IBM,
Microsoft (Skinput), MIT, showing keen
interest in this field. SNIF- social
networking on Fur, reality mining call
phone project, smart clothes Light glove,
Wrist Pulse Oximeter are the popular
wearable computers. They have made
their place in all spheres of lives. With a
wide range of applications, they are
especially useful applications that
require computations support while the
users hands, voice, eyes, arms or
attention are actively engaged with the
physical
environment.
Wearable
computing is one of the most sought
after the fields of Information.

Technology
for
research
and
development. Pranav Mystry:The
Thrilling Potential to Sixth Sense
Technology uses wearable computers.
It attempts to free information from its
confines by seamlessly integrating with
reality, and thus making the entire world
your computer.
It proves that the human body
can be used as sensor giving path to a
new dimension of computing. The
possibilities with wearable computers
are endless. In future you may walk
down home, tap your palm open the
door, and tap some buttons to start your
music system. Its almost like a Magic
Keywords: consistency, intuitive,
augmentation, sixth sense, surface
computing

Introduction:
Wearable
computers
are
computers that are worn on the body.
This type of technology has been used in
the behavioral modeling, health
monitoring
system,
information
technologies and media development.
They give us more flexibility than any
other gadget that we commonly use,
such as laptops and tablets. Wearable
computers provide s portable access to
information.
Furthermore,
the
information can be automatically
accumulated by the system as the user
interacts with the computer and modifies
the environment, there by eliminating

the costly and error prone process of

information acquisition. Also, wearable
computers can be easily configured to
meet specific needs of applications.
This paper consists of various
wearable computers, concept behind
their applications.
History:
The history of wearable
computers takes us way back to the
1500s. The pocket watch invented back
then can be noted as the first wearable
computer. The concept of modern day
wearable computers emerged in the
1960s .The system was a cigarette
packet-sized analogue computer that
could predict Russian roulette (a casino
game) wheels.
Rapid development in this area
picked up in the mid 90s.A workshop
titled Wearable computers within
2005 was conducted in collaboration
with the US
Defense Advanced
Research
Projects
Agency(DARPA).since then , there have
been many research projects taken up
and many wearable computers created.
Some of them are as follows:
In 2001, IBM developed and
publically displayed two prototypes for a
wrist watch computer running Linux. It
Supported a VGA screen .The Watch pad
capable of handling text, photos, and
animation. It was considered to be very
useful for office purposes. Ease in
maintenance of appointment details was
a feature it promised.
Steve Mann (a scientist from
MIT) worked a lot in this field. In 1980s,
he designed and built a backpack
mounted 6502 based computer to
control flash bulbs, cameras and other
photographic systems. He developed this
system, made it more compact and easy
to use.

IBM wrist watch

Fast forward to 2010:

Outside the tech world the name Pranav
Mystry may not ring much of a bell, the
29 year old PhD candidate from MIT
has left everyone with equally amazed
with his Sixth Sense Technology, where
by using a minimal setup comprising a
web cam, a projector and four sensors,
you can do pretty much everything that
you needed a desktop PC for.

Why a
required?

wearable

computer

There are many of us who walk

around like packed horses with laptop,
cell phone. Not all these things help you
everywhere. It is also absurd that these

devices cant talk each other. Several

advancements in research in hardware,
software and communications are
changing the world. This paper shows
you these technologies, and the way they
can simplify ones life.
The idea of the wearable
technology is not only intended for
personal entertainment, like many of us
may be us may be thinking. Lets go
around the World Of Wearable
Computers to know more

What is a wearable computer?

How does a wearable computer

look like?
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 the 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 the environment.
The below pictures will give you a better
idea of how a Wearable computer would
look like, the component details and the
finished personal garment

A wearable computer is a computing

device small and light enough to be
worn on ones body without causing
discomfort. Unlike a laptop or a
palmtop,
wearable
computer
is
constantly turned on and interacts with
the real-world Meta task. Information
could be even very context sensitive.
A typical wearable computer
consists of a battery or human powered
computing unit and carried on a belt or
in a jacket. The display would be a unit
mounted on head. The input device is
either voice driven with wireless wrist
mounted devices. The data storage may
depend on any network connection.
Think of a wearable computer in a new
dimension, and not in traditional terms.

Personal garment
.

Concept behind the wearable

computers:
There are two operational modes
in this interaction between a human and
computer:
Constancy
The device runs continuously,
and is always ready to interact with the
user. Unlike a laptop or a Pc you need
not start up to use it. The signal flow
diagram explains better

Augmentation:Unlike

traditional
computing, Wearable computers assume
that computing is not the primary task.
But as in, user will be doing something
else at the same time along with
computing. Thus, the computer should
serve as an augment to the users
intellect and senses.
As input, different techniques are
followed as per the use of the device.
Many use input methods like gesture,
speech
recognition
and
context
awareness.

exchange
users.

information

between

two

Applications:
What are wearable computers good
for? and can I do something useful
with this?
Perhaps the strongest reason one should
respond with many things and yes,
you can! lies in the origin of wearable
computers. It has got wide variety of
applications in the fields of
information access
managing personal data
exploring and documentation
security
health &
Military.
And you may get surprised to know that
wearable computers are already being
used, in several fields ranging from
medical applications, mining disability
gadgets, defense systems, astronauts,
marine engineering and high speed
quality assurance processes.

Network:We need to discuss various

kinds of networks. One a wearable
computer is connect the device to the
external world and
other is to
interconnect the various components.
The first issue is connecting to
the WC to the external world has several
choices, WAP, or Cellular digital packet
data.
The
second
issue
of
interconnecting the various parts of the
Computer involving both wired and
wireless connections.
There could be a third type of
communication,
two
wearable
computers talking to each other. This
near field networking could be on
infrared or radio based systems, to solve
a need, which will invariably arise to

Microsoft Skinput:
Microsoft came up with some thing
really interesting- Skinput. This seeks to

move beyond the mouse and physical

keyboard, letting people communicate
with their gadgets by gesturing using
sign language such as tapping their
fingers. Most of our current computer
input devices use very little of this
bandwidth and provide a communication
channel that would be much richer,
Skinput takes an input from the finger
taps, hand and hence by analyzing
mechanical vibrations that propagate
through the body when a user wearing
Skinput makes a gesture.

Skinput will bring in a new way of

operating a mobile phone, by turning a
persons hand into a keyboard and
forearm into a screen! With Skinput you
can tap your thumb and forefinger and
say answer to a call, flick the center of
the palm to start your favorite music
track or tap your arm in certain places
to send a text message. These all can be
done without pulling your phone out of
the pocket. Its almost like having your
mobile on your palm.
Information access:

Wearable computers are efficient way to

access personal information. They can
know what you think, how you think and
can even process the information
accessed from human input. The clothes
you wear have now become smart
enough to know your emotional state.
Bubble:A dress made of layers and
the inner layers contains biometric
sensors that sense emotions of the
person varying it.

Smart clothesAn exploration research

into the area known as EMOTIONAL
SENSING. They are also working on
garments that use mobile phone and
camera technologies to help parents
access their kids position when they are
away.

Entertainment
Any
technological
advancement is always well used by
entertainment industry. There exist
wearable machines that replicate your
gestures as you play games. It brings
more fun and thrill.
Managing personal data:If you wear
wearable computers, they can be no less
than your secretaries. They can store
your personal data and assist you in
managing stuff which is crucial for you.
Exploring
and
documentation:An
Indian geographical scientist prayas
abhinav along with his team has made
shoes call bhatka bhatka. These shoes
help you get lost and explore your city.
They have a GPS, some java code, an
LED and a vibrator. The shoe recognizes
and saves s the places you have been to
already in particular city. If you visit the
same place again, it gives a signal as a
reminder that you have been here
before. This project would help people
explore different parts of city.
Military:Military
computers in the
infantry combat
intelligent weapons
equipments.

uses
wearable
form of modular
suite, wearable
and path guiding

Health:
Wearable computers have become a part
of medicine and cure in the form of
health monitors.
A device called wrist pulse Oximeter
is used to record the data like pulse rate
and transfer it to your computer for you
to analyze it.

Wearable health monitoring system

support early detection of abnormal
conditions and thereby helps in
prevention of its serious consequences.

Challenges and limitations in

wearable technologies:
The biggest challenge in wearable
systems is to identify effective
interaction modalities for wearable
computers. There are four major
problems
power
networking
privacy
interface
Adding more features to the wearable
device requires more power and
generates more heat. The networking
may never be ubiquitous; there will
always be places where access to the
internet will not be simply available.
Privacy is not yet a limitation but may
be a limitation in future.
The last, the interesting and the most
haunting problem is how do we
communicate with the computer and
how does it communicate with us??
What is the most effective way of
communicating to the device and back to
the human?
The answer for this would only evolve
along the time and there may not be any
perfect answer to this question.

Conclusion:
We have all the technologies needed to
make a viable wearable computer today.
After a few cycles of evolution the
wearable computers will become highly
ergonomic and a user, over an extended

period of usage, will feel it as a true

extension of mind and body.

2)www.ted.com/.../pranav_mistry_the_

The combined capability of resulting

synergistic whole will far exceed the
parts. This will undoubtedly enhance
the quality of life of the user, at work
place and in all facets of daily life.

3)www.india-briefing.com/.../pranavmistry-shows-sixthsense-technology1473.html/

thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_techn
ology.html

4) www.media.mit.edu/wearables/
5)www.media.mit.edu/people/pranav
6)www.wearableconsult.com/.../buergy_bauenmitcomput
ern.pdf
7)www.militaryaerospace.com/.../weara
ble-computers-and-the-military-thesmaller-the-better.html

Human beings wants have increased and

what has increased is the ability to fulfill
these wants. The universe is dynamic;
therefore, we have a long way to go. In
this very time of terror, we should use
our very intelligence in bringing about
peace and making our lives better. In
conclusion , the very concept of
wearable computers have brought a
whole new field of expertise and study
and to everyone, a new thing to crave
for and maybe a new reason for us to
work harder.

Reference sites:
1)www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixths
ense

8)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable
computer
9) www.designboom.com/.../wearablecomputers.html
10)www.softwear.htm