Category Archives: Wearable Computers

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YES! I agree completely! And I’m building one now …
I just bought a new LCD monitor for the car … it’ll run on 12vdc, and I’m looking to test it out this weekend on our trip to Goblin Valley! We’ll be hiking Little Wild Horse Canyon, and then wandering around the goblins … this is going to be a wild trip! This will be the first testing of my “in car” computer (which I intend to permanently mount in the car), but also using wearable computers in the wildernes … full GPS tracking, and using the USGS DEMS maps …

Smart Cars Net Wireless Users. Forget trying to look for directions or shop on a handheld, auto-loving Americans will prefer dashboard delivery of information. Elisa Batista reports from the Mobile Commerce conference in San Jose, California. [Wired News]

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The next steps … MP3’s ain’t nothing compared to this …
So I’ve been down the MP3 and WinAMP route for years … but now I’m into digital video. And these guys are building the future! This is the most incredible vision that I have seen in a long time … it’s the ultimate Internet video/content distribution system to date, IMHO. And their web site visuals are awesome!

Go check out KGBE and Jamby!

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Geographic Traceroute … and more GeoSpacial applications …
As I continue to think about the various applications that I want for my wearable computing, and navigating in physical space, I like it when I find more and more geographic location services. I saw this post yesterday:

Geographical Traceroute 0.0.4 (Default). A geographical traceroute utility for X. [freshmeat.net]

What’s really nice about this is that they are drawing from a netgeo database maintained by CAIDA. This application starts to explore the concept of distributed location servers, and the ability to query them for different types of resources. In this case, the netgeo servers are oriented towards the location of routers, and internet infrastructure. I can see where in the near future there will be more and more of these servers popping up around the Internet that will provide look-ups of almost any type of physical world resouce and it’s longitude and latitude.

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Bluetooth for security …
This is actually a pretty cool application for Bluetooth wireless. They talk about a watch which has Bluetooth, and it communicates with the Bluetooth in your laptop. If you move too far away, then your laptop locks up! Of couse, what do you do if you loose or forget your watch?

reports. Electronic Business reports on Bluetooth security solutions. [The Bluetooth Weblog]

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Palm integration for Linux?
This is a valuable cause … Open Source Palm Sync for Linux, etc. … which opens up a whole new line of potential applications for integrating the Palm world and the Open Source world of Linux, etc. I have to say that as I eye the Linux marketplace in corporations, there are a number of software capabilites that I see as really required. Palm support is a good one to have!

ColdSync 2.1.0-20010415 (Development). PalmPilot synchronization tool [freshmeat.net]

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Another form of wired connectivity …
As I have been studying the ways that I believe I will want to connect to the Internet with my wearable computers, I have broken the connectivity into four core segments … or now maybe five. I can see where my wearable is going to have a number of connectivity options always available … both wired, for higher speed transfers, and wireless, for mobilty and ease of access. These segments are:

  • Wired Power-line (2Mbps+)
  • Wired Ethernet (10/100Mbps -> 1/10Gps)
  • Wireless 802.11b (11Mbps -> 802.11a @ 54Mbps)
  • Wireless Cellular (19.2Kbps -> 3G @ 2.4Mbps???)
  • Wireless Satellite (4.8Kbps -> 19.2Kbps)

I originally did not have the ‘Wired Power-line’, but have recently been talking with a local company called Inari who are sending me some of their products to test. I can see where I might want to network while I’m recharging my batteries …

This article reinforces the discussion about Power-line networking:

Net Access: Socket to Me. The day may come when all you have to do to get online is plug your computer into a regular wall socket. Don’t hold your breath, not in America anyway. At least, anytime soon. By Julia Scheeres. [Wired News]

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So when a laptop becomes a handheld … what then?
I like reading these articles and seeing the conclusions that they make. I agree that the size and convenience are a huge factor … but what happens when a laptop becomes a handheld? Or a wearable computer appears? The PC vendors, and Intel, are not sitting still …

Handhelds gaining the upper hand. Laptop use drops after workers are given BlackBerry e-mail pagers [CNET Tech News]

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GeoLocation service … maybe a good fit for our 802.11b project …
It seems that an important aspect of the mobile Internet, and wearable computers, is relating physical world resources to our current location, or desired locations. There are a number of projects that I have found that provide, what I call, GeoLocation or GeoSpatial applications. This is a very impressive solution to address the location of physical world resources … and one that I might want to use!

Let’s say a user visits your product-centric Web site and then she wants to visit the store closest to her to buy it. How can you tell her where to go? You visit Know-Where.com and use their service. [scobleizer]