Forget Desktop and Laptop--This Computer Goes on Top of Your Head
Andy Fagg is getting used to people staring at him. Several hours each day he wanders around Amherst, Mass., wearing a contraption that looks like it was put together by a wild-eyed electrician having a very bad day.
A tiny computer monitor hangs in front of his face, and all sorts of wires stick out of a blue canvas bag suspended from his shoulder. And every now and then, the thing whispers in his ear.
The University of Massachusetts computer scientist is one of a growing number of researchers across the country who are trying to take the personal computer to the next level. One of these days, Fagg says, we will wear our computer instead of carrying it in a bag, and it will always be on so it can anticipate our needs. It could tell us when we need to quicken our pace to avoid being late for the next meeting or even remind us of our shopping list when we drive by the grocery store.
It sounds a little like an insurance policy to protect die-hard nerds from separation anxiety from their computer, but it is much more than that. The technology, which previously entertained only a handful of researchers, has moved into the mainstream, with IBM and several smaller companies planning to market wearable computers in the months ahead. Some already do.
“With a laptop, when I decide I need some information, I have to pull it out of my bag and turn it on and wait for it to boot up, and then I have to go looking for the information,” said Fagg, who earned his doctorate in computer science from USC.
“What you really want is a system that can be on all the time and is sensitive to what your current activities are and can anticipate what kind of information you’re going to be needing,” Fagg said.
Fagg believes wearable computers will be a big part of our lives in the years ahead, but it will probably start with narrow markets in which people need instant access to huge amounts of information as they perform difficult tasks.
One Virginia company, Xybernaut, got into building wearable computers after conducting a study of soldiers repairing military equipment. The study found that soldiers often had to rely on outdated documents or tattered manuals as they climbed over tanks and airplanes.
The company realized that the soldiers could be more proficient if equipped with a wearable computer that would leave their hands free while supplying the information they needed.
The technology has intrigued officials at Boeing, which has hosted conferences on wearable computers, because maintaining a large aircraft requires a very fat manual.
“An average airplane has something on the order of 100,000 pages of documents on how to maintain it,” said Fagg. “When you go out there to work on it, you have to pick and choose the documents you need. A better choice is to put it all on one computer and actually have it there as you are walking around the plane.”
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have added a minicam to one of their experimental wearables to interpret sign language used by the deaf.
The camera, which peers down from the brim of the user’s baseball cap, sends images of the hand signals to a wearable computer. The goal is to create computer software to translate the signals so that someone who is not conversant in sign language can understand what is being said.
Wearables with cameras could also be useful for monitoring a wide range of activities. A nurse, for example, could transmit images of a patient over the Internet so that a doctor could take a look even while on the golf course.
No new technological breakthroughs are needed for most wearable applications.
Fagg built his with off-the-shelf components, and he has added a few interesting twists. His computer is linked to the global positioning system, so when he is outside he can receive satellite navigation signals.
Before leaving for campus in the morning, he tells his computer what he needs from the grocery store for dinner that night, and since the computer knows the geographic coordinates of the grocery store, it reminds him of his shopping list when he approaches the store.
He said he doesn’t wear the monitor while driving his car, fortunately, so instead of flashing a text message in front of his eyes, it “whispers in my ear” using a speech synthesis system.
GPS turns on automatically when he walks outdoors, he said. Indoors, an array of sensors in a building could keep track of your location.
“A simple way to do that is to have a little beacon sitting in each room that says ‘I am in this room,’ ” Fagg said. “It squirts that out every 30 seconds, essentially using the same technology as your TV remote.”
But does anybody really want a gadget that will monitor all their moves and inject its own two cents’ worth every time it wants to pop off?
The key, Fagg said, is to make the system convenient but not so intrusive that it is annoying.
“What you want is a device that can assess how interruptable you are,” he said. “Maybe it can even take into account who’s calling and what they want to talk about and then make a decision as to whether or not you should be interrupted.
“That’s going to be critical for people accepting this as a daily device.”
Fagg insists the monitor itself is relatively unobtrusive.
“You don’t really lose your field of view,” he said, because the monitor is so small you can still see the background. “You just lose binocularity in about a 10-degree wedge.”
Still, it will take a bit of getting used to.
The first time he wore his contraption to a faculty meeting, he generated a little anxiety among his colleagues. “There was a lot of concern that I was videotaping everything that was going on inside this confidential faculty meeting,” he said.
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Lee Dye can be reached by e-mail at leedye@ptialaska.net.
