Reflections on ISWC'97

by Johan Montelius

Updated: Nov, 1997

SICS Intelligent Systems Laboratory Personal Information Systems

Wearable Computers

Lingua Trekka

"... Microphones a re located at the front of her neckline, and speakers for simultaneous languages translation..."
".. The tattoo on her midrif is a universal immunization allowing Irena to cross borders without quarantine"
"... the chest piece is equipped with a removable mini-screen."



Is this the way we are going to dress in future?


The First International Symposium on Wearable Computers held at MIT media-lab was an inspiration for future work in the area of personal information systems.

Presentations

Evaluation Studies

There were three evaluation studies. A summary of them all could be that input devices and displays are hard to use and that an augmented reality system not necessarily aids a professional. The presentation by the HCII at CMU showed how hard it is to integrate computer support in a real situation. Even having to shade the display with the hand can constitute a problem.

A Touring machine

Columbia University presented their portable out-door augmented reality system. The system consists of a differential GPS receiver, a WaveLan 2Mbit radio link, a head-worn display and head tracker. By keeping track of the position and orientation of the head the system will superimpose textual information about buildings in the neighborhood (campus area).

Impressive system, especially interesting for projects that think about using GPS systems for positioning. Reported problems with the low brightness of both the head-mounted and hand-held displays when used out-doors (not a problem during the dark winter in Stockholm :-)

Boeing

David Mizell form Boeing held a very good invited talk where he presented their experience in a real attempt to use a see-through head-mounted display in production. The task was to add wires to a large board. This is traditionally done by having a custom made board with drawn lines where the wires should go. Additional information was taken from a manual. They replaced both the lines and the textual information by superimposing them an the display.

The problem is of course to keep track of the users head. This was first done with a head mounted camera that tracked dots painted on the board. The problem was that the wires covered the dots and when too many wires were added the system lost its track. The second system they tried was based on ultra-sound triangulation. This system worked better.

A very good presentations of practical problems but the application might not be the most natural for a AR system. Couldn't the task be solved by having a pre-painted board and audio instructions or why not by a robot. But it show that it is very hard to construct a working AR system even in a controlled situation.

The Chef







What's cooking?


Products and Companies

The Via Wearable, wearable PC, was very impressive in size and design. It fits around your waist and features a complete PC with duplex audio, PCMCIA-card, two serial ports etc. It cost around $5000 and runs for hours on its batteries. The mockup of next years system looked even better. This system is as far I can tell a very nice platform to build on.

Interactive Solutions sells a portable Pentium based computer. Their system is more powerful but also larger and not as slim as the ViaWearable system.

The motion tracker IS-300 from InterSense was another impressive product. It is impressively fast and accurate. If you twist it to quick it will synchronize it self after a second. The drawback is that it consumes 8W i.e. you'll have to carry some extra batteries around if you want to be mobile.

A company that sells complete wearable positioning systems is GeoPerception. They showed a demonstration of a GIS application were a road-worker could see underground constructions through a transparent head-mounted-display. Interesting company, take a look at their web site!

MicroOptical Corporation presented a display that is integrated in an ordinary (well almost) pair of glasses.

VirtualVision sells a see-through head mounted display V-Cap 1000

Seattle Sight Systems has two see-through head mounted systems.

Humionics is what Maintenance and Repair Support Systems calls human/computer integration. I cant find them on the web.

The Twiddler, the pocket keyboard, is a very popular input device. I don't personally find it comfortable to use but I have only tried it on a couple of times. The people that use it look happy. One problem is of course that it occupies the right hand (if you don't learn how to write with your left).

Citizen





Got the time?


jm@sics.se