Wearable Computing - Form the Qing Dynasty to Google Glasses

Overview of the field of Wearable Computing and its synergy with some flavours of Augmented Reality (Visualization and Medical Graphics Group Seminar, Bangor)

Transcript

1. WEARABLE COMPUTING PROTOTYPES, MYTHS, CONFUSION AND LOTS OF WIRES FROM THE QING DYNASTY TO GOOGLE GLASSES…
2. What is wearable computing Brief story of wearable computing Some Noteworthy prototypes Applications of Wearable Computing Issues and Challenges of Wearables Back to the Future… OUTLINE…
3. Wearable computing is the study or practice of inventing, designing, building, or using miniature body-borne computational and sensory devices. Wearable computers may be worn under, over, or in clothing, or may also be themselves clothes (i.e. "Smart Clothing" (Mann, 1996a)). WearComps vs portables Wearable computing’s goal is to position or contextualize the computer in such a way that the human and computer are inextricably intertwined, so as to achieve Humanistic Intelligence – i.e. intelligence that arises by having the human being in the feedback loop of the computational process, e.g. Mann 1998. In this sense, wearable computing can be defined as an embodiment of, or an attempt to embody, Humanistic Intelligence. Humanistic Intelligence implies… • constancy of interaction, that the human and computer are inextricably intertwined. • multi-tasking, always running in the background, so as to augment or mediate the human's interactions WHAT IS WEARABLE COMPUTING?
4. ANATOMY OF A WEARABLE COMPUTER HMD Location Awareness, e.g., GPS Input, e.g., chord keyboards (Twiddler) Processing Unit Wireless Interface Batteries Remus Wearable, University of Essex, 2002 Enclosure
5. 1600 - Qing Dynasty, a fully functional abacus on a ring… 1961 - Thorp and Shannon (the Eudeamons) built a shoe-based timing device to cheat at roulette. 1968 - Sutherland creates his Head-Mounted 3D display 1991 - Weiser proposes the idea of Ubiquitous Computing 1992 - Caudell and Mizell coin the term `Augmented Reality’ - IBM and Bellshouth introduce the 1st smartphone (IBM Simon Personal Communicator) 1993 - Loomis et al. use dGPS to create an outdoor navigation system for visually impaired. 1993 - Thad Starner starts wearing constantly his wearable (`Tin Lizzy’) 1993 - Feiner, MacIntyre and Seligman develop the KARMA AR system (leading to the Touring Machine, (‘97)) 1994 - Steve Mann starts wearing a webcam for almost 2 years - Milgram and Kishino write their seminal paper "Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays" in which they define the Reality-Virtuality Continuum. 1996 - J.Rekimoto presents 2D matrix markers 1997 - R. Azuma presents the first survey on Augmented Reality - Starner et al. explore mobile AR using wearables 1998 - Thomas et al. present Map-in-the-hart, a back-pack based wearable that evolved to Tinmith 1999 - Kato and Billinghurst present ARToolkit BRIEF HISTORY
6. SOME EXAMPLES OF WEARABLES © Steve Mann, 1996. © Sam Ogden © Steve Mann, 1996. © Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab, Columbia University © Wearable Computer Lab, University of South Australia
7. …MORE OF WEARABLES Remus: Tin Lizzy-based design (2002) Romulus: Mini-ITX-based design (2003)
8. USING WEARABLES Augmented Reality (Azuma, 1997) • Combines real and virtual • Interactive in real time • Registered in 3-D Lots of confusion on what AR truly is! • In academic definitions AR is a subset of MR as defined by Milgram and Kishino (1994) • Has UX implications as described by Mackay (1998) • Many of today’s application have limited conformance to Azuma’s definition and probably should be treated as examples of MR, as argued by Barba et. al (2012) • In the era of smartphones Weiser’s ubiquitous computing(1991) can be bridged with MR, despite the fact it is roughly it is the opposite of VR! © Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington © Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab, Columbia University
9. USING WEARABLES Diminishing Reality While the goal of Augmented Reality is to augment reality, a Diminishing Reality system accomplishes the opposite: • remove or diminish clutter • replace unwanted content such as advertising with meaningful Can be helpful for people with some visual impairments. Mediated reality • Visual filter & Superset of augmented reality • …”artificial modification of human perception by way of devices for augmenting, deliberately diminishing, and more generally, for otherwise altering sensory input.|” Jan Herling and Wolfgang Broll, Ilmenau University of Technology, Department of Virtual Worlds / Digital Games, 2010. S. Mann, R. Lo, J. Huang, V. Rampersad, R. Janzen, T. Ai (2012), "HDRchitecture: Real-Time 3D HDR Imaging for Extreme Dynamic Range", Proc. SIGGRAPH 2012
10. USING WEARABLES Augmenting human intellect e.g. The Remembrance Agent (Rhodes & Starner 1996) Wearable Computing Remembrance Agent and Privacy. Alan Alda interviews Thad Starner about wearable computers and privacy. (filmed 1996)
11. OTHER WEARCOMP USES Military Fashion Sports Northeaster University Zypad® BR2000 Medicine Gaming © Wearable Computer Lab, University of South Australia
12. CHALLENGES OF WEARABLES
13. HYPED WEARABLES From IBM in 1998… • Built in 1998, the IBM Wearable Computer, was derived from a ThinkPad 560X. • 233Mhz Intel CPU, 64M of RAM, 340MB IBM MicroDrive. • Windows™ 98 & IBM ViaVoice™ 1998 speech software. • Lithium-ion battery lasted about 1.5-2 hours. • USB, IrDA, and CF type II interfaces. • Weight 299g. • HMD resolution of 320x240 pixels with 256 gray levels. • The device was controlled a TrackPoint™ and a microphone. …to Google Glasses …which are not AR… …but a context-aware HMD that could be used in AR.
14. REFERENCES Mann, Steve (2013): Wearable Computing. In: Soegaard, Mads and Dam, Rikke Friis (eds.). "The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed.". Aarhus, Denmark: The Interaction Design Foundation. Available online at http://www.interaction- design.org/encyclopedia/wearable_computing.html Thank you!