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…
   

   View Slide

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…
   

   View Slide

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?
   

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

7. …MORE OF WEARABLES
   Remus: Tin Lizzy-based design (2002) Romulus: Mini-ITX-based design (2003)
   

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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)
    

    View Slide

11. OTHER WEARCOMP USES
    Military
    Fashion
    Sports
    Northeaster University
    Zypad® BR2000
    Medicine
    Gaming
    © Wearable Computer Lab, University of South Australia
    

    View Slide

12. CHALLENGES OF WEARABLES
    

    View Slide

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.
    

    View Slide

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!
    

    View Slide