On You: A Story of Wearable Computing
Meeting the Challenge—The Path Towards a Consumer Wearable Computer
- Clint Zeagler | Curator / Designer
- Thad Starner | Curator
- Kevin Shankwiler | Designer
- Yoni Kaplan | Designer
- Tavenner M. Hall | Images
Wearable computers and head-mounted displays (HMDs) are in the press daily. Why now? While the basic technology has existed for decades, only recently have these devices become practical and desirable. Using consumer, professional, and “maker” devices, this exhibit demonstrates four challenges along the road to making a consumer wearable computer: power and heat, networking, mobile input, and displays. The groups of head-mounted displays shown here reflect product categories that developed as these challenges were addressed:
- virtual reality displays which seek to remove the user from reality
- portable video viewers for entertainment
- industrial systems designed to support work tasks
- early academic and maker systems that provide smartphone-like productivity and communication abilities for everyday use and
- current consumer devices that leverage modern miniaturized sensors and wireless mobile networks to provide services that are “there when you need it, gone when you don’t.”
- POWER & HEAT
- NETWORKING
- MOBILE INPUT
- VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) DISPLAYS
- MOBILE VIDEO VIEWERS
- INDUSTRIAL, MILITARY & MEDICAL SYSTEMS
- MAKER & ACADEMIC SYSTEMS FOR EVERYDAY USE
- CONSUMER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS FOR EVERYDAY USE
Photos from the ebook can be used with permission. Photo credit: Maria Wong Sala

POWER & HEAT
All photos in the online exhibition may be used with permission. Photo credit: Tavenner Hall
A Step Forward—Rechargeable Batteries

Power-Sonic 12 V lead-acid gel cell battery (1995, $30)

Sony lithium-ion camcorder battery and holder (1998, $150)
A Step Forward—Energy Scavengers

Nissho Electronics AladdinPower wind-up generator (2002, $40)

RCA ultrasonic TV remote control (in the 1960s, it added 30 percent to the cost of a television)
XTG Technology portable solar charger and battery (2010, $60)
A Step Forward—DC-DC Power Converters

Datel UWR-5/3000-D5 converter (1995, $100)

Datel UNS-5/3-D12A converter (2000, $34)
NETWORKING
A Step Forward

IEEE 802.11 Wavelan PCMCIA card (1997, $295)

Garmin GPS 35-LVS (2001, $200)

Xerox PARC/Olivetti Research Laboratory Active Badge location system (1992, research prototype from the collection of Keith Edwards)

LG Tone Pro headset (2014, $70)

Metricom Inc. Ricochet wireless modem (1997, $350)
MOBILE INPUT
A Step Forward
Mini-QWERTY keyboards, such as the Blackberry, and virtual keyboards require significant hand-eye coordination. Chording input systems such as the Twiddler and the Chorder shown here are fast and best used without visual attention, but they require training. The Half Keyboard employs a more familiar, flat, desktop QWERTY keyboard layout for touch-typing with one hand, but a user chords with the spacebar to achieve the full alphabet.

Twiddler 1 (1991, $200) & Twiddler 2 (2001, $219)

Twiddler 3, model and prototypes shown (2014, $199 projected)

Chorder (mid-1990s, handmade by Greg Priest-Dorman)

Matias Half Keyboard (2001, $595)

Ring trackball (unknown, $20)

Symbol WSS 1000 Wearable Computing System with RS 1 Ring Scanner (1998, $3500)
Symbol created a ring-based barcode scanner and forearm-mounted wearable computer to help workers more efficiently scan and inventory packages as they moved them. With previous systems, a worker would pick up a package, put it on a table, retrieve a “gun” scanner, scan the package, replace the scanner, and then move the package. With the ring scanner, a worker can scan the package as he reaches to move it. The system is a notable success, with variants still being sold by Motorola (which acquired Symbol) today.
Embroidered Textile Interfaces (2010, research prototypes from Georgia Tech)

LilyPad Arduino toolkit, designed by Leah Buechley (2007, $25)
VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) DISPLAYS
A Step Forward
Virtual Research Flight Helmet (1991, $6000)

Philips Scuba VR Visor head-mounted display (1997, $299)
Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1 VR head-mounted display (2013, $300)

Nintendo Virtual Boy video game console (1995, $180)

Virtual i-O i-glasses! Personal 3D Viewer head-mounted display (1995, $395)

Sony PC Glasstron PLM-S700 head-mounted display (1998, $2900)
MOBILE VIDEO VIEWERS
A Step Forward

MyVu Personal Viewer (2006, $270)

Sony Glasstron PLM-A35 (2000, $499)

Vuzix Wrap 230 (2010, $170)

Vuzix iWear (2008, $250)

Eyetop Centra DVD bundle (2004, $599)
Epson Moverio BT-100 (2012; $700)
INDUSTRIAL, MILITARY & MEDICAL SYSTEMS
A Step Forward

Reflection Technology Private Eye display (1989, $795)

Triplett VisualEYEzer 3250 multimeter (2000, $500)

Georgia Tech Multimeter Watch (2014, class project courtesy of Chad Ramey)


Carnegie Mellon University VuMan 3 (1994, manufactured by CMU, from the collection of Dan Siewiorek)

Liteye Systems Liteye-300 display (1999, $3995)

Vuzix Tac-Eye LT head-up display (2010, $3000)

MicroOptical CO-3 display (2001, $2000)

MicroOptical SV-6 display (2003, $1995)

MicroOptical DV-1 display (2003, not sold commercially)

Second Sight M1100 display and driver (2003, $2000)


Xybernaut MA-IV computer (1999, $7500)

Xybernaut MA-V computer (2001, $5000)

Xybernaut/Hitachi VII/POMA/WIA computer (2002, $1500)

InoTrack Firefighter Boot (2008, Universität Bremen, member of the wearIT@work consortium)

Doctor's Wristband (2007, Universität Bremen, member of the wearIT@work consortium)
While doing rounds at a hospital, a doctor wearing the Doctor's Wristband can browse a patient's file on a bedside terminal using gestures. It is intended to provide an interface that is less obstructive to the patient-doctor rapport.
wearIT@work was an Integrated IST Project (IP) funded by the European Union under the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The five-year project, a collaboration among 36 partners in 15 countries, began in 2004 and is probably the largest publicly funded research project on wearable computing to date. It focused on the use of wearable computers in industrial environments. The project's efforts produced many forward-looking prototypes in the fields of industrial maintenance and production, emergency rescue, and healthcare.
FIDO (2013, academic prototype, Georgia Tech)
MAKER & ACADEMIC SYSTEMS FOR EVERYDAY USE
A Step Forward


Herbert 1(1994, designed by Greg Priest-Dorman)

Herbert 3 (1998, designed by Greg Priest-Dorman)

Lizzy 2 (1995, designed by Thad Starner, MIT Wearable Computing Project)

CharmIT (2000, $3000)

MicroOptical embedded prescription display (1997, approximately $5000)

MIThril (2000, designed by Rich DeVaul, MIT Wearable Computing Project)
CONSUMER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS FOR EVERYDAY USE
A Step Forward

FitSense FS-1 (2000, $200)

Fitbit One (2012, $100)

4iiii Innovations Sportiiiis (2012, $150)

Recon Instruments MOD (2011, $400)

Audible MobilePlayer (1997, $200)

Texas Instruments EZ-430 Chronos wristwatch (2009; $49)

Sony Ericsson LiveView MN800 wristwatch (2010, $180)

Glass prototypes: Pack headset (December 2010)

Glass prototypes: Ant (March 2011)

Glass prototypes: Cat (May 2011)

Glass prototypes: Lennon (April 2011)


Glass prototypes: Dog plastic (June 2011) / Glass prototypes: Dog metal (June 2011)

Glass prototypes: Emu (September 2011)

Glass prototypes: Fly (October 2011)




Glass prototypes: Gnu (December 2011), Hog (February 2012), Ibex (May 2012), Koala (October 2012)
