Google will release a wearable heads up display this fall, and it may help to usher in a new era of augmented reality and wearable computing. What does this mean for us as designers and developers? How do we build for the next generation of computers? Who was here before us, and how can we learn from them? From it’s birthplace at MIT and PARC research, the field of wearable computing has focused on augmenting the human ability to compute freely. As pioneer Steve Mann and calm technology pioneer Mark Weiser wanted, “to free the human to not act as a machine”. Mann didn’t like the idea of crouching over a desktop computer. He instead felt that the computer should contort to the human naturally, so he began his own wearable computing mission. This talk will focus on trends in wearable computing starting from the 1970’s-2010’s. I’ll cover various HUDs (heads up displays), new tech from Motorola, Google, various invasive and non-invasive tech and how mobile interfaces should take advantage of location, proximity and haptics to help improve our lives instead of get in the way. These are the machines that will be a part of our lives in only a few years from now, and the best way to learn about the future is to dig into the past. Speech given at OSBridge 2012 by Amber Case: http://opensourcebridge.org/sessions/857

1. Future of Wearable
Computing: Constraint,
Context and Location
OSBridge 2012
Amber Case
@caseorganic
case@caseorganic.com

3. Flickr: cybertoad

4. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/
119/293670483_cbce23bdde_b.jpg
Flickr: soylentgreen23

5. Univac 1 ~1950’s
iPhone ~2000’s

7. I. Problems

8. Persistent
Paleontology

10. Navigation

11. II. History

12. Self-Portrait
of Steve Mann
with Wearable
Computing
Apparatus
1981.
slideshare.net/caseorganic

14. Diminished Reality vs. Augmented Reality
• Adding your own layer onto reality
• Replacing public messages with your own

15. Adblock: Image recognition, processing and replacement.

16. Collaborative Reality

17. Remember the Milk
Contextual Notification Systems
Virtual Post-It Notes with Image
Processing
1995
@caseorganic slideshare.net/caseorganic

18. Computer-Mediated Reality:
Face Recognition and History

20. Sousveillance:
MaybeCam

21. Evolution of Prosthesis
slideshare.net/caseorganic

22. Present-Day
Steve Mann
• Extremely lightweight equipment
• Most people have this in their pocket

25. Construction

26. Text goes here

27. Present-Day
Steve Mann
• Extremely lightweight equipment
• Most people have this in their pocket

29. Text goes here

30. III. Persistent Architecture

32. Englebart’s
Cyborg
Glove

33. Text goes here

36. Twiddler by
HandyKey Corporation
One-Handed Key
Chording USB
Keyboard
@caseorganic

37. Inputs

38. Thad
Starner

39. Borg Group – MIT Media Lab

41. Sandy Pentland

42. GA Tech

45. IV: Next?

48. V. Non-visual wearable
computing

49. Haptic
Compass
Belt

56. Heat Sink

57. EEG

58. Mann’s
EEG Orchestra

59. Mann’s
EEG Orchestra

60. Future

61. IV. The Future

62. context

63. your phone is a remote
control for reality.

64. • Actions as buttons
• Invisible interfaces
• Trigger-based interactions
Calm technology

65. The
Invisible 80m
Interface
900m

66. A Collection
of Invisible
Buttons

67. Types of Interactions
• Entering
• Exiting
• Dwelling at a place

68. Proximal Notification

69. Ambient
Notification

70. Location-based AR
(Spotmetrix)

71. Geonotes

72. Real-Life Gaming

73. mapattack.org

74. Real-Time
Hyperlocal
Weather

75. Bringing
Wikipedia
to Life

76. Monitor
significant events
not all events
“Dave, who is normally in New York, is
in town. Both of your schedules are
free at noon”.

77. The interface
disappears
• Actions are Reduced
• Queries are Eliminated

79. Thank you.
Amber Case
@caseorganic
case@caseorganic.com
Slides: slideshare.net/caseorganic