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barebones wearables, specificity, other stuff was: Re: Sony Clie 760c

From: "The Raven" <>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 00:39:11 -0500

I know this is gonna sound liek the extreme low end of wearables...but most
of these little things coem with a speaker in and audio out...so just put it
in the hip holster get a headset write a simple (THATS a JOKE) speech
recognition and TTS program and go....I mean...for most alerts, network
interaction etc. an audio alarm is sufficient...it can talk to you and you
reply...

Actually if you want to get REALLY down and dirty....I am fairly certain it
should be possible to interface a small microcontroller to a wireless
network card then add a voice command chip plus one of those old TTS
hardware solutions and bingo voice terminal....probably run for days on four
AA's or so....instead of expandability you would have a tool, a device for a
specific purpose for a low price. hmm even better build a voice over lan
system and have a desktop (or in the case of a multiuser business
environment a server) stream digital audio to you and receive your commands
and execute them accordingly. In a perfect world we could do voice
recognition and have every device where it recognized what user was wearing
it and allowed access to the appropriate files. That way each "voice network
interface" could be mass produced and totally identical. Couple all of this
with a workforce of robots doing mundane pointless tasks (just think, you
spillt your coffee by your desk all you have to do is ask for a cleanup and
a robot comes and cleans it up). But the device can also do local interface
things too. With a forearm or hip worn display, you can ask where is my
supervisor and his location will be shown on the screen accompanied by a
voice prompt so that you dont get caught playing Solitaire during maximum
crunch time.

Anyways...just a mind dump after reading soem of Doug's stuff and the clie
760c thing. I agree with Doug, the interface will have to change before
wearables can truly evolve into an integral part of a worker or person. The
key to acceptance will be the younger generation (MY GENERATION!!!!!). There
are millions of teenagers in this country and a bunch of them are tossing a
bunch of cash on other "fashionable" things. Those of you on the list with
"normal" teenage kids who spend tons on clothes and mp3s players and stuff
know how much money it is. If we can make wearable computers one of those
"ooooohhh its so cool I HAVE to have one to be cool like my friends" we can
mass produce hardware and gain acceptance with an older sect. Of course this
plan could backfire very badly and cause a social clash. Bad publicity=a
surveillance camera video on the evening news showing some teenagers ripping
off some sort of ATM machine using your hardware to help in their hacking (I
know its impossible but its only an example). but back to the interface
thing. has anyone used a scope with some sort of preamp to attempt to
"listen" to nerve signals in your hands? ECG's do it with our heart...it may
be possible to do it with our motor nuerons....although it would be
extremely hard to decipher the signals and distinguish between them. Any
ideas? Maybe you guys can develop this further, I dont have the equipment or
the money. Also, has anyone thought of developing a retinal tracking system,
commercial units are way too expensive. It shouldnt be that bad.

Eli

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