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Re: wearables: interfaces, functions...

Carol Stein <> writes:
> First, any wearable computer that does not REPLACE a laptop or
> desktop won't succeed... by which I mean, if we need to keep the
> desktop/laptop as well as the wearable (to take care of tasks the
> wearable can't handle), why bother?

You might bother because your application is different.

As an obvious current example, your application might be to allow
someone repairing an aircraft engine to call up documentation while
working.

However, as a way of turning your comment completely on its head: if
what you're going to do is let someone run Microsoft Word, why bother?
A desktop or laptop is pretty good at what it does. The things I can
do with an intrusive "always on" system that becomes an extension of
myself are very different from what I can do with a laptop.

Say you're walking through Tokyo -- a city where the streets don't
really have names and the buildings are numbered by what block they
are in, in order of construction rather than sequentially. Finding
your way somewhere in Tokyo you've never been before can be damn hard
even if you're a native. However, if your eyeglasses simply show you
where you are in relation to your destination in a corner of your
visual field, well, that makes a bit of a difference for you, doesn't
it?

You're in a meeting, and you want to remind yourself of a number of
points you wanted to say, and of the fact that you must NOT insult the
client even though they're an idiot. Well, keep your speaking points
up in your visual field, scroll through them unobtrusively with your
chord keyboard, and have the microphone in the glasses feeding
software that flashes a warning to you when you detect your own voice
stress is going up to remind you to be calm and reasonable. Your
business partner across the table can send you small cues via instant
messages -- wearables+wireless = telepathy.

Having trouble concentrating on what you're working on? Your machine
can keep you informed of it. Can't remember whether the guy you asked
for directions said it was one mile or two miles to the next light?
Play back what he said from your "flight data recorder". Can't
remember the names of people you meet? Pick off their images from your
"flight data recorder" and label them for reference. Driving down the
street and you remember you MUST pick up the drycleaning before the
shop closes? Voice recognition from your always on friend.

Wearables have all sorts of interesting potential. Trying to make them
into "More Portable Laptops" would be a great shame.

Perry

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