Most of the wearables I've seen so far are these big clunky things that barely even try to conserve space, use laptop hard drives, etc. So I guess a mini-itx solution wouldn't be out of order. However, IMHO, if your just aiming for that there is no reason to waste time piecing together low volume hardware and your own power system and what not. I'd recommend just repackaging an obsoleted laptop/subnote (which can be had for a song, especially if the LCD is broken) and getting the same end result. The thinkpad I used for this had a small bar of a motherboard, much smaller than the keyboard even, and made a tidy package with the keyboard/LCD/cd-rom/casing all removed and the battery/hd rearranged. Booting through the error codes was the only hurdle really and after that you have a wearable ready for whatever input and output experimentation you want (playing around with microjoystick to keyboard mappings and typing and reading on the go with a bought HMD in my case). I just thought this shortcut worth mentioning in case it's applicable to you. I hate seeing too much work going into the 'monstrously huge' form factor wearables so many people custom build when its easy to just use something premade of the same size. I'd rather see more custom HMDs like you concluded with or wearable software apps, etc. Regards, Lance Nanek Konstantin V. wrote: > Hi guys/gals. Im very interested in the wearable computing and for some time I was interested in reading about it, because pc104 parts are kind of costy and unavailable were I live (Mexico). > > I kind of interested in building a wearable for myself but it needs to be a cheap solution or mid range. Interestingly enough EPIA's mothereboards and particulary the Eden 5000 model looks kind of apealing for a wearable, with footprint of 170x170 mm it is very small and its sells for a merely 100 USD, Integrating 500 MHz Cyrix CPU VGA/TV-OUT/LAN/Sound/USB and more. I think Linux runs well enough on this mobo but Im not totaly shure, the main website is offline and I cant access it www.viavpsd.com , there is other sites like http://www.viaarena.com which discusses Via's Mini-ITX plataform. One link to Epia M series which is not the EPIA 5000 that I'm talking about but you can apritiate the size of Mini-ITX format http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=187 > I mean compare the functionality of EPIA 5000 board to an existing PC104 or SBC board and then compare prices. Im not into embedded and dont need a watchdog or data adquisition, just a fun little system to carry around with PIM/Word processing/maybe video capture(but that later) > > Now the TV-out NTSC/PAL is important because a cheap Head Mounted Display could be a Kopin CyberDisplay320, a monocolor 320x240 display costing about 60 USD wich could be driven by a Motorola chip part number MCVVQ111, the documentation for the this display driver is explains how to build a prototype board and this way integrating it into a very nice and cheap Head Mounted Display. Here is a link to a MageForge article about a covert CyberDisplay in sunglasses , courtecy of Mircea > https://securehost34.hrwebservices.net/~magefor/cgi-bin/view/Main/SunGlasses > (The issue here is to get the MCVVQ111, I havent seen it on sale anywhere) > > I know it is low resolution and monocolor but I think it is a viabe solution and it will be light and cheap, also low power consuming, and at last but not least it is very very covertable. > > Thiking about power consuming, here is a mini power supply from http://www.mini-box.com/pw-60.htm wich is a very small power supply unit that fits directly in EPIA motherboard (u can download a video of the mounting process wich is simple but ilustrative), the supply uses 12 DC input and regulates the normal ATX psu outputs, proving 1 connector for a HD + 1 connector for Floppy and a small 5 volts connector. > > Now if anyone would calculate the amount of power drained by this motherboard + (put usual hardware that goes in the mobo like notebook HD + Memstick ) + HMD + Input devices (Twiddler or mouse or maybe a PDA keyboard) and evaluate how many battery packs (Li-Ion) would be needed to power the whole system for a reasonable amount of time, dont know, maybe 5 hours continuosly. > Would it be 'wearable' ? > > What do you think about it? > > > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more -- Subscription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org Please, *PLEASE* don't subscribe through a forward/expander/false domain
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