Return to the archive index

RE: Finaly a cheap possible wearable solution?

very nice idea.

I like the HMD mounted in the sun glasses idea, but
since I wear glasess... I think thats out of the
question.

anyone with glasses out there with some ideas?

-----Original Message-----
From: Lance Nanek [mailto:]
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 7:46 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: Finaly a cheap possible wearable solution?

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" to 
Wear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org
Please, *PLEASE* don't subscribe through a forward/expander/false domain

--
Subscription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to 
Wear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org
Please, *PLEASE* don't subscribe through a forward/expander/false domain

From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH)
Maintained by R. Paul McCarty

Archive created with babymail