7. INTRODUCTION
A WEARABLE COMPUTER IS A COMPUTING DEVICE SMALL AND LIGHT ENOUGH
TO BE WORN ON ONE’S BODY WITHOUT CAUSING DISCOMFORT
IT MAY ALSO BE INTEGRATED INTO EVERYDAY OBJECTS THAT ARE
CONSTANTLY WORN ON THE BODY
IT SHOULD BE WORN LIKE GLASSES, WATCHES, AND CLOTHING.
IT SHOULD ACT AS AN INTELIGENT ASSISTANT.
INVENTED BY STEVE MANN IN THE 1970’S
9. DEFENITION
A SMALL PORTABLE COMPUTER THAT IS DESIGNED TO BE WORN ON THE
BODY DURING USE.
WEARBLE COMPUTERS SHOULD BE LIKE GLASSES, WATCHES, AND CLOTHING.
11. CHARACTERISTICS
WEARABLE COMPUTER IS DEFINED BY SIX MAIN CHARACTERISTICS.
THESE ATTRIBUTES OF WEARABLE COMPUTING ARE DESCRIBED FROM THE HUMAN’S
POINT OF VIEW:
1. UN MONOPOLIZING (OF THE USER ATTENTION)
WEARABLE COMPUTER DOES’NT CUT YOU OFF FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD SUCH
AS A VIRTUAL REALITY GAME OR THE LIKE.
2. UNRESTRICTIVE (TO THE USER)
WHEN USING IT, YOU CAN DO OTHER THINGS.
12. CONTINUED...
3. OBSERVABLE (BY THE USER)
IT CAN KEEP YOUR ATTENTION CONTINUOUSLY IF YOU WANT IT TO.
4. CONTROLLABLE (BY THE USER)
IT IS A RESPONSIVE SYSTEM. YOU CAN GRAB CONTROL OF IT ANY TIME YOU
WANT.
5. COMMUNICATIVE (TO OTHERS)
IT CAN BE USED AS COMMUNICATIONS MEDIUM WHEN YOU WANT IT TO.
16. SOFTWARE DESIGN
SOFTWARE DESIGN
The software design is composed of
the Enchantment Whiteboard, the
Enchantment Signal system, and a RealTime Context Engine. These tools
provide the foundation for developing
modular, distributed, context-aware
wearable and ubiquitous computing
applications. Enchantment Whiteboard
is based on a client/server model in
which clients post and read structured
information on whiteboard server.
Figure: Whiteboard example of Echat.
