FROM clothes riddled with sensors to name tags =
that=20
detect our moods, computing's next wave could unleash small devices that =
increasingly augment everyday activities with digital =
intelligence.
![3D"New](3D"http://www.australianit.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5714083,00= "3D\"New")
Wearable unit enables Japanese character =
typing
That=20
was the vision at a conference on wearable computing this month in =
Boston, where=20
researchers showed off prototypes.=20
Some participants took wearable computing to the extreme, donning =
cyborg-like=20
miniaturised displays attached to eyepieces.
Most on exhibit seemed much closer to being mainstream commercial=20
products.
For example, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of =
Technology (ETH=20
Zurich) showed off stretchable, threadlike sensors that can be woven =
into shirts=20
to detect their wearers' posture.
People with back pain or injuries could be prompted on a PC or a =
mobile=20
device to straighten up, pronto.
Stephane Beauregard of Germany's University of Bremen displayed a =
shoe-borne=20
sensor whose tiny accelerometers perform electronic dead reckoning, =
providing=20
real-time location tracking in places satellite navigation systems =
either cannot=20
reach or cannot describe with precision. For now, the sensor has to be =
held in=20
place by the shoelaces, but Beauregard says a version that can fit =
inside a boot=20
heel could be a year away. His first intended market is firefighters and =
other=20
emergency personnel.
Graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's =
Media Lab=20
had black plastic badges around their necks that analysed multiple =
factors,=20
including motion and speech patterns, to detect the level of engagement =
two=20
people were exhibiting in a conversation.
Information gathered from the badges, which weigh just a few hundred =
grams=20
and are a bit smaller than a deck of cards, can be sent wirelessly to a =
computer=20
or a phone to give their wearers helpful tips.
Sales reps could be advised that a customer's interest seems to be=20
waning.
A doctor could be alerted to indications of depression in a patient =
being=20
monitored remotely.
The badges might find their first use in gathering reams of data for =
social=20
network analysis - the study of how groups form and interact.
There is big money in applying such research in corporations that =
want to=20
make sure important knowledge does not stay trapped in organisational =
silos. A=20
lot of data for social network analysis is, however, gathered from email =
traffic, which only says so much about how people connect with each =
other.
MIT graduate student Daniel Olguin Olguin says the devices were =
tested on 25=20
employees at a German bank and produced surprising insights about =
alternative=20
ways the office might be laid out.
Now Hitachi is interested in making the badges for corporate =
consultants to=20
use with their clients, he says.
Each badge could probably be made for less than $US100 ($110), "and =
in the=20
future, of course, all of this will be smaller and integrated into your =
name=20
card", Olguin says. A prototype shown by Carsten Mehring of the Colorado =
School=20
of Mines was far more about convenience.
He has embedded sensors into gloves so snowboarders and motorists can =
control=20
portable music devices with the faintest squeeze of their fingers, and =
nary a=20
glance away from a snowy slope or the road.
"The idea," he says, "is to wear your remote, not to carry it."
AP