Visual Contextual Awareness in Wearable Computing
Perceptual Computing TR#465, MIT Media Laboratory. To appear IEEE ISWC '98

Thad Starner, Bernt Schiele, and Alex Pentland
Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139
{testarne,bernt,sandy}@media.mit.edu

Abstract:

Small, body-mounted video cameras enable a different style of wearable computing interface. As processing power increases, a wearable computer can spend more time observing its user to provide serendipitous information, manage interruptions and tasks, and predict future needs without being directly commanded by the user. This paper introduces an assistant for playing the real-space game Patrol. This assistant tracks the wearer's location and current task through computer vision techniques and without off-body infrastructure. In addition, this paper continues augmented reality research, started in 1995, for binding virtual data to physical locations.