Can you imagine the day when a person wakes up in the morning,
takes a shower, and then without a second thought, places a computer on their
head like a pair of sunglasses? That
day may not be as far in the future as one may think. From the early days of the calculator to the present day
computer, research in computer technology has made remarkable advances. The
computer has become an important part of today’s society and with this comes
the need for further technology.
Computers have come a long way since their “birth” in 1623,
when Wilhelm
Schickard invented the first mechanical calculator. This machine worked with six digits and had
the ability to carry the digits across columns. Unfortunately, Schickard’s calculator never made it past the
prototype stage. In 1642, Blaise Pascal, also built a
calculator. This calculator had the
capacity of eight digits, but had trouble carrying the digits because of gears
jamming. In 1801, Joseph-Marie
Jacquard invents an automatic loom controlled by punch cards. It is this punch card invention that
eventually sparks the ideas of Charles Babbage's
Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer that can solve any mathematical
problem. In 1821, the beginning of
Charles Babbage’s career, he introduced the idea of a “Difference Engine.” Babbage spent the next two decades of his
life working on the steam-powered computer.
The project was eventually cancelled by the British government in 1842, but
Charles Babbage had yet another idea, the Analytical Engine. Charles Babbage was an inventor before his
time; his Analytical Engine was similar to the computers we use today in
respect to having an input section, central processor, memory, and an output
section. When Charles Babbage died in
1871, the idea of the computer died with him, temporarily.
It is not until 1941, that a German engineer, Konrade
Zuse, completes the first general-purpose programmable
calculator. By 1943, the British have
an operational computer named Colossus.
Colossus is used for code breaking during the war. In 1944, Mark I, an automatic sequence
controlled calculator was credited as the first functionally working
computer. In 1945, ENIAC (Electronic
Numerical Integrator Analyzer) was completed in Maryland by the Ballistics
Research Laboratory. ENAIC was used to
assist in the preparation of firing tables for artillery. The Colossus, Mark I, and ENAIC were
enormous and used a tremendous amount of electricity through the use of vacuum
tubes. In 1947, Bell Telephone
Laboratories introduced the transistor to replace vacuum tubes. With thousands of transistors aiding one
computer the problem of the transistors heating up and blowing became a
nuisance, so in 1959 Texas Instruments and Fairchild semiconductor both
introduced the integrated circuit. The
race to build a smaller, more efficient computer had already started.
The next three
decades the progress of the computer-world moves at a faster pace. The sixties brought such innovations as the
program Sketchpad, developed by Ivan Sutherland, Douglas
Engelbart introduced the word processor, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce
founded Intel,
and Xerox explored the “architecture of information.” Some of the achievements during the seventies included Fairchild Semiconductor inducted the 256-bit RAM chip, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Traf-O-Data, and developed BASIC for the Altair 8800 (Microsoft started), Intel had the first 8-bit microprocessor, Gary Kildall wrote the first high-level programming language for the Intel microprocessor, MIT introduced Altair 8800, and Software Arts developed Visicalc, the first spreadsheet program. The eighties brought even more revelations as Microsoft’s Windows 1.0, Apple Macintosh, Motorola’s 68040 (a 32-bit 25MHz Microprocessor), and IBM asked Microsoft to make a BASIC program for a personal computer project. These are just some of the computer discoveries made in the past fifty years, but enough to demonstrate the rapid growth of the computer. The potential of the computer of the future seems boundless. One such invention is the wearable computer. Sound like a futuristic movie, well it is not, the wearable computer is already here.
Wearable computers surprisingly have been around a lot longer
than one might think. In the seventies,
a group of physicist and other researchers designed a shoe-based computer for
the sole purpose in helping them play roulette. During the early eighties, Steve Mann was experimenting with
wearable computers, but found the computer awkward because of its size and the
attention he received from the public. At that time, people could not
comprehend the use of a computer that was not plugged in (Mann 23). Another device has been around for several
years known as the Private Eye. The
Private Eye is a 1” x 1” display with a single row of 280 LED’s. A scanning mirror is used to display a
screen, because the apparatus is worn close to the eye, like in a pair of
glasses, the display screen seems larger.
The computer printed image is on one side of the glasses, allowing the
user to see both the screen and their environment at the same time (Starner 3). Today components are smaller and for $3000
you can have an off-the-shelf prototype that includes the Private Eye, a
one-handed chording keyboard, and a small Dos-based computer that is small
enough to fit on a persons waist. In
addition to the above components you can add a modem and a cellular phone (Starner
1). There you have it, an operational
wearable computer.
With computer chips getting smaller so will the wearable
computer. Technology is already
advancing on an improved display.
According to a May 15, 2000 Newswire, Microvision reported “the
successful demonstration of a high-performance, high-resolution wearable
display to more than 700 attendees, including high-ranking civilian and
military officials”(Today’s News 1).
Microvision’s new display technology has a virtual see-thru picture and
is in full color, unlike the Private Eye.
New applications are also in development at MIT to make the
wearable computer with augmented memory (Rhodes 1-6 ). The Remembrance Agent or RA is a memory aid,
designed to be a proactive reminder system.
The earlier desktop version “watches whatever is typed or read in a word
processor, it then suggests old e-mail, papers, or other text documents that
are relevant to the current text being displayed, and continuously updates a
list of suggestions at the bottom of the screen” (Rhodes 1-6). The Wearable RA will have the same abilities
as the desktop version, but will automatically recognizes people through the
use of badges, and give location status through a GPS or indoor location system
(Rhodes 1-6). The Wearable RA would be
useful in many ways, for instance: anyone attending a lecture could bring up
any pervious data entered pertaining to the lecture subject; aiding surgeons
while performing surgery; identifying people whom you have met before; helping
a person through an unfamiliar building by giving the person their
location. This last feature would be
most helpful for firemen mapping their way through a smoke filled
building.
Another project is the affective wearable computer. This computer will have the ability to
monitor not only heart rate and blood pressure, but “recognize physical and
physiological patterns, especially those which correspond to affective states,
such as when you are fearful, stressed, relaxed, or happy”(Healey 1). The affective wearable will accomplish this
task through sensors monitoring respiration, skin conductivity, temperature,
blood volume pressure, heart rate and muscular activity. The affective computer
will be an application not only for people suffering from emotional states but
also for people who want to stay healthy by monitoring themselves. The information picked up by the affective
wearable will be useful in aiding physicians in treating their patients. A
prototype of the affective wearable exists, but needs development in bio-metric
sensors, which will allow the wearable computer to be aware of the users
context (home or office), and level of physical activity (Healey 2). By learning personal aspects of a persons
activities the computer will be more effective in treating various emotional
problems such as stress, which can later lead to stress related physical
ailments, such as back and head aches.
Still another interesting idea is the speech recognition
research that has now produced IBM’s VoiceType Simply Speaking, this program
writes text from dictation (IBM 2).
Advancement in the speech recognition field may someday allow the
wearable computer to be voice activated.
The user would no longer have to depend on a one-handed keyboard,
leaving both hands free.
In a world that thrives on communication the wearable computer
needs to be ‘on line”. The idea of an
audio feature would allow the user to receive e-mail, listen to the news or
stock report and send messages through voice recognition. “The goal of the Nomadic Radio is to develop
an infrastructure and interface techniques for adaptive notification, messaging
and communication services on a wearable device” (Normadic Radio 2). Without
the assistance of telephone servers, the future could hold endless possibilities
for the audio wearable computer. Where
there is an idea, you can count on it to be researched further.
In conclusion, the computer has made impressive advances since
the time of inventors like Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal, and Charles
Babbage overcoming obstacles of enormous size and energy consumption, speed and
programming. The idea of a wearable
computer is not just something a person will see on a cyborg movie anymore. If all goes as planned, wearable computers of
the future should be portable while operational, a hand-free device, have sensors, be proactive, always be on you, and
always running. Of coarse, no one can
predict how far the current research will go, but researchers are proving that
enhancements to the modern day computer are continuous.
Healey, Jennifer “Why
affective wearables”?
http://vismod.www.media.mit.edu/tech-reports/TR-467/node2.html
http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/enterprise/ep_1.html
http://vismod.www.media.mit.edu/~nitin/NomadicRadio/WhyWAC.htm
Rhodes, Bradely “Wearable
Computing” Personal Technologies, 5-97, pg. 218-224
Starner, Thad “The Cyborgs are Coming”
http://www-white.media.mit.edu/pub/tech-reports/TR-318-ABSTRACT.html
Today’s News Newswire May 15, 2000
http://www.prnewswire,com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/05-15-2.../000121777