Koustuv Institute of Self Domain: Wearable Computers
Koustuv Institute of Self Domain: Wearable Computers
Koustuv Institute of Self Domain: Wearable Computers
Submitted by:
Ms. XYZ Regd no-0901208418 E-mail: xyz89@gmail.com
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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING Koustuv Institute of Self Domain (An affiliated college of Biju Patnaik Unversity of Techonolgy, Orissa) Plot No-1, Sector-B, Chandaka Nuclear Institute Complex Patia, Bhubaneswar-751024
Certificate
This is to certify that the seminar entitled Wearable Computers presented by Ms.XYZ bearing Regd no.0901208418, in 7th semester of her is a bonafied work of her own, and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for award of bachelors degree in Information Technology.
Seminar in charge
Prof. Guide
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Acknowledgement
I express my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. R Sahoo, for his/her valuable guidance and constant unfailing encouragement for completing this Seminar Report. I give my sincere thanks to Prof. S Mishra, Dept of CSE & IT, and all the faculty members for giving me the opportunity and creating a nice work environment to complete my Seminar report within the stipulated period of time. Last, but not the least, I am also grateful to my friends for tirelessly and patiently pursuing me to complete this report without whose help completion of the Seminar report was the next thing to impossible.
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Contents
Introduction Human Interface System (Humionics) Sulawesi Architecture Operating System & Applications Augmented Reality Display Systems Input Devices Networks Power sources Challenges & Limitations in Wearable Technologies 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 15 16 17
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Sulawesi
Architecture
A framework called Sulawesi has been designed and implemented to tackle what has been considered to be important challenges in a wearable user interface. This framework gives the wearable computer an ability to accept input from any number of modalities, and perform if necessary a translation to any number of modal outputs. This system that has been designed comprises of three distinct parts,
Multimodal-multimedia based Input system, gathers raw data from the various sensors
The system gathers real world information through a well-defined API. The current implementation includes keyboard input, network input, speech recognition input, video camera input, G.P.S. input and infrared input. This stage helps in connecting devices on the fly, and provides a device independent abstract layer. Any necessary preprocessing of the data is done in the next stage.
Agent based core system, contains a natural language processing module and service agents
The core of the system contains a basic natural language processor, which performs sentence translations. This converts a sentence into a command stream from which two pieces of information are extracted, which service to invoke and how the output should be rendered. A service manager is responsible for the instantiationand monitoring of the services. The service manager also checks and queues commands to provide resilience against system failures.
Proactive and Wearable Output system, decides when and how to render the results from the service agents
The output stage takes a modal neutral result from a service and makes a decision on how to render the information. The decision is made based on two criteria, what the user has asked for, and how the system perceives the users current context/environment. If the user has asked to be shown a piece of information, this implies a visual rendition. If the system detects that the user is moving or busy with an activity (through the input sensors), an assumption can
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be made that the user attention might be distracted if results are displayed in front of him (Imagine what would happen if the user was driving)! In this case the system will override the users request and would redirect the results to a more suitable renderer, such as speech. A successful wearable user interface must combine different types of input and output, depending on the user's context and needs.
Shall be constantly available to the user always on, ready and accessible Shall not require the constant user attention or interaction Shall serve to augment users intellect and senses Shall be unobtrusive and unrestrictive to the user. The user shall be able to walk around, ride in a crowded bus, or even hang glide while using it. This aspect is also true for the hardware components of the wearable computer Always communicate with user within reasonable time limits Shall be able to communicate to other systems & external world Provide the best use of the 3D object space to scatter the application windows, a big shift from the regular 2D monitors. It is important to understand that the user has a much bigger and deeper view for work area in wearable computers, which needs to be used
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Augmented
Reality
Wearable computing introduces new concepts mediated reality and augmented reality, which are very interesting to know about. Mediated reality refers to encapsulation of the user's senses by incorporating the computer with the user's perceptive mechanisms, and is used to process the outside stimuli. For example, one can mediate their vision by applying a computer-controlled camera to enhance it. The primary activity of mediated reality is direct interaction with the computer, which means that computer is "in charge" of processing and presenting the reality to the user. Augmented Reality combines real world scenes and virtual scenes, augmenting the real world with additional information. The computer must be able to operate in the background, providing enough resources to enhance but not replace the user's primary experience of reality. This can be achieved by using tracked see-through display units and earphones to overlay visual and audio material on real objects. This technology adds value to the human knowledge, memory & intelligence.
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An example of an AR application is a guidebook as above. As the tourist walks around the library, his wearable computer uses sensors, for example a combination of GPS and head tracking equipment, to detect his physical position and orientation. Some text describing the library is shown on the display unit over the actual building. The wearable computer assists further in enhancing the value of the real world experience, using augmented reality.
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Display Systems
The output device of a wearable computer could be either a head-mounted display (HMD) unit with an earpiece or only the earpiece for some applications. There are two different types of HMD systems: 1. First intended for industrial or regular use, has a see-through lens and a small projection system on one of the lenses. Only on need basis, the processing system may project the output data onto the lens. 2. second is of blocking type and requires the fullattention of the user. This is mostly for 3D modeling, used for understanding complex mechanical design systems or for personal entertainment requirements.( The HMD systems shown in these pictures have both the earpiece and the mouthpiece built into them.) The HMD systems support several attractive features like wireless connectivity, external connectors for audio & video, and control settings.
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Input Devices
Speech recognition may appear as the most suited input device, but may not be preferred in all kinds of applications & environments, due to privacy and performance issues. Handwriting & Keyboard could be one of the most efficient input devices, provided the input device is not too small or awkward. Research in this wearable domain is resulting in combination products like the Sense Board. This device is just worn on the hands or wrists and senses the typing input or handwriting. This does not have any cables and communicates on infrared.
Gesture Input devices are simple, compact, and optimized for wearable use. These devices receive inputs from the natural gestures. Ubi-Finger is such a device, but has not been tested for all types of applications. Thumb Typing - a device that turns your hands into a qwertystyle keyboard. Mehrings device uses six conductive contacts on each thumbthree on the front and three on the backto represent a keyboards three lettered rows. Contacts on the tips of the remaining eight fingers represent
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its columns. Touching the right index finger to the middle contact on the front of the right thumb, for instance, generates a j. The top contact on the thumb yields a u, while the middle contact on the back of the thumb would produce an h.
Networks
There are two different kinds of networks in reference to a wearable computer. 2. to connect the device to the external world 3. to interconnect the various components For connecting to the WC to the external world we could choose; WAP, or Cellular Digital packet data. This aspect of networking is not specific for a wearable computer, and can evolve over time, from other electronic gadgets. The interconnection the various parts of the WC, may involve both wired and wireless connections. CPU, storage unit and similar peripherals will be connected with or without cables to the wearable motherboard, which is a garment with (physically) flexible bus and standard expansion slots. Peripherals like HMD and wrist/finger worn devices may use standard wireless connections like Bluetooth. There could also be a third type of communication, two wearable computers talking to each other. This near field networking could be on infrared (IrDA or IRX) or radio based systems, to solve a need, which will invariably arise to
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exchange
information
between
two
users.
Power
sources
Batteries add size, weight, and inconvenience to wearable computers. There are several ways of harnessing the energy expended during the user's everyday actions to generate power for ones computer, thus eliminating the impediment of batteries. However, there is no stopping to use to any of the miniature batteries, for example Lithium, Li-MnO2, Li-C, that are currently being used in electronic gadgets.
Body
Bus
Tom Zimmerman of MIT has shown that the non-contact coupling between the users body and weak electric fields can be used to create and sense tiny nano-amp currents in the users body. Modulating these signals creates Body Net, a personal-area network that communicates through the skin. Using roughly the same voltage and frequencies as audio transmissions, this will be as safe as wearing a pair of headphones. Keeping data in the human body avoids the intrusion of wires, the need for an optical path for infrared and conventional problems such as regulation and eavesdropping. Your shoe computer can talk to a wrist display and keyboard
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and heads up glasses. Activating your body means that everything you touch is potentially digital. A handshake becomes an exchange of digital business cards, a friendly arm on the shoulder provides helpful data, touching a doorknob verifies your identity, and picking up a phone downloads your numbers and voice signature for faithful speech recognition.
in
The biggest challenge in wearable systems is to identify effective interaction modalities for wearable computers. Development of the software for wearable computers which accurately models the common user tasks is probably the most significant challenges faced by wearable system designers. The other software challenges include integration of information repositories that augment limited device capabilities. Consider a scenario where a streaming video is augmenting the user's visual data coupled with cross-domain indexing and data correlation. Coming to the discussion of current limitations on hardware technologies for wearable computing, there are four major problems power, networking, privacy and interface. Adding more features to the wearable device requires more power and generates more heat. This imposes a restriction to design systems that take little power and little space and last a long time."
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To explain the second limitation with networking in wearable devices, first we need to understand that networking may never be truly ubiquitous; there will always be places where access to the Internet will not be simply be available. The inter-component communication using the on-body wireless bus (an internal electrical pathway along which signals are sent from one part of the computer to another) is still an area of research. Privacy is not yet a limitation, but may be a limitation in future. Wearable computers allow you to have access to information that you normally wouldnt have. According to Dr starner, one can record conversations, keep personal notes, schedule, and use diary on the wearable. The first part of the privacy is to protect one's own personal information and the second part is to prevent the wearable user from stealing other's information. With massive amounts of information available right on your eyes, the user is expected to use the device judiciously. The last, the interesting and the most haunting problem is "How do we communicate with the computer and how does it communicate to us? Which is the most effective way of communicating to the device and back to the human? What are the prime Ergonomics issues and what makes the device more convenient? This answer for this would only evolve along the time, and there may not be any perfect answer to this question.
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Applications Computing
of
Wearable
I will not get surprised if you still ask me this question of "What are wearable computers good for?" and "Can I do something useful with this thing?" Perhaps the strongest reason one should respond with "Many things " and "Yes, you can!" lies in the origin of wearable computing. You may get surprised to know that wearable computers are already being used, in several fields ranging from medical applications, mining, disability gadgets, defense systems, astronauts, marine engineering and high speed quality assurance processes. The adjacent photograph shows a real-life example of a mining engineer doing a chemical analysis of a sample live on the field. Time is not very far to see them from coming into as consumer appliances as well.
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Privacy
&
Health
Issues
Though wearable computing does not raise any new privacy issues, it is true that the most useful information is also most personal. Just because the wearable computers can be used for surveillance purposes, does not mean that they are being used. Wearable computing does not involve any privacy issues which otherwise cannot be done. This just helps getting around with what you mostly want, what you mostly do, what you mostly like to do anywhere and everywhere. Health and Safety considerations will be important when one is wearing these things all his waking hours (and arguably sleeping hours too!). Remember the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Last but not the least, the resulting outfits shall be fashionable and provide the buyer with a choice of fashions. After all, one doesnt want to go to a formal dinner looking like C3PO.
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Conclusion
We have all the technologies needed to make a viable wearable computer today. Lot of research and experiments for practical & commercial use of WC are going on around the world. Several varieties of WCs are indeed commercially available, but as of now most of them are tailor made for specific applications. It is only a matter of time before the consumer community accepts the idea; manufactures pick up patron ship and the Catch-22 cycle of mass-production. The paradigm shift that the WC will bring; computer working along with you instead of you working at the computer, will have similar impact to the paradigm shift brought by the earlier PCs. It will augment the users senses, intellect, memory and provide him with huge amount of computation power and information (both local and networked), without interfering from what he doing. Unlike Artificial Intelligence (attempts to emulate human intelligence in the computer), WCs works alongside the human, both doing what each is better at. After a few cycles of evolution, the wearable computer will become highly ergonomic and a user, over an extended period of usage, will feel it as a true extension of mind and body. The combined capability of resulting synergistic whole will far exceed the parts. This will undoubtedly enhance the quality of life of the user, at work place and in all facets of daily life.
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References
The Humane Interface by Raskin, Jef. A Wearable Application Integration Framework, Neill J Newman, University of Essex http://www.cs.washington.edu/sewpc/papers/newman.pdf MIThril, research project at MIT, http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/mithril Linux Wearable, work being done in the world of linux for enabling wearable technologies http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Wearable-HOWTO.html Steve Mann, Univ of Toronto, Keynote address on Wearable Computing as means for personal empowerment http://wearcam.org/wearcompdef.html Ripley Wearable Computer, Commercial wearable products currently available on linux http://www.zerospin.com/ripley/index.html Proceedings of The Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC '98), 1998 Thad Starner, Brent Schiele, and Alex Pentland. Visual contextual awareness in wearable computing Wearable Computing, Patrick Sinclair, Intelligence, Agents and Multimedia Group Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
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