Smart Clothes: Wearable Computing Intro Page

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Image by Steve Mann (click for image info)

Coming Soon: Summaries of the Workshop on Wearable Computer Systems August 19-21 and, finally, a detailed "How to make a wearable for $2-3k"

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Welcome to the MIT Wearable Computing Web Page. This page is meant to both serve as an introduction to the field of wearable computing and as a resource for more technical information. Updates occur as new technology is released. If you have information or code to share, send mail to wearable-web@media.mit.edu

In places, this is a very image intensive site due to scanned data pages. If you are having very long delays in reading these pages, select the "no images" option on your web browser.

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What's a Wearable?

To date, personal computers have not lived up to their name. Most machines sit on the desk and interact with their owners for only a small fraction of the day. Smaller and faster notebook computers have made mobility less of an issue, but the same staid user paradigm persists. Wearable computing hopes to shatter this myth of how a computer should be used. A person's computer should be worn, much as eyeglasses or clothing are worn, and interact with the user based on the context of the situation. With heads-up displays, unobtrusive input devices, personal wireless local area networks, and a host of other context sensing and communication tools, the wearable computer can act as an intelligent assistant, whether it be through a Remembrance Agent, augmented reality, or intellectual collectives.

Applications for wearables

Cost

Hardware (see also the commercial wearables sites below)

Software (Currently Linux only)

MIT Wearable Computing Associated Papers

Links to commercial wearables sites

Moderators' note: As with many tech companies these days, announcements are made even when the hardware is not available and may be many months, in some cases years, away. Each of these companies currently has a product to sell, but even if a particular unit is marked available, all of the options may not be. Contact the company directly for current information.

Links to other research of interest.

MIT research and independent efforts supported by this server

Academic Programs

Privacy Issues

Military, Commercial, and Independent research

General

Enabling technologies for the handicapped

Acknowledgments

CDA ruled unconstitutional!
Last modified: Mon Dec 18 03:26:38 1995