Wearable Computers

MotherBoards

PC/104 Mobo

Form Factors: PC/104 boards are typicaly about 3.6"x3.8"x.9"    or about the size of a 3.5" Floppy Disk    With male and female bus connectors on each side,    that allow them to be "stacked". Uses an ISA based bus PC/104+ is an enhanced version of the PC/104    standard that uses a PCI-based bus Dimm PC, the size of a DIMM, requires backplane carrier board

    Ampro
    Jumptec
    ZFmicro


Keyboards

Chording Keyboard - allows one handed keyboarding through programmable
    combinations of buttons, sometimes includes joystick.
    HandyKey Corp. - Makers of Twiddler

Half-Querty Keyboard - Half keyboard with an alternate key that switches
   keyboard halfs.

Compact Keyboards - Small keyboards that strap on to the arm.
   L3 System's WristPC FA4 Keyboard - Cool arm mounted keyboard.

Key Glove - Glove interface that works by touching fingers together in different
   patterns


Pointing Devices

Trackpoints - (mini joystick)
Trackballs
Eyemouse - Tracks eye movements


Displays

HUD - (Heads Up Display) One eye is shown the image, binnocular vision
   combines the 2 images so the data appears superimposed on what you see.
   Mit shows what this looks like here


Storage devices

Battery Backed up Ram - Advantages: Cheap, Fast, shock-Resistant;
   Disadvantages: Requires constant Power

Flash Ram - Non-Volatile RAM (holds information without power)
Flash Disk - Flash Ram with a IDE/SCSI drive interface to emulate
   a hard drive. Advantages: Shock-Resistant, Solid State, energy-efficient,
   faster than a harddrive, Reliable Disadvantages: Expensive
   M-Systems    SanDisk

2.5" laptop hard drives - Advantages: Cheap; Disadvantages: Moving Parts
    are shock sensitive, energy-eater, slow (vs ram), limited reliability


Processors

Strong ARM - Low wattage, fast processor, has linux distribution :)
   see Intels Strong Arm Page

X86/Pentium - Most Popular, due to familiarity, Power Hungry


Specialized Wearable Applications

Augmented/Mediated Reality uses a wearable as an interface to the real world
   The computer could supply addition information about objects/places
   or people seen, to enhance or modify senses.

Rememberence Agent uses a wearable as a reminding device
Context Aware Applications provide tools and information relevant to where
   you are.


Wireless Networking

Richochet from Metricom allows up to 128kbps, but in limited areas
CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data)
    Uses frequency hopping to utilize "holes" in cellular
    channels not being used for voice at any one instant.
    Up to 19.2Kbps

802.11 - A standard for Wireless LAN's
    Heres a quick Tutorial

Bluetooth - Close range (up to 10 meters) wireless networking, up to 721Kbits/s
    The Official BlueTooth Site

PAN - Personal Area Network
Parasitic Networks - Utilize wireless devices between as relays.
WAP - (Wireless Applications Protocol) A low bandwidth standard for wireless
   devices accessing the internet consisting of WML (Wireless Markup Language)
   and WML Script (like Java Script).

More Information

Wearables Central - Lots of Links, Archive of the Wearables mailing List.
MIT Wearables Department - Leading wearables College
Eyetap.org - Steve Manns site on Wearable Computing, Personal Imaging,
   Humanistic Intelligence. Often Regarded as "the father of wearable computing"
Wearcam.org - WearComp.org, WearCam.org, UTWCHI, and Steve Mann's Personal
   Web Page/research
Conventions
ISWC (International Symposium on Wearable Computers)

General parts

TekGear - Products for Wearable Computing
xtremecomputing - All kinds of discounted Computer stuff
EMJ - Distributor for several PC/104 & embedded device manufacurers