Dear Sirs:
As members, alumni, and co-workers of the MIT Media Laboratory and Georgia Tech wearable computing community, we find Steve Mann's article "Cyborg Seeks Community" (Technology Review May/June 1999) and the seemingly corroborating columns in the issue misleading. The articles imply that Dr. Mann has been the founder and initiator of many of the concepts and communities associated with wearable computing. In fact, wearable computing has a very long history with many contributors, involving some of the most famous computer scientists (http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/timeline.html). Unfortunately, it is impossible to address Dr. Mann's article fully in this letter to the editor, but we hope that the information below will help to clarify MIT's recent participation in the field.
Dr. Mann complains about his loneliness during his first years at MIT (1991-1993) as "the only wearable computer user." In addition, Dr. Mann ignores the MIT Wearable Computing Project, which made much of his work possible, while telling his tale. The MIT Wearable Computing Project is a group effort initiated and maintained by graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in the technology, its potential uses, and its social effects. While Dr. Mann was an early member, he is NOT considered the initiator of wearable computing research at the Media Laboratory. Certainly, Dr. Mann's various pieces of apparatus were not commonly known or in evidence at the laboratory until late 1994, when he began to wear a system for transmitting analog video from a head-set back to the laboratory for digitization and placement on the Web. In 1995, Dr. Mann began to wear what would be commonly considered a wearable computer, even though the designs were based on various laptops. He did not switch to a PC/104 architecture until 1996. In contrast, Thad Starner, then a fellow graduate student, had been wearing an everyday-use, PC/104-based wearable computer since mid-1993 and gave many public demonstrations of it. Prior to this, members of the MIT community had been exploring the concepts of wearable computing since at least 1989, and functional prototypes by Edward O. Thorp and Claude Shannon date back to the early 1960's (for a review, see the Review of Intl. Statistical Institute 37(3), 1969).
Furthermore, while Dr. Mann may have done significant work using computers to control his photographic equipment before coming to MIT, he waited until 1997 to unveil his WearComp0 to WearComp7 progression of machines in his writings. "Mediated Reality," Dr. Mann's first writings on wearable computing at the laboratory, appeared in late 1995 alongside "Augmented Reality Through Wearable Computing," a broad summary paper by many authors involved in the project, including Dr. Mann (Perceptual Computing Technical Reports #260 and #355, respectively). Again, in contrast, Starner's "Cyborgs are Coming" popular press paper (TR #318), which addressed the early goals and intentions of the project, was already widely disseminated in 1994. These facts, in addition to the formation of the world-reaching community resources of the wearables research mailing list in early 1994 and the MIT Wearable Computing Web Site in 1995, makes one wonder why Dr. Mann bemoans such a lack of community.
Dr. Mann's claim to having started the International Symposium on Wearable Computers is similarly misleading. Initial planning began with Dan Siewiorek, Len Bass, and Thad Starner on Jan. 17, 1996. Prof. Siewiorek and Dr. Bass had been teaching exploratory classes in the design of wearable computers since 1991 at Carnegie Mellon University and were very receptive to the creation of a conference to share their work. Chris Thompson and Larry Najjar of Georgia Tech, who had been exploring industrial uses of wearables, joined the effort a few months later. Dr. Mann, whose main focus was photography and video, joined the organizing committee as publications chair in August 1996.
The Media Laboratory's wearables event after ISWC'97 was a tremendous group effort by the faculty and students, who deserve the credit for showing ground-breaking research and a wearable computing fashion show. While the fashion show was intended as a purely conceptual collaboration with international design schools, the costumes incorporated a surprising amount of working technology. In truth, Dr. Mann had little to do with this event, which is shown in his overestimation of attendance by a factor of two. ISWC'97 had 382 registrants with an additional 20 members of the press, and the Media Laboratory event drew a little under 1400 participants -- still quite respectable as this is the size of the largest auditorium on MIT's campus.
We hope that this summary of events has helped clarify these issues, and a copy of this letter will be placed at http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/letter.html
Sumit Basu '95 '97
Richard W. DeVaul '99
Len Giambrone '98
Larry Najjar. Georgia Tech '83 '98
Nuria Oliver
Rehmi Post '98
Bradley Rhodes '92 '96
Kenneth Russell '97 '99
Nitin Sawhney '98
Alexander Sherstinsky '89 '94
Flavia Sparacino '96
Thad Starner '91 '95 '99
Joshua Weaver
Chris Wren '93 '96