Communication

MIThril, a borglab production. Richard W. DeVaul, Jonathan Gips, Michael Sung, Sandy Pentland

Applications that facilitate communication between people.

Communication has always been the most important aspect of human society. The transfer of information between persons has become one of the most important functions of digital devices. Wearable computers are relevant to communications because they are always present. Much like pagers, they can provide a nearly continuous channel of communication (given the proper infrastructure) with the rest of the world.

Non-wearable examples

Email, instant messages, and streaming video/voice are computer communication applications that have been around for a while.

The point of all of the above applications is for one person to transfer information to another person or group of people. They are of course available to the user of a wearable computer. It is the continuous presence of these capabilities that distinguishes the wearable computer from its desktop counterpart.

Translator

A wearable device that translates from one language to another in real time.

This mobile, lightweight device now being funded by ONR is actually a flexible, belt-style computer - no bigger than a fanny pack - allowing the speaker's language to be translated in near real time for the listener. Moreover, it wouldn't just translate word-for-word, but would be able to understand the context in which a term or idiom is used to influence the resulting translation. It would be capable of dictionary stacking; for example, a "click" to the military is a measurement of distance, whereas to civilians it is a short sound. By having the military dictionary stacked on top of the standard dictionary, the system will be able to generate an appropriate translation for the wearer's circumstances.

  Back Up Next  
Wearable Applications
Ryan D. Williams
The second annual "I Wanna Be a Cyborg" event, a borglab production.