Why MIThril?

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

the need for a new platform
Effective research in developing context-aware wearable applications is hampered by the lack of a suitable platform. Commercially available wearables are either too cumbersome or inflexible (usually both) to serve as an effective research tool. Good experimental design requires a platform that minimizes the observer effect and is suitable for a wide range of applications.

MIThril, Context and the Observer Effect

 the need for an "invisible" wearable

Context-aware wearable computing research is made difficult by the "observer effect." Instrumenting people in ways which make them uncomfortable or socially awkward skews the data and prevents effective research into supporting people in their daily lives.

MIThril grew out of our need for a context-awareness research platform that is truly wearable. As much as possible, such as system should "disappear" into the wearer's clothing, becoming an unobtrusive and ideally invisible platform for research applications.

MIThril design requirements

 unobtrusive, flexible, reliable, and deployable

In order to conduct the medium-to-large sized studies necessary to investigate and demonstrate the value of context awareness in wearable applications, it is necessary to construct a platform that is:

  • Unobtrusive: the wearable minimizes the observer effect.
  • Flexible: the wearable is capable of supporting a variety of research applications.
  • Reliable: the wearable can be used for extended periods and long-term studies.
  • Deployable: the wearable can be developed and produced in sufficient quantities and within reasonable time and money constraints.

  Back Up Next  
MIThril and the Future of Wearable Computing
Richard W. DeVaul
The second annual "I Wanna Be a Cyborg" event, a borglab production.