The RadioSphere WearTech Page

This page contains some misc information on wearable technologies. It is not to be a full coverage of everything on the market but instead stuff that I have found and deemed at interesting for "our purposes". The target is to investigate wearable computing technologies. This work is done within the RadioSphere realm.

Technical discussions are held on the radiosphere@cdt.luth.se list. An archive can be found here.

• Head Mounted Displays - HMD
• Full Wearable Systems
• Data Input
• More information
• Wearables Webring

Head Mounted Displays - HMD

• Olympus Eye-Trek FMD-700: Nice looking HMD but not real SVGA. They have something called Optical Super Resolution that is supposed to enhance the image.
• Cy-Visor: Nice looking HMD, SVGA resolution. Price:$800-1000. Note, most places sell the 4400 version while the maker only shows a 4500 version. According to the manufacturer the 4500 version is not available yet and they didn't want to give me any dates on when it would be available. The wear-hard list says august 2001 though. Special deal for wear-hard.
• i-Glasses: Various HMDs but primarily for video input. Cheap but low resolution. I have sent them an email about VGA input and the answer is that you need an extra scan converter component. The SVGA version is to be available in mid-august. $400-$600.
• TekGear M2 Personal Viewer: High resolution HMD (SVGA). Seems interesting but the price is $3500-$5000
• MicroOptical Clip-on Monitor: Very small display (40 gram) clipped on to normal glasses. Mainly for OEM but they sell directly anyhow. Resolution 640x480 and price $2500. This is one I would like to try!!
• Xybernaut: This company sell full wearable systems including computer, input HMD etc. (more info below under Full Wearable Systems). The XyberView HMD (pic) included in the MA IV system is rather big and clumsy. Price: $1100. The new MA V system contains a much smaller display but that is not available yet.
• inViso e-Shades: Light weight HMD with SVGA resolution. Available mid-Q4-2001 and ca price $599.
• Sony PC Glasstron PLM-S700: Sony style ( == cool ;-) HMD with SVGA resolution. The price is $2600 though.
• Sony PC Glasstron PLM-A35: Another Sony style HMD but with only video resolution. Price: $500
• EST-KL: sells tons of HMDs (mostly non mobile though).
• Hacking displays
• ProView HMDs: Military style HMDs. EXPENSIVE ;-)
• Microvision HMD

Conclusion so far: For full size HMD the Cy-Visor is best. For micro HMD then the MicroOptical is best.

Full Wearable Systems

• Xybernaut: Mobile Assistant IV (4) including CPU (ca 200MHz MMX CPU) with big HMD. Price with everything is around $4000-$6000. They recently announced version V of the system which includes a Celeron low-power 500 CPU and max 256MB ram and a new much more light weight HMD. Only info available now is this PDF. For various images see the main site.
• ViA PC: Everything but a HMD.
• Charmed Charmit: Yes another wearable PC.
• Tiqit MatchBox PC
• Intel SA-1110/1111
• Yamaha Wearable Internet Applience: PocketPC based wearable computer system. Released late 2001 in USA.

Input

• Twiddler2 (CDT have one of these, contact Peppar)
• Flexis keyboard

More information

• Mailinglist:
  • Wearables@earthlink.net
    • ....
  • wear-hard@haven.org:
    • "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to wear-hard-request@haven.org
    • Wear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org
• Websites:
  
  • Nooface: In seach of the Post-PC interface
  • Wearables Central
  • The MIT Wearables site. Check especially out the MIThril project.
  • ETH Wearable Computing Laboratory
  • Wearable Computers
  • Jacketized Computing: tons of more links...
• Conferences:
  • ISWC 2001: The International Symposium on Wearable Computers will be held at the ETH in Zurich (October 8-9, 2001)

Wearables Webring: [ Join | Previous | Next | List Sites ]