Adding generic contextual capabilities to wearable computers

Context-awareness has an increasingly important role to play in the development of wearable computing systems. In order to better define this role we have identified four generic contextual capabilities: sensing, adaptation, resource discovery, and augmentation. A prototype application has been constructed to explore how some of these capabilities could be deployed in a wearable system designed to aid an ecologist's observations of giraffe in a Kenyan game reserve. However, despite the benefits of context-awareness demonstrated in this prototype, widespread innovation of these capabilities is currently stifled by the difficulty in obtaining the contextual data. To remedy this situation the Contextual Information Service (CIS) is introduced. Installed on the user's wearable computer, the CIS provides a common point of access for clients to obtain, manipulate and model contextual information independently of the underlying plethora of data formats and sensor interface mechanisms

Developing User Interfaces for Wearable Computers: Don't Stop to Point and Click

Typical usage scenarios for wearable computers are support of users doing a certain task, e.g. aircraft repair or military applications. If the user is moving while using the wearable some restriction for the user interface apply. In this paper we present some of these restrictions and suggest a wearable user interface taking these findings into account. 1 Introduction The term "Wearable Computer" is used for a wide range of personal technologies, such as watches and mobile phones with enhance

Count three for wear able computers

This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the IEE Eurowearable 2003 Conference, and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at the IET Digital Library. A revised version of this paper was also published in Electronics Systems and Software, also subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is also available at the IET Digital Library.A description of 'ubiquitous computer' is presented. Ubiquitous computers imply portable computers embedded into everyday objects, which would replace personal computers. Ubiquitous computers can be mapped into a three-tier scheme, differentiated by processor performance and flexibility of function. The power consumption of mobile devices is one of the most important design considerations. The size of a wearable system is often a design limitation

Wideband and UWB antennas for wireless applications. A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review concerning the geometry, the manufacturing technologies, the materials, and the numerical techniques, adopted for the analysis and design of wideband and ultrawideband (UWB) antennas for wireless applications, is presented. Planar, printed, dielectric, and wearable antennas, achievable on laminate (rigid and flexible), and textile dielectric substrates are taken into account. The performances of small, low-profile, and dielectric resonator antennas are illustrated paying particular attention to the application areas concerning portable devices (mobile phones, tablets, glasses, laptops, wearable computers, etc.) and radio base stations. This information provides a guidance to the selection of the different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth, gain, field polarization, time-domain response, dimensions, and materials useful for their realization and integration in modern communication systems

Designing a VM-level vertical scalability service in current cloud platforms: A new hope for wearable computers

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Public clouds are becoming ripe for enterprise adoption. Many companies, including large enterprises, are increasingly relying on public clouds as a substitute for, or a supplement to, their own computing infrastructures. On the other hand, cloud storage service has attracted over 625 million users. However, apart from the storage service, other cloud services, such as the computing service, have not yet attracted the end users’ interest for economic and technical reasons. Cloud service providers offers horizontal scalability to make their services scalable and economical for enterprises while it is still not economical for the individual users to use their computing services due to the lack of vertical scalability. Moreover, current virtualization technologies and operating systems, specifically the guest operating systems installed on virtual machines, do not support the concept of vertical scalability. In addition, network remote access protocols are meant to administer remote machines but they are unable to run the non-administrative tasks such as playing heavy games and watching high quality videos remotely in a way that makes the users feel as if they are sitting locally on their personal machines. On the other hand, the industry is yet unable to make efficient wearable computers a reality due to the limited size of the wearable devices, where it is infeasible to place efficient processors and big enough hard disks. This paper aims to highlight the need for the vertical scalability service and design the appropriate cloud, virtualization layer, and operating system services to incorporate vertical scalability in current cloud platforms in a way that will make it economically and technically efficient for the end users to use cloud virtual machines as if they are using their personal laptops. Through these services, the cloud takes wearable computing to the next stage and makes wearable computers a reality

Software for Wearable Devices: Challenges and Opportunities

Wearable devices are a new form of mobile computer system that provides exclusive and user-personalized services. Wearable devices bring new issues and challenges to computer science and technology. This paper summarizes the development process and the categories of wearable devices. In addition, we present new key issues arising in aspects of wearable devices, including operating systems, database management system, network communication protocol, application development platform, privacy and security, energy consumption, human-computer interaction, software engineering, and big data.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, for Compsac 201

Wearable learning tools

In life people must learn whenever and wherever they experience something new. Until recently computing technology could not support such a notion, the constraints of size, power and cost kept computers under the classroom table, in the office or in the home. Recent advances in miniaturization have led to a growing field of research in ‘wearable’ computing. This paper looks at how such technologies can enhance computer‐mediated communications, with a focus upon collaborative working for learning. An experimental system, MetaPark, is discussed, which explores communications, data retrieval and recording, and navigation techniques within and across real and virtual environments. In order to realize the MetaPark concept, an underlying network architecture is described that supports the required communication model between static and mobile users. This infrastructure, the MUON framework, is offered as a solution to provide a seamless service that tracks user location, interfaces to contextual awareness agents, and provides transparent network service switching

Wearable and mobile devices

Information and Communication Technologies, known as ICT, have undergone dramatic changes in the last 25 years. The 1980s was the decade of the Personal Computer (PC), which brought computing into the home and, in an educational setting, into the classroom. The 1990s gave us the World Wide Web (the Web), building on the infrastructure of the Internet, which has revolutionized the availability and delivery of information. In the midst of this information revolution, we are now confronted with a third wave of novel technologies (i.e., mobile and wearable computing), where computing devices already are becoming small enough so that we can carry them around at all times, and, in addition, they have the ability to interact with devices embedded in the environment. The development of wearable technology is perhaps a logical product of the convergence between the miniaturization of microchips (nanotechnology) and an increasing interest in pervasive computing, where mobility is the main objective. The miniaturization of computers is largely due to the decreasing size of semiconductors and switches; molecular manufacturing will allow for “not only molecular-scale switches but also nanoscale motors, pumps, pipes, machinery that could mimic skin” (Page, 2003, p. 2). This shift in the size of computers has obvious implications for the human-computer interaction introducing the next generation of interfaces. Neil Gershenfeld, the director of the Media Lab’s Physics and Media Group, argues, “The world is becoming the interface. Computers as distinguishable devices will disappear as the objects themselves become the means we use to interact with both the physical and the virtual worlds” (Page, 2003, p. 3). Ultimately, this will lead to a move away from desktop user interfaces and toward mobile interfaces and pervasive computing

Using a cognitive prosthesis to assist foodservice managerial decision-making

The artificial intelligence community has been notably unsuccessful in producing intelligent agents that think for themselves. However, there is an obvious need for increased information processing power in real life situations. An example of this can be witnessed in the training of a foodservice manager, who is expected to solve a wide variety of complex problems on a daily basis. This article explores the possibility of creating an intelligence aid, rather than an intelligence agent, to assist novice foodservice managers in making decisions that are congruent with a subject matter expert\u27s decision schema

Seamless mobility with personal servers

We describe the concept and the taxonomy of personal servers, and their implications in seamless mobility. Personal servers could offer electronic services independently of network availability or quality, provide a greater flexibility in the choice of user access device, and support the key concept of continuous user experience. We describe the organization of mobile and remote personal servers, define three relevant communication modes, and discuss means for users to exploit seamless services on the personal server