El,
Interesting area. A PC Walkman.
NW
Wired for wear: IBM researchers demonstrate a wearable ThinkPad prototype
<Picture>
<Picture: [wearable PC photo]>Mobile computer users, take note: could you use a powerful, clip-on computer that utilizes a tiny, headset-mounted display and responds to voice commands?
While this 233MHz hands-free computer isn't quite ready for your holiday shopping list, the prototype IBM Wearable PC -- a ThinkPad 560X shrunk to the footprint of a PalmPilot, complete with 340 MB of storage and 64 MB of EDO RAM -- is powerful enough to run IBM's ViaVoice speech software and light enough to clip to your belt.
Envisioned as an ultra-convenient information tool for maintenance, repair and system installation personnel, the Wearable PC prototype can display wiring diagrams, schematics inventory lists -- even videos. Users will be able to work and call up information on the eye-level display while keeping their hands free -- and leaving instruction books, blueprints, diagrams and other bulky references on the shelf.
Weighing in at only 10.5 ounces, including battery, the palm-sized computer prototype incorporates IBM's new microdrive disk and can also employ a small, hand-held TrackPoint unit for input. There's even an extra slot for another microdrive or flash memory card.
The system includes a microphone for entering commands and a "boom" that holds the computer's small screen a short distance from the user's eye. The screen's optical element presents a magnified image. Currently the image is 320X240 pixels in grayscale, although the display will be boosted to 600X800 pixels with color next year.
"Initially, we think the Wearable PC will find applications in business. I think you'll see people using these at aircraft flight gates, repairing your copier or tuning your car's engine," said Russell Budd, the IBM researcher who leads the virtual display work at IBM Research's lab in Yorktown Heights, New York. "Eventually -- well, who originally thought people would wear radios, tape and compact disk players?" |
