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Strategies & Market Trends : Cents and Sensibility - Kimberly and Friends' Consortium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (63377)	1/16/2000 7:16:00 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108040

Hold onto your XYBR....."A recent market study by a well-known research firm concluded that in a base case scenario, the U.S. market for wearable computers will be $600 million by 2003 with considerable potential for a much larger market. We believe that the markets outside the U.S. are likely to be at least as large as the U.S. and we intend to capture a significant portion of the world market directly or through licensing." ..Scientist Tests Wearable Computer Associated Press Online - January 16, 2000 12:02 Jump to first matched term By JEFF DONN Associated Press Writer SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - The guy wired-up with a headset and keypad in the dairy-food aisle is not just an information-age geek with a 21st century calculator. He's Andrew Fagg, a University of Massachusetts scientist who could be shaping the future. Fagg is working on making smarter wearable computers - and, yes, also picking out his own groceries from a computerized list. "One person I passed ... after I got 20 or 30 feet down the row, he said, 'What some people won't do to watch television!"' Fagg said Jan. 10. He is doing research in one of the newest fields in computing: devices that allow a personal computer to be as wearable as a tool belt. The user can wear the monitor as a headset and keypad as a wrist watch. The commercial market for such wearable computers has expanded strongly over the past year, mainly for specialized industrial uses. They're already used by warehouse workers to check inventory, doctors to review medical records, and transportation workers to inspect roadways. "Before, they had the clunky old pad and noted all the signs and streets and bridges and got back to the office to write it all up from their notes," said Robin Bono, spokeswoman for wearable computer seller Xybernaut, in Fairfax, Va. Now, inspectors using voice-recognition computer programs can fill out the forms verbally while driving. Bono said the devices save time and cut down on copying mistakes. But her company's computers sell from about $5,000 to $9,000. At such prices, the market is tiny for the general public. The prices, though, are expected to fall as demand grows. International Data Corp., an industry analyst, foresees an annual market worth over $600 million within four years. Fagg and a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst computer science department are seeking ways to keep information more private on such computers and make them smarter about sharing it, so the wearer doesn't resent them as an electronic nag. "The machine should present information at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. I don't care what I need at the grocery store if I'm sitting in my office," Fagg said. "Nor do I want it to convey information visually while I'm driving my car, although it's OK for it to occasionally whisper in my ear." Fagg has designed a prototype with off-the-shelf components as a way of testing software. It can speak in an automated voice. It has a global positioning system to pinpoint location. Its headset is equipped with a four-inch arm dangling in front of the wearer's face; it projects a small computer screen. A small keypad has both keys and a mouse. The main unit, with batteries and a very respectable 4.3-gigabyte hard drive, weighs six pounds - more than some commercial models. Ultimately, Fagg said, the aim is to free the wearer of some routine tasks, allowing more time for the creative or interesting ones. Fagg already wears his computer buddy most days at work. He takes notes, retrieves addresses and performs other everyday tasks. When better cellular data networks are set up in western Massachusetts, his device could tap into the Internet or dial into other computers via cellular networks. Meanwhile, he wears his computer buddy around town when he needs information already loaded onto its hard disk, like his shopping list. Although some people stop and stare at Fagg in the supermarket aisles, analyst Christine Arrington, of International Data Corp., predicts that improvements in comfort and aesthetics will eventually transcend the "geek factor." xybernaut.com