The Challenges of Wearable Computing Thad Starner Georgia Institute of Technology IEEE MICRO JULY-AUGUST 2001 Presenter : Chanmin Park ( 박 찬 민 ) SNU CARES lab

Contents  Introduction  What is wearable computing?  Why use wearable computers?  Challenges  Power use  Heat dissipation  Networking  Privacy  Interface design  Intellectual tools  Facilitating collaboration  Tailoring augmented-reality systems  Conclusion

Introduction

What is wearable computing  Wearable computing  Not only devices, but also interface  “User’s constant companion”  key attributes  Persist and provide constant access to information  Everyday and continuous use  mobile, unobtrusive  Sense and model context  Observer and model (learn) user’s environment (state)  Adapt interaction modalities based on the user’s context  Adapt its input/output modalities automatically at the time  Augment and mediate interactions with the user’s environment  Mediate between automation and the user  Interruption management

Why use wearable computers?  Devices with very similar components differs the interface and the application software  CPU, memory, screen, keyboard, wireless modem, battery, etc  Eliminate cost, weight and redundancy  Mediate interactions  between app and the user  Consistent interface  Aid communication  Machine translation  Interruption management (ex, call)  Provide context-sensitive reminders  Intelligent assistant  Augment reality

Challenges  Power use  Cost, size, and weight for the battery before designing  Power supply/dissipation becomes more complicated  Long lasting power supply (ex. Plutonium-238 in pacemaker)  Chemical batteries  Rechargeable batteries  Inductive charger hidden in the surface of bedrooms dresser, closet, hanger  Generate power from human actions or environment  Radio transmission (milli-watt-level power)  In on-body wireless networking system, base unit can provide power  Heat dissipation  MIPS per watt  Cooling (< 40°)  Processors exceeding the 40W range cost an additional US dollar per watt per chip  Using user’s thermal environment  Aggressively thermal regulation  Phase-change materials

Challenges  Networking  Wireless mobile devices  Bits per second per watt  Three types of networking  Off-body communications  Mobile devices  fixed infrastructure  Coverage problem  Employ automobiles as repeaters  Caching  On-body communications  Bluetooth  Privacy : Personal Area Network (Zimmerman)  Communicating with near-body objects  Radio/infrared transceivers (ex. RFID, Locust)  Interoperability  Downloading appropriate software

Challenges  Privacy  Privacy ≠ security  Individual’s right to control the collection and use of personal information  Barriers for protecting privacy  Physical  Physical barrier between data and potential abusers  Technological  Encryption and biometric identifiers (fingerprints, iris scan, etc)  Legislative  Social  Obscuring

Challenges  Interface design  Human & computer interaction  Human-computer interface, psychophysics, human factors, ergonomics, industrial design, and fashion, etc.  Clothing, design, and fashion  Science + engineering + design + fashion  Peripheral interfaces: Making simple things simple and complex things possible  Portability / Usability / unobtrusiveness

Challenges  Intellectual tools  “Lets the user concentrate on a primary task while the wearable provides information support”  Note taking and immediacy of interface  Head-up display & one-handed keyboard  Perception and context  Retrieve the context in which notes were taken  Just-in-time information  Make capturing information indexed and retrievable in a timely fashion based on current context  Presenting information  Rhodes : “software that proactively retrieves and presents information based on a person’s local context in an accessible yet nonintrusive manner”  Ex) Remembrance Agent

Challenges  Facilitating collaboration  Aid communication and collaboration  Collaborative primitives (Kortuem)  Remote awareness  Presence  Presentation  Pointing  Manipulation  Negotiation for cooperation  Tailoring augmented-reality systems  Overlays information on the physical world  Ex) x-ray, web icon (link)

Conclusion  Wearable computing pursues an interface ideal  Constant access to information services  Senses and models context  Augments and mediates the user’s interactions with the environment  Interacts seamlessly with the user  Much works  Perception on the body (new sensors)  Low-attention interfaces  personal head-up display  User modeling (predict user’s future needs)  Ubiquitous? / Wearable?

Q & A