Is There a Wearable Computer In Your Future?

Abstract

Wearable computers are beginning to appear in research environments and soon will be commercially available. We present several different philosophies behind wearable computers and then focus on a particular project at Carnegie Mellon University involving the development of a wearable designed for the maintenance of large vehicles. This computer is discussed in terms of its project use (both solo and collaborative), its development process (rapid)and its physical characteristics. The paper concludes by discussing some implications of wearable computers on the current user interface evaluation techniques, on user interface development environments and on models for cooperative work.