Wearable computing to augment daily life

FROM clothes riddled with sensors to name tags thatdetect our moods, computing’s next wave couldunleash small devices thatincreasingly augment everyday activities with digitalintelligence.

That was the predominant vision at a conference on “wearable computing” held in Boston, where researchers showed off prototypes and discussed ideas.

Some attendees took wearable computing toits extreme, donningcyborg-like miniaturised displays attached to eyepieces. But most of what was on exhibit seemed much closer to jumping into a mainstream commercial product.

For example, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (known as ETH Zurich) showed off stretchable, threadlike sensors that can be woven into shirts to detect their wearers’ posture. People with back pain or injuries could be prompted on a PC or amobile device to straighten up, pronto.

Stephane Beauregard, of Germany’s University of Bremen, displayed a shoe-borne sensor whose tiny accelerometers perform electronic dead reckoning — providing real-time location tracking in places satellite navigation systems either can’t reach or can’t describe with precision. For now the sensor has to be held in place by the shoelaces, but Beauregard expects a version that can fit inside a boot heel could be a year away. His first intended market is firefighters and other emergency responders.

Graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab had black plastic badges around their necks that analyse multiple factors — including motion and speech patterns — to detect the level ofengagement two peopleare exhibiting in aconversation.

Information gathered from the badges, which weigh just a few ounces and are a bit smaller than a deck of cards, can be sent wirelessly to a computer or a phone to give their wearers helpful tips. Sales reps could be advised that a customer’s interest seems to be waning. A doctor could be alerted to indications of depression in a patient being monitored remotely.

The badges might find their first use in gathering reams of data for social network analysis, the study of how groups form and interact.

MIT graduate student Daniel Olguin Olguin ) said the devices were tested on 25 employees at a German bank and produced surprising insights about alternative ways the office might be laid out. Now Hitachi Ltd is interested in making the badges for corporate consultants to use with their clients, he said.

Each badge could probably be made for under $100 (€70), “and in the future, of course, all of this will be smaller and integrated into your name card,” said Mr Olguin.