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happy friday, everyone, i've always been intrigued by compute-ablities, and their potential. the=20 ever-increasing pace of new developments is startling and exciting. i tru= ly=20 feel that this is the path that will make our parkie problems a thing of = the=20 past. in the meantime, i'm learning all sorts of things that i wouldn't h= ave=20 learned, if pd hadn't been 'given' to me. i think grace has handed me one= =20 heck of a 'wake up' call! janet ------------------------------------------------------------------- Computers small enough to swallow? That's the next wave ------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1996 Nando.net Copyright =A9 1996 The Associated Press RENTON, Wash. (Aug 22, 1996 00:47 a.m. EDT) -- Think computers, only smaller. So small you could swallow one or wear one in your long johns. So smart they'd fade into the background and you'd notice only the information you were getting, not where it was coming from. That's the hope -- and the promise -- of wearable computers, the next phase in the personal computing revolution, embodied in the eye-catching array of devices displayed this week at a conference sponsored by the Boeing Co. Already, the Army has a computer the size of a pill that could be swallowed to track the core body temperatures of soldiers on training missions. A pager-sized alarm would alert the commanding officer that a recruit was about to go into hypothermia. In San Diego, the Navy is building a "sensate liner" -- an intelligent set of long johns woven from conductive polymers that would tell medics what was wrong with a wounded soldier and how soon they should get there. "It can tell the difference between a high-speed round and a bayonet and, using reflective microscopy, it can tell if the soldier is bleeding, and if it's a vein or an artery depending on the oxygen content," said Eric Lind of the Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center. Although military applications were a major topic at the Boeing Wearable Computers Workshop, civilian uses were also very much in evidence. Thad Starner of the vaunted Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was one of several wired individuals wandering the hall. His plastic lab glasses held a Private Eye, a tiny screen that hung in front of his right eye like a jeweler's loupe, allowing him to read off the laptop computer slung over his shoulder. He was careful not to glance up at the screen when talking, but every once in a while during a lull in the conversation, he discreetly consulted his private information servant, which displays notes, background information and his latest e-mail via a radio link to the Internet. Whenever he heard something interesting, he pulled his oval, hand-held input device -- called a Twidler -- off the side of the computer, where it's attached by Velcro, and took notes using a chordal system, in which each letter of the alphabet is formed by pressing on several keys. Already, inspectors at an Air Force F-16 squadron in Ohio now call up manuals and airplane schematics using a head-mounted computer screen and voice-activated software, rather than consulting printed manuals. And Marines are conducting vehicle inspections with the use of wearable computer systems. Previously, two mechanics had to walk around with clipboards, checking off more than 600 items. Now it takes only one person and 40 percent less time using voice-recognition software that allows the mechanic to check items off merely by saying them aloud. At MIT, researchers envision a world where the computer a person is wearing would interact with its environment, plucking information out of the air for its master's use. Scientists have already set up visual tags throughout the lab that broadcast information to whoever looks at them through a wearable lens. "We have a plant in our lab which doesn't get watered appropriately," Starner said. "A sensor on the plant notes when it is watered and sends a message to the room computer. A month later, the plant can send the message 'I need to be watered' and it would be uploaded to the system so that anyone looking at the plant would see a little note that says, 'Water Me!"' At the University of Washington in Seattle, researchers are building retinal scanning displays that would get rid of the need for head-mounted screens entirely. Users would instead wear a little projector just below the eye. The projector would use an extremely low-power laser to paint a picture one pixel at a time on the retina, at the back of the eye, in much the same way a cathode ray tube paints and repaints the image on a TV screen. How to supply power to these wearable computer systems is still being worked out. Batteries are heavy and need to be frequently replaced or recharged. At MIT, scientists are investigating the possibility of computers powered by the human body. The military calls it "energy harvesting." For example, a band strapped across the torso could use the movement of the chest in breathing to produce enough energy to run a low-power computer. Another possibility is an electrical system that would enable a person to produce a charge simply by walking. -------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask]