Presentation for the IxDA Taipei talk and workshop on August 11th, 2012

1. Wearing your heart on your sleeve
Alejandro Zamudio
www.alejandrozamudio.com
A wearable technology primer (of sorts)

2. The contents of Steve Wozniak’s bag. Do we humans really need to carry this much stuff around? (photo by Gizmodo blog)

3. I. Gambling

4. Ed Thorp, Co-creator of the first Wearable computer in 1960. http://edwardothorp.com

5. The first wearable computer was shoe worn and was devised to inconspicuously calculate the outcome of a casino roulette wheel.

6. Close-up of the shoe computer.

7. Post PC era?
Yes, but...

8. TheWeight of the past...
Why does the present have to be labeled based on the technology that is dead or dying out?

9. Computing Eras
Mainframe PC Post-PC
1960s 1980s (Mobile?)

10. What will be next?
What will come after the mobile era? it can’t be the “post-mobile” era!

11. Place your bets...
Wearable computing could be an important ingredient in the next wave of computing, and a logical next step for mobile devices.

12. II. Landscapes

13. How a desktop computer sees us...
Diagram included in Physical Computing, the seminal Interaction design book by Dan O’Sullivan and Tom Igoe. (2004)

14. How a smartphone sees us...

15. How should a wearable computer see us?

16. How our brains see us
Somatosensory homunculous, first formulated by Wilder Penfield in the 1950s. This model shows what a man's body would look like if each part grew in proportion to the
area of the cortex of the brain concerned with its movement.

17. Where are our boundaries?

18. Personal Space
Intimate
Personal
Social
Public
In his work on proxemics, Edward T. Hall separated his theory into two overarching categories: personal space and territory. Personal space describes the
immediate space surrounding a person, while territory refers to the area which a person may "lay claim to" and defend against others. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Proxemics

19. What’s the largest organ
in the human body?
Image credit: Furryscale (license:CC BY-SA 2.0)

20. Living Dynamic Rich
Intimate
Personal
Surface Social
Image credit: Furryscale (license:CC BY-SA 2.0)

21. Fluid surfaces
Everything has a surface. Surfaces are usually changing, fluid, dynamic, adaptive.
Image credit: lagohsep (license:CC BY-SA 2.0)

22. Interface
Interface: meaningful surface, or the space where 2 surfaces touch and exchange information.

23. Fabric
Fabrics are interesting in that they are almost nothing but surfaces in contact with our skin.
Image credit: ecstaticist (license:CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

24. SIXTH SENSE
Sixth Sense
MIT’s Sixth Sense projects takes a literal approach to the “every surface is a potential interface” concept.
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

25. III. Daemons

26. In Greek mythology, Daemons are invisible creatures that guide and help mortals, without intervening directly.

27. Eudaemons
The Eudaemons were a group of UCSC students who created (another) gambling-oriented wearable computer in 1979.
In his Nicomachean Ethics, (1095a15–22) Aristotle says that eudaimonia means ’doing and living well’. It is significant that synonyms for eudaimonia are living well and doing well. On the standard
English translation, this would be to say that ‘happiness is doing well and living well’. (Wikipedia)

28. Steve Mann
The father of wearable computing. Inventor, teacher and researcher. Full-time cyborg. further references: http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/wearable_computing.html

29. Eudaemonic computing
Inspired by the Eudaemons, Eudaemonic computing is about helping people lead better lives. (Computers as good spirits)

30. 1980 mid 1980s early 1990s mid 1990s late 1990s
Evolution of Steve Mann’s wearable computer

31. A more recent version of Steve Mann’s wearable computer.

32. Operational modes
Constancy
Always on, always accessible

33. Operational modes
Constancy
Left: Dome computer continuously records the wearer’s life. Right: Microsoft Research’s SenseCam is based on the same concept.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SenseCam

34. Operational modes
Augmentation
Augment intelligence and senses

35. Google’s project Glass is one of the most highly publicized examples of wearable computing with augmentation as a focus.

36. “The Borgs” from MIT Media Lab were wearable computing pioneers during the 1990s. Some of them are now working on Google’s Project Glass.
http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-15/business/32664324_1_microoptical-wearable-head-mounted-displays

37. Operational modes
Mediation
Encapsulate, filtrate, manage privacy

38. The walkman is one of the first examples of mass-produced mediating wearable technology.

39. Attributes
Unmonopolizing
Unrestrictive
Observable
Controllable
Attentive
Basically, wearable computers shouldn’t get in the way. Wearer shouldn’t have to worry about the computing part at all.

40. Self expression
Wearable computing offers many opportunities for dynamic self expression (Image: LED jackets by Cute Circuit)
http://www.cutecircuit.com/category/videos/

41. Personal
Wearable computers are the real Personal computers, as intimate and close to people as underwear!

42. Quantify
Computers are obviously good at dealing with quantitative information. Wearable computers are already helping us quantify our daily activities.

43. Feedback loops
Using quantitative information to enable positive feedback loops is second nature to wearable computers. (Image: Nike fuel web interface)

44. What kind of (wearable)Daemons
do we want?

45. IV. Body

46. Prosthesis
Prosthesis
Enhancement, addition
Enhancement, addition
Some rights reserved by subsetsum
Prostheses aren’t just to replace missing limbs: Prescription eyeglasses are prosthesis too.

47. remixing senses
RYOTA KUWAKUBO
http://www.youtube.com
Ryota Kuwakubo: With Silifulin, the artist explores the feeling of limbs lost to evolution (tail)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck5K0A6RZgM&feature=player_embedded

48. remixing senses
Stelarc
I think metaphysically, in the past, we've considered the skin as surface, as interface. The skin has been a boundary for the soul, for the self, and simultaneously, a
beginning to the world. Once technology stretches and pierces the skin, the skin as a barrier is erased."
-Stelarc

49. “The Human body is obsolete”

50. remixing senses

51. Oscar Pistorius
copyright Washington Post
In the future it won’t be unusual to see people with some kind of body modification/enhancement that surpasses our bodies’ natural abilities.

52. Territories
Different parts of the body have specific sensations, different possibilities and meanings. Wearable computer designers need to to know this territory.

53. Territories
Really close to the hand but unrestrictive, the wristwatch occupies a prime “real estate” in the human body.

54. Pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont famously commissioned Cartier a wristwatch to make it easier to check time while piloting an airplane, at a time when
wristwatches were only seen as a fashion accessory for wealthy women.

55. Several wearable computers (specially watches) are in or about to hit the market. Is it a fad or the beginning of something bigger?

56. Ecosystems
Currently most wearable devices work as accessories or satellites to Smartphones. Will that change in the future?

57. V. Language

58. Superpowers
As wearable computers can enhance people’s senses, we need to understand what each sense can do.

59. Remix
Eyesight is the prevalent sense in contemporary culture, but other senses also offer lots of untapped possibilities...

60. Exploiting the brain’s plasticity
Brainport
Brainport is a device for the blind that turns visual information into electrical pulses that can be sensed with the tongue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNkw28fz9u0

61. New ways of reading - RSVP
Rapid serial visual presentation is a method to serially display visual content (images, text) that could be applied to small screens (e.g. wristwatches)

62. Networking
Personal area network
Body area network
We can use the notions of personal space and territory to create new forms of networking and data transmission.

63. BCI-BBI
Brain-Computer interfaces or Brain-Brain interfaces are a long term possibility.

64. Flexible electronics
Our skin prefers soft, flexible materials (like fabric). Technology is starting to catch up with this need.
Image: http://2011.lope-c.com/en/picture_downloads/

65. Smart textiles
copyright Rachel Winfield
Another long term possibility is that computer logic, sensing and actuation can be carried out by the fabric itself without the need of external components.

66. Wearable Computing:
Uniforms, costumes or bespoke garments?
What is the most ethical choice? what do we want? we need to start thinking about this.

67. Thank you!
2012 Alejandro Zamudio | www.alejandrozamudio.com Attribution Share-Alike CC BY-SA