Oct 31
health, sports, watch
gizmag - Motorola Mobility has launched MOTOACTV, the company’s first music and fitness device. Designed to help you reach your fitness goals by tracking, syncing and recording your workout data and customizing your music, the Blutetooth-enabled MOTOACTV logs time, distance traveled and calories burned and has an inbuilt heart rate monitor, accelerometer and a GPS which records a map of your routes.
The 1.8 x 1.8 x 0.37 inches (46mm x 46mm x 9.6 mm) square MOTOACTV straps to the wrist or arm or can be mounted on a bike and sports a 1.6-inch full color touch screen that is sweat proof, rain and scratch resistant, and adapts to indoor and outdoor lighting. And it weighs in at a feathery 35grams.
The battery is specced at up to five hours for outdoor workouts, 10 for indoor and nearly two weeks on standby, while the device supports Bluetooth® 4.0 and ANT+ wireless connectivity.
Oct 15
display, gadget, input, research
Carnegie Mellon University - OmniTouch, a wearable projection system developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research, enables users to turn pads of paper, walls or even their own hands, arms and legs into graphical, interactive surfaces.
In other words, there will be no need to find that pen you keep misplacing — or even to dig your smartphone out of your pocket to record a note.
The system employs a depth-sensing camera, similar to the Microsoft Kinect, to track the user’s fingers on everyday surfaces.
This allows users to control interactive applications by tapping or dragging their fingers, much as they would with touchscreens found on smartphones or tablet computers.
The projector can superimpose keyboards, keypads and other controls onto any surface, automatically adjusting for the surface’s shape and orientation to minimize distortion of the projected images.
Aug 11
health, input, research
CNET – Engineers at the University of Illinois have unveiled novel, skin-mounted electronics whose circuitry bends, wrinkles, and even stretches with skin. The device platform includes electronic components, medical diagnostics, communications, and human-machine interfacing on a patch so thin and durable it can be mounted to skin much like a temporary tattoo.
What’s more, the team was able to demonstrate its invention across a wide range of components, including LEDs, transistors, wireless antennas, sensors, and conductive coils and solar cells for power. ”We threw everything in our bag of tricks onto that platform, and then added a few other new ideas on top of those to show that we could make it work,” said engineering professor John A. Rogers in a news release. The research is described in detail in the online journal, Science.
The range of medical applications includes EEG and EMG sensors to track nerves and muscles–something that tends to be limited to a lab given the number of electrodes and wires involved.
And the patch itself, mounted on a thin sheet of water-soluble plastic before being laminated to skin with water, can be applied not only like a temporary tattoo, but even on top of a temporary tattoo to help conceal it.
Aug 02
gadget, software, watch
Engadget – Tablets and smartphones might rule the present, but if you ask the folks at WIMM Labs, the future of data consumption is a one-inch by one-inch square. The Los Altos startup just revealed its new, wearable computing platform, developed, in part, through a partnership with Foxconn, that it hopes will change the way we look at computers. Currently known as the WIMM wearable platform, this new modular device packs a full-color 160 x 160 touchscreen, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, an accelerometer and magnetometer, and runs on good old Android. What’s more, it’s waterproof. Basically, it’s a tiny, multifunctional computer, packed with “micro apps” that can make it anything from a smart watch to a health monitor, from a mobile payment device to an all-in-one remote. As of now, the company doesn’t have plans to market it direct to consumers, but says it has a few partnerships in the works that could bring a WIMM-powered something to market by year’s end; a developer kit will go on sale in the next few weeks for an undisclosed price.
Jul 14
health, input
Fast Company’s Design – A combination of a sensor-infused wristband and a smartphone app will provide nudges for healthier living, based on your behavior.
[...] On stage at TED Global, Jawbone announced the grand project they’ve been quietly working on for years: A wearable band called Up, which is infused with sensors and smartphone connected, allowing you to track your eating, sleeping, and activity patterns.
The interest grew when people realized how large this market is.
“The CDC says that for the first time in history, lifestyle diseases such as diabetes are killing more people than communicable diseases,” Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s VP of product management, tells Co.Design. “We’re trying to solve that problem.” The Up’s sensors collect data about how much you’ve been sleeping and how much you’ve been moving. That data is then fed into a smartphone app, which also takes in information about your meals. (You enter meal data manually, in part by taking pictures of what you’ve eaten.) Based on all that information, the smartphone program provides “nudges” meant to help you live healthier, day by day. For example, if you haven’t slept much, when you wake up the app might suggest a high-protein breakfast and an extra glass of water.
Jul 11
editorial
A “crashed” hard drive caused our site to go offline. The loss of data and a corrupted database backup means we have lost about 6 months of news + data 
We were seriously considering taking the site down permanently as the effort to recover seemed too great. Fortunately, we managed to recover quite a bit of the “lost” info.
Jun 21
health, input, research
MIT Technology Review - Do you know how much REM sleep you got last night? New types of devices that monitor activity, sleep, diet, and even mood could make us healthier and more productive.
On a quiet Wednesday night in April, an unusual group has assembled in a garage turned hacker studio nestled in a student-dominated neighborhood outside Boston. Those gathered here—mostly in their 20s or 30s and mostly male—are united by a deep interest in themselves. They have come to share the results of their latest self-experiments: monthlong tests of the Zeo, a consumer device designed to analyze sleep.
The group is part of a rapidly growing movement of fitness buffs, techno-geeks, and patients with chronic conditions who obsessively monitor various personal metrics. At the center of the movement is a loosely organized group known as the Quantified Self, whose members are driven by the idea that collecting detailed data can help them make better choices about their health and behavior. In meetings held all over the world, self-trackers discuss how they use a combination of traditional spreadsheets, an expanding selection of smart-phone apps, and various consumer and custom-built devices to monitor patterns of food intake, sleep, fatigue, mood, and heart rate. [...]
Jun 20
fashion, people
MAKE Magazine – Phillip Torrone’s personal odyssey through the history of wearable computing:
“For decades I’ve wanted interesting, beautiful, and (sometimes) functional electronics on the most personal geographies of all, myself. When I think of “living in the future,” it’s what springs to mind: subtle LEDs, lots of polished metal. In this week’s column I’m going to share some milestones, mistakes, and projects in the world of wearable electronics. From geeky watches to wearable music players — I’ve always wanted to utilize my wrist real estate to my shoes for electronics of some kind. Many of the “wearables” I’m going to share are from my project archives, some are now “real,” and others are products that are out now. I think we’re finally entering an era where wearable electronics can look good and work well”…
May 24
The Mark – [Q & A] What will be the next big technological innovation to change society?
DON TAPSCOTT: Well, I think it’s underway, and it’s the mobile revolution. We’re in the early days of pervasive, companioned computing, where our intellect is being augmented and our ability to communicate with others transformed, and this is now reaching out into every nook and cranny of our economy, society, and daily life. It’s transforming, and enabling us to transform, all of our institutions – if we can find the will to do it.
What exactly is “networked intelligence”?
TAPSCOTT: This is not an “information age,” as some people have called it. The printing press, radio, television, broadcast technologies, and early days of computing all gave us access to information. The internet, on the other hand, gives us access to the intelligence contained in the crania of other people on a global basis…
Apr 22
people, research
Wearable Computing Notebook – I was reading a Business Week article mentioning Bruce Thomas, Director of the Wearable Computing Lab at the University of South Australia and did a Google search to learn more about his lab and work. I saw a few references to a Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Magazine. Seems like this has been around since 1997 and has been published in hard-copy form by Springer. I also found a Facebook page for the magazine. There is also a twitter account: @personalubicomp
From Facebook: Personal and Ubiquitous Computing publishes the latest international peer-reviewed research on mobile information devices and the pervasive communications infrastructure that supports them. The journal carries compellingly-written, timely and accessible contributions that illuminate the technological, social and design challenges of personal and ubiquitous computing technologies. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing is an essential resource for researchers and educators who wish to understand the implications of ubiquitous computing.
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