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. [...]
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.
Apr 14
people, research
Wearable Computing Notebook – I just bumped into an older reference to a CHI 2009 Student Research paper, Designing A Wearable Social Network by Thecia Schiphorst and Yin He.
From the paper: This paper presents a framework and design for a wearable social network based on Facebook. We begin with a discussion of social networking by isolating key characteristics of social interactions in three research areas: Social Networking Sites, Mobile Computing, and Wearable Computing. These characteristics are analyzed to suggest a design framework that can be applied to the design of social networks. Using this framework, we have designed and created a wearable social network called Patches, which extends the social interactions available in most wearable devices today.
Well worth reading, IMHO!
Mar 07
news, research, software
MIT technology review – A research team at Georgia Tech hopes to make augmented reality (AR) on smart phones more useful by developing an open standard for it.
Currently, there is no standard way to create or render AR applications, which overlay information on the live video feed from a phone’s camera. Companies such as Layar help app developers create AR functions, but they use proprietary technologies. That means, among other things, that different AR apps may be unable to talk to each other or share data. The Georgia Tech team hopes that its open standard, an enhancement of existing Web protocols, will yield a common way for every Web browser to store, transmit, and manipulate data for augmented reality services. If it does, you wouldn’t need a separate app for each AR function on your phone—one browser could show them all.
Dec 09
fashion, research
Technology Review – Stretchable silicon electronics that offer the computing power of rigid chips could make their way into Reebok’s athletic apparel in the coming years. The company will work with MC10, a startup maker of flexible electronics, to develop sportswear that incorporates electronics to monitor athletes’ health and performance during training and rehabilitation.
Flexible silicon transistor arrays on cloth, like this lab prototype (see image), are being commercialized by startup MC10 and could be used in wearable electronics that process information about athletic performance.
Apr 27
game, research
cnet – crave — Codenamed Cobra, that future has yet to come. But the guys at Queen’s University in Ontario are working at it. Human Media Lab’s Zi Ye and Hammad Khalid have developed a wearable computer and projector that works in tandem with a flexible screen fitted with flex-sensing wires and sensors.
To play, the mounted system projects the game onto the screen, which users can flex, tap or shake to activate an action. For instance, bending a corner back and releasing it could simulate shooting an arrow or even casting a fishing line.
Mar 05
research
MIT news — MIT officially opened the Media Lab Complex, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki and Associates in association with Leers Weinzapfel Associates. The building marks a new era of innovation for the world-renowned Media Lab and for a range of art, design, and technology-related programs in the School of Architecture + Planning, of which the Media Lab is a part.
Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the MIT Media Lab has long been at the vanguard of new technology. Many of the Lab’s inventions — such as electronic ink, wearable computers, and early platforms for social networking — helped ignite the digital revolution. More recently, the Lab has expanded its focus into “human adaptability,” with research projects involving affective computing, 6-D imaging and the future of the automobile.
Feb 09
research
EE Times — A project that aims to revolutionise the design of technologies for supporting research has been awarded a grant of about $2.6 million by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the RCUK Digital Economy programme.
The multidisciplinary project, entitled PATINA (Personal Architectonics of Interfaces to Artefacts) will be led by the University of Bristol in collaboration with the Universities of Brighton, Greenwich, Newcastle, Southampton and Swansea. The project includes involvement from Microsoft Research, Nokia Research and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The consortium will build wearable technologies that can identify objects such as books or historical artefacts and use miniature projectors to enhance those objects with related digital information taken from the web.
Nov 30
news, research
ZD Net – The European Union has funded an ambitious project related to wearable technology. This project, named WearIT@work will end in one year and was funded with 14.3 million euros of EU money, even if the total project cost is expected to exceed 23 million euros. For mobile workers, the goal is to replace traditional interfaces, such as screen, keyboard or computer unit, by speech control or gesture control, without modifying the applications. This wearable system is currently being tested in four different fields including aircraft maintenance, emergency response, car production and healthcare.
Newer Entries
RSS
Digg
Facebook