[Wear-Hard] Tiny Tiny computers

[tetsu yatsu]

I know most of us try to avoid the 'cyberpunk' buzz (or do we? lol),
but an acquaintance of mine has been doing consumer/hacker level
wearable / nomadic computing for a while now. He got into  'cyberpunk'
documentary: http://vimeo.com/3552260

He favors mounted displays instead of wearable displays. One of his
displays, which is in the video, is actually a neck-mounted cushion
containing a small display which is visible if he looks down. More
displays/gps mounted on his motorcycle.

I say this as someone who purchased a HeadPlay HMD and Eee PC,
expecting it to be an immediate solution. The HMD wound up being
unusable without modification, and difficult to modify (not
see-through, linear optics, lots of mirrors). Head mounted displays
also tend to move near-eye if not mounted very securely, and give me a
headache if I'm not perfectly still (then what's the point of the
HMD?)

The ZipIt has a great community effort and Linux support. You could
definitely mount the screen with one of Robo's neck-mounts, or
separate the screen and mount it around an arm. Steve Mann himself
suggested the benefits of a belly-mounted mini-TV 'back in the day'.

Consider mounting the LCD of the ZipIt on the bill of a hat. It'll
look a little dumb, but not as dumb as it could. WIth a mirror a good
mount, and a magnifier you could make that pretty usable.


If you don't have a good input system or keyer, you probably won't use
the thing. Make or buy a keyer!

On 9/22/09, Bear Naff <laughinghard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Oh man, you aren't kidding.  Thankfully, the development environment for the
> Z2 is reasonably mature.  It should not be too impossible to get a working
> modern web-browser running on the unit along with (assumedly) a python
> interpreter or the like.  Design-wise, I am hoping to stay simple with the
> HUD.  No graphics (obviously) just a sectioned display with twitter,
> facebook, and email updates - along with an indicator as to whether I have
> good WIFI or not.
>
> Sure, it would be nice to be able to use the HUD as a RSVP (Rapid Serial
> Visual Presentation) display for speed-reading of text.  But, until such
> point as I'm able to make my own reader software, I'll just stick to
> something simple that can be sent over a serial terminal.
>
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 3:02 PM, Daniel Hengeveld <danielwh at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 12:01, Bear Naff <laughinghard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >  Assuming I got software support
>>
>> Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it. Many a wearable project has been
>> launched and sunk on that assumption :/
>>
>> --
>> ..[daniel hengeveld]..
>> neoglam.com
>>
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