New this winter: down-filled CPUs?

Computer Life column for 10/25/97 by
Richard Gordon

When four different publications arrive at my office containing articles about wearable computers, it must be a sign that I should join the chorus.

It's not just computer magazines: this week's editions of the Chronicle of Higher Education and Newsweek both contain articles about a conference and fashion show at MIT that featured the latest in wearable computing. And a quick search of the Web using Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) found several scholarly papers and popular press articles on the subject.

Sounds like it's official: We're on the path to becoming the Borg-like creatures that harry Captain Picard and Commander Riker at least once every sixth episode.

Actually, the concept of wearable computing is not so outlandish or far-fetched. Cardiologists have been strapping portable heart monitors (small single purpose computers) onto patients for years, sometimes generating a paper chart, sometimes data downloaded to the doctor's computer.

Further, think of all the places microprocessors-tiny computers-are turning up.

I once asked a class to think of as many computers-in-daily-life as they could. They came up with obvious things like microwave ovens, fancy clock radios, programmable VCRs, traffic signals, exercise equipment, digital thermometers, supermarket blood-pressure machines, barcode scanning registers, burglar alarms, automobile ignition systems, automobile braking systems, and so on. They added less-obvious ones as well: the self-flushing toilets on the New Jersey Turnpike, musical greeting cards, bread-making machines.

Why not make a jacket with a thermal sensor, a computer and a small heater? Yes, send your kid to school with a jacket that senses the temperature and adjusts its heating potential accordingly. No more "I thought you wore a shirt and sweatshirt over that T-shirt today" and "I did but they're in my locker at school" conversations when you pick your kid up at the after-school program.

And you think Reeboks and Nikes are expensive. Just wait until you can order your cross trainers with sole sensors that tell when the mechanics of the way you walk or run is likely to cause even more injury to that right knee or left ankle.

We've come a long way from the luggable 10-20 pound "portable" computers of the eighties. We've got laptops and ultra-laptops, palm-sized personal digital assistants, and even smaller pagers that let you send and receive e-mail. Why not a personal computer that really is strapped onto you for further hands-free convenience?

I could have a computer in my jacket pocket with a small keyboard clipped to my belt and a monitor smaller than a matchbook clipped to the left lens of my eyeglasses. I could stand on the sidelines at the YMCA soccer games and edit my who-played-where spreadsheet on the fly. If I were a Quicken head, I could consult my fully reconciled checkbook before plopping down my MAC card at Shop-Rite.

Or in a factory, you could equip new employees so that training video, images, and text could be on the other side of their safety glasses while they are on the production floor, learning on the job instead of sitting in a conference room then heading onto the plant floor.

I can imagine an integrated system that allows all the different microcomputers I'm wearing to communicate. I fiddle with a device clipped to my right side, and the sensors in my shoes begin acting as a pedometer, sharing that information with the main CPU strapped under my shirt. The CPU sends the data to the monitor clipped to my sunglasses, showing me how many calories I've burned, how far I've walked, and how fast I'm walking.

When I arrive at Margherita's for lunch, I pause by the door and use my little keyboard to make some calculations. Rats. I need to walk another half mile before I go in for a slice of pizza.

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

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