THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER—By: - S.Yadav, S. A. Husain, S. Dheer

1

THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER Sonali Yadav, Syed Ashraf Husain, Sakhee Dheer S.E. Computers, Army Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT—Wearable computers are slowly becoming an integral part of life in many places. Many people have P.D.A.’s, wristbands capable of monitoring health, GPS locators etc. Abilities of soldiers and rescue workers are being augmented by various wearable computer systems in many places around the world today. Yet all these systems as the authors would point out suffer from three problems:1. Insufficient computing power 2. Interoperability 3. Flexibility in the medium and types of interfaces To remove these problems, the authors in this paper propose a new architecture of a wearable computer where all possible devices are wirelessly interfaced using a central internal processing unit (hereby referred to as the I.P.U.). The central theme of our proposal is the I.P.U. which would be surgically planted in the body. With a proposed internal life of 20 years, the unit would become an integral part of the human being supplementing his capabilities in big and small ways. The advantage of the proposed system lies in its flexibility to flawlessly interact with other systems and adapt to different and multiple interfaces. We also address the apprehensions that many people might naturally have over our radical proposal. Though it might appear to be farfetched an idea at present we believe that the proposal is workable and just like the way the personal computer has merged with our lives one day our proposed system could be an integral part of most people lives. Index Terms—Internal Processing Unit Neuroprosthetics, Peripherals, Wireless Interfaces,

(I.P.U.),

I. INTRODUCTION

T

he increasing demand for portability and the reducing size of computer hardware led to the birth of Wearable

Manuscript submitted on 10th March 2006 for the ‘Expostulate’ technical paper presentation event at Solutions 2006 to be held in AIT. Pune in the month of March 2006. Miss. Sonali Yadav is a student in second year of engineering at Army Institute of Technology, Alandi road , Dighi hills, Pune. (She can be reached at the e-mail address: [email protected]). Mr. Syed Ashraf Husain is a student in second year of engineering at A.I.T., Pune. (He can be personally contacted either via e-mail: [email protected] or at mobile number 9822954335). Miss Sakhee Dheer is a student in second year of engineering at A.I.T., Pune and can be reached at e-mail address: [email protected]). All of the authors are in the department of Computer Engineering and have an avid interest in research especially the possibilities of computers augmenting human capacities.

Computers. Unlike personal computers wherein the computer is used as a tool, wearable computers are designed to interact with the user. The term wearable computing refers to any computing device which can be carried with a user and operated at any time. The first wearable computer was created in 1955 by Thorpe and Shannon to predict roulette results. Since then, a wide variety of computing, display and input devices have been developed to provide users with a pervasive, ubiquitous computing experience. Today, wearable computing has limitless boundaries; from wrist worn PDA’s, and smart sports wear to devices that supplement human memory. II. WHY WEARABLES What can wearables bring to the table that laptops and other forms of computing do not? What is the need for wearable computers in an age already burdened by modern equipment like cell phones and beepers? The answer is constancy. Unlike laptops or PDA’s, the virtue of a wearable computer is that it is always on and always ready. In theory this ubiquitous availability should translate into dramatic improvements in ease of use, a significant decrease in the time, energy, and trouble it takes to access or create information. The evolution of the human computer interface is marked by a decrease in the distance between man and machine, a distance measured both in terms of space and time. Reductions in these distances have signaled dramatic increases in utility and capability. But the wearable seems to promise an interface that is almost inside your head, almost instantaneous in time. If attained it could simplify many forms of communication and information access, squeezing the last few seconds out of each transaction. There are 3 main components common to almost every computer: 1.1 A processing and storage unit capable of running commands and storing data 1.2 An input device that allows the user to interact with the computer 1.3 A display device that communicates the current state of the computer to the user.

THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER—By: - S.Yadav, S. A. Husain, S. Dheer A wearable computer is no exception to this general rule, only difference here is that of size and portability. Also a wearable computer could be designed for some custom purposes also.

III. WEARABLE COMPUTERS: THE NEXT GENERATION The definition of wearable computers is a little fuzzy as there is no consensus about the basic definition of a wearable computer. However one thing that most people will agree with, is the fact that most modern wearable computers whether a watch or a PDA lack in one or all of the following areas:-3.1. Insufficient computing power 3.2. Interoperability 3.3. Flexibility in the medium and types of interfaces 3.1. Insufficient Computing Power: - Most of the applications have a hardwired circuit sufficient for just their own computing needs. Neither do they have the ability nor the computing power to be put to other needs. 3.2. Interoperability:- Most of the wearable computers are independent stand alone systems which are unable to interact with other 3.3. Flexibility in the medium and types of interfaces: - Most modern wearable computers since they have been built as stand alone units cannot change interfaces or add new ones. For example a watch which can calculate a person’s heart rate and his body temperature cannot interact with a bracelet that uses the global positioning system to get the persons location. Now these systems cannot interact with a third system which is a communication device such as a cell phone or PDA.

2

IV. OUR PROPOSAL To all these problems we propose a radical solution:A specially designed miniature self powered computing system which is surgically implanted in a persons body and would be designed to interact with different interfaces and devices wirelessly, we believe would be a solve many of modern wearable computer systems problems. Each wearable computer or peripheral would depend on the internal system for computing and would be recognized as just another device attached to the system much like a blue-tooth enabled device scans for others in its vicinity. The peripherals or the interfaces that we visualize would collect any required data from the environment or any other system in the surroundings and transfer it to the I.P.U. for processing. The results would again be transmitted to the peripheral and appropriate actions taken. 4.1 General Description: The internal processing unit (I.P.U.) would be a single unit designed with a processor, the associated electronics (motherboard etc) with an integrated wireless communications unit. There would also be on board storage of around 200 Gb. of data on the I.P.U. The expected rate of minimum data transfer would be 25Mb/sec. The onboard storage could store critical data as well as day to day usage data, which could be called back at will later. 4.2 Operating system: The operating system would be a dedicated open or closed source operating system with two versions being stored. To rescue data and functionality of the system in case of failures or unforeseen system crashes a backup copy would also be placed on a R.O.M. chip.

The utility of all these devices is decreased because if these devices could intelligently interact then in a case that the person wearing them suffered a heart-attack then they could possibly save a life with the heart monitor giving the cell phone an alert which would then send the persons location taken from the GPRS locator and call for help. This is just one such example. There can be a hundred such other situations and unarguably we cannot be ready for each of them till the various individual wearable computers can be flawlessly interfaced together using rather flexible approach. However another problem that would arise and also exists today would be that of duplication of hardware (for example each device would have their own chips and they may not be used at all times. Other than unnecessary redundancy this is also going to make the individual devices more expensive and bulkier.

The operating systems architechture should be real time based with direct commands from the user getting the highest priority and also the user having the ability to shut down any external process in the system.

THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER—By: - S.Yadav, S. A. Husain, S. Dheer

3

The operating system or a separate on-board electronics controller we believe should also be used to dynamically change the power requirements of the system. This would be necessary as power and heat dissipation would be the biggest problem with the I.P.U.

junction could be at the core while the other at the periphery leading to a constant current generation. A temperature difference of two degree Celsius is expected. This by far is the most viable of secondary power generation approaches proposed.

4.3 What Would Be Its Size? The volume of the whole I.P.U. should be maximum quarter of a liter or 250 ml. The weight of the I.P.U. should not exceed 200 grams.

4.7.3 Using the body’s mechanical motion: - an innovative approach to harness the bodies’ internal energy could be made. Many innovative methods have already been explored while research is still been done on other innovative ways.

4.4 Where Can We Place It? After much consultation with doctors, it was decided that the unit could be placed in the abdominal cavity safely causing no long term dangers or discomforts to the person. 4.5 How would we place it? According to the medical opinion expressed by Dr. P. Singh an object of the size of our I.P.U. and the location we visualize it to be, can be placed in the body with a very minor surgery. To minimize hospitalization time and other things he suggests a laparoscopic surgery setup where only two to three small incisions on the abdomen need to be made. The surgery is perfectly safe and the patient would be released from hospital within four days of surgery. Also if the surgery becomes common the recuperation time could be further reduced. Once placed we expect the I.P.U. to be there for at least 20 years, with no hardware upgrade. Any smaller duration would be detrimental to any possible popularity of the whole system. 4.6 What would be its shape? Though the shape should ideally be spherical, we believe a central solid lump with a flat extension on more sides is going to be more able to dissipate heat more efficiently and also create a temperature gradient to generate a current using Seebecks effect if that is used as the power source. 4.7 Power Sources: Powering the device over the long period that we require it to operate is the biggest stumbling block. We propose a lithium battery similar to the one used in pacemakers supplemented by another continuous power generation mechanism such as:-4.7.1 Using the acids generated in the stomach to create a simple voltaic cell and provide supplemental system. However this approach is still untested and fraught with possible dangers as the IPU would in this case have to be implanted in the stomach, making the surgery more complicated and also more dangerous. 4.7.2 Using Seebecks effect: - Seebecks effect states that a potential difference is generated between two ends of a thermo couple having junctions at different temperatures. In our second lump shaped design one

4.7.4 Also as the first prototypes are tested some other power generation method could also be used and if efficient implemented. We basically desire a long term power generation process. 4.8 Input Peripherals The input to a wearable computer depends mostly on its design and one system can generally has a fixed input interface only. However our system is designed keeping this problem and hence it can interact with a wide variety of input devices and configurations. Here we therefore describe various possible input devices and methods.

4.8.1 Keyboard and Variants:Input to a wearable computer can be provided in numerous ways, and a keyboard is the easiest of them all. A full-sized keyboard might be cumbersome to bear or use but today PDA-size keyboards that can be attached to the wrist for easy portability are also available. A different implementation is the chord keyboard. It can be shaped to fit in the palm of hand and not be much larger than that also can be embroidered into a garment with conductive thread and then connected to a wearable computer to provide a means of one-handed input. It uses combinations of multiple simultaneous key presses to produce a single character so, that the entire key-space is easily available with only one hand. Of course, this kind of keyboard requires the user to relearn typing and this could be a major detrimental factor to many people.

4.8.2 Newer Devices:Some new devices do not employ actual buttons at all. The Light glove uses five LED’s and optical sensors to detect the finger movements on a virtual keyboard. When a finger “presses” a key, a change in the light beam reflection is detected. The motion sensors in the device are used to determine the hand’s location on the virtual keyboard and

THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER—By: - S.Yadav, S. A. Husain, S. Dheer the pressed key. For user convenience, the virtual keyboard and hand location can be shown on the computer display. A mobile phone which can interpret waves of the arm with the help of three inbuilt gyroscopes is now available in the market.

4.8.3 Direct Body Input:A much better case for neuroprosthetics is for computer input. Research in bionics show that muscle activation signals can be used to control prosthetic arms, and EEGs can be used, albeit slowly, for input as well. Thus, it is easy to imagine a typing method using neuroelectrical signals. Furthermore, neuro-devices for sensing the mood of the user (and having the computer adapt appropriately) may also be useful. More sophisticated devices, such as directly connecting the brain to the computer are still a number of years away. We simply do not understand enough of the brain for such an undertaking. The IPU can interact with all these devices. Also The IPU could also be interfaced to more than a single input device at a particular moment. 4.9 Output Peripherals: The most obvious output method is a graphics display. Most computer users are also accustomed to them and they are also the most commonly available output method for wearable computers. 4.9.1 Wearable Opaque Displays:They are miniature versions of the LCD displays commonly used in PDA’s. They are usually one inch in diameter, and can produce an image with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels in 8-bit depth (256 distinct colors). Opaque displays are generally implemented as separate head-mounted displays or as clip-ons for eyeglasses. These displays however suffer from a low resolution problem. 4.9.2 See-Through Displays:They perform the same function as opaque displays, but they are designed so that user sees through the displayed image into the surrounding world. Their design and architecture is different from the opaque displays but the principle is same.

A See through Display 1

4

Also our system could possibly interact with an external stationary output device such as a projector, monitor, etc provided the fact that the device has a wireless data communications port. The ability to move seamlessly among different interfaces and different devices is the main benefit and the actual strength of our idea. V. OPERATING BEHAVIOUR AND ENVIRONMENT The IPU is going to treat any new peripheral in the surrounding as just another device. Just as in any modern pc, it would have the necessary driver for the device; the device would be automatically recognized. In case not, three options would exist: 1. In case of the device being in a wife enabled mode, the drivers could be downloaded from the internet. 2. The drivers could also be loaded from a wireless mass storage device in the immediate surrounding. 3. In case of an unwanted or undesired device, the device could be disabled and the drivers not loaded if the user decides so. There can be three possible wireless communication modes: 1. IPU to a wearable computer. 2. IPU to the new in a smart space. 3. IPU to any other wirelessly enabled device such as an identity authenticator.

VI. POSSIBLE APPREHENSIONS: 6.1. Willingness: A few people might not consider this idea worthwhile enough to get operated for. An initial hiccup, which can be easily overcome by the uncountable benefits of this project. Also the operation required to install the Internal processing unit (IPU) in our body would not be a major one.

THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER—By: - S.Yadav, S. A. Husain, S. Dheer The beginning however we believe would be made by enthusiastic researchers willing to experiment on themselves. An example could be Dr. Kevin Warvick who has over the years implanted chips designed by himself that interacts with nerves. 6.2. Privacy Threats: The Internal Processing Unit which is an internal accessory sends signals all around it to communicate with its’ peripherals or to stay connected online. In today’s world where science and technology have already made such a huge foray into the future and futuristic advancements have enabled easy tracking of people via their mobile phones. The IPU looks like an easier compromise of privacy. Also appropriate laws would we believe, have to be drafted to protect people’s privacy. 6.3. Data Integrity And Security: This may be looked upon as a major drawback, but the problem obviously sounds bigger than it actually is. A secure data encryption could be used to combat this problem. We could register the peripherals and the server on the IPU unit with their unique address codes. To be extremely certain, we could register the IPU unit on every device it is connected to and also to the server. All the signals sent out will contain the unique addresses of the peripherals and server if transmission is from the IPU and will posses the IPU’S address if it’s the other way round. In this manner other devices or unauthorized access seekers cannot decode the signals, thus ensuring privacy. Here too the address codes of the peripherals and server are stored on the IPU and the unique address code of IPU is stored on all the devices it is connected to. So any kind of data transfer is safeguarded against any security hazards, in a similar manner as privacy is maintained. Another kind of security hazard that might come up is that of other people trying to access the IPU, to process information. Here too the signals from this source would be rejected by the IPU as the device would not be registered on it. 6.4. Communications- Wireless and Other Means The fear of wireless communications could possibly be one of the major apprehensions of many people. Many people could question that how can any kind of communicational correspondence be carried out between a unit within the human body and the outside without damaging and harming the body tissues? However these fears are unfounded. At the low frequency that we visualize the IPU to

5

transmit signals, the signals can do no harm to the tissues of the body and still can penetrate though them doing the needful (transmission of data). Beyond it innovative ways of short range communications are also being researched. For example, in Japan—A watch like mobile has been designed which is worn on the wrist like a wrist watch .It works like a normal mobile phone, though being much smaller than the regular ones .The transmission of sound takes place through the finger, wherein the finger is just inserted into the ear cavity and normal conversation can occur. Here the waves are transmitted through the phone to the finger and then the ear.

VII. BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS 7.1. The IPU could be used to store a persons identity details and also authenticate it for various electronic personnel authentication systems. For example doors could be opened as soon as an authorized person approaches. The door would detect the person, authenticate him and open if authorized. This could be the beginning of a whole range of intelligent systems and smart spaces. 7.2. Since we visualize an internal storage of 200 GB in the IPU, it could turn out to be a very convenient place to store critical and necessary data. Also since

this data would always be available it would be very easily available to the concerned person. 7.3. The IPU could also be used to locate a person when he/she is missing or has been kidnapped. The IPU would have an internal beacon which could ping its location. Also IPU’s could be given a particular unique number, and when a particular signal is received by it, it could transmit it. 7.4. The IPU could drastically enhance a soldier’s capability giving him a comprehensive battlefield support without increasing the weight much. For example a system could offer expert advice to a soldier in combat systems while also accessing live satellite feed to gain intelligence on enemy forces deployments. Already prototypes of such systems are under development and some also have been tested. However these systems are also

THE ULTIMATE WEARABLE COMPUTER—By: - S.Yadav, S. A. Husain, S. Dheer specialized not designed for flexible interfaces and also as far as we know none are meant to be implanted in the body

[4] [5] [6]

7.5. The I.P.U. will also be able to comprehensively monitor a person’s health as by its design it can be interfaced to many different interfaces. For example it could use appropriate peripherals monitor heart-rate, breathing rate, body temperature etc. and issue warnings and/or contact external alarm systems when one or more of these monitored parameters show abnormal readings. Beyond the utility of such a system, the number of lives the I.P.U. could save would nullify all arguments against its use. VIII. CONCLUSION The System that we have proposed in this paper may seem very far-fetched and unlikely, but we believe the implementation is possible and one day will be implemented. Most of the technology that we have visualized the I.P.U. to have already exists. The only thing is that it has not been combined as one. Also once the first prototype is ready, most of the problems will be rapidly solved. An example could be the heart pacemaker. The first devices required a night charge of the battery with inductance; later ones had a battery that lasted only 20 months. Today models have a battery that lasts twenty years! And the first pacemaker was an external device. Our idea is radical, the benefits powerful and the applications unlimited. The future we believe belongs to an I.P.U. like unit only. Our system is the ultimate wearable computer. IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The greatest motivating forces in our lives are our parents for it is they who have been our biggest influences. Their contributions and our indebtness towards them simply cannot be possibly expressed in words. We would like to thank Dr. P. Singh for helping us with the I.P.U.’s physical parameters as well as giving us necessary information about the required surgery. We are thankful to Lt. Col. Sanjay Sharma, H.O.D., Computer Engg. Department, A.I.T. for his vision and constant encouragement to our activities. We would also like to thank our faculty member, Ms. Shraddha Oza for all the times she has patiently answered our queries. Our indebtedness to the rest of our faculty simply cannot be stated in words. Their encouragement and help only makes this paper possible. X. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3]

Wikipedia , the online encyclopedia F Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality edited by Woodrow Barfield, Thomas Caudell WristPC. L3 Systems. http://www.l3sys.com/wristpc/wristpc.html

[7]

[8] [9] [10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14] [15] [16] [17]

6

Thorp, E.O. “The invention of the first Wearable computer.” Second International Vertegaal, R. “Attentive user interfaces,” Communications of the ACM “Twiddler Typing: One-Handed Chording Text Entry for Mobile Phones,” Proceedings of CHI 2004. Vienna, Austria. April 2004. One-Handed Keyboard,” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wearable computers. Arlington, VA. November 2004. pp. 94-101 Micro Trac Mini-Mouse. Fellowes, Inc. http://www.fellowes.com Bluetooth Mini Mouse. IOGear, Inc. http://www.iogear.com Symposium on Wearable computers 1998, pp. 25-32. Smailagic, A.; Siewiorek, D.; Martin, R.; Reilly, D. “CMU Wearable computers for real-time speech translation,” Third International Symposium on Wearable computers, 1999 Bauer, M.; Heifer, T.; Mortem, G.; Seal, Z. “A collaborative Wearable system with remote sensing,” Second International Symposium on Wearable computers,1998 P. Lyman, H. Varian, A. Dunn, A. Strygin, and K. Swearingen, “How Much Information?” http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info J. Timothy Shea and John Gordon, “Wireless Wearables—Where’s the Technology Headed?” http://www.sensormag.com, Vol. 20, No. 11., 2003. PC Remote Control. Kaseya, Inc. http://www.kaseya.com Mobile Assistant V, MATC, XyberKids. Xybernaut Corp. http://www.xybernaut.com Mark Nicholson, Paul Vickers. “Pen-Based Gestures: An Approach to Reducing Screen Pocket VNCViewer Client. http://www.cs.utah.edu/midgley/wince/vnc.html