I bought a cheap CD case, ripped out the interior CD pockets, and glued Velcro straps on the interior surface. Adhesive Velcro on the back side of the gadgets make for a configurable layout:
The case conveniently opens like a book for easy access to the components. Zipped close it becomes a compact bag that protects the interior:
Attaching a shoulder strap results in a relatively discrete wearable computer:
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38 comments:
Hey came in from Beagle Board facebook fan page. This is such an awesome project. I just wished you pushed this blog to twitter.
Thanks :)
How would I push it on twitter? Why don't you subscribe through RSS instead?
Awesome work. I was thinking about something of the same kind, but with an Android phone as a base, with a microphone for speech-activated Google tools.
This may be a dumb question but what are you displaying onto the glasses? And can you actually see it on such a short distance?
And regarding the RSS push to twitter: have you looked at http://twitterfeed.com?
My todo list. And a browser for inconspicuous googling to make me seem more knowledgeable than I really am ;)
Thanks for the link!
Can you easily focus on the display in the eyepiece to read text?
Ah, yes the display includes a strong magnifying lens which makes it appear as if your focusing on a screen hovering a feet or so away. But it's sensitive to the viewing angle, so you have to get the mounting just right.
nice rig. found myself wondering if any of these keyboards would be useful for such a setup:
http://usb.brando.com/bluetooth-handheld-keyboard-and-touchpad_p01347c036d015.html
http://usb.brando.com/rii-mini-bluetooth-keyboard-with-touchpad_p01765c036d015.html
and are you considering adding camera and compass in the future for AR data?
Yes, Brando seem to have some interesting products. Thanks for the links!
Camera? Maybe, but I'm no expert on image processing. Maybe one could use the compass and GPS in the cell phone?
Videos pl0x
awesome...
where can I bye this sunglasses, without the myview-interface of course.
do you post a tutorial how to make it yourself?
Any chance you could post a little more info on how the display works, or maybe a picture of the view looking through the glasses?
I'm also interested in a tutorial, or if you plan on selling a kit I would be interested depending on the price.
Also, how much have you spent in R&D and/or in cost for the parts you use in your current configuration
This is absolutely amazing!
This is a revolutionary step into something that is just wonderfully unique!!
I would really love to see a step by step tutorial if possible, or at least a guide to some degree!
I would gladly replicate this project.
Just asking, how much of a budget was there? And how long did it take?
Thanks,
Once again, fantastic!
If you're looking for those particular glasses, I'm afraid you're out of luck (http://blog.2yb.org/2010/06/second-hand-glasses.html)
A build tutorial is a good idea. For now, you can find most information in earlier blog posts.
It shouldn't take too long to put together once you know how. Just remember that everything takes longer than you think.
The components were chosen to be affordable. E.g. the Myvu Crystal was 130$ refurbished on eBay and the Beagleboard was 150$ from Digikey. Even if you add lots of hidden costs for cables, materials, tools, etc., it would be much cheaper than the military systems sold today.
Just posted on your previos one, didnt see this.
I have a few ideas foe this, but i can think of one big issue....power
What do you think possibility of runnign a GPS receiver and a AT&T 3g USB adapter is? Im thinking about mounting the display inside of my motorcycle helmet and using this for GPS. I just dont like the idea of having a GPS unit mounted on my bike.
Of course i would also see about taping into the electronics on the bike and having the MPH and the Tach displayed too, but i really dont know how much screen you have to work with.
This is an amazing project, and i think you did a great job bringing functionality, portability and style to the build. I've always been interested in doing something like this and now i have a perfect reference! Thanks for all the info and the great work :)
Awesome. Respect...
BTW Can you post some screenshots of what you actually see on the head-mounted display? i can't imagine how it looks. also photos of the display itself would be cool - i have never had such display on my head...
I can imagine that you will control the computer using frogpad: http://www.frogpad.com/
(over usb or even better: over bluetooth)
or at least using some mobile phone as keyboard and mouse.
Frogpad was the plan, but they don't seem to manufacture any longer.
What can you do with this that you can't do with a jail broken iphone? Your running a linux box, but the iphone you're using for internet connectivity is already running a flavor of unix.
Hi, Found you via Delicious.
I love your system, might be because I have same system myself, made it a year ago. Though I wear it in a camera bag, your cd-case is cool too. I also have thought about the shoulderstrap method of carrying it since I found Urban Tools Casebelt.
I have a blog full of posts here: http://www.linux.com/community/profile?userid=669
Really, it's kinda amazing, but if multiple people come into the same conclusion about best practical hardware, we could maybe conclude that Beagleboard + Myvu Crystal is the way wearables should go.
I also made my case from plexiglass, biggest difference in our systems is that I have my display inside the sunglasses to hide the system.
I'll be using Spiffchorder as the keyboard, check it out. Chording keyboards are the way to go, even Twiddler will have it's second coming soon. http://chorder.cs.vassar.edu/spiffchorder%3Aforside
Michael: Run Emacs
ojm: Yes, we've spoken before via email.
Mr. Magnusson, this is seriously impressive. Most wearable rigs are painfully awkward, heavy, and too fragile to do any work on. This looks like an actual practical solution, and with style, no less!
ojm: Chording keyboards that require several keypresses per letter are way too much work. One of these days I want to put together a wearable rig that involves a steno keyboard, together with the open source steno software I'm developing, which will let you write up to 300 words per minute!
http://plover.stenoknight.com/
Martin:
Ah it was you! Great to see you succeeding, nice implementation. Does your display have that optic from Myvu Crystal?
I still am not really using mine because of missing keyboard and shoddy battery system. Is yours totally usable now? Do you wear it often?
Mirabai: Way too much work? It's suggested that they are easier to learn than touch typing. I'm pretty sure Spiffchorder would be less work than normal keyboard as you only have to move your thumb every now and then.
I meant "too much work" in an ergonomic sense. With a chording keyboard, you have to press several keys to form one letter. With a regular keyboard, you have to press one key to form one letter. With a steno keyboard, you press several keys, but they form an entire syllable, word, or phrase, making it much quicker and more efficient and requiring much less energy:
http://stenoknight.com/MobileWearable.html
Meh, it will become a second nature, the only problem are getting a good keymap, as I'm Finnish and it's default doesn't have some important letters.
Also, Spiffchorder is Free Hardware and software :p so you can change it's keymap to do syllables instead of characters.
Tell me. Does that stenothing do every special character like normal keyboard? It's kinda important to be able to code with it too.
Plover is Free Software, and the hardware only costs $45! We're also working on a kit to build the hardware from scratch, though that'll be a while yet. It absolutely does special characters; everything is completely customizable. The trouble with assigning arbitrary words or syllables to Spiffchorder chords is that there's only a limited number of possibilities, and they're hard to remember. In steno, the left hand fingers cover the beginning consonants of words, the thumbs cover vowels, and the right hand fingers cover the ending consonants of words, meaning that a significant number of one-syllable words can be chorded in a single stroke, entirely phonetically. I've got 117,000 entries in my steno dictionary. I doubt you could assign and then remember even a fraction of them to spiffchorder chords.
Here's a video that shows the difference between steno and qwerty at speeds ranging from 40 to 185 words per minute (though keep in mind that a steno machine can go up to 100 WPM faster than that):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I333oAGSOwk
For fun, I'd be interested to see what speed you can get up to with your spiffchorder. I doubt it'll be faster than qwerty, but I know for a fact it's not faster than steno.
I don't yet have that spiffchorder. I know for a fact that user types over 60wpm, which is not really half bad.
I'd like to know more about your stenothingy. Is that portable? Can it be used while running? Does it need a desk? I think that wearable keyboard should be handheld for practicality.
Spiffchorder is able to make plenty of chords, though not 12k. But you could definitely use same kind of wordbank and a chord to finish the word or something. It would not be that hard to develop something to make typing faster, though normal speeds are not bad anyway. Normal persons will not want steno or a chording keyboard anyway.
Currently my wearable rig is very bulky, awkward, and impractical (http://stenoknight.com/closeuprigall.jpg) but it's useful for when I have to transcribe conversations for Deaf clients in realtime while walking. Ideally I'd like to make a steno keyboard out of two multitouch panels that can be tied around each trouser leg and connected wirelessly to the computer running Plover. If I could get something like that working, it would be extremely easy to use while walking or running, and since it would be affixed to the thighs/jeans, you wouldn't have to carry it around, so you'd have your hands free whenever you weren't typing. If you go to http://stenoknight.com/MobileWearable.html, you can see how a full qwerty layout is impossible to fit on an average person's clothing, but that the narrow layout of the steno keyboard's 22 keys fits nicely on the upper leg if split into two halves.
From that link you gave "...but the one letter per chord ratio of nearly all one-handed keypad systems (Twiddler, Frogpad, Chordite, et al.) is even slower, less accurate, and less ergonomic..."
This might not be true on Spiffchorder. First, it doesn't have a specific shape, you can create your own. That's why ergonomy can be the best there is, though it is not necessarily so. It can be typed over that 60wpm, hard to say anything else because it's the only figure I know because it's not widely used. But it doesn't use that one letter per chord, as it has special things to that.
But really, would it be easy or ergonomic or even safe to use a keyboard that's on your legs while running? You move your hands while running for a purpose you know. Also, a wearable computer has to be hidden for it to reach mainstream, and keyboard on trousers will not help that one bit.
And you don't have to carry a chorder when you are not using it on your hands, it can have a retractable cable from your belt or something, that's how I'd prolly use it.
And yea, that rig is really bulky, impractical and all, but at least it's working. That's really a lot. Congratulations.
Have you thought about using an Android port for the beagleboard? http://labs.embinux.org/index.php/Android_Porting_Guide_to_Beagle_Board, especially with the new 2.2 build out, which is quite powerful and very efficient.
Android would be pretty bad, reason to use Linux is that well, it works on BB, but another is that it's modificable.
You cannot fork Android with some Google modifications, which is kinda bad. Cease and Desist...
http://phandroid.com/2009/09/25/cyanogen-gets-cd-from-google/
Also, I don't believe at all that smartphone UI would be any good in wearables anyway.
It will be interesting to see how the Tablet version of Android looks and works when it comes later this year. Also, with the amount of development of applications, it will provide a compelling platform in the very near future.
With the SIP clients out, like sipdroid.org, you could add a 3G/4G USB modem and still have voice services without the need for a "regular" cell phone and at a much cheaper price.
Lastly, how long do the batteries last in your current configuration?
PS, this is an awesome project and I think you are on to something special. Keep it up.
By the way, did you ever consider the Tac-Eye product for your video viewing needs? http://www.vuzix.com/tactical/taceye_products.html
seems like one of the keyboards i linked about just got quote the upgrade:
http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/08/05/efo-updates-their-popular-wireless-keypad-with-more-features/
laser pointer
F-keys (it was missing those? oops)
multimedia keys
tab key (again, oops)
We want moar!
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