Wearable computing moves computation from the desktop to the user. We are forming a community of networked wearable computer users to explore, over a long period, the augmented realities that these systems can provide. By adapting its behavior to the user's changing environment, a body-worn computer can assist the user more intelligently, consistently, and continuously than a desktop system. A text-based augmented reality, the Remembrance Agent, is presented to illustrate this approach. Video cameras are used both to warp the visual input (mediated reality) and to sense the user's world for graphical overlay. With a camera, the computer tracks the user's finger, which acts as the system's mouse; performs face recognition; and detects passive objects to overlay 2.5D and 3D graphics onto the real world. Additional apparatus such as audio systems, infrared beacons for sensing location, and biosensors for learning about the wearer's affect are described. Using the input from these interfac...

The Locust infared system provides location information and messaging without batteries and without its own network. The system is "privacy aware" in that it supplies information to the wearable computer user who can then control how much of this information is shared with others or the installed infrastructure. By combining the abilities of Locusts with an appropriately equipped wearable computer, the user can interact with web-like hyperlinks, graphics, and sounds virtually associated with objects in the physical world. In addition the user can annotate and change these links as desired. 1 The Need for an Indoor Location System The U.S. military's satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) can provide meter precision position information anywhere on the planet. Unfortunately, the radio frequencies used prevent the system from being effective indoors. However, many applications need indoor position information. For example, an indoor paging system might use position information t...

Since 1993, members of the MIT Wearable Computing Project have been engaged in a "living experiment, " incorporating wearable computing into their everyday lives. Such immediate access to computation power enables a unique lifestyle and has many social implications. Through the use of anecdotes, this paper will attempt to relate our observations on the perception and adoption of new technology, interface issues, collaboration, and privacy as related to the intimate use of wearable computing.

Small, body-mounted video cameras enable a different style of wearable computing interface. As processing power increases, a wearable computer can spend more time observing its user to provide serendipitous information, manage interruptions and tasks, and predict future needs without being directly commanded by the user. This paper introduces an assistant for playing the real-space game Patrol. This assistant tracks the wearer’s location and current task through computer vision techniques and without off-body infrastructure. In addition, this paper continues augmented reality research, started in 1995, for binding virtual data to physical locations. 1.

We consider wearable computing applications which rely on audio as a primary medium of the interface. This paper surveys a range of interaction techniques which may be applied to the design of wearable audio computers (WACs). A summary of several speech and audio processing technologies which can be used in the interface of WACs are reviewed. We present several usage scenarios and focus on two specific systems which we are currently implementing. Nomadic Radio is a 3-D audio application which provides the user with a personalized and dynamic audio-only information environment. We are also developing an adaptive speech recognition system; an application based on this system enables hearing impaired users to visualize speech. Future research areas include adaptive interfaces, automatic situational awareness and focus of attention in wearable audio computing.

In this paper, we explore the concept of dual--purpose speech: speech that is socially appropriate in the context of a human-- to--human conversation which also provides meaningful input to a computer. We motivate the use of dual--purpose speech and explore issues of privacy and technological challenges related to mobile speech recognition. We present three applications that utilize dual--purpose speech to assist a user in conversational tasks: the Calendar Navigator Agent, DialogTabs, and Speech Courier. The Calendar Navigator Agent navigates a user's calendar based on socially appropriate speech used while scheduling appointments. DialogTabs allows a user to postpone cognitive processing of conversational material by proving short--term capture of transient information. Finally, Speech Courier allows asynchronous delivery of relevant conversational information to a third party. Additional Keywords and Phrases: Speech user interfaces, dual--purpose speech, mobile computing 1

On the basis of corpus analysis, we havemade directiongiving dialog system which adjust the pace of dialog without using speech recognition. And we evaluate the naturalness of the resulting conversations by experiments. Then the system showed good performance. And also the possibility of prosody to compensate for the weak points of speech recognition. 1

This paper presents the “extremity ” approach to creating user-interface experiences. We describe a class of dataacquisition systems called “extremity-computing devices” and their broad implications to user-interface design scenarios. These devices are used to interface sensors and effectors in wearable-computer applications. Instead of wearing a complete computer, outfitted with interface, storage, and processing components, a user needs only to wear sensors attached to a small microcontroller-based device with rudimentary user interface, local storage, and off-body transfer. Users access data externally, on a device of their choice: hand-held, laptop, or desktop computer, cell phone, etc. We have used extremity devices to gather physiological and motion data, surrounding temperature and lighting conditions, proximity, and the identity of people and objects nearby. We have utilized data gathered by these devices in applications in the areas of education, research, healthcare, and entertainment. The value of the extremity-computing approach for rapid design is shown, as are robust demonstrations of scenarios, including: medical applications for a collaborative exercise game; stress monitoring and feedback; biofeedback training tools; biofeedback controlling toys and game software, teaching people to swing a baseball bat correctly; and helping understand principles of lie detection.

: Wearable computing will change the current paradigms of human-computer interaction. With heads-up displays, unobtrusive input devices, personal wireless local area networks, and a host of other context sensing and communication tools, wearable computing can provide the user with a portable augmented reality where many aspects of everyday life can be electronically assisted. This paper focuses on several such situations, such as an academic or business conference, classroom note-taking, office communication, maintenance, or a visit to a museum. 1 Introduction The recent push for smaller and faster notebook computers is indicative of a major trend in computing. Users want computers that are as portable and convenient as possible to help them with daily activities. In order to accommodate this trend, keyboard-less Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's) were introduced. Current attempts at a PDA revolve around pen computing. While handwriting recognition will improve, these systems will a...

1 Motivation for contextual aware computing: For most computer systems, even virtual reality systems, sensing techniques are a means of getting input directly from the user. However, wearable sensors and computers offer a unique opportunity to re-direct sensing technology towards recovering more general user context. Wearable computers have the potential to "see" as the user sees, "hear" as the user hears, and experience the life of the user in a "first-person" sense. This increase in contextual and user information may lead to more intelligent and fluid interfaces that use the physical world as part of the interface. Wearable computers are excellent platforms for contextually aware applications, but these applications are also necessary to use wearables to their fullest. Wearables are more than just highly portable computers, they perform useful work even while the wearer isn't directly interacting with the system. In such environments the user needs to concentrate on his environment, not on the computer interface, so the wearable needs to use information from the wearer's context to be the least distracting. For example, imagine an interface which is aware of the user's location: while being in the subway, the system might alert him with a