November 04, 2003
Wearable Computers
The 7th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC'03) took place Oct October 21-23, 2003. 
According to the press release "In the past six months, the stocks of publicly traded wearable computer companies have risen 100-400%! In Europe and Asia, funding for research in wearable computers has increased substantially, and wearable devices are becoming mainstream. Cellular phones, wristwatches, and MP3 players from major manufacturers are now reaching computational functionality that was once only demonstrated in research laboratories. Specialized wearable computers are addressing niche markets in inventory control, package routing, and even parking ticket issuing by the New York police. If wearable computing is becoming a reality today, where will the future lead?
The IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) remains at the forefront of mobile computing technology. Academics, industrialists, military and government officials, and the fashion industry will gather for three days October 21-23 in White Plains, NY to discuss the latest research results, demonstrate their latest gadgets, and exhibit current products in the seventh annual convocation of the conference.
Some of the slides of tutorials are available as well as some video.
A sample of the topics discussed are listed below. Next year this should be on our 'must attend list'.
- Applications of wearable systems in consumer, industrial, medical, educational, and military domains.
- Use of wearable computers as components of larger systems, such as augmented reality systems, training systems, or systems designed to support collaborative work.
- Hardware, including wearable system design, input devices, wearable displays, batteries, techniques for power management and heat dissipation, industrial design, and manufacturing issues.
- Software architectures, including ones that allow wearable computers to exploit surrounding infrastructure.
- Human interfaces, including hands-free approaches, speech-based interaction, sensory augmentation, human-centered robotics, user modeling, user evaluation, and health issues.
- Networks, including wireless networks, on-body networks, and support for interaction with other wearables and the Internet.
- Experimental research that rigorously compares using wearables to other methods or technologies for performing the same task, such as traditional methods or handheld computers.
- Operating systems, including such issues as scheduling, security, and power management.
- Social implications and privacy issues.
- Wearable computing for people with disabilities.
Wow!