Emerging Trends – Body Wearable Computers Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

Wearable computing facilitates a new form of human-computer interaction comprising a small body-worn component that is always on and always ready and accessible. This new computational framework differs from that of hand held devices, laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The always ready” capability leads to a new form of synergy between human and computer, characterized by long-term adaptation through constancy of user-interface. A wearable computer is a computer that is intertwined into the personal space of the user, controlled by the user, and is always on and always accessible. Most notably, it is a device that is always with the user, and into which the user can always enter commands and executes a set of such entered commands. Unlike these other wearable devices that are not programmable, the wearable computer is as re-configurable as the family desktop or corporate mainframe computer. This is what sets the wearable computer apart from other wearable devices such as wristwatches, regular eyeglasses, and wearable radios.

Identification

The best definitions probably given to date are those of Steve Mann. Steve Mann is a self-appointed, and none opposed leader in the body wearable computer field. To avoid confusion and changing the meanings of Steve s definitions I included them in their entirety from Steve Mann s Keynote Address, 1998.

Constancy, the computer runs continuously, and is always ready to interact with the user. Unlike a hand-held device, laptop computer, or PDA, it does not need to be opened up and turned on prior to use. The signal flow from human to computer, and computer to human, runs continuously to provide a constant user-interface.

Augmentation, traditional computing paradigms are based on the notion that computing is the primary task. Wearable computing, however, is based on the notion that computing is NOT the primary task. The assumption of wearable computing is that the user will be doing something else at the same time as doing the computing. Thus the computer should serve to augment the intellect, or augment the senses.

Mediation, unlike hand held devices, laptop computers, and PDAs, the wearable computer can encapsulate us. It doesn’t necessarily need to completely enclose us, but the concept allows for a greater degree of encapsulation than traditional portable computers.

Steve goes on to emphasize that we need this encapsulation and it is extremely important to the success of body wearable computers. Encapsulation offers solitude as an information filter, which allows us to block out material we might not wish to experience or desire to replace with different media. Body wearable computers essentially can simply allow us to alter our perception of reality.

Mediation through privacy will allow us to block or modify information leaving our encapsulated space, in the same way that ordinary clothing prevents others from seeing our naked bodies. The wearable computer may, for example, serve as a medium for interacting with untrusted systems, such as third party digital anonymous cash cyberwallets . Steve Mann had said, Martial artists, especially stick fighters, wear a long black robe that comes right down to the ground, in order to hide the placement of their feet from their opponent. Wearable computing can also be used to clothe our otherwise transparent movements in cyberspace. Although other technologies, like desktop computers, can help us protect our privacy with programs like Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the unprotected void of these systems is the space between us and them or today known as the Internet. It is generally far easier for an attacker to compromise the link between the Internet and us with means such as so-called trojan horses or other planted virus, than it is to compromise the link between our computer and us. With wearable computing, it can be used to create a new level of personal privacy because it can be made much more personal, as so that it is always worn. The close synergy between the human and computers makes it harder to attack directly, for example, data may be obtained through means such as; one might peek over a person’s shoulder while they are typing, or hide a video camera in the ceiling above their keyboard. The wearable computer can take the form of undergarments that are encapsulated in an outer covering or outerwear of fine conductive fabric to protect from an attacker looking at radio frequency emissions. Because of its ability to encapsulate us, it may also be able to make measurements of various physiological quantities. Wearable computing is a framework for enabling various degrees of each of the three fundamental modes of operation, Constancy, Augmentation, and Mediation. While individual embodiments of wearable computing may use some mixture of these concepts, the signal paths provide the framework.

Analyzation

The six attributes (six signal paths) of wearable computing.

There are six attributes associated with this new human-machine synergy. These signal paths are attributes of wearable computing and would be required to fill the void of wearable computing. The user finds it UNMONOPOLIZING of the user’s attention. It does not cut you off from the outside world like a virtual reality game. It is built with the assumption that computing will be a secondary activity, rather than a primary focus of attention. Ideally, it will provide enhanced sensory capabilities. One will be able to use it as an UNRESTRICTIVE addition to oneself. Augmentation whether surgically implanted or worn does not interfere with normal activities. Ambulatory, mobile, roving, you can do other things while using it , for example, you can type while jogging. The user finds that the unit is highly OBSERVABLE. It can get your attention continuously, if you want it to. Almost-always-observable, within reason the output medium is constantly perceptible by the wearer. It is CONTROLLABLE by the user. Responsive, you can grab control of it at any time you wish. Even in automated processes you can manually override to break open the control loop and become part of the loop at any time you want. An example of immediate control would be the ability to halt such common mistakes in applications today; One might highlight 50 documents and hits enter, the application spawns a process to open all 50 documents. Not actually what the user wanted, with immediate control implemented into wearable computers, the user can hit the big halt button to stop process immediately and redefine the criteria for which the improper command was spawned. It would be ATTENTIVE to the environment. Environmentally aware, temperature, humidity, and air pressure for example. User is able to use it as a COMMUNICATIVE device to others. Can be used as a communications medium when you want it to. Allows the wearer to be expressive through the medium, whether as a direct communications medium to others or as means of assisting the production of expressive media (artistic or otherwise).

Implied by the above six properties is that it must also be, constant and always ready. Always ready meaning that it may have sleep modes but never dead. Unlike a laptop computer which must be opened up, switched on, and booted up before use, it is always on and always running. The Human and computer are inextricably intertwined making it inter-personal. Prosthetic to the point that one can adapt to it so that it acts as a true extension of mind and body; after time you forget that you are wearing it. Must be assertive, can have barrier to prohibition or to requests by others for removal during times when you wish such a barrier. Taking for example, a laptop computer in briefcase or bag that could be separated from you by a please leave all bags and briefcases at the counter policy of a department store, library, or even airports. We have to have complete privacy; others can’t observe or control it unless you let them. Others can’t determine system status unless you want them to, for example, a clerk at the checkout counter in department store where photography is prohibited can’t tell whether or not you are transmitting wireless video to a spouse for remote advice. In contrast to camcorder technology where it is obvious you are taking a picture when you hold it up to your eye.

At the Keynotes Conference of 1998, Steve Mann closed with the remarks, The most fundamental paradigm shift that wearable computing has to offer is that of personal empowerment. That is in itself enough to scare most people to death. Do we really want to have that much control over our bodies? Some historical examples of tools of empowerment that have been used in the past to present were used as examples at the Keynotes Conference. I have chosen a few in the following paragraphs to share with you.

In early civilization, individuals were all roughly equal, militarily. How many heads of cattle or how many mounts a person owned generally determined wealth. In hand-to-hand combat or fighting with swords, each individual was roughly an equal. Since it was impossible to stay on a horse while fighting, horses provided little in the way of military power. The invention of the stirrup, however, radically changed this balance. With the stirrup, it became possible to stay on a horse while fighting.

Horses and heavy armor could only be afforded by the wealthy, and even a large group of unruly peasants was no match for a much smaller group of mounted cavalry. With the invention of gunpowder, the ordinary civilian was powerless against soldiers or bandits armed with guns. It was not until guns became cheap enough that everyone could own one. The Colt 45, for example, was known as the equalizer because it made everyone roughly equal. Even if one person were much more skilled in its use, there would still be some risk involved in robbing other civilians or looting someone’s home.

In today’s world, the handgun has a lesser role to play. Wars are fought with information, and we live in a world in which the appearance of thugs and bandits is not uncreated. While there is some crime, we spend most of our lives living in relative peace. However, surveillance and mass media have become the new instruments of social control. Department stores are protected with security cameras rather than by owners keeping a shotgun under the counter or hiring armed guards to provide a visible deterrent. While some department stores in rough neighborhoods may have armed guards, there has been a paradigm shift where we see less guns and more surveillance cameras.

Draconian punishment has evolved and shifted to less severe punishments, inflicted with greater certainty. In the Middle Ages, the lack of sophisticated surveillance and communications networks meant that criminals often escaped detection or capture, but when they were captured, punishments were extremely severe. Gruesome corporal punishments where criminals might be crucified, or whipped, branded, drawn and quartered, and then burned at the stake, were quite common in these times.

The evolution from punishment as a spectacle in which people where tortured to death in the village square, toward incarceration in which people were locked in a cell, and forced to attend church sermons, prison lectures, etc., marked the first step in a paradigm shift toward less severe punishments.

Combined with improved forensic technologies like fingerprinting, this reduction in the severity of punishment came together with a greater chance of getting caught. More recently, with the advent of so-called boot camp , where delinquent youths are sent off for mandatory military-style training, the trend continues by addressing social problems earlier before they become large problems. This requires greater surveillance and monitoring, but at the same time is characterized by less severe actions taken against those who are deemed to require these actions. Thus there is, again, still greater chance of being affected by smaller punishments.

At some point, the forces applied to the subjects of the social control are too weak to even justify the use of the word punishment , and perhaps it might be better referred to as micro management .

Subjecting the population to mass media, advertising, and calming music played in department stores, elevators, and subway stations may effect this micro management of society. Surveillance is also spreading into areas that were generally private in earlier times. The surveillance cameras that were placed in banks have moved to department stores. They first appeared above cash registers to deal with major crimes like holdups. But then they moved into the aisles and spread throughout the store to deal with petty theft. Cameras have even spread into restaurants and pubs. Not just above the cash register, but throughout the pub, so that going out for beers, one may no longer have privacy. Vandalism seems to be the largest known reason or excuse for the move to a camera or micro-managed world. One particularly subtle form of social control using this technology, are the new hands free electronic showers developed for use in prisons where inmates would otherwise break off knobs, levers, and pushbuttons. These showers are just beginning to appear in government buildings, stadiums, health clubs, and schools. The peace and solitude of the shower, where our greatest inspirations might come to us, has been intruded upon with not a major punishment, but a very minor form of social control, too small in fact to even be called a punishment.

These surveillance and social control systems are linked together, often to central computer systems. Everything from surveillance cameras in the bank, to electronic plumbing networks is being equipped with fiber optic communications networks. Together with the vast array of medical records, credit card purchases, buying preferences, etc., we are affected in more ways, but with lesser influence. More often than being influenced by weapons, we are influenced in very slight, almost imperceptible ways, for example, through a deluge of junk mail, marketing, advertising, or a shower that shuts off after it sees that we’ve been standing under it for too long.

As with other technologies, like the stirrup and gunpowder, the electronic surveillance playing field is also being leveled. The advent of the low-cost personal computer has allowed individuals to communicate freely and easily among them. No longer are the major media conglomerates the sole voice heard in our homes. The World Wide Web has ushered in a new era of underground news and alternative content. Centralized computing facilities, the very technology that many perceived as a threat to human individuality and freedom, and has given way to low cost personal computers that many people can afford. This is not to say that home computers will be as big or powerful as the larger computers used by large corporations or governments. Who is not to say that, if a large number of people have a moderate degree of computational resources that there would be a sense of balance, in which people are equal? The same sense that two people, face to face, one with a 22 caliber handgun and the other with a 45 caliber are roughly equal. A large bullet hole or a small one, both provides a tangible and real risk of death or injury. It is perhaps modern cryptography that makes this balance even more pronounced, for it is so many orders of magnitude easier to encrypt a message than it is to decrypt it. Accordingly, many governments have defined cryptography as munitions and attempted, with only limited success, to restrict its use.

Suggestions

The most fundamental issue in wearable computing is no doubt that of personal empowerment, through its ability to equip the individual with a personalized, customizable information space, owned, operated, and controlled by the wearer. While home computers have gone a long way to empowering the individual, they only do so when the user is at home. As the home is perhaps the last bastion of space that has not yet been touched by the long arm of surveillance; this space that one can call one’s own. The home computer, while it does provide an increase in personal empowerment, is not nearly so profound in its effect as the wearable computer, which brings this personal space out into the world.

An important observation to make, early adopters military, government, large multi-national corporations, and so forth is the time scale. While it took hundreds of years for the stirrup to be adopted by the masses, and tens of years for guns to be adopted by the masses, the spread of computer technology must be measured in computer years. As the technology moves faster, the military is losing its edge. We are entering an era in which consumer electronics is surpassing the technological sophistication of some military electronics.

Consumer technology has already brought about a certain degree of personal empowerment, from the portable cassette player that lets us replace the music piped into department stores with whatever we would rather hear, to small hand held cameras that capture police brutality and human rights violations. However, wearable computing is just beginning to bring about a much greater paradigm shift, which may well be equivalent in its impact to the invention of the stirrup, or that of gunpowder. Moreover, this leveling of the playing field may, for the first time in history, happen almost instantaneously, should the major consumer electronics manufacturers beat the military to raising this invention to a level of perfection similar to that of the stirrup or modern handguns. If this were to happen, this decreasing of the time scale over which technology diffuses through society will have decreased to zero, resulting in a new kind of paradigm shift that society has not yet experienced.

Summary

There are several aspects and affordances of wearable computing. This subject is so vast, had I known it would have led me to so many resources for obtaining information on the subject; I probably would have chosen another emerging trend that was centralized in one location. I found it very hard to collect and condense this information into one paper that made sense. Allot of the data collected stands out in my memory and to highlight a few, with wearable computers, a photographic memory is possible, which provide a perfect recall of previously collected information. Memory could be shared, In a collective sense, two or more individuals may share in their collective consciousness, so that one may have a recall of information that one need not have experienced personally. Much in the same way the Science Fiction series of Star-Trek and the Borg Collective. Connected collective humanistic intelligence, again a Borg Collective idea (Try looking this highlight up on the internet; Why do most of the sites require a password?). In a collective sense, two or more individuals may collaborate while one or more of them are doing another primary task. In contrast to a centralized surveillance network built into the architecture of the city, a personal safety system is built into the architecture (clothing) of the individual or the augmentation, providing a safety feature. The human body generates enough power internally today to power small electrical devices, thereby, modifications could allow for a totally tether-less operation of wearable computers. Rather than attempting to emulate human intelligence in the computer, as is a common goal of research in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the goal of wearable computing is to produce a synergistic combination of human and machine. The human performs tasks that it is better at, while the computer performs tasks that it is better at. Over an extended period of time, the wearable computer begins to function as a true extension of the mind and body, and no longer feels as if it is a separate entity. In fact, the user will often adapt to the apparatus to such a degree, that when taking it off, its absence will feel uncomfortable. This intimate and constant bonding is such that the combined capabilities of the resulting synergistic whole far exceed the sum of either. Synergy, in which the human being and computer become elements of each other’s feedback loop, is often called Humanistic Intelligence (HI). Wearable computing is capable of enhancing day-to-day experiences, not just in the workplace, but in all facets of daily life.

Technology is advancing at record rates. Technology has actually passed human comprehension years ago. Do we have a right to implant these microchips in our bodies to enhance our motor driven skills, and obtain that edge over our competition? Should the government condone the use of cameras and personal computers for the use of monitoring and controlling society? Does the government have the right to dictate our every movement? With the advent of personal wearable computers the government could loose their inevitable edge over the population. Let us not forget the fore mentioned fundamental reason for wearable computing: is no doubt that of personal empowerment.

References (APA)

Mann, S. (1998, May). Keynote Address: Wearable Computing as a Means of Personal Empowerment. International Conference on Wearable Computers [Online],

Bass (1997) What are Wearable Computers? [Online], Available: http://www.bham.ac.uk/ManMechEng/IEG/w1.html

IEEE Computer Society. (1997). 1st International Symposium on Wearable Computers, ISWE 97. NL: IEEE Computer Society,

Wilson, R.L., & Latham, S. (1989). Colt: An American Legend, Abbevile Promotional, (Sesquicentennial Edition), December 1989

Goddard, W.H., (1998). The Government Models: The Development of the Colt model of 1911, Andrew Mowbray Pub.

Prestwich, M., (1996). Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience, Yale University Press.