I want my tiny wearable supercomputer!

I’m completely unsatisfied with the portable computers currently available.  So I’ve decided to do some articulate whining about how much I want a super-intuitive wearable computer.

Mostly, I have issues with the current form factors of Ultra Mobile PCs and other Pocket PC devices. Two improvements are just waiting to happen: improved input, and big screen.

Until we can have beautiful hologram images instantly created in the air in front of us, we should be able at least to have a virtual wide-screen.  (And no, miniature projectors don’t quite count, because you still have to project them onto something.) I’m impressed with the new MyVu Crystal model, which is supposed to be like looking at a big-screen from about eight feet away.

Picture of the MyVu Crystal headset. But if you're reading this caption instead of looking at the picture, maybe image-viewing technology is just not your thing...

Since I’m dreaming about the perfect wearable supercomputer, I won’t worry about the price, so lets just go ahead and integrate something like this into the design.

Now that we’ve eliminated the need for our little portable computer to have a screen on it, we’re also not stuck with a squarish form factor.  With laptops, they arrange all the other computer parts into a flat square because that way it can fold up next to the square-shaped monitor.  Now, we can put our computer parts together however we want, in whatever shape, or even separate them or stretch them out.

They now have tiny pocket-sized computers with speeds and performance rivaling any full-sized desktop PC, and they expect you to operate it using a thumb pad?!?!?  It’s ridiculous.  I need at least nine fingers (the left thumb is redundantly placed on the space bar) to maximize my typing speed.  Carrying a portable computer is supposed to increase your efficiency, not slow you down.  And yet, typing a single e-mail or writing any length of text would take a prohibitively long time.  And yet, carrying a full sized keyboard has two setbacks:  it’s big, and you would have to set it down on a surface in order to use it.  You can stand in line and type (albeit maddeningly slowly) on a device with a thumb pad, but not a keyboard.

So this is the tougher of the two major problems.  Finding a way to allow the user 9-finger typing while standing, or at least without making them carry around anything much bigger than a cell phone.

They’ve made projection keyboards, but some people have described these as being hard to use, and anyway they still need to be projected down onto a desk surface, so you still won’t be able to type while you stand in line. Rubber rolling keyboards and hand sensors all fall to this same flaw.

These hand-straps look like a great idea, but without the visual and tactile feedback of hitting a key, its hard to believe that you could do much typing without there being too many errors for the text to be useful.

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Voice recognition technology is still far from satisfactory, although it really is making improvements.  Hopefully, once someone manages to improve it and starts to extend the application of statistical translation from foreign languages to computer instructions, computers will have an easier time figuring out what we want when we’re cursing at them, as well as allowing us to enter text as fast as we can speak.

Adding facial expression recognition and eye movement tracking will allow us to communicate more information to a computer (or to other people through a computer) in less time.

Even more interesting to me is the possibility of communicating with your computer by subvocalization (when you mentally speak words, “hearing” them in your thoughts) and also by non-verbal thoughts.

Photo by NASA Ames Research Center, Dominic Hart.

NASA has gotten some attention for their initial developments in detecting and making sense of nerve signals around the throat, which are analyzed and read by a computer as speech. Adding this technology should be able to enhance the clarity of voice recognition software, eliminating the need to rely upon microphones that often garble the message because of background noise.  It would also allow you to hold a phone conversation silently, control key functions on your computer using mentally “spoken” commands, and dictate text clearly in noisy environments.

Here is a product called EPOC from Emotiv Systems.  It is designed to be used as a gaming interface, reading the wearer’s facial expressions, levels of concentration and excitement, and several functions associated with moving and manipulating virtual objects.  The intention to push, pull, rotate, or lift an object, for example, can be detected and conveyed to the computer.  This would be the ideal gaming peripheral for fans of Star Wars games, allowing players to “use the force” in a more direct and satisfying way, if LucasArts will be willing to adapt the games for use with this device.

Beyond gaming applications, this device could also be used for standard user input.  Folders or programs could be opened by “pulling” on them, buttons and links could be clicked by “pushing” on them, and web pages could be scrolled by concentrating on a desire to “lift” the text.  If eye tracking were incorporated, you could specify to the computer exactly which icon or program should be the recipient of an instruction by looking at it while issuing your thought commands.

There is also the possibility of using these technologies to create “augmented reality” applications.  Augmented Reality (AR) is when virtual reality objects are layered or incorporated into the real world.  If you were wearing a semi-transparent virtual-screen in front of your eyes, you would be able to see the real world around you, and virtual objects could also be displayed to your eyes as if they were in the real world area that you were looking at.  For example, an office could leave a “virtual business card” on the desk next to the physical business cards, and reaching for the virtual card would copy the information from the card into your digital rolodex.

Gamers could enjoy the ultimate 3D gaming experience by incorporating game objects or images into their real environment, allowing them to play with others outdoors, moving their physical bodies instead of using keystrokes to control the body movements of an avatar.  A combination of player types could exist in the same field, too.  A virtual environment playing field (eg World of Warcraft) could be established in a public park using WiFi and cameras.  Some users would enter the park physically while wearing an AR system to be able to see and interact with virtual characters, objects, and materials.  Other players who are not physically in the park, but would still like to join the fun could also send their avatars to play!  It would almost be like the Star Trek Holodeck, only lacking the ability to interact physically with virtual objects.

As long as we’re interacting with AR, lets throw some WiiMote technology into gloves and shoes, allowing games to take into account the speed and force of gestures (eg punching, throwing, kicking) to make the physical aspects of game interaction more complete.  Video games could provide wonderfully entertaining physical exercise!

As these technologies continue to develop and improve, hopefully they will shrink in size and grow in battery life.  Integration of several technologies together into a single “enhanced user interface” could expand human-computer interaction bandwidth considerably, allowing us extended and improved use of our portable digital powerhouse devices.

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