ABSTRACT
Wearable computers are fully functional, self-powered, self-contained computers that allow the user to access information anywhere and at any time (Mann, 1996; Mann, 1997a; Barfield and Baird, 1998; Bass, Kasabach, Martin, Siewiorek, Smailagic, and Stivoric, 1997). Until just recently,
wearable computers consisted of fairly obtrusive computer displays, CPUs, and input devices, worn on the user’s body (Figure 15.1). However, due to advances in microelectronics, developments in networking, and growing interest from the public, designers of wearable computers are beginning to focus on the issue of making these systems look more like clothing and less like computers. For example, in the area of visual displays, a covert eyeglassbased display was built in 1995 (Mann, 1997a,b). Others later built an eyeglass-based display in 1997 (Spitzer, Rensing, McClelland, and Aquilino 1997) that was intended for eventual commercialization. Beginning in 1982, Eleveld and Mann began to experiment with the design of computers built directly into clothing, and the notion of flexible computational garments was developed (Mann, 1997a,b). Others have more recently experimented with the idea of flexible clothing based computing (Post and Orth, 1997).
