computer_hat

My working environment is not very inspirational, or healthy. It is an office on the 4th floor, filled with extremely generic office furniture. The majority of my life is spent sitting in front of my laptop, typing. I would like to be able to write, code, chat, and generally be connected on the move. Not all the time, but I’m getting tired of being trapped at a desk if I want to do these things efficiently.

A thing I want to buy, or make, or help make, is basically a computer hat. The main problem that needs to be solved for this is that of efficient hands free input of text. There has been a lot of work on brain-computer interfaces (see wikipedia for its usual just-about-trustworthy overview). I’d like to see how far you can get with an EEG, a big list of words, and some months training. Otherwise, eye tracking could be an option, or an accelerometer on a finger with some gesture recognition.

Invasive or “semi-invasive” brain implants are not an option right now. I’d also prefer to stay away from voice recognition because it’s still pretty inaccurate and it feels awkward and it wouldn’t work so well in noisy places and people would look at you funny for talking to yourself. Part of the motivation would be to produce a wearable computer that doesn’t make you look completely insane. It will still make you look a bit insane, but I think this could be limited. The head mounted display will be the most obvious thing.

1. running an operating system (ideally ubuntu, but I would settle for embedded linux to start with, Windows XP or OS X would also be fine I guess). #running a terminal of some form, Vim and a browser (links would be just about acceptable, especially now that lots of sites are providing “mobile” versions which are actually usable in links.)
2. hands free text input (see above, yes)
3. networking: 3G or wifi
4. storage: probably a few gigs, probably an SD card.
5. battery: chunky, would need to last for at least 8 hours of use. Ideally 16. Would have to find the right balance of duration and weight.
6. display: some form of head mounted display. Either one of those tiny displays that could dangle from the brim of the hat, or the full on VR style goggles. Ideally switchable between the two depending on whether you need to see the outside world or not.

1. audio: an audio jack and headphones would make sense. Also a microphone.
2. usb
3. ethernet because I am amused by the concept of by sitting around with cat5 plugged into my head.
4. Both G3 and wifi.
5. Bluetooth
6. Maybe some kind of silly lcd on the outside of the hat which you could post text or images to that people would see. (probably not)

So, I’d like to see if I could turn the hands free text input into a research project at some point, unless someone else solves it or has solved it already.

Anyway, thoughts on this would be appreciated, as would links people have to existing work on stuff like this. If you’re reading this aggregated elsewhere, I’d like comments on norgg.org so discussion can be in one place.

Edit:

I realised over lunch that the initial prototype of this will probably use a gumstix (probably borrowed from the office when we’re not using it), which has bluetooth and wifi and runs embedded linux. I’d need to get an lcd connected up to one. Input could be done using a wiimote (because I have a wii already and they use bluetooth) and gesture recognition.

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