Re: [9fans] Wearables

[john@csplan9.rit.edu]

> john@csplan9.rit.edu wrote:
>>> lucio@proxima.alt.za wrote:
>>> But if ever there was a market born to take best advantage of Plan9's long suit, 
>>> handheld, or 'wearable' has to be the most obvious contender, and on power nd 
>>> bandwidth consumption as much as CPU cycles or 'local' RAM capacity.
>>>
>> 
>> A friend and I are starting a project to create a simple wearable computer. We've
>> got some hardware to get started; probably will begin with a laptop, our camera
>> viewfinder HMD, and a keyboard strapped around the waist (crude, I know) or 
>> some form of home-brewed chording device. I considered using Plan 9, but since
>> we don't plan to include a pointing device yet, and the viewfinder can only display
>> low resolutions and in black and white, I think we'll end up going with something
>> designed to be used 80x24 characters at a time... Linux. If somebody can present
>> me with some good reasons to use Plan 9 instead, we can try it, but I really
>> don't think Plan 9 actually is ideal for a wearable.
>> 
>> John
>> 
>> 
> 
> 'Ideal' only in two senses:
> 
> - Very well-suited to having the 'heavy' resources remoted over reasonably 
> efficient (low bandwidth) networking.
> 
> - lacking a GP GUI (rio/acme are, IMNSHO, a coder's IDE, not a GP GUI), but 
> having lightweight tools to implement one (drawterm, VNC)  - so you can do 
> 'locally' only what your app really *must* do locally.

I'm not really looking forward to dealing with rio at the very low resolutions
our device uses. The idea of window management on such a display, barring
the use of wmii or dwm, seems ludicrous.


> As to 'pointing device' - why not a tilt-disk, 'clit' or trackball? All of which 
> are cheaply salvaged from new or used hardware. Chording the 'Plan9 way' is not 
> an absolute requirement - just one already built-in.
> 
> Viewing device?  'Virtual reality' headset, perhaps?

As I mentioned initially, we're using a camcorder viewfinder as the display.
That means black and white, low resolution (composite input). Until we can
get club approval (Robotics club), our budget is nil; we're working on
scavenged equipment.

> 
> Or go the other way...
> 
> text-to-speech in an earpiece, speech-to-text from a mic.
> 
> 'Heavy' CPU to convert bothways accurately is remoted.
> 
> Might mean the heaviest thing you have to wear is...
> 
> ...a 'dumb' telephone handset and a thin LCD for graphics when needed.

Although we do intend to write specialized code for the project, I do not
want to write a text-to-speech and speech-to-text suite right now.


> 
> My biggest personal objection to most modern PDA/phone rigs (Blackberry, Treo, 
> et al) is the need to grab a stylus and/or otherwise use BOTH hands when NO 
> hands is a nicer goal, and ONE hand was possible even with the ancient HP-200-LX 
> (thumb-typing).
> 
> Belt-mount and Bluetooth or similar seems a good idea though.
> 
> Linux? Far too 'heavy', even stripped - which is not as easy as it sounds if you 
> need even basic functionality). if not Plan9, then Minix3 revanche is lighter 
> (and very Posix compliant)

Most likely candidate right now is a Linux laptop in a shoulder bag or Slackware
installed on a mini PC we have in the lab.
 
> But might be better-off with DRDOS and GEM. Seriously.
> 
> Find an HP-100/200-LX (MSDOS, not DRDOS) and see what was possible lo those many 
> years ago with a couple of the right PCMCIA cards and lithium AA batteries.
> 
> Used to carry a pair of clip leads and external twin D-cell holder to send faxes 
> and login to CompuServe from hotel rooms. Purchased and discarded batteries 
> locally so as to not have to carry the weight or a charger. ELSE 'borrowed' the 
> rechargeable emergency flashlight found in many hotels.
> 
> 'Too soon we forget' how much could be accomplished with a lowly VT-whatever 
> 'dumb terminal' connected to the right support infrastructure at a mere 1200 - 
> 9600 bps.
> 

This is what I want. That's why Linux seems like a decent candidate. The hardware
we're looking at can handle it just fine. It gives us a VT type interface. Couple
that with campus wireless and we can connect to whatever "support infrastructure"
we want.


John "Plan 9 Koolaid" Floren