Skin-Close Computing and Wearable Technology

Andrews Samraj

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000475234
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Engineering
• Index: Computer Science

This book explains the concept of wearable computing, need for wearable technology, its advantages, application areas, state of art developments in this area, required material and technology, possible future applications including cyborg developments and the need for this sphere of influence in the future. The scope encompasses three major components, wearable computing (next generation of conventional computing, ergonomics), wearable technology (medical support, rehabilitation engineering, assistive technology support devices, army/combat usage) and allied technologies (miniature components, reliability, high performance integration, cyber physical systems, robotics).

• Aids reader to recognize the need and functional operations of a wearable computing device
• Includes diversified examples and case studies from different domains
• Presents a hybrid concept relating medical care and augmented reality
• Illustrates product level description examples and research ideas for future development
• Introduces various wearable technologies and other related technologies for enabling wearable computing

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This book is aimed at senior undergraduate, graduate students and researchers in computer and biomedical engineering, bioinstrumentation, biosensors, and assistive technology.

1 Basic Wearable Computing Requirements and Advantages

DOI: 10.1201/9781003052906-1

A wearable computer is an idea hatched out of the continuing efforts to reduce the size and increase the mobility of computers. Though the wearable computers started with a backpack design and a hand-held monitor, there is no limitation now to the place of wearing it because of its small size and connectivity. The major challenge of wearable computers is its battery size and weight since it has to be carried all the time during operations.

The advantages of wearable computers are very obvious, such as the small size, mobility, handling both unconventional and conventional inputs, and convenience of ubiquitous operations.

The conversion of traditional computers from an office machine look to a combination of a more intimate, carry along, anytime, anywhere characteristic wearable brought it to the place where it is now. The computing concepts of input preparation from papers to tapes are all changed into a new generation of input devices called sensors. Thus, the office computing is changed into skin-close computing with all its advantages and thrills. Instead of blaming wearables for any disadvantages, the scientists of this field are taking it as a continuous challenge and are trying to remove, reform, and change any adverse effects into an advantage.

It was the fashion and trend of the late '90s for the businessmen, IT professionals, and students to carry a laptop bag. The advantages seen by this ‘out of lab’ experience were enormous, and later the use of laptops became unavoidable and came into common practice. Some companies immediately jumped into the production of palmtop computers, and it reached well among the young business people and executives. The touch-screen technology was effectively adopted in such machines and was greatly helpful in all operations, including the incorporation of mobile phones into it. But nowadays, the mobile phone has taken all these palmtops and allied devices into it and has expanded its scope with enormous application range.

The requirement of a mobile phone is a typical example of the requirement of a wearable computer now. The wearables, such as Bluetooth devices, remote devices like CCTV cameras, phone-to-phone connectivity, phone-to-device connectivity, and many mobile phones connecting into common apps, are the enhancements made to the common area between mobile computing and wearable computing.

The basic wearable computing requirements are not much different from a conventional mobile computer or a desktop, except in size, but include additional equipment to carry/attach them to the body of a person. Input, CPU, memory, output, and control units are very well present in wearable computing architecture but in a different form or shape that are ergonomically comfortable for a person.

The traditional input/output (I/O) devices are to be replaced with a real-time I/O device, such as sensors, to simplify the system design in the wearable computers that in turn made the process load less complex.

In summary, wearables contain input sensors, camera, microphone, temperature/heat sensors, moisture sensors, bend sensors, shock sensors, eye trackers, etc.

Its output devices are head-mounted display, speaker, microdisplay, flat panels, text-to-speech, tactile output, nonspeech auditory output, paper, and olfactory output (scent), etc., and a wearable can respond to its interface without a processor or processing.

1.1 Wearable Computing and Wearables

The first-generation wearable computers are to be literally carried on the body and clipped, hooked to the body and dress. Wires also need to be plugged for connections. As a new generation with the advent of skin-close sensors (tattooed/sticked/skin touchable) it was made simple as wearable to wrists, fingers, forearms, head, ears, chest, and every human body part. ZYPAD is a typical example of a wearable computing PDA braced to the hand and called a wrist-worn PC, weighing less than 300 gms. It uses a CPU AU 1100 @400MHz with Linux kernel 2.6 and windows CE 5.0 as operating system of choice. It inherits most characteristics of a laptop, such as automatic standby mode, dead reckoning, GPS connections, Bluetooth, IrDA, and Wi-Fi.

The difference between wearable computing and wearables is wide and thin. Wide in the case of passive and traditional wearable material/objects and thin in the case of smart devices, input medium, and data acquiring devices that are in the form of wearables. Technically, the traditional wearables like ornaments are not relevant to the technology unless they are modified, embedded with some components of technical purpose. Hence, to the context of the wearable technology (WT), ‘wearable’ directly refers to the devices that work along with the technology for quantification, communication, and processing purposes in WT.

The thin difference mentioned between wearable computers and wearables is similar to the Processing Elements (PEs) and a processor (μP). PEs are limited to homogeneous operations, predefined I/O functions, and recursive operations. But a processor is independent, versatile, and heterogeneous in operations. Similarly, the wearables can be defined as a part of wearable computers (sometimes as a whole) that passes the necessary output information, raw or processed, and can be used, interpreted by other parts of the application technology framework. Many companies like Fossil, Sony, Seiko, Timex, Hitachi, and Panasonic also came into this wearable computing market and contributed to their portions. Google ventured with a complete paradigm shift in wearable computing from 2013 onwards. At this point, the specialized smart devices like earbud wearables were brought into market by LG and IRIVER and shifted the wearable computing from all-purpose wearable computing to special-purpose wearables. Another example is the WSS1000 barcode scanner.

The WT outpaces the traditional, less flexible, and heavier equipment into an easy, lightweight, and fashion device. The fitness tracker headsets that play music and listen to what the user speaks to initiate an activity, advanced sports watches that record and replay the statistics of a player’s performance, augmented reality headsets that give not only an entertainment but also tutorial based on the inputs given. These are all the examples of wearables that adopt a little processing which they are capable of performing.

Wearable devices are mostly portable, but not all the portable devices are wearable. There is a slight difference between them. Wearable devices are distinctive from portable devices by letting hands-free interaction, or minimal use of hands, when using the device. This is achieved by the devices when they are actually worn on the body. Examples of such devices are head-mounted devices, wristbands, vests, belts, shoes, etc. On the other hand, portable devices are always found to be compact, lightweight, and they can be easily carried but not worn by the user and definitely require constant hand interaction. Examples of such devices are tactile displays, electronic canes, mobile phones, laptop computers, etc.

An advanced version of wearables has taken up the form of stickers and patches covering a good range of applications, including self-protection for women. A recently developed sensor patch in MIT, which could be attached to the dress of a person, will learn the regular undressing pattern and raise alarm when forcible undressing takes place. It works on both a passive and active mode, which helps the user to initiate creating alarms and tele-contact establishment by pressing the sensor in the former stage and reads the signals from the external environment and acts accordingly in the latter stage.

A typical example of the destructive side of the WT is the suicide bombers who are being a challenge to WT scientists to find a wearable device which can raise alarm in the presence of such bomb carriers. A novel technology must be infused to prevent or detect the misuse of this technology (Figure 1.1). Many suicide bomb attacks in the form of wearables were reported in nearly 38 countries, including India, Afghanistan, Israel, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and the United States. Thinking in that direction, even the need for a device which can alert people if their social distancing is violated is felt essential during the epidemic diseases like the recent Covid-19 virus outburst started at Wuhan, China.

Figure 1.1 Wearables for peace and welfare

1.2 Wearable Types

Wearables are wide in variety and applications, and though the place of wearing and the shape and size differ, the sensing and operations are alike; hence, it is difficult to separate the wearables with a clear boundary. Hence, even if classified they have overlaps in operations and applications.

At the same time, wearables can be classified as external wearable and internal wearable. Some external wearables need skin contacts and some do not. Some wearables are passive and some are active all the time of their operation. Examples of an internal wearable are a pacemaker and a smart pacemaker.

Just like the ethical emphasis of ‘Responsible Robotics’, a foundation that responds to the adverse effects of automation on human nature of living, those who are interested in the area of WT have to be ‘accountable and responsible’ in the laws and policy associated with the design, construction, and usage of wearable devices. To the point, the WT has to be created and deployed for creative, assistive, and noble purposes that benefit and are for the well-being of every human. Another important reason is to help, combat, or support humans in the usage against any adverse and destructive technology that puts human in danger. This purpose will be discussed in this book in detail in the section discussing soft cyborg creation.

1.3 Wearable Computer Examples

As mentioned in the previous section, the form of wearable computers has taken new transformations. The following few examples reveal the depth of wearable computing utility and its flexibility to get infused into the devices of different shapes and functioning. Generally, people assume that a wearable computer would look like a palmtop computer that can be worn like a watch on the wrist or a coat that have many touch sensor switches and a processor chip embedded somewhere in the same coat, etc.

The wearable computers are not expected to be like the systematic full personal computers ( laptops and desktops) used for multiutility. The ultimate aim of wearable computers is very focused and customized. The wearables are placed in a different seam to address specific applications effectively and sometime collectively. We can say that the wearables are a form of cyber physical systems if connected with the integrated output devices. A few typical examples are as follows:

1. A wearable PrioVR accessory, worth of $400, for virtual reality gaming that connects the player and the computer is available in the market.
   Here the inputs according to the gaming scenario are taken from the hand and head movements of the player and are implemented in game moves.
2. A palm-size device with OLED display is capable of recording all activities like steps, distance, calorie intake, heart rates and delivers it to other digital devices for display and analysis.
   It also contains some guidance program for exercises to achieve wellness targets effectively.
3. A wearable camera enabled with a 4G LTE protocol that functions without a SIM or antenna for streaming videos on the go of the user wearing it.
   A very essential and versatile equipment useful for media, police, and other entertainment industries.
4. A neck belt with a 3D accelerometer sensor for monitoring the pet activities costs $99. This records all the active and sedentary timings, repetitions, intervals, etc.
5. Many other similar devices in the form of goggles, watches, gloves, etc. for recording the data in digital form for further analysis and reporting.

In general, the wearable computing has increased the health consciousness, safety, and performance enhancements among the users. Recently wearables are in the smart business that utilizes the opportunity of epidemic, releasing lot of applications to protect people from infectious diseases. One such example is Halo wearable wrist band that helps to maintain a good work or social distance released by Proxxi of Canada. Halo is very suitable for schools, colleges, and factories since Halo produces a beep sound and draws the attention of wearers denoting that another halo band is within 2 meters or 6 feet (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Halo – to maintain work or social distance, Apollo – to release stress

Wearables are brought as close as the skin to ensure uninterrupted utility and service since it is the next close alternative to an invasive system which is not preferred always. A thin skin-like wearable circuit that can be sticked on the skin has already emerged, which brought the wearable computing to a skin-close computing by forming a second skin and track all details which a user can do through a data glove. A pioneering product called Pysio-Power heal will be discussed in the subsequent chapters.

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2 Ergonomics and Its Benefits

DOI: 10.1201/9781003052906-2

Starting from its creation, the human race of this world has come across many eras from the past. Every phase of human era is different from each other in many ways due to the changes that have happened on the surface of earth and the atmosphere. Apart from the nature and related environment, the empires, powers, wars, and involvements in mass missions have also impacted the human life span. The adaptability to survival, struggle to protect life, was also added to the list. All these transformations have been directly influencing the age and comfort of the humans in ...