Wearable Computing

World's First Linux Wristwatch 1

VideoPhone computer wristwatch on the Internet with GNU Linux

More of this Feature

• xclock/display
• Watch in Action
• Overcoming Difficulties

A functioning prototype, designed and built by the inventor, Steve Mann, in 1998, was demonstrated in 1999, was later used to deliver a videoconference at ISSCC 2000, and finally appeared on the cover of Linux Journal, July 2000, Issue 75.

In many ways, this invention is quite related to Seiko's 1982 wristwatch TV set, except it can do more than just play movies (television), e.g. it can also be used to surf the Web, as well as record, capture, edit, and produce documentary videos.

Historical notes

Let's begin by giving credit where credit is due, to Seiko, for the invention of the wristwatch TV set:
1982: World's first wristwatch TV (Seiko-Epson built a prototype wrist TV in 1982) See: http://www.homestead.com/tropicalmontys/tvwatch.html (a Web site dedicated to Seiko's 1982 television watch).
Particulars: SEIKO model RT01A Wrist-Watch TV Circa 1980,
Pulled from sales due to the high cost of $495.00 (that was quite a bit in 1982) and poor performance.
It had an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) but the LCD was not backlit, thus giving rise to poor viewing by just the ambient light present in the viewing environment.

16 years later: The invention of the first Linux wristwatch

A key inventive concept that makes this new technology possible is the use of wearable computing (WearComp) as a base station, in which pictures captured by the wristwatch are sent to the WearComp, and from the WearComp, the pictures are then sent to the Internet. Images received from the Internet are sent to the 24 bpp true colour visual of the wristwatch display. A wristwatch alone will not generally have the transmit power to produce good Internet connectivity, yet we almost always carry some other form of personal electronic device such as a cellular telephone or pocket computer that is much better equipped to establish network connectivity and thus serves as a gateway to the outside world.

With the current embodiment of 1998, full colour broadcast quality video is transmitted at approximately seven frames per second using an experimental radio transmitter.

The wristwatch screen is driven by a frame buffer of the wearable computer system in which the XF86 Config is set to 640x480, 24bit color, allowing video to be processed into the buffer at the captured resolution, since the camera also operates at 640x480 resolution with 24 bits per pixel.

The camera captures at 30 frames per second, but images may be buffered locally, and more slowly transmitted, or they may be transmitted at a reduced rate.

Another version of the system built in the year 2000 transmits images at the recording speed of 30 frames per second rather than the old seven frames per second limit imposed by the slower (2.4 megabits per second) radio link.

Of the graphics appearing on the wristwatch, the most salient is a modified transparent oclock, appear over top of the video viewfinder window.

The ordinary oclock was found to be unsuitable for a wristwatch because it needs to be quickly recognizable at any orientation, unlike the typical situation of a normal computer screen where the screen is always viewed right side up.

The xclock is much easier to see the orientation of, but xclock is not transparent. Therefore, the oclock was modified, to provide 12 "jewels" around the outside, with one larger "jewel" at the top. Also the minute and hour hands were made more slender, so that they blocked less of the video.

Next page Modified face/xClock Page 2, 3, 4, 5

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