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Tasks
Notes
4. Thoughts on natural language processing and possible research
Hmm, needs more thought.
Wearable computing application: memory augmentation (personal
information management, elderly)
problems facing wearable computing (re information
extraction/retrieval):
- SPEECH-DRIVEN IMPLICIT QUERIES. A wearable computer can assist
human-human interaction by monitoring keywords in the conversation
and suggesting relevant information, which will be presented in the
background (visual, monophonic audio, spatially-located audio). A
limited-vocabulary speaker-dependent speech engine recognizes names
and keywords associated with personal information management while
the wearer talks to other people. For example, the user might say,
"Let me look at my schedule for Tuesday." The system will recognize
"TUESDAY" and display a link for this Tuesday's schedule. The user
can then key in further input or use structured voice commands to
navigate through the data. To avoid confusion with the ongoing
human-human conversation, human-computer interaction should be
structured and clearly separate. (*Note*: I think I want to work on
this for my PhD. Implicit queries for personal information
management.)
- ONLINE INTERACTION, OFFLINE DICTATION. A wearable computer can be
used to record everything you say so that you can process it later.
The speech stream from a directional microphone includes both
dialogue with the wearable computer and dialogue with other
entities. Online use involves limited-vocabulary speech recognition.
The full speech stream can be stored on the hard disk and tagged on
the fly with markers for later transcription using a
large-vocabulary speech recognition engine. The post-processing of
the text stream can be performed off-line and need not be
real-time.
- EXPLICIT QUERIES: IR, TEXT SUMMARIZATION. Explicit information
retrieval with text summarization is necessary in order to deal with
information overload. Both exact and fuzzy searches need to be
supported. Topics may need to be mapped using an ontology in order
to take advantage of communal knowledge or search through personal
information. Output needs to be summarized; browsing through a
webpage to find an answer is inefficient and requires too much
attention. However, explicit queries against personal data stores
cannot take advantage of the redundancy of the Web, and the
wearable computer will need fuzzy search capabilities. (This is hard!)
Hmm, needs more thought.
Wearable computing application: memory augmentation (personal information management, elderly)
problems facing wearable computing (re information extraction/retrieval):
- SPEECH-DRIVEN IMPLICIT QUERIES. A wearable computer can assist human-human interaction by monitoring keywords in the conversation and suggesting relevant information, which will be presented in the background (visual, monophonic audio, spatially-located audio). A limited-vocabulary speaker-dependent speech engine recognizes names and keywords associated with personal information management while the wearer talks to other people. For example, the user might say, "Let me look at my schedule for Tuesday." The system will recognize "TUESDAY" and display a link for this Tuesday's schedule. The user can then key in further input or use structured voice commands to navigate through the data. To avoid confusion with the ongoing human-human conversation, human-computer interaction should be structured and clearly separate. (*Note*: I think I want to work on this for my PhD. Implicit queries for personal information management.)
- ONLINE INTERACTION, OFFLINE DICTATION. A wearable computer can be used to record everything you say so that you can process it later. The speech stream from a directional microphone includes both dialogue with the wearable computer and dialogue with other entities. Online use involves limited-vocabulary speech recognition. The full speech stream can be stored on the hard disk and tagged on the fly with markers for later transcription using a large-vocabulary speech recognition engine. The post-processing of the text stream can be performed off-line and need not be real-time.
- EXPLICIT QUERIES: IR, TEXT SUMMARIZATION. Explicit information retrieval with text summarization is necessary in order to deal with information overload. Both exact and fuzzy searches need to be supported. Topics may need to be mapped using an ontology in order to take advantage of communal knowledge or search through personal information. Output needs to be summarized; browsing through a webpage to find an answer is inefficient and requires too much attention. However, explicit queries against personal data stores cannot take advantage of the redundancy of the Web, and the wearable computer will need fuzzy search capabilities. (This is hard!)
3. Instructions for wearable chording keyboards
On wear-hard@haven.org, John McKown said:
where you can download free instructions
on how to build a wearable, chording keyboard.
E-Mail from John
On wear-hard@haven.org, John McKown said:
where you can download free instructions on how to build a wearable, chording keyboard.
E-Mail from John
2. Wearable computing
1. Wearable computing article
http://www.theclockmag.com/wearablecomputers.html
This page can be found at
http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/:.php
So you want to get into wearable computing? Surprisingly, you don't
need a big budget to get started, and there are a lot of applications
that you can work on. You can start out by playing around with ideas
on a desktop computer, testing them on a phone or a phone emulator,
and then building your very own wearable. Here are some links and
project ideas to help you explore this exciting new field of computer
science.
http://www.theclockmag.com/wearablecomputers.html
This page can be found at http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/:.php
So you want to get into wearable computing? Surprisingly, you don't need a big budget to get started, and there are a lot of applications that you can work on. You can start out by playing around with ideas on a desktop computer, testing them on a phone or a phone emulator, and then building your very own wearable. Here are some links and project ideas to help you explore this exciting new field of computer science.
Wearable computing
Wearable computing
http://home.earthlink.net/~wearable/
WearableGear.com research
http://www.wearablegear.com/research.htm
Wearable Computers and their Usage
http://www.iptel-now.de/PROJECTS/WEARABLE/wearable.html
Nooface: Search
http://nooface.net/search.pl?topic=wearable
Wearable/Mobile Computing Literature Guide
http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/wearable.html
Project ideas
"Gimik planner"
Develop an application that allows you to access movie schedules, mall sales, and your friends' schedules in an integrated gimik planner that will let you quickly and easily plan your next outing.
Augmented memory
You can use a wearable computer to store and look up a lot of information. For example, you could refer to your address book when asked for someone's number, or you can bring up your school notes in order to answer a question. Wireless Internet access allows you to search the Internet for answers to questions. If you hook up a webcam to a laptop or wearable computer, then you can use it to capture video or still images. You can store the images for later reference or even do face recognition.
ABCNews.com: A Wearable PC That Helps You Remember
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/:/cuttingedge020726.html
Alternative user interfaces
The desktop paradigm of windows-icons-menu-pointer (WIMP) is not appropriate for wearables because it demands too much concentration and precision. Alternative user interfaces should consider the limitations of a wearable computing platform - small screen (or no screen at all), limited input, and low priority. You don't need a wearable computer to start experimenting with alternative interfaces - you can try out wild ideas on a desktop and see which are worth taking to the next level.
How To Design A User Interface For Wearable Computers
http://www.tangis.com/resources/wp_interactiv.pdf
Wearable Audio Computing: A Survey of Interaction Techniques
http://web.media.mit.edu/~nitin/:/AudioWearables.html
Speech synthesis
A speech synthesizer converts text into speech, opening up a range of low-cost wearable computing projects by eliminating the need for expensive head-mounted displays.
The Festival Speech Synthesis System
http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/
Microsoft Speech http://www.microsoft.com/speech/
Speech synthesizer for Filipino and dialects
Although there are speech synthesizers for English, Spanish, and many other languages, much work still has to be done in the area of Filipino speech synthesis.
UP Diliman Digital Signal Processing Laboratory
http://www.upd.edu.ph/~dsp/speech.htm
Speech synthesizer for text messages
txt u l8r! l0lNormal speech synthesizers read text messages literally ("t ex t u l eight r l zero l"). Text-to-speech systems used by people without cellphones and blind people have a hard time with text messages. A speech synthesizer that can deal with the abbreviations commonly used in text messages will make it easier for these people to receive text messages.
Keyboards
Keyboards for wearable computers need to be compact, portable, and easy to use. If you want to make your own keyboard, take a look at these pages:
PIC-Key chorded keyboard http://mudlist.eorbit.net/~adam/pickey/
Two half-keyboards from one keyboard http://www.thecraftstudio.com/bcboy/keyboard.html
Speech recognition
Speech recognition is another potential input method for wearable computing. Many speech recognition engines today need you to speak with an American accent and speech recognition is confused by background noise. However, speech recognition is still a useful way to get input from the user. You can try integrating speech recognition into your applications or even work on improving speech recognition, particularly for Filipino.
Andy's Wearable Computer Pages
http://www.redwoodhouse.com/wearable/?subid=32
Accessibility
People with disabilities can use wearable computers to do things that they can't normally do. For example, a speech synthesizer hooked up to a cellphone can allow blind people to read text messages. A wearable computer can also help people communicate even if they can't speak.
Accessibility Technology
http://home.earthlink.net/~wearable/access/
Seeing With Sound
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/voicefr1.htm
The Backpack PC - News - Accessibility
http://www.accessibility.com.au/news/health/back_pc.htm
Other projects
Introduction to Wearable Computing: Project Possibilities
http://www-anw.cs.umass.edu/~fagg/classes/691w/projects.html
Contextual Computing Group: Open Projects
http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/ccg/open-projects.html
Have any ideas? Use the handy feedback form below to send them to me and I'll add it to this page! =)
I'd love to hear about any questions, comments, suggestions or links that you might have. Your comments will not be posted on this website immediately, but will be e-mailed to me first. You can use this form to get in touch with me, or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com .
