Tags: wearable

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From cats to keystrokes

| geek, life

Whenever we sit on the couch to watch a movie, the cats inevitably gather. Neko prefers to sit on W-’s lap if he’s available (I’m only slightly jealous, harumph), but will curl herself up on my lap if W- is working on his laptop. Luke will jump on my lap for a bit if Neko isn’t there, or he’ll nap beside me if my lap is occupied. Leia prefers to play monorail cat along the back of the sofa or on the arms. If one of us stands up, the warm spot is almost immediately taken by a cat (usually Neko).

W- usually works on his computer while watching a movie. I’m tempted to do so as well, but since Neko doesn’t usually seek out company, I figured that it’s fine just spending time with her on my lap. Sometimes I try to type or draw on the side, and that’s not particularly ergonomic.

I could relax and focus on the movie, making it practice for being in the moment. Or I can play around with the possibilities, since not all movies need full attention. Knitting and crochet are out of the question because the cats are crazy about string. I can flip through Japanese flashcards on my phone. I can dust off my Twiddler one-handed keyboard and see about learning that again. I can skim nonfiction books to see which deserve deeper reading.

Hmm… This Twiddler thing looks promising. It’s amazing how much muscle memory can retain after so many years. I think it might be interesting to develop both right- and left-handed facility with this. Who knows, it might even come in handy while sketchnoting, so that I can trigger keyboard shortcuts.

sacha-014

This is me from 2003 or so, with a Twiddler one-handed keyboard and an M1 head-mounted display (on which I looked up stuff in Emacs, naturally). My dad took this picture. =)

It’s funny how things come together: cats, wearable computing, writing, drawing… We’ll see where this goes!

Questionnaire on electronic clothes

Posted: - Modified:

Hiya, everyone! Can you help a wearable computing researcher? (Not me,
but a Ph.D. student in Japan.) He’s interested in cultural differences
in attitude regarding electronic clothes. If you copy and paste the
text below, edit it to reflect your answers, and mail it to
duval@grad.nii.ac.jp , you’ll make him happy. It took me ten to

fifteen minutes to fill this out.

Questionnaire

This questionnaire was designed for research on new technologies:
clothes possessing particular features, capacities and some kind of
intelligence. Prototypes are currently being designed in France, Japan,
and USA. Your answers will be taken into account for a study that will
be published in 2005 or 2006; we therefore appreciate the time you will
take to answer the following questions.

Answers will be kept in a database without association to your identity.
Thank you for participating in this study.

Please provide the following information.

Age   _____     Gender   _____   Nationality  __________________

Occupation (student, engineer...)
__________________________________________

Field (computer science, psychology...)
__________________________________________

Using the scale below, please tell us how much you agree or disagree
with the following statements by placing a number in the box provided.

Strongly disagree		1

Disagree			2

Neither agree nor disagree	3

Agree				4

Srongly agree			5

It would be acceptable for me to wear clothes that:

___ display images, photos, texts, or videos.

___ record my environment via photos or videos.

___ produce music, sounds, or speeches.

___ record music, sounds, or speeches around me.

___ produce selected smells.

___ analyze the air (smells, pollution, humidity, temperature).

___ provide a sensation of cold or heat in certain areas.

___ vibrate or provide a feeling of touch in certain areas.

Clothes with one or several capacities such as listed in question 1
would be useful:

___ at big events like conferences or forums.

___ during parties.

___ on trips.

___ in potentially dangerous situations.

___ to communicate with disabled people.

___ when meeting new people.


If I had garments with one or several capacities such as in question 1,
I would like them to:

___ be able to coordinate actions with other clothes.

___ learn from my reactions to their actions.

___ be controlled by some form of build in artificial intelligence.

___ be controlled by guidelines but get back control whenever I want.

___ be under my full control at any moment.


I would agree to use garments that can monitor my physical and mental
state (heart beats, blood pressure, body temperature, movements, etc.)
to:

___ adapt my environment to my needs (temperature, light, music in the room,
    etc.).

___ adapt video games depending on my experiences.

___ evaluate my performances during sports trainings.

___ produce group effects during artistic or sportive events.

___ reveal my emotions to surrounding people.

___ share my feelings with selected persons (like husband/wife), even at a
    distance.

___ transmit information to emergency services.

During a gathering of people using special garments, I would like
clothes to hint about:

___ the wearer's personality.

___ the wearer's beliefs.

___ the wearer's mood.

___ the wearer's history.

___ the wearer's belonging to communities.

___ the group's harmony.

___ the group's common history.

___ the group's common centers of interest.

___ relationships between members of the group.

___ the topic of the gathering.

I would be ready to wear and use in my everyday life garments
incorporating electronics:

___ for personal uses.

___ for professional uses.


I would leave my profile (such as name, age, nationality, centers of
interest) in free access:

___ on Internet.

___ to people in the same room as me.

___ to people belonging to my community.

___ to people I met previously.


If you have any remarks or suggestion about the questionnaire or
electronic garments, please write them below:



Return this questionnaire to Sebastien Duval by e-mail to
duval@grad.nii.ac.jp or mail to NII, Hitotsubashi 2-1-2, Chiyoda-ku, 101-8430 Tokyo, Japan

Thanks!

E-Mail from Sebastien Duval