Our Wearable Computer

This is one of our research students demonstrating our own version of a wearable computer - and the reason why I am in Boston. My colleague G (the prime mover behind this project) and I, together with the research student, are here to present our research in designing wearable computers. This one mainly for the purpose of introducing young students to electrical circuits and computer programming.

Tailored conductive fabrics are ironed onto the shirt, and specially-altered snap buttons installed to make a “TeeBoard” - a circuit board on a Tee shirt. The students are then taught how to attach a programmable controller with snap buttons, sensors, lights, a battery, and additional connections with conductive fabric. A simple program is written and - presto - the lights turn on and off in a pattern governed by the program. Once the basic skills are acquired, the students can proceed to design their own wearable computer, e.g., the lights light up only if you flap your arms up and down like a mad man.

We are reporting on and demonstrating the TeeBoard at the prestigious CHI 2009 conference - organized by the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interface. The good responses so far has made us proud. The hard work in the past year has paid off.