Wearable Computers You Can Slip Into

    你能否想象一台仅仅4英寸大小的电脑？用户可以方便地随身携带，重量与一件普通的皮夹克差不多。它，就是“可穿着式电脑”。最新型的可穿着电脑产品在外观方面与普通衣物几乎没有什么两样，而售价的降低和功能的丰富也许会使它成为未来人类不可或缺的工具之一。

    据美国《商业周刊》3月8日报道，这种“小家伙”可以帮助用户通过无线方式与主人的其他财物保持联系，并随时随地提醒用户一些生活细节。当用户离开房间的时候，它会乖巧地提醒主人不要忘记携带钱包；在主人出行时，它会自动查询天气预报，帮助主人做到未雨绸缪；它甚至还可以在主人穿着的围脖中加入喜欢的歌曲。

    的确，这些高科技的电脑更多情况下只能出现在科幻小说的情节当中。不过，根据市场调查机构IDC提供的预测数据，下一代“可穿着式电脑”产品在未来几年中将成为市场上的常见商品。IDC预测，这种高科技产品的销量，包括电脑钱包、电脑手表、电脑T恤，将从去年的26万台提高到2008年的139万台。

    高科技电脑产品的背后都有着坚实的技术支柱。过去两年中，美国杜邦公司发明了一种新型的纤维材质，名为Aracon。这种材料具有超高强度并可导电，最重要的是，它可以被任意地折叠并制作成衣服。芯片制造商英飞凌（Infineon）公司也开发了一款专门用于可穿着电脑产品的芯片包，这种芯片包可以在衣物电脑被水洗的过程中保护芯片的安全。

    与上一代昂贵的可穿着电脑不同，新型产品在售价方面更加廉价。IDC预计，在未来两到三年内，可穿着电脑的平均售价将降至每台150美元。这个价格已接近普通皮夹克的售价，为产品的普及奠定了坚实的基础。

    目前，这种产品已被应用于医疗服务领域。美国经营健康产品的Apex公司计划在本月晚些时候，将这种可穿着式电脑应用于帮助用户减肥方面，此款产品可随时计算出用户所消耗的热量并科学地调节减肥者的膳食结构；加州一些医学院及制药公司则将可穿着电脑应用于病人实时监控方面，以便让医生随时观察病人的心跳、血压、呼吸等数据。

    随着可穿着电脑产品的广泛应用，也许再过几年电影《星球大战》中描述的那种科学世界将真正来临。

    Gauri Nanda sees a wearable computer as a...handbag -- one that's built out of four-inch squares and triangles of fabric¹, with tiny computer chips embedded² in it.

    Assembled together with Velcro that conducts electricity, these pieces form a bag that looks, feels, and weighs like your typical leather purse.

    That's where the similarities end: This bag can wirelessly³ keep tabs on your belongings⁴ and remind you, just as you're about to leave the house, to take your wallet. It can review the weather report and suggest that you grab an umbrella -- or your sunshades. This purse can even upload your favorite songs onto your scarf.

    Sure, a computing⁵ purse and scarf set may seem like the stuff of science fiction. But these devices, part of next generation of wearable computers, could become commonplace within a few years. Unit shipments of such wearable computers -- purses, watches, shirts -- should rise from 261,000 last year to 1.39 million in 2008, according to the tech research firm IDC.

    Powering this market are advancements⁶ in design and in fabric-embedded electronics. Over the last two years, DuPont (DD ) created new fibers⁷ called Aracon, made of Kevlar, that are superstrong, can conduct electricity, and can be woven into ordinary-looking clothes. And chipmaker Infineon (IFX ) developed chip packaging allowing wearable computers to be washed, even in the heavy-duty cycle.

    As a result, these new wearables are a far cry from the clunky and downright silly versions of the recent past, which often required users to be wrapped in wires, type on their stomachs, and sport an unseemly display on their foreheads. "Cyborg computing was very clunky, very bulky machines that people didn't want to carry around," says Nanda, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "Our bags feel and look like bags."

    Unlike their predecessors⁸, these new wearable computers also make economic sense. When her bag becomes commercially available in two to three years, Nanda expects it will cost around $150, which is the price of an average leather purse. Only "it's fun, you can rip apart and put together a computer," she says.

    Here's how the bag works: You place a special radio-signal-transmitting chip onto your wallet. A similar radio in your purse picks up the signal and notifies you that you've forgotten to take your wallet. In turn, sensors⁹ on your purse's handles will notify the computer that you've picked up the purse and are ready to go.

    Such unobtrusive, inconspicuous, and fun devices should grab more than 80% of the total wearable computing market by 2008, while cyborgian wearable PCs will remain a niche¹⁰, says IDC analyst¹¹ Kevin Burden. Already, these new kinds of wearables are being adopted for use in markets like auto¹² repair, emergency services, medical monitoring -- and even, increasingly, for consumers at large.

    Wearables are also slowly making their way into the auto-repair market. A company called Microvision (MVIS ) recently introduced its Nomad¹³ head-mounted display. It covers one eye, but it's see-through, allowing auto technicians to examine the innards of a car and check them against on-screen computer drawings at the same time. It comes as a baseball cap clip-on, to be more unobtrusive.

    So far, it's a hit: At Jim Fisher Volvo dealership¹⁴ in Portland, Ore., which has been testing the system for about seven months, productivity of technicians went up 10% to 20%, says Service Manager John Prosser. Better yet, customers talking to technicians who are wearing these contraptions also are more likely to agree to repairs, pushing revenue up 15% to 18%. Says Prosser: "This makes [technicians] want to get involved and to cross this bridge of reluctance¹⁵" in using a new technology.

    Indeed, many more people will want to cross that bridge in the coming years -- making for a booming market for wearable computers that don't look like something out of an old Star Trek¹⁶ episode.