The Wearable Future Starts Now

"Any repair task required a minimum of three trips back and forth between an airplane and a workstation," explains Russ Young, manager of aircraft maintenance projects at FedEx Express. "The trip could range from 50 yards to two miles,but now we don't have to make it."

Evan Miller, lead mechanic for the Seattle facility of American Medical Response, a for-profit ambulance company, is equally enthused. "They really work great,we were impressed," he says. "What was surprising is that I had experienced and inexperienced mechanics using them, and within a short time they were all working at about the same speed because they had all the information right in front of them."

In both cases, mechanics wear PCs around their waists like belts. The FedEx technicians use 4-by-8-inch touch-screen computers for I/O, accessing data on a server through wireless networking, while the ambulance mechanics wear head-mounted displays equipped with voice-input capability, accessing data from a local CD.

For now, sources agree the market for wearable PCs is still focused on early adopters. "Buyers start out taking one or two [wearable units, then 25, and they are at the stage now where they are taking 100, but still not in huge volumes," notes Tony Havelka, managing director of Tek Gear, an integrator in Harrisonburg, Va. "The field is growing at about 20 percent yearly, which is incredible."

Fairfax, Va.-based Xybernaut and Burnsville, Minn.-based ViA are the two principal vendors in the field. Each has a VAR program and say plenty of VAR opportunities exist.

"There is potential for moving the platform as a box, but most resellers see the value of the platform [for what it can drag with it in terms of infrastructure services," says J.B. Rauch, vice president of marketing at Xybernaut.

Marc Schmidt, president of Aviation Automation, a Xybernaut aviation VAR in Arlington, Texas, adds that many customers don't realize wearable PCs are an option. "A wearable takes more lead time and more sales effort, but the margin may be the same as on a ruggedized laptop," he says.

Xybernaut's commercial-grade wearables are in the price range of $5,000 for a CPU, touch-screen display and sundry accessories. The vendor offers a tiered channel program, with discounts of up to 30 percent. "We have a lot of clients at the pilot stage," says Jack Loane, director of marketing at Xybernaut VAR Mobility Concepts, Naperville, Ill. "We have seen a lot of interest in the fast-food industry to turn the wearable into a mobile cash register during peak periods."

ViA targets surveyors, mappers and maintenance workers. "There are a lot of opportunities for VARs, both with the hardware and with wireless networking setups," says Mike Heenan, channel manager at ViA, which offers VARs a 25 percent discount through its channel program. Like Xybernaut, the list price of its unit is roughly $5,000.

In one recent implementation, ViA VAR Carlson Software, based in Maysville, Ky., outfitted Glenn Hill, a professor of architecture at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, with computerized surveying equipment for a project that mapped the Statue of Liberty. "Instead of taking the data back to the office, we were able to see the results on-site," Hill says. "With the flat screen, it's just like having a clipboard in your hands. When you're in the field, there's no place to set up, so it really helps."

Other popular commercial applications for wearables include any situation where the user must gather data away from a workstation, such as in a warehouse, lumber yard or car lot. But also undeniable are the consumer applications for the products. By 2007, roughly 60 percent of the adult population will be wearing computers, rising to 75 percent by 2010, according to Jackie Fenn, an analyst at research firm Gartner, Stamford, Conn.

Networked with next-generation digital wireless connections, the wearable PCs will let users browse the Web site of one store while physically shopping in another. Networks will be able to track the units, as well, so users could receive ads from stores as they pass by. Gas stations might dispense with fixed stores in favor of prowling tank trunks.

"Our initial vision was that everyone will have one of these things with context awareness, so it will give you different information [depending on whether you are driving to work or to your grandmother's house," says Christine Thero, director of marketing at Tangis, a Xybernaut VAR in Seattle.

Xybernaut recently entered the consumer market with a $1,500 Windows CE device called the Poma, a personal multimedia appliance that uses a tiny see-through head-mounted display and has a thumb mouse for input. The manufacturer, Microvision, Bothell, Wash., is developing a unit that will resemble glasses, with modulated light beams bounced against the inside of the lenses. The addition of a head tracker could lead to what futurists call "augmented reality," where the computer overlays labels and warnings on a user's field of view.

Also ahead, vendors are working on "air typing" systems that would do away with the need for a keyboard. Sweden's Senseboard Technologies, for instance, has a unit that straps under the user's palms and senses the movement of the tendons; this is expected to be available in the fourth quarter. Lightglove, a start-up in Catharpin, Va., likewise hopes to put out a unit that uses optics to sense finger movement.

Lamont Wood ([email protected]) is a freelance writer based in San Antonio.