Forget about fake fur and designer stubble, next season’s fashion could well be skinwear – the world’s first body-worn computer. A device pioneered by Washington-based Computer Products & Services Inc named the Mobile Assistant is a belt-worn 50MHz 80486 personal computer with a 200Mb hard drive, lithium battery pack, monochrome head-mounted display screen and speech interface, all together weighing in at under 5 lbs, enabling users to perform speech-activated computing in a completely hands-free mobile environment. The 1 screen positioned on a pair of movable goggles gives the user the impression of viewing a full-sized monitor. An open hypermedia system, Microcosm for Windows, comes from Southamption-based Multicosm Ltd, and was originally conceived at the University of Southamption. Multicosm’s managing director Peter McManus said the technology was already past the testing stage, with over 100 units boxed and ready to go, and with a signed contract for maintenance of the US Army’s Apache AH-64A helicopters, he believes the Mobile Assistant will pave the way for the next wave of computing to become more than just the stuff of science fiction. With the ability to link drawings from computer-aided design and manufacturing systems with other data to create hands-free computer-based manuals and guides, the Mobile Assistant is being targeted within the fields of tele-medicine, engineering and plant maintenance. Although there will be an optional thigh-strapped keyboard available, word is that next year even speech activation may be superfluous with the arrival of eye sensors and brainwave readings, said to be latest military technology; prices start at $8,000.
