Time and time again: parallels in the development of the watch and the wearable computer

Author

Martin, Thomas L.

Author_Institution

Bradley Dept. of Electr. Eng., Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

5

Lastpage

11

Abstract

The watch long ago encountered many of the major issues confronting wearable computing today. This paper examines the parallels in the development of the watch and the wearable computer. It discusses how the locations where the watch was worn on the body have changed over time, examines a variety of user interfaces for watches, and looks at how the watch affected cultural concepts of time and time discipline. The lessons for wearable computing are that the physical wearability will be determined as much by fashion as by human anatomy, that the user interface will gradually become simplified as people become more acquainted with computers, and finally that the cultural impact will be a broadening of the definition of information, a rationalization of representing information, and an increasing synchronization of personal events.

Keywords

wearable computers; physical wearability; user interfaces; watch; wearable computer; Computer aided manufacturing; Concurrent computing; Cultural differences; Embedded computing; Human anatomy; Machinery production industries; Power engineering computing; User interfaces; Watches; Wearable computers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Wearable Computers, 2002. (ISWC 2002). Proceedings. Sixth International Symposium on

ISSN

1530-0811

Print_ISBN

0-7695-1816-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISWC.2002.1167212

Filename

1167212