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Wearable Tech - What's next?

morgaine
morgaine over 12 years ago

I'll elaborate a little on the points raised about combining art with technology, specifically about assessment.

 

Although art/craft and sci/eng can yield very interesting results in combination, it's worth pointing out that they are so dissimilar in nature that they are almost entirely unrelated to each other, and so the perceived properties of the end result stem not from their combination but from each individually.  Let me explain.

 

The perceived merit of an item of art lies completely in the eye of the beholder --- one and the same piece of art can be seen as wonderful by one person and dreadful by another, and neither of them is right nor wrong.  Not even the opinion of the world's top expert in fine arts will make it good when another person's judgment finds it bad.  In other words, appreciation of the artistic qualities of an item is completely subjective.  (Note that many items of art have functional aspects as well --- that's separate, and dealt with now.)

 

The merit of a technological mechanism is entirely functional --- it either does the job for which it was designed successfully or poorly or not at all, and this assessment is measurable and objective.  Of course, different people may have different requirements and they sometimes shift the goalposts when assessing whether desired functionality has been met, but a mismatch between the assessor's requirements and the design requirements is no fault of the device or the technology.  Assessment of the item's merit measured against its own design goals is always objective.  (Note that many products of technology have artistic aspects as well, but those are only by coincidence related to the function and should be assessed on their own merits.)

 

This essential difference between the artistic merit and the technological merit of an item that combines both is so stark that they don't really affect each other --- the technical term for this is orthogonality.  Sometimes people think that some particular functionality is ugly or beautiful, but this is actually wrong because it confuses two issues, the function and the implementation of that function.  The same functionality could in principle be implemented in many different ways, and it could even be hidden entirely, so ugliness or beauty cannot be a subjective attribute of the functionality whose degree of success can be determined objectively.  Instead, the chosen implementation of the function usually has a physical aspect, and it is this physical aspect that may attract subjective merit or criticism.  Functionality actually has no artistic dimension at all.  (If we say that something "operates beautifully", that's really just a metaphor.)

 

The latter statement needs some elaboration, because scientists, engineers and technologists in general often use terms that are undoubtedly subjective when assessing a technical design:  for example, we often say that a good design is elegant, or efficient, or minimalist, and we might say that a bad design is convoluted, or inefficient, or over-engineered, and so on.  Doesn't this mean that the merits of our technology are subjective as well?  Not really, because again two things are being conflated, the functional merit (how closely it meets its design requirements) and how well it fares on secondary figures of merit that are not design requirements, eg. our individual concept of elegance.  (Requirements have to be measurable, otherwise compliance cannot be determined).  As was mentioned earlier, changing the goalposts does not make sense in engineering assessment.

 

This finally brings me back to my opening point about how to assess an item that combines elements of art and technology.  When adding a technological element like LEDs to a wearable, it's tempting to think that LEDs add artistic value.  They don't, at least not directly.  They add light, and it is the light that may or may not provide artistic value, and this same light could be generated by other means.  The LEDs can be assigned nothing more than a functional figure of merit based on whether they are working or not, whether they are bright enough or not, whether they are the desired colour, whether they use too much current, and so on --- and all of these properties appear on the datasheet.  They are objective, not subjective.  If you chose particular LEDs but you didn't find the end result artistically pleasing, this is not a failure of the LEDs --- functionally the technology is perfect (unless they're faulty) --- instead, it's a failure of your choice of light for your design.  Of course, somebody else could express surprise at your disappointment, because to them it looks beautiful.  The artistic merit is not a functional property of the LEDs. image

 

In summary, I'll answer Leslie's point #2 in this way:  if you've combined art with technology then you have inherently added function, so it can never be not functional (unless it's faulty of course).  The function may be nothing more than to add an effect for artistic purposes (for example light), but you can't sensibly apply artistic judgements to the function.  If the light that is produced is exactly that intended by the design then it's functionally perfect, even if the end result is artistically ugly as sin to every living being on the planet. image  Even when combined, art and technology live in inherently different spaces, and what they each contribute cannot be judged by a single measuring stick.

 

Morgaine.

 

 

Addendum:  The above has the rather curious consequence that despite combining them together in the same item, artistic and technological design are necessarily separate because the goal of one is a desired value judgment and the goal of the other is correct functional operation.  The mind can try to maneuver them both towards a common goal, but they're essentially different occupations.

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  • morgaine
    morgaine over 12 years ago in reply to johnbeetem +1
    For the purposes of this discussion, canaries and humans can be considered identical in their use of acoustic perception to process incoming sound waves. (Not surprising, since all life on Earth has extremely…
  • johnbeetem
    johnbeetem over 12 years ago in reply to morgaine +1
    Morgaine Dinova wrote: A species on a different planet could in principle look at some utter rats nest of code that I would never dare release because it is revolting even to me and releasing it publicly…
  • zengirl2
    zengirl2 over 12 years ago in reply to fustini +1
    I really like this and it reminds me of the work of Hi-Low Tech at MIT. I see that Jesse also follows the work of Hannah Perner. She is one of my faves working with soft circuits and I met her two year…
  • morgaine
    morgaine over 12 years ago in reply to zengirl2

    Leslie Birch wrote:

     

    I think the difference seems to be in the labels or terminology.

     

    I agree entirely, and that's why it is so important that we fully understand the language we use, not just superficially but deeply.  It almost completely defines our thoughts and hence our view of the universe and thus our mastery over it.

     

    Take the term "wearable electronics".  It arose because someone noticed that despite the electronics industry being quite mature, not many electronic devices were being carried around on our person.  The new term codified the opposite possibility, and in so doing it opened up many peoples' minds to actively working in that area.

     

    Language is an extremely powerful enabler. image

     

    Morgaine.

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  • johnbeetem
    johnbeetem over 12 years ago in reply to morgaine

    Morgaine Dinova wrote:

     

    A species on a different planet could in principle look at some utter rats nest of code that I would never dare release because it is revolting even to me and releasing it publicly would be a crime against humanity, but instead of considering it horrible they could regard it as magnificent because their aesthetic sense of what is good is based on the values that I consider most dreadful.

    Why, that code is pure poetry -- Vogon poetry :-)

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  • zengirl2
    zengirl2 over 12 years ago in reply to johnbeetem

    I love the whole notion of another planet judging our work. Maybe we would make better decisions across the board.

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  • zengirl2
    zengirl2 over 12 years ago in reply to morgaine

    Oh, believe me, I'm an expert on tangents myself.  However, the zen side of me could argue that all of this is delusion.  One of my masters says, "It's okay to be delusional as long as you know it is delusion".  Another great quote is "come from a place of not knowing".  I'm really good at that last one. image  In this case, I'm not sure what it is about wearable tech, but I know I enjoy it.

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  • DAB
    DAB over 12 years ago in reply to morgaine

    Hi Morgaine,

     

    You bring up a good point on the language issue.

    Wearable technology is a very broad category.

    A more appropriate term would probably be clothing with integrated technology.

    In its extreme, the technology would replace the cloth fiber with "technology fibers" in which each strand has tiny integrated electronics such that you indeed wear the technology.

    Taken in that extreme, the technology could be a real extension of your online technology to supply information at your local level to provide detailed situational awareness with nearby events which would be of interest or danger to you.

     

    So your term "rats nest" could truly be a repurposed technology garment repurposed by another species. image

     

    As you said earlier, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  One persons rats nest might be another species home.

     

    Just a thought,

    DAB

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  • morgaine
    morgaine over 12 years ago in reply to zengirl2

    Leslie Birch wrote:

     

    I love the whole notion of another planet judging our work. Maybe we would make better decisions across the board.

    Haha, that's a curious idea, but certainly interesting.  And there's probably a SciFi novel in there somewhere! image

     

    Regarding "better", the engineer in me equates improvement to utility, so I find "better" very easy to quantify.  However, my non-engineering side appreciates subjective things like beauty and elegance and minimalism and cross-cutting interests like independence and sustainability and a large catalog of other things as well.

     

    Then the engineer chimes back in and, helpfully, wants to optimize for all of them.  But that's tricky. image

     

    Morgaine.

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  • morgaine
    morgaine over 12 years ago in reply to DAB

    DAB wrote:

     

    the technology could be a real extension of your online technology to supply information at your local level to provide detailed situational awareness with nearby events which would be of interest or danger to you.

     

    That's the technology for augmenting reality view, info-assist to enhance situational awareness.  It's a good one, and really we've been using it ever since we've been wearing watches, using compasses, navigating by the stars, or even listening to the birds raise alarm when there's a big cat hidden in the grasses.  I think most people recognize the huge utilitarian benefits of information and using technology to enhance it.  (Well, except for lawyers, politicians, the music and film industry, and 10 trillion other dinosaurs whose interest is only in the danger that enabling technology represents to their interests.)

     

    But technology actually goes far beyond just providing information and accessorizing us.  I come from Leslie's stable of avid SciFi readers, and for me technology represents nothing less than Mankind's evolution.  And that's rather more all-encompassing. image

     

    Morgaine.

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  • zengirl2
    zengirl2 over 12 years ago in reply to morgaine

    Okay, I've branched this conversation to look at the question "what's next?".  Morgaine originally brought up the discussion of how we define wearable tech, and she also reminded us that clothing has been making advances even back in the Stone Age.  One designer I met at a recent wearable tech panel in NY is going back to those original techniques (not unusual as fashion often builds on the past).  Check out the work of Titania Inglis -- fashion that includes primitive lacing and fur.  At the same event, there was a curator, Ariele Elia, from the Museum of FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology).  She spoke on the same topic of fashion construction through the ages, and mentioned their show RetroSpective.

     

    I know everyone is fussing about Google Glass right now, but I think it is interesting to look at where these devices are headed.  Something I viewed at the Wearable Tech Expo in NY was the HC1 Headset from Motorola.  This headset includes voice recognition and gestures, as you would expect.  However, it is targeted toward manufacturing and field users.  Imagine being in a warehouse and having this unit show you the path to a product.  How does that affect our work force?  My first thought is that it will increase non-English speaking labor.  The ability to view documents in the field will also allow for quicker trouble-shooting.  What will that mean for the equipment needed?  Are there additional accessories to be developed?  I'm already imagining a snap-on visor or rain protector.

     

    So, what do you think is next for wearable tech?

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  • morgaine
    morgaine over 12 years ago in reply to zengirl2

    Leslie Birch wrote:

     

    So, what do you think is next for wearable tech?

     

    I guess we could break it down into categories defining goals or purposes.  I do that anyway because engineering starts with understanding your requirements otherwise you don't know what you're doing and why.  DAB started us off very nicely down that road when he described the most hyped use of wearable technology (eg. hyped by Google).  I'll just quote DAB directly because he put it very clearly:

     

    DAB wrote:

     

    the technology could be a real extension of your online technology to supply information at your local level to provide detailed situational awareness with nearby events which would be of interest or danger to you.

     

    That describes much of Google Glass, Google Goggles, many augmented reality applications, and all the way over to soldiers' HUDs at the less socially uplifting end of the spectrum.  I shortened it to "info-assist to enhance situational awareness" before, but now I'd like to do the opposite and break it apart into its building blocks, because they make better categories that we could use to describe other ideas for wearable technology.  I think it breaks down like this:

     

    1. Environment monitoring.  This means technology that detects events or conditions around you and nothing more, comprising sensors of numerous kinds and the low-level processing that turns raw data into usable info.
    2. Awareness processing.  This is information processing above the level of sensor data, and may involve inputs from a number of them.  For example, it could determine that "Something large is coming towards you, and there is 95% probability that it is a bus."
    3. Internet as database about everything.  Although wearable electronics could conceivably be self-contained and carry a huge amount of information on the person, in practice many people feel that having it online but accessible makes sense.  Like most things, it's a compromise and online has plenty of downsides too, but ultimately you can't carry the entirety of the world's knowledge on you so Internet connectivity is unavoidable for anything above a certain level of complexity.  Bus schedules and routes are sensibly found online.
    4. Situational applications.  These are context-sensitive applications which you have configured with local information and to meet personal requirements.  They close the loop between events detected, awareness of a situation obtained, and reacting to that situation by using non-local information plus private context.  So, an app might use [3] and [2] and then report to you that "It's the S124 bus which is your ride to the airport --- better stick out your hand."

     

    Those four categories capture quite a lot of what will be appearing in wearable technology, and as we all know, people are already working on it so we haven't actually done any extrapolation yet, merely analysed an ongoing concept that combines the above simple categories.

     

    Implicit in the above is "Data on demand", which I think pervades current thinking in the general space of mobile gadgetry, and "Online on demand" at a level beneath it.  Starting off with these two and environmental sensing, I'll just list some general categories of function that wearable technology will often be providing before too long.  (I'm calling the high-level bus app an "agent", because it's dedicated to doing a specific job on my behalf, and "app" is just too general.)  Armed with these categories, we'll have a few pigeon holes into which to place actual projects in wearable technology:

     

    • Online on demand
    • Data on demand
    • Entertainment on demand
    • Communication with people
    • Communication with things
    • Environment sensing and control
    • Energy generation
    • High level agents

     

    I'll kick off with some ideas in the category of Energy generation, which hasn't really had much press so far.  We've had piezo-electric generators in heels of shoes before, which is a very nice start, but every one of our movements could be a source of electrical power, as could the light around us, and also the temperature changes as we move from place to place.  Even electric fields in our vicinity could be harvested, although I don't recommend eating your lunch while lying against the company power transformers just to get charged up. image

     

    Communication with things is another of my favourite categories, but I'll leave that to another post.

     

    Morgaine.

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  • zengirl2
    zengirl2 over 12 years ago in reply to morgaine

    Hey, Morgaine,

     

    I think between all of us,we have given both the abstract version of the question, as well as a detailed category version.  So, hopefully some others will want to join in on the discussion?  I'm interested in all effects of the new inventions, so this could be fun.

     

    As far as your topic of energy generation, I don't know if you want to hold that for the last question  that will deal with "improvements" . I know Victor was really interested in adding to this part of the discussion.

     

    Sorry my answer is rather short, but I'm on my last days of holiday craziness and trying to do my company biz, projects and blogs at the same time.  Ultimately I need a clone, so that is way beyond wearables image.

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