However, we have a prototype that achieves part of these goals, which we will now describe. The rest of this paper will focus on the results we have achieved so far in our efforts to develop the sensing and annotation aspects of an affective wearable computer. All of these can be sensed painlessly from the surface of the skin. Future versions of the system, already under development, include audio and video inputs and displays, wireless links to the Internet, and wireless localized sensors.
Current functionality includes the monitoring of four sensors by a linux based operating system.
The input from the four sensors can be displayed on a text-based screen such as the Private Eye with an option for concurrent user annotation. The annotations are automatically time-stamped by the system and stored in a separate log file. In the near future, we hope to add a third log file recording the user's location at periodic intervals using GPS for outdoors, and a system of fixed infrared location broadcasting stations for inside our lab. The four biometric sensors can be sampled at up to 20 samples per second by the linux based ProComp system which allows an hour of data to be stored uncompressed in 1.125 MB as four-byte floating point numbers. A Sierra Wireless data modem attached to the wearable unit allows time-stamped data to be transmitted wirelessly to remote networks.