Internal wiring was designed and tested to survive this ritual and it will, according to the company, outlast the lifetime of the jackets. In March 2000, a team of developers unveiled Cyberia, a prototype snow suit designed for arctic conditions. Among the design team s goals were to develop a suit that would enhance safety, help prevent accidents, and increase the wearer s odds of survival should an accident occur. The concept building started with scenario work, to find out the problems of mobile communication while you are snowboarding, said Reho. We found out that there are a lot of problems in communication.
Mobile devices have small buttons and a small display.
Those just don't fit in that environment. Reho noted that they also looked at the issue of group communication, taking the idea behind a conference call and redesigning it to suit a group of people boarding down a mountain. Smart Shout features a microphone, a loudspeaker, a processor, and a battery. To initiate a group call, Smart Shout users simply pull a tag on the belt and start talking. The Smart Shout body belt is a wearable user interface for GSM mobile phones.