Wearable Interfaces Vision Statement 

The initiating purpose for this working group is to establish standards that will encourage development of wearable computing devices and technologies.  Wearable standards will provide assurance of interoperability at multiple levels.  For example: 

o  Network interoperability between a host processor and 
    peripheral devices.
o  Connector interoperability between computer interfaces 
    and peripheral interfaces.
o  Software interoperability between speech applications 
    and multiple speech engines.
o  Communication interoperability between applications 
    and peripheral devices.

The working group will be begin by developing a Guide to wearable systems.  The guide will provide a conceptual architecture for development of wearable standards, ensuring technical and administrative consistency between the emerging standards.  For example, it is expected that the working group will span multiple IEEE Standards Committees (i.e. 802 and 1003.  The guide will provide focus to ensure efficient interaction within the structures of these standards committees. It is expected, based on the participation at the first "ad-hoc" meeting, that the initial focus of the group will be development of standards supporting personal area networking (PAN).  PAN addresses communication between devices within a 5-meter radius.  The PAN standard is characterized by the following features:

o  Carries both data and voice.
o  Scales in bandwidth from low-bandwidth devices, such as 
    bar-code scanners and keyboards, to high-bandwidth 
    devices such as video cameras and displays.
o  Provides appropriate authentication and security.
o  Supports addressability of multiple on-body and off-body 
    devices.
o  Supports operation within high-density environments. 

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Source: Steven V. Case, scase@flexipc.com, November 17, 1997