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Wearable Computing? So you can still look nice even wearing a Pentium II, think she'd be hotter if she turned it on.
Dr James Cross
Can still see you behind google's cache, might as well come straight here...
What have I been up to?
The original intention was to go to University straight from school and then to go straight into industry from there. However, opportunities continually presented themselves, first in the form of a Masters Degree and then in the form of a Ph.D. which came from the University of Birmingham. Well as of July 2004 its all over, when I graduated with my Ph.D. from Birmingham. Wow Dr! Still can't believe it.
It was found that field archaeology was a very visual and interesting discipline to study the application and implications of introducing a wearable computing field assistant. The Ph.D. Title was 'Wearable Computing for Field Archaeology' The Wearable Field Assistant spawned a number of interesting and novel technologies which continue to be investigated beyond the Ph.D. for application in other similar areas. - Technologies such as an in-field layered digital annotation system, and a Local Position System (LPS) for use where GPS can't reach, or is not practical.
During the Ph.D. study, a spin off company (Scyron) was created in the Birmingham Research park by two former members of Electronic & Electrical Engineering and friends. Involvement in this company was on a hardware consultancy basis, for the development of embedded hardware platforms on which to base their software. A symbiosis and commonality between the hardware technology for Scyron and Wearable computing and associated research has proved both useful and efficient. My strengths have always been in practical engineering, with a remarkable amount of wide practical industry experience despite rapid academic progress - including.
- Rolls Royce, testing and measurement
- GEC Avery (Berkel) Weighing and Measurement
- Scyron Ltd. Electronics Hardware Engineering Consultant
Currently my research is now mainly focused on the work on Human Factors Integration for the Defence Technology Centre. Human Factors are an important part of many complex systems, and this work investigates the flow and use of complex information out in the field and associated systems. This work follows on from the main hardware and theoretical core of the work for the wearable computer for field archaeology. One of the core technology platforms being the x4 (chi-4 shown below). The x4 represents to current state of the art in wearable computing devices, its a fully capable wearable PC, complete with 512Mb RAM and 40Gb of HDD space, it contains a Pentium-M Clocked at 1.4GHz to provide roughly Pentium 4 2.4GHz power. Running Windows XP, the device is compatible with all peripherals and runs software we are working on for different experiments out in the field.
The interest and consultancy on behalf of Scyron continues...
Promoting my new book...
Includes a step-by-step guide to building your own wearable computer system based on the powerful military Chi-4 chassis.
Full wiring diagrams, fault diagnosis charts, installing an Operating System without a CD or Floppy, using Windows when you can't see anything without a mouse, and recharging Lithium Polymer Cells without having to evacuate the building.
This fully versatile machine can be configured depending on the final application. This guide shows how the ports can be mapped to provide any IO you might need in the field.
ISBN: 0552149519
My dad and his plane, its a Robin HR200/100 G-BGXR we've had it since 2003 and have done lots of work including engine work and windows etc. I think now that it performs quite well, its time to look at that paint work; that light blue just has to go! - Just completed its Certificate of Airworthyness, where they take all the bits off and have a look inside to see if there is any corrosion etc. Done that and its good to go. It even climbed better than it should on its flight test with two generously proportioned passengers and nearly a full tank of fuel. Wow. When we got it you'd be lucky to even get the bugger off the ground with that weight.
Research Interests
- Display Technologies
- Wearable Design
- Usability on the move - interfacing issues
- Wearable Communications
- Location and Context Sensing Technologies
- Human Factors Evaluation and Development
- Download My PhD Thesis:
"Wearable Computing for Field Archaeology" 2004 (Download PDF 3.7Mb)
Design Portfolio
Click here to play with the x4 in 3D! (Sorry geeks, windows only)
Click here for some examples of my hardware and design work
Publication History (in no particular order)Distributed Collaboration of a Remote Search Task: Comparison of Datalink and Audio Communications, Baber, C. Cross, J. Houghton, R. p64, Air Traffic Control, Contemporary Ergonomics, Philip D. Bust and Paul T. McCabe, 2005 ISBN 0415374480
Cross, J. "Electronic Engineering Challenges in the Design of a Wearable Ubiquitous Computer System, Based on a Pentium™ PC/104." (2000)
Cross, J. Woolley, S. Baber, C. "Wearing Computers - An Archaeological Case Study" IEE Savoy Place London Wearable Computing Conference 29 November (2000)
Cross, J. Baber, C. Woolley, S. "Ubiquitous Digital Imaging Systems" SPIE, Electronic Imaging, San Jose - California (2001)
Cross, J. Woolley, S. Baber, C. Gaffney, V. (2002) "Wearable Computing for field Archaeology" International Symposium on Wearable Computing - Applications, Zuric
Baber, C. Sutherland, A. Cross, J. Woolley, S: A wearable surveillance system: implications for human memory and performance. Presented at 3rd International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, Edinburgh, October (2000)
Flowers, N. Francis, T. Cross, J. Mansfield, R. ‘Development of a Real-time Surveillance and Tracking Security System.’ BMVC2002 - British Machine Vision Conference (2002)
Bristow, H. W., Baber, C., Cross, J., Woolley, S., “The c3 wearable computer and WECA PC” Proceedings of the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning: pp76 (2002)
Bristow, H. W., Baber, C., Cross, J., Woolley, S., Schwirtz, A., Knight, J. “Wearable computing: the technology of the future” Appliance Design, Issue 2: pp7-9 (2002)
Bristow, H. W., Baber, C., Cross, J. “Evaluating contextual information for wearable computing” To Appear: The Sixth International Symposium on Wearable Computers (2002)Bristow, H. W., Baber, C., Cross, J., Woolley, S., Jones, M. “Minimal Interaction for Mobile Tourism Computers” To Appear: The Workshop "Mobile Tourism Support" at Mobile HCI (2002)
Woolley, S. I. Cross, J. W. Ro, S. Foster, Reynolds, R. G. Baber, C. Bristow, H. Schwirtz, A. ‘FORMS OF WEARABLE COMPUTER’ – Proc. of Eurowearable 2003, Birmingham, UK, September (2003)
Vavoula, G.N., Sharples, M., Cross, J., and Baber, C. ‘SpyCam and RoboCam: An Application of the Future Technology Workshop Method to the Design of New Technology for Children’. Proceedings of HCII2003, Jun 22-27, Crete, Greece. (2003)Cross, J. Baber, C. Woolley, S. ‘Layered Annotations of Digital Images for Data Collection in the Field’ International Symposium on Wearable Computing, New York October 2003Cross, J. Baber, C 'Investigating two way command flow structures for tactical information' International Symposium on Wearable Computing, Virginia (Pending) October 2004
Cross, J. Baber, C 'The Design and Build of a Wearable Computer: considering hardware and ergonomics in the design process', 2005 Pending.
Other Interests
oops - look on the bright side, the door still shuts. |
University of Birmingham A320! Bet you not got one! |
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