pt's Portable Geek Gym

[Janak Parekh]

As <a href="http://www.flashenabled.com/">pt</a> says, "here is the portable geek gym. tiny bluetooth gps velcro'd to my shirt, it talks to a pocket pc, which has a video feed to my sunglasses with lcd screen. also attached, a heart rate monitor, a pedometer, all fed to a health watch via rf, and also a spot watch- to check up on the news and instant messages. optional- my phone, which is used to check email via bluetooth and fed to the glasses which is usually playing the gps feed (maps) or a video. based on my location. it's all really light too- so jogging is still fine."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040127-PTGeekGym.jpg"><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040127-PTGeekGym-small.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Wow. Hardcore! :werenotworthy: You can click the pic above for a bigger version, or can watch a video (<a href="http://www.philliptorrone.com/geekgym/portablegeekgymii.wmv">WMV</a>, <a href="http://www.philliptorrone.com/geekgym/portablegeekgymii.mov">Quicktime</a>).

[jmulder]

WOW! Someone else actually has the Fitsense watch! I've had one for a couple of years and I've gotta say it's great. For more accuracy, though, I'm looking into the new Timex Bodylink system (with GPS).

All in all, I'm impressed! I wouldn't have thought to get the lcd screen sunglasses to view maps and such.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I'd be too afraid that I'd get too interested in whatever was being displayed on my sunglasses and run into a bus or something. 8)

[quidproquo]

Exactly!

I think I would keep falling down trying to read all the instruments / readouts / etc. But the glasses would still be cool.... 8)

[drop]

Where can I get the sunglasses display? What do you call that? Googled "sunglasses LCD screen", didn't get anything meaningful.

Thanks.

[Brad Adrian]

Okay, I DARE anybody to make fun of my SCOTTeVEST now! pt is definitely the master of geeky clothing!

[Mitch D]

I'd be too afraid that I'd get too interested in whatever was being displayed on my sunglasses and run into a bus or something. 8)

I would have to agree with JR on this one, the geekness doesn't out wiegh the pain factor of running into something larger & more solid than you! :rofl:

[Jeff Rutledge]

Okay, I DARE anybody to make fun of my SCOTTeVEST now! pt is definitely the master of geeky clothing!

Do I sense a geek-off? :mrgreen:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

"Jogging is still fine?" I had a hard enough time jogging with my iPaq38xx as it was!! I couldn't imagine strapping all that stuff up... I also have a hard enough time remembering all the things I need whenever I go out and jog (ppc / headphones / stopwatch / hat / light jacket)... I'd get lost trying to remember all of that!

[dean_shan]

Crazy. If you don't mind me asking, how much did that setup cost you?

[Wiggster]

I was just thinking about creating something like that. I'm pretty sure I lack the few thousands that I need for that setup, so I'll stick with just running around the track at the University and pretend I don't need to keep track of every iota of information about my jogging.

But that setup seems like it would be perfect for athletes who are in for some special training. I imagine we'll start seeing kits like that sometime in the future; maybe not consumers, but possibly professional athletes.

[Steven Cedrone]

If you guys have any questions I'm sure you could visit pt's web site, (http://www.flashenabled.com/) and ask him. He's usually very responsive...

Steve

Edit: I just sent a message to pt on his spot watch about this thread... :wink:

[T-Will]

LOL!!! This gym setup looks cool, but make sure you guys don't miss the "robot dance party" about halfway down his main page. :rotfl:

[Icebaron]

When I used to have more disposable income, I was heavily involved in the wearable computing crowd. I had similar setups, only my glasses-mounted display was much larger and was powered by a 486 embedded pc running my own custom-built linux distribution. Also, the components weren't near as power-friendly as modern goodies, so I used several sony infolithium camcorder batteries to power the whole pile. My keyboard was an altoids case with switches directly wired to a driver board ripped from an old PS/2 keyboard. A hardware driver in linux converted chord combinations to typed words. There was an IBM thinkpad-style "eraser" mouse to move the cursor, and the display was 800x600 and looked like a brick hanging off my hat. Here's a page I made a while back detailing ripping apart an 800 dollar dual-screen immersive VR-display to make myself a heads-up-display. http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jed22/cyvisor/

Scott e-vest? Pshaw, you aren't a real geek till you've got a wi-fi antenna sticking out of your vest.

[pt]

here are the rough costs--

pocket pc, bt ipaq: $400-ish
lifeview cf presenter: $200-ish
eyetop glasses: $500-ish
pharos bt gps: $300-ish
custom macromedia flash applications / content: free (i made them).

others:
spot watch: $200-ish
z600 phone: $400-ish
fitness watch / ped / heart rate: $200-ish
service: $40/month-ish

a lot of this stuff i had, and some is borrowed from a pal for this experiment, none of this was bought just for this experiment. but it's cool to see off shelf stuff working together for a common goal.

cheers,
pt

[Jonathon Watkins]

:werenotworthy: Lead the way guys, show us where to go. :werenotworthy:

When you are finished with the bleading edge, the leading edge can take over and I'll be somewhere behind them. :lol:

Is the fun being able to to these kind of things, just becuase you can - or is do you have a particular need for this kind of thing?

[David Prahl]

Isn't it hard to read the heads-up display when you're jogging? You'd think that would give you a killer headache. :?:

[Jonathon Watkins]

Good call on the Robot dance party T-Will - suitable futuristic & surreal! :silly: :hippy: :silly:

[pt]

Isn't it hard to read the heads-up display when you're jogging? You'd think that would give you a killer headache. :?:

not at all. humans are good at things like this, it's just off to the side, a .5 second glance is a lot of time. people use cell phones, drive, talk and flop the cd/radio player all the time. jogging at 5 mph (10kmh) is really easy and i've never fallen or tripped.

cheers,
pt

[pt]

Is the fun being able to to these kind of things, just becuase you can - or is do you have a particular need for this kind of thing?

no one really needed the radio, or dvds, or cars. need and want are relative...for me, it's time that someone tries to annotate reality with rich information, jogging, walking, whatever.

these are exciting time, and the best way to predict what will happen next, is to invent something :-]

cheers,
pt

[Jonathon Watkins]

for me, it's time that someone tries to annotate reality with rich information, jogging, walking, whatever.

So, how do you find it? Can you concentrate on the information feeds while doing these things? How is your reality annotated?

[pt]

So, how do you find it? Can you concentrate on the information feeds while doing these things? How is your reality annotated?

i can. i'm always getting more data in, it's all about the "glance" ability. often i want to just be notified of things, when an email is in, who it is from, a headline, an instant message, etc...

annotation isn't just visual as well. for example, right now when i jog by the space needle, a mp3 plays that talks about the area (this is the app i am working on). so it's just audio, most folks listen to music and jog, or listen to music and drive so it's fine.

humans are great and very adaptable to these types of things.

cheers,
pt

[T-Will]

pt, do you have any screenies or video of your custom flash app in action? That would be sweet to check out!

[pt]

pt, do you have any screenies or video of your custom flash app in action? That would be sweet to check out!

i'll post'em up once they're not ugly-ass-developer-testme-helloworld ones.

:-]

cheers,
pt

[Master O'Mayhem]

Okay, I DARE anybody to make fun of my SCOTTeVEST now! pt is definitely the master of geeky clothing!

Yeah but the difference is the Dork E Vest looks geeky, pt's stuff looks rather stylish

[David Prahl]

Okay, I DARE anybody to make fun of my SCOTTeVEST now! pt is definitely the master of geeky clothing!

Yeah but the difference is the Dork E Vest looks geeky, pt's stuff looks rather stylish

I don't know about that! We haven't seen what he looks like with all of his gear on. I doubt "stylish" would be the right word for it.

[pt]

I don't know about that! We haven't seen what he looks like with all of his gear on. I doubt "stylish" would be the right word for it.

i look *hot*. i'm talkin' super-geek-model hot ;-]

here's a pic, enjoy...

http://www.flashenabled.com/nimages/portable_geekgym.jpg

cheers,
pt

[ctmagnus]

that orb thing on the site is kinda cool.

hmm... typing with no caps is rather enlightening. pt may be onto something. ;)

[bjornkeizers]

pt is definitely on something :D Way cool.

I'd love to have a display like that, but I imagine the cables would be really annoying... Maybe if we could have a wireless model.. something of the bt variety.

[coverthawk]

Could you post the link or company contact information for the sunglass video display?

TIA

[msprague]

Here is info on the display/glasses.
http://www.eyetop.net/products/eyetop/overview.asp

[Brad Adrian]

...i've never fallen or tripped.
But, do you use this while on your Segway? :)

[Brad Adrian]

Yeah but the difference is the Dork E Vest looks geeky, pt's stuff looks rather stylish
THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS, PARDNER!!

Actually, I see people wearing fleece vests everywhere this time of year. What's the difference between those and a version with more pockets?

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/adrian/BradVestsmall.jpg

[tvos]

wouldn't you be afraid that you would damage the ppc and all that other gear.. i still think its cool overall...

where do you get lcd sun glasses like that?

tvos