IMAGINA 2000, invited presentation, Montecarlo.
Jan. 31 - Feb. 3, 2000.

Wearable computing provides a means to transform the architecture and the space surrounding us into a memory device and a storytelling agent. We assembled a wearable computer specifically aimed to the purpose of mapping architecture into an experience comparable to that of watching a movie from inside the movie set, or being immersed in an information city whose constructions are made of words, pictures, and living bits. The wearable is outfitted with a private eye which shows video and graphics superimposed on the user's real-surround view. It uses real-time computer vision techniques for location finding and object recognition. We describe two applications. Wearable City is the mobile version of a 3D WWW browser we created called "City of News." It grows an urban-like information landscape by fetching information from the web, and facilitates the recollection of information by creating associations of information with geography. Wearable Cinema extends the previous system to generate an interactive audio-visual narration driven by the physical path of the wearer in a museum space.

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