1st reading .... again?

eWatch: AWearable Sensor and Notification Platform
Uwe Maurer1, Anthony Rowe2, Asim Smailagic3, Daniel P. Siewiorek3
3School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
2Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
1Computer Science Department, Technische Universität München, Germany

Paper Abstract:
The eWatch is a wearable sensing, notification, and computing platform built into a wrist watch form factor making it highly available, instantly viewable, ideally located for sensors, and unobtrusive to users. Bluetooth communication provides a wireless link to a cellular phone or stationary computer. eWatch senses light, motion, audio, and temperature and provides visual, audio, and tactile notification. The system provides ample processing capabilities with multiple day battery life enabling realistic user studies. This paper provides the motivation for developing a wearable computing platform, a description of the power aware hardware and software architectures, and results showing how online nearest neighbor classification can identify and recognize a set of frequently visited locations.

Evaluation:
The eWatch reminds me of a mobile phone. How I wish that mobile phones can be attached to a watch. All you just have to do is to put on your wrist and just wait for the phone calls and text messages to come. As I have read the paper, one thing that took my attention is that it can locate a person (that is using a eWatch) that is similar to a GPS. In the paper, it states there that eWatch would be very beneficial to patients. Since, eWatch senses light, motion, audio and tactile notification. An eWatch can sense if the user is in distress and then query to confirm that it is an emergency. The use of online learning could profile the patient’s daily activity and notify the caretaker if a patient no longer performs their daily activities. The eWatch can also notify a patient when they should take their medication. (taken from the actual paper).

I myself is truly amazed with this technology. This would be very helpful in our elderly people; with the help of this technology it could lessen the chances that our elderly will get lost since we can track them through the use of an eWatch. One thing I have learned as I read the paper is that every location has its own unique have location noises such as the noise of computers, television and even traffics that came from the cars. Also, the GUI has a calendar that can monitor and can add, edit and delete schedules on the specific dates. This would help the very busy people remind them of what they have to do.

Anyway, with regards to the paper, there are terms that need to be explained more or they just have to put a glossary of terms so that the readers can understand more about what they are talking about. One thing I’ve also liked about is that they’ve shared about the hardware specifications as well as the screenshots of the said technology. In addition, they have stated that they will be having a future work. I just hope that there would be a technology like that here in the Philippines, it would truly benefit us.