Valve is developing technology for a wearable computer. Developer Michael Abrash revealed the project on the company's blog last week, confirming that the games studio is dipping its toe into the hardware market.
"By ‘wearable computing’ I mean mobile computing where both computer-generated graphics and the real world are seamlessly overlaid in your view; there is no separate display that you hold in your hands (think Terminator vision)," Abrash wrote on the blog.
"The underlying trend as we’ve gone from desktops through laptops and notebooks to tablets is one of having computing available in more places, more of the time. The logical endpoint is computing everywhere, all the time – that is, wearable computing – and I have no doubt that 20 years from now that will be standard, probably through glasses or contacts, but for all I know through some kind of more direct neural connection.
"And I’m pretty confident that platform shift will happen a lot sooner than 20 years – almost certainly within 10, but quite likely as little as 3-5, because the key areas – input, processing/power/size, and output – that need to evolve to enable wearable computing are shaping up nicely, although there’s a lot still to be figured out."
Abrash also wrote that the concept that is now being worked on at Valve was originally proposed to Microsoft back in 1994 while he was an employee at the tech giant. The idea was turned down - the implication is that this new device is something of a contemporary reincarnation of that past proposal.
We wonder if it'll be stuffed with Google Glass' user interface?
"By ‘wearable computing’ I mean mobile computing where both computer-generated graphics and the real world are seamlessly overlaid in your view; there is no separate display that you hold in your hands (think Terminator vision)," Abrash wrote on the blog.
"The underlying trend as we’ve gone from desktops through laptops and notebooks to tablets is one of having computing available in more places, more of the time. The logical endpoint is computing everywhere, all the time – that is, wearable computing – and I have no doubt that 20 years from now that will be standard, probably through glasses or contacts, but for all I know through some kind of more direct neural connection.
"And I’m pretty confident that platform shift will happen a lot sooner than 20 years – almost certainly within 10, but quite likely as little as 3-5, because the key areas – input, processing/power/size, and output – that need to evolve to enable wearable computing are shaping up nicely, although there’s a lot still to be figured out."
Abrash also wrote that the concept that is now being worked on at Valve was originally proposed to Microsoft back in 1994 while he was an employee at the tech giant. The idea was turned down - the implication is that this new device is something of a contemporary reincarnation of that past proposal.
We wonder if it'll be stuffed with Google Glass' user interface?
Companies:
Valve
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