WearComp is an example of a practical realization of HI. The apparatus consists of a battery-powered, wireless, wearable, Internet-connected computer system with miniature eyeglass-mounted screen. 

The apparatus travels with the user, either superimposing a computer screen on top of the real world, or representing the real world as a video image. 

WearComp presents many operating modalities to the user: it enables us to interact with others through its wireless data communications link, and therefore replaces the pager and cellular telephone. It allows us to perform basic computations, and thus replaces the pocket calculator, laptop computer and personal data assistant (PDA). It can record data from its many inputs, and therefore it replaces and subsumes the portable dictating machine, camcorder, and the photographic camera. And it can reproduce (``play back'') audiovisual data, so that it subsumes the portable audio cassette player. It keeps time, as any computer does, and this may be displayed when desired, rendering a wristwatch obsolete.

The use of a camera in conjuction with the WearComp enables the computer system to tap into the eye.  

With the addition of a camera, the EyeTap system is created, a visual filter that enables us to mediate reality.

The computer system mediates or alters the light captured by the camera before it reaches the retina, allowing us to either augment or diminish reality.

An example of augmented reality is a face recognition program that would recognize the people we previously met and label them, whenever we saw them again, with a nametag.

Diminished reality, however, is a form of mediated reality that allows us to filter our vision.  One application would be to enable us to block out advertisements, eliminating visual clutter wherever we go.

The fact that the WearComp / EyeTap apparatus is worn underneath clothing facilitates direct contact with the body, and thus encourages futher new forms of intelligent signal processing.  The ThoughtCam project uses biofeedback technology provided by Thought Technology Inc. to create a greater synergy between the user and the EyeTap wearable computer system.  

The ProComp+ hardware acts as an analog to digital converter that allows for biological signal analysis; biological parameters such as respiratory rate, skin conductance, EKG, EEG and temperature can all be quantified.  Armed with this information, the ThoughtCam group is developing software that analyzes the user's physiological state to control various functions of the EyeTap system.  One such function is to create a personal safety network, through detection of changes in the user's sympathetic nervous system caused by the 'fight or flight' reflex: in situations of stress, fear, or nervousness, the ThoughtCam responds by automatically taking pictures -- without the need for any explicit command.  In the case of, for example, a mugging, the image of the attacker would be relayed to everybody else in the safety network, alerting them to the plight of the victim and storing evidence of the assault safely with friends or family. An ultimate goal of the proposed apparatus and methodology is to "learn" what is visually important to the wearer and thereafter function as a fully automatic camera, taking pictures without the need for conscious thought or effort from the wearer. For example, it might automatically record a baby's first steps, as the parent's eyeglasses and clothing-based intelligent signal processor make an inference based on the thrill of the experience. It is often moments like these that we fail to capture on film: by the time we find the camera and load it with film, the moment has passed us by.

The ThoughtCam group is currently researching EEG waveforms as a means of controlling the EyeTap/WearComp system.  Electrodes placed along the temples of the head will allow the user to control the display characteristics, and issue simple commands to the EyeTap system.  Through the user's manipulation of the EEG brainwaves, control can be established through the power of "thought".  By reading various states of the EEG wave form, and responding accordingly, the ThoughtCam establishes an even closer biological interaction between the user and the EyeTap/WearComp system, contributing to the hands-free nature of the apparatus.  The ThoughtCam group therefore has the goal of an adaptive interface between between the EyeTap/WearComp system, in which the user and EyeTap/WearComp system evolve with one another to create an efficient biological/ computerized union. It is important to realize that this apparatus is not merely a biological signal logging device, as is often used in the medical community, but, rather, enables new forms of real-time signal processing for humanistic intelligence.

Humanistic Intelligence, therefore, creates a symbiotic relationship in which the high-level intelligence arises from the existence of the host (human), and the lower-level computational workload comes from the signal processing hardware itself.  With applications such as the ThoughtCam, we are moving away from the `point and click' metaphor, toward the `look and think' metaphor -- toward making the intelligent camera system a true visual memory prosthetic which operates without conscious thought or effort, while at the same time aiding the user's daily function and thus improving the quality of life.