Wearable Computing and Mobile Workers: The Aeronautic Maintenance Showcase in the WearIT@Work Project

WearIT@Work is an Integrated Project co-funded by the European Commission under the Information Society Technologies 6th Framework Programme. As a general objective, WearIT@Work aims to develop a mobile computing platform that supports complex tasks with limited and multimodal human-machine interaction and thereby enables mobile professionals to keep their attention focused on the interaction with the work environment. Wearable mobile computing can empower professionals to higher levels of productivity by providing more seamless and effective forms of access to knowledge at the point of work, collaboration and communication. This paper illustrates the ongoing activities and some qualitative preliminary results achieved up to now in the first phase of the project, with respect to a relevant application scenario: the support to maintenance activities in the aeronautic industry.