WearIT@work: Toward Real-World Industrial Wearable Computing

Wearable computers are often cited as an enabling technology for out-of-office applications. In fact, there has been a considerable amount of work on industrial applications of wearables. However, with the notable exception of the symbol arm-worn system, this research has had little impact on industrial practice. The wearIT@work project is a 4 1/2-year effort financed by the European Union and aimed at facilitating real-life industrial deployment of wearable technology. The project is at the end of its third year. With 42 partners and a project funding of 23.7 million Euro (half of which comes from the EU), this consortium is the largest civilian wearable-computing effort worldwide. We are organizing the project around four pilot applications - aircraft maintenance, car production, healthcare, and emergency response - that drive the work in a bottom-up, user-centered approach.