A Textual Analysis of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers: 1997 -- 2011 Proceedings

The International Symposium on Wearable Computers is now in its 16th year. With little research available into the historical content of wearable computing literature, this paper attempts to identify key trends within the 510 conference articles currently published. A longitudinal study is undertaken using word frequency analysis, which suggests a shift in emphasis from describing and prototyping wearable computers, to evaluative methods and activity sensing techniques.

I. Introduction

This paper investigates the body of wearable research within the ISWC corpus [1] through a longitudinal study that analyses word frequencies, identifying trends in key topics over the conferences fifteen-year history. The aim is to establish a meta-discourse, reflecting upon the existing knowledge contained within the ISWC proceedings. The paper is intended as a call for further investigation and debate concerning the methodological approaches used within wearable research.