Introduction: Raspberry Pi Wearable Computer.

This is just a very quick demo of the wearable computer I made for a CyberpunkLARP game a friend of mine was running.

The whole thing was a bit of a throw together, with additional bits and pieces being bolted on (ok, taped on) at the last minute.

It consists of the following components:
  • Belt
  • Raspberry Pi
  • MyVu Crystal video glasses (damaged - only left lens worked properly)
  • USB Network Adaptor
  • USB Bluetooth Adaptor
  • Bluetooth keyboard
  • 5v power regulator (DC-DC LM2596 Converter Buck Adjustable Step Down Regulator Power Module 1.2-35V)
  • 2x 6v 2.3Ah sealed lead-acid batteries - wired in parallel.
  • Mini LED Digital Volt Meter
  • Various wiring, switches and fuses.

The video glasses were originally damaged. Only the left lens worked consistently. So I cut them in two (no wiring went over the bridge of the nose) and assembled a headset using a cheap boom mike/earpiece, some wire and a lot of Sugru.

When running, it draws between 700mAh and an amp. So in theory the two 6v batteries in parallel should run it for between 4 and 5 hours.

It is capable of viewing web pages, although due to the low quality of the MyVu eyepiece, you really wouldn't want to try and focus on it for too long.

The software (the green screened database application shown) was written very hastily in Python. I deliberately made the font size extremely large (you only got about 10 lines on the screen) as this seemed to eliminate eye strain (mostly). The data itself was held in a MySQL database.

The overall effect was a display hanging in front of you about 40 cm across at 1.5 metres away. This worked especially well with the green lettering of the software I wrote as you didn't really see the square screen... just the letters overlaid in front of your vision.

As I said, it was made for a CyberpunkLARP game (click either of those terms for a definition) and worked surprisingly well. This particular game was very well run and had things in place so that players could hack into the accounts of other players. The fact that I could do this whilst having a conversation with someone was great. Although it did tend to freak people out a little when I zoned out staring off into space.

Ok, it's not Google Glass... but then again, it didn't cost me $1500 to make!

UPDATE : New video with much more detail