More considerations...

So given that I will not have a full time visual display, nor do I want random beeps and sounds emanating from my jacket, I need a invisible device to act as a notification. First to mind is a vibrator (think cell phone, not your horny little nymph of a girlfriend), this would be easily integrated, and difficult to detect from the outside, however they do seem to drain batteries quickly. Any ideas here people?

Second up is no full time input interface. I'm hoping I can get voice Recondition working on a basic level (hell if my cell phone can, why not?) as well as a few hidden buttons.
http://www.linux.com/base/ldp/howto/Speech-Recognition-HOWTO/software.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Speech-Recognition-HOWTO.html
http://freespeech.sourceforge.net/FreeSpeech/html/
(looks like I have 2 real options here, IBM's offering is out, their stuff is usually a bit obscure and hard to install and seldom maintained.)


As far as buttons on the outside, i am thinking touchpad or touch strip (think like a synth ribbon controller)


Some wearable pages/blogs:
http://staticfree.info/projects/wearable/
Kinda Basic, but a few good ideas.

http://www.ableq.com/
This site reccomends hardware for a fee for a purpose (usually disability.)
They have some good interface ideas such as electronic braille readers, I should look into this!

http://www.parvus.com/products/MilitaryAerospace/RuggedComputing/ZypadWL1000/
Purpose built wrist mounted mini-pc with Touch-TFT display that runs linux or ce. Interesting interface, bluetooth, etc, but a bit large for unencumbered use. Most likely pretty expensive.

http://www.frogpad.com/
One handed keyboard for limited space one-hand operation. Looks like a steep learning curve (as with braille) but effective... Maybe I should just wait for vr-glove and use more standard interface until then. My ideal is to make it intuitive, and this might not fit that goal.

http://www.holux.com.tw/
Manufacturers website for small usb-GPS units. Cheap and reliable with apparent linux support. Web site is not in English.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/vuman/www/boeing/index.htm
Notes from a boeing brainstorming session on wearables from '96. Still some accurate info. Seems odd how little has really been standardized/accomplished in wearables in the last 10 years... what happened?

http://jakeofalltrades.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/25-head-mounted-display/
So this is a HUD that costs 25-125$ to make. It is a b/w LCD with 'eyepiece'. Instructions on hacking are easy and interface is pretty standard.