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Ghostbusters, Star Trek and Terminator come to mind when you see someone wearing the Xybernaut Mobile Assistant IV. Although the MA IV may look like something out of the movies, it was designed to meet real-world tasks.
The MA IV is a wearable computer designed for mobile applications such as maintenance, repair, inventories and inspections. Employees can call up manuals, drawings, equipment history, databases and part numbers - all while in the field, whether walking a warehouse floor or perched atop a utility pole.
On the Arizona-Mexico border, the U.S. Customs Service uses Xybernaut wearable computers to process vehicles crossing the border and make sure they are not stolen. To verify a vehicle, customs officers must query remote databases via a terminal linked to their local-area network. In the past, an officer had to walk from a vehicle to the LAN terminal to conduct a search, which left time for a driver of an illegal vehicle to escape. Now, however, officers can process vehicles on the spot, allowing for greater security and saving on the cost of expanded wiring.
The MA IV also is part of a NASA education project in which students from two colleges conducted experiments with wearable computers to determine the potential to reduce the weight and...