CEA-Leti: Wear-a-BAN – Unobtrusive wearable human to machine wireless interface

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: Communication between man and machine, also known as Human-Machine-Interface (HMI), could become more intuitive or natural by integrating motional and emotional information, parameters which are difficult to express with standard HMI devices.

Indeed, in man to man communication, a large part of the information is transmitted naturally through non-verbal communication (body language, intonations, etc). Such a paradigm shift requires a move from classical computer peripherals towards natural interfaces that mimic the natural human interaction.

With recent advances in microelectronics, embedded signal processing and software technologies, more natural HMI solutions are within reach, which will enable new gaming, medical rehabilitation and robotics interfacing paradigms and require very short and intuitive learning curves for anyone.

The objective of the Wear-a-BAN project (Unobtrusive wearable human to machine wireless interface) is to investigate and demonstrate ultra low-power wireless body-area-network technologies for enabling unobtrusive human to machine interfaces into market segments such as smart and interactive textiles, robotics for augmented reality assistance and rehabilitation and natural interfacing devices for video gaming.

The kick-off meeting of the Wear-a-BAN project was held on the 23-24th June in Limasol, Cyprus and the project was successfully launched with the active participation of the consortium members.

The project will last for two years and the consortium consists of leading research organizations, universities, Associations of SMEs and SME participants from all over Europe, including the Robotics Society of Finland, Cap Digital Paris Region, Ateval, Playall Management, Ramon Espi S.L., Movea SA, Deltatron Oy, SignalGeneriX Ltd., Voxler, Aitex, CSEM SA, Technical University of Berlin, VTT, CEA-Leti and the coordinator RTD TALOS Ltd.