TAXONOMY OF WEARABLE COMPUTERS IN A MIXED REALITY

Although wearable computing is not a new concept, recent developments in that field are boosted by computing advancements in smart mobile devices and miniaturization processes of computer elements. Market tendencies signal its extremely rapid growth, therefore a new theoretical framework is required in order to describe and understand better the wearable computing trends and devices. To determine which classification method fully indicates general regularities of wearable devices, features of ten devices that correspond to the principles of capacity, data processing and contextualisation of the user and his environment are compared and analysed. Classic technical and technological analysis and taxonomic matrix have been tested. The result of the research indicates that the technological analysis is incomplete and that taxonomy, except abstracting the basic features of the device, includes and describes the level of impact on the user experience within a mixed reality.