Seiko UC-2000 (1984) – the dawn of wearable computers | Hacker News Reader

Seiko UC-2000 (1984) – the dawn of wearable computers

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How about a little "where are they now"...

MIT Wearable Computing, circa 1996:

https://imgur.com/a/AlnEYkW

Epic shot

aww yiss[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EyeTap

Another interesting bit of history was the Seiko Message Watch, which had time-sync and one-watch messaging over an FM radio sideband:

https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/tribute-to-the-seiko-messagewa...

Back before cell phones were ubiquitous that was pretty novel. I remember being struck by how cool it was to step off the plane in Taipei and see it update to local time while I watched. Getting pages about server downtime using the email gateway was also a nice way not to lug a pager around.

The system didn't outlive Y2K, however, and since it was clear where the market was going they simply shut it down rather than fix the Y2K bugs.

Microsoft also tried to build a smart watch in 2004 with the SPOT watch.

It’s remarkable how a concept can stick around for decades waiting on an implementation that’s good enough to be viable.

Instead of trying to think of new things it’s perhaps better to go read tech magazines of prior decades finding failed ideas and trying to breathe new life into them.

Smartphones are a great example: I had Richochet wireless on a Handspring Prism almost a decade before the iPhone, including a web browser. The concepts were there but it needed generations of hardware and software improvements to make it viable as a mainstream product.

I had an iPaq and it was better than the early iPhone by far. PocketPC just needed a touch interface instead of the pen.

Although the pen allowed a lot of fun games. There was a tennis one I really enjoyed.

I had an iPaq too, along with a range of HTC/HP/O2 Pocket PC and Windows Mobile devices. The overall experience was dismal with a very slow Mobile IE browser and awkward UX using a stylus. Using the iPhone was like experiencing an alien technology. Flew to San Francisco from Singapore just to buy an iPhone and ordered a SIM delocker to allow me to use it on an non-AT&T network.

Having a 206MHz ARM iPaq in ~2003 blew my mind. I had the addon pack for the back and used it over WiFi without issues.

Built and sold several applications for it as well, so easy to develop for as well.

Hell you couldn't even install apps when the iPhone came out, so if you were using what was at least 5 year old technology it's no wonder you found the iPhone to be a better experience.

I bet you think the iPhone was better than the Newton too eh? Kudos on flying to SF instead of just having one shipped to you.

Yes, bought a Newton also. Gave up using given the Beta level software. Couldn't ship one from the states those days. Apple didn't allow shipping overseas and eBay price was way too high.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink#Optical_sensor

Some Japanese hardware was really amazing and ahead of it's time even from the 90's or early 2000s. It's worth reading about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_mobile_phone_culture#...

This thing reminds me a great deal of the 1980s design aesthetic used in a bunch of "digital dash" cars, such as the Nissan 300Z:

https://www.google.com/search?q=300Z+dash+digital&num=100&cl...

Is there a name for this aesthetic? I like the way it looks. Reminds me of aircraft HUDs.

>Is there a name for this aesthetic?

ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VaporwaveAesthetics/

I love 1980s tech ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃｓ. Even the graphic design associated with 1980s Transformers toys and cartoons has it.

That Epson RC-20 model looks ready for a re-issue, and with a programmable Z80, I wouldn't even mind an exact copy (with modern battery technology). The future looked so cool back then.

I’d get one now. Especially if Z80.

1984: Seiko UC_2000 - Z80 CPU 2-10 Mhz (?) - 8K ROM - 2K RAM

30 year later: From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_S1

2014: Apple Watch. - ARM CPU 500Mhz - 8G Flash (?) - 512MB RAM.

                    -  X 50-250            - X 1000       - X 256000

30 year from 2014: Any chance for this?

2044: ??? Watch - CPU 25-125GHz (?) - 8TB Flash - 128TB RAM.

Unfortunately, the UC-2000 seems to have a 1.5-year battery life, so your extrapolated 2044 watch will only work for 6 minutes before needing charged. :-)

I think you meant to swap the 8TB Flash and 128TB RAM.

Slightly less capable I think but HP-01 was a wrist calculator (with data flow oriented operators) https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hp-01+watch&atb=v119-3__&ia=web

A fantastic video about this amazing device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGQrsSEaZkI

Great video, thanks!

I wear my HP-01 every day, except when working out and wearing a Fitbit. It has a few minor electrical problems but is going strong almost 40 years later. I am returning from Tokyo and visited many watch shops but there was a decided lack of new watch features this trip. I already have a Seiko e-ink watch with radio frequency setting, a Seiko Astron with GPS setting and also self charging, a Citizen also with self charging and RF setting, various smart watches like the Fossil Q, etc., but my go to since acquiring it is this HP-01. If it had “raise wrist to enable LED display” it would be even better. I would love this form factor with modern innards.

I have a bunch of these: pocket and wrist. I like them. They still work and I would wear that over an Apple watch any day. That is just taste though. I would buy a small programmable, none networked, ‘infinite battery’ watch like this now.

Do you have a bunch of this particular model, or do you have a range of these types of watches. I'd love to hear what other watches like this there are!

I saw a cool project that uses an Android phone in lieu of the original keyboard. The signal from the keyboard is spoofed via the magnetic field of the phone's speaker

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