Wearable Communities: Augmenting Social Networks with Wearable Computers

W earable computers enhance personal computing with continuously worn, intelligent assistants that augment memory, intellect, creativity, communication, and physical senses.1–3 As wearable computing technology pervades our daily lives, we must ask how it influences social behavior. Will it merely make people “smarter” by providing seamless, context-aware access to information, or will it also enrich their social interactions? To advance the wearable computing paradigm for personal computing, we must carefully consider this technology’s social mechanisms, potential, and constraints. Some important research questions we must consider include