2021-10-22_wireless-chair.mp4

This version consisted of a rolling chair with two arm panels. The arm panels are marketed for mice, but I purchased two and put one on each armrest. I additionally connected keyboards to the arm pads using a hook and loop fastener (aka velcro). The keyboards were connected to each other, and to a bluetooth hub which plugged into a battery pack. The bluetooth hub received power from the battery, and passed power through to the keyboard. I was then able to pair my keyboard to my desktop. In the video, you can see me control my desktop wirelessly, and with the ability to move around. In theory, you could

This picture features the first prototype for a techbelt, complete with an accompanying halo. The halo is optional, as the belt can be used to control an external compute with its own monitor. The design is versatile: I used it regularly to control a desktop, as well as a Librem 5 in my pocket.

The design consisted of a USB-C hub glued onto a nylon belt. Attached to the belt are straps which hold up a pair of keyboards. The exact position of the keyboards are calibrated to ensure that when the user's fingers are on home row, that the user's wrists are in a neutral position, and the user has good posture. It feels a little strange to use at first because we are used to our arms being forward twisted in (thumbs down); hence, at first it feels like your hands are pushed back along your waist, and hands twisted out. Additionally, the belt has a slot for a USB battery hub. I used a 40,000 mAh battery, which was able to power the USB-C hub, keyboard, halo, and phone for 8 hours of continuous use. In contrast, the same block can power just the phone with regular use for a whole day. For me, this meant I could have a supply of charging batteries which I switch out at the beginning and end of work to have constant up time for all 16 waking hours.

One major bonus to this design is the stealth factor; in addition to the functional parts, I was able to build in a light cardigan that conceals much of the device, allowing it to be worn unnoticed. (Though, the halo is a dead give away.)

One of the main design flaws of this iteration was that it could not reliably hold my compute (Librem 5). I wanted to be able to take off the belt without removing the phone (it should always stay on my person), so I left the phone in my front pocket and connected it from there. Sometimes I would sit down and the USB connector on the phone got pushed forward enough to permanently damage the port. The port still works, but the connection is inconsistent…

The techbelt V2 addressed the main flaw of the V1 by including an on-belt module that holds the phone. It consists of a sleeve on a flap with straps to restrict the motion so the phone can rest horizontally (screen pointing up) or can be secured with screen up against the belt with a strap.

<pictures of phone module here>

For political reasons, I also chose to switch my keyboard to the Ergodox for this iteration since it is an open hardware project. It is less sleek (in fact I removed many keys) but I should have more ability to modify it in the future.

<picture of Ergodox here>

The other difference between the V1 and V2 is that I kept the covering separate from the belt. In the V1, I sewed a cardigan directly into the belt, while in the V2 I created a companion jacket. For the jacket, I started with a free (as in freedom) sewing design from freesewing.org. I put in my measurements, and added an extension to make it long enough to cover my keyboards.

<picture of jacket here>

As with the previous version, I am able to type through the fabric without trouble. Since my hands do not have anything in them, and aren't in any pockets, people automatically disregard my fingers. Furthermore, the frills at the base of my jacket obscure the motion of my fingers, so it is incredibly stealthy.

Though I often feel like my designs are too simple to warrant sharing, this one is particularly simple. I purchased two Vufine+ HDMI displays with two Vufine Pro mounts. I then consolidated the mounts onto one headband (mount each came with a headband). This gave me two displays which can be moved independently. At the time of this writing, I have only used one display as a display at any point in time. There are, however, a few benefits to keeping it around. (1) The second eye-piece makes for a more symmetric, and therefore more ergonomic (no neck pain) and aesthetically appealing setup. (2) Sometimes the first display gets into a locked/unresponsive state, so the second is a backup that can be switched out. (3) As I try to debug bugs in such a complex system, it is good to be able to swap out any individual piece with what should be an identical piece. (4) The combination of the two displays makes for a very natural set of social cues: two displays up means you have my undivided attention (nothing between me and them; full eye-contact possible), one display up and one down means they have half my attention, and both displays down means I am trying to focus on something other than those around me.

For my second halo iteration, I have switched to an xreal air (Vufine for scale).

Getting it running off the Librem 5 ended up being a bit quite difficult. When none of my USB-C modules worked, I ordered 4 different models online; two also didn't work, a third worked a bit but caused some issue which crashed, and the fourth… worked! (Vufine for scale)

Interestingly, you may notice that the far port shown is a VGA port. The reason connecting to the Librem is so difficult is that the display expects to receive an HDMI signal, and also power over USB-C, the latter of which the Librem 5 is not willing to give. The glasses have only a 1920x1080 display mode, and an absolutely massive field of view.