Wearable Raspberry Pi Project

This article is a work in progress.

Project to build a wearable computer using a Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi is ideal for wearable computing thanks to its small size and low power consumption. A new range of high capacity (>10000mAh) consumer lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries with USB (5V) outputs are now available marketed as recharging packs for smartphones and tablets and these are also ideal for powering a device such as the Pi which takes a 5V input and consumes around 5W or less.

This is a project to build a wearable fully functional computer.

Input is easily covered using a miniature wireless keyboard although an alternative simplified input device could be built, e.g. a glove or simple joystick to drive a menu.

Output is much trickier and I have been considering video glasses such as Vuzix 920 which offer 640x480 resolution for around £90 (refurbished pair) but these do not allow see-through so limit (prevent!) mobility while operating.

An alternative output would be a wrist-mounted small screen LCD although ideally a transparent HUD like Google Glass could be built.

My current video output plan is based on modifying a 640x480 3.5" LCD screen from a dashboard parking sensor camera display (Costs around £15) to work on 5V instead of 12VA pair of MyVu 320x240 video glasses I picked up cheap on ebay and building a simplified GUI (probably in Java) to drive the PC.

Here is my components list so far (using these links to Amazon helps pay my hosting costs!)

Update 2012/12/16 - Pi now working with MyVu glasses (unmodified).

Wiring details:

Step 1) Take the 4 ring green to 4 ring black 3.5mm jack lead from the MyVu and cut off the green end.

Step 2) Cut the end of a male video phono lead.

Step 3) Strip all the wires

Step 4) Connect MyVu blue wire to video signal wire

Step 5) Connect MyVu green and white leads to video ground wire (Stops buzzing in earphones - might not be optimal wiring). MyVu orange wire is unused

Step 6) Solder and/or tape up wires

Now you need to edit on the Pi.

Uncomment the composite PAL line:

Now reboot and disconnect HDMI and connect composite (Cannot output to both simultaneously).