Players of Fallout 3 will no doubt draw some similarities between the conceptual design image above and the Pip-Boy 3000 so integral to the game. Working with HP Labs, the US Army has been developing a device to replace much of the equipment soldiers currently carry in their packs. Using an e-ink screen with the components stamped on to flexible plastic, the wrist-mounted display unit could replace field laptops, GPS units and radios as early as 2011.
Right now, the technology is only capable of outputting a monochrome image (just like the Pip-Boy) but it is expected that the device will have a color display by the time it is ready for deployment. It's currently undergoing field testing, but the tech seems to be durable. "You can strike these things with a mallet, and they just keep on working," claims HP's director of information surfaces, Carl Taussig.
As I'm sure is the case with a lot of sci-fi fans and tech nerds, I've long prayed for the day that I can have a computer on my wrist, however impractical it may be for my everyday needs. With devices like this in development, my dreams of having a big ass screen on my forearm seem just a little bit closer today.
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
10:00 PM on 07.11.2009
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Better be able to play Team Fortress 2 on them though.
the iArm.
...nah not really
but that's really awesome. would it be wrong to think that fallout actually inspired these?
I bet he could even take on the Transformers with just that.
You can strike these things with a mallet, and they just keep on working," - HP's director of information surfaces, Carl Taussig.
that's post release premium DL content.
And's where the Vault Boy!?
Army Technology FAIL!
"Join the US Army! It's just like Fallout."