We had the opportunity to interview Christian Bürgy of teXXmo. He played a leading role in the development of our Gadget of the Month for July – the new teXXmo wearable computers.
How long has the idea for the teXXmo wearable Computers been around and where did it come from?
In 2005, teXXmo was founded in Böblingen, as a sort of management buy-out of Xybernaut GmbH, a 100-percent subsidiary of the Xybernaut Corporation of Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Prior to 2000, Xybernaut already commercially offered wearable computers. In 1999, I had my first brush with the topic when I was studying at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. At teXXmo, we developed the first prototypes during an R&D project with, among others, SAP AG, Daimler AG and the University of Bremen.
For which target market was the teXXmo wearable computer primarily developed?
teXXmo serves partners and customers with industrial grade mobile computer systems, most notably our tablet PC, KALEO. Our teXXmo wearable computer ONE is also designed for this target market. In the future, all the activities that once required paper lists and now require tablet PCs will be supported by wearable computers – and, best of all, users will not need to use their hands to operate the systems.
Are the teXXmo ONE and teXXmo VISION wearable computers on the market now? What is the difference between the two products? Can customers also place customized orders for them?
Yes, our wearable computer systems are ready for production and can be delivered immediately. The teXXmo VISION is considered the entry level model. It offers full performance with a more simple head-mounted display (HMD) with VGA resolution. The teXXmo ONE has a fully equipped HMD with integrated camera, microphone, headphones and SVGA resolution.
Naturally, we can also offer special customization on a project basis. Working quickly and flexibly with our customers to fulfill their needs is one of our strengths. We’ve proven that time and again in our many projects, which include those for an airplane manufacturer, a large German automobile manufacturer and for the emergency medical service industry.
A while back I was at a conference where the speaker made this assertion: “Wearable Computers are dead. Smartphones are our wearable computers.” What do you think of that?
In some areas, mostly in the consumer market, that may be true, but not for our customers. For them, we need reliable, high-performance systems that offer the highest possible computing power with long battery life and industrial grade design. A smartphone might bring the grandchildren into grandma’s living room via Skype for FaceTime, but when you have to use a video transmission to analyze a malfunction in a running machine, then you need 25 frames per second in VGA or SVGA resolution. Our systems easily achieve this, eight hours long with one battery charge. But it is also clear that smartphones have become very efficient wearable systems. We have dubbed them “wearable communication hubs” because they can serve as complete systems.
Aside from teXXmo wearable computers, what is your favorite Wearable Technologies product?
My heart monitor Garmin Forerunner 405 CX – as a consumer device it has a comparatively bad battery life, but nonetheless it holds out longer than I can run in one session…
