OpenWR (OpenWear) is an open hardware standard for wearable IoT devices.

We are promoting groundbreaking ideas:

• Own your own tech stack (lately companies act like they own everything and only grant you a right to use things and feel free to take away features)
• Invest in your platforms, but invest in a forever purchase (when you buy stuff, buy stuff that will last you for your lifetime if possible. Try not to buy things that will be recycled waste in a few years. Is the company providing you will the ability to keep your gear running over time, or will they suddenly cut off support?)
• Own your data and control your privacy(where is your data going? Is the company requiring you to install their app, set up an account, and tracking you? Are they giving you control over who gets to use your data and for what? Do you own your data?)
• Deplatform (Where possible, get off platforms. Find small ways not to live in a FANG universe).

Hardware developed will have open specs that can be built by anyone, under a permissive license. The associated software will be delivered along with the hardware design. Where possible, it should be possible to click to build a PCB or find a reference to places to buy hardware builds and components.

Projects are divided into prototypes, products, and archives (of old/unsupported projects).

Prototypes are intended to experiment on small demonstrations of functionality, or as iterations on a design before promoting a concept into a product.

A product is a fully supported design with active software development, and some expectation of hardware components being available, and at least one public source to purchase the components or a completed product.

The archives are where products move to that are no longer supported. This may happen because of lack of available components. Or it may be due to a change in focus area by the team.

We have some concepts from the world of mobile and from the world of bluetooth. We need to do a reset in terms of how we think of things you wear and things you hold in your hands vs things that are in your living room that don't move. The average user doesn't understand the protocols, the concepts of client/server master/node etc. We think in terms of a physical universe. Laws of physics are generally understood by people.

If you push a button, you expect something to happen. If you turn something on, you would like to know its state if the state has changed. If you turn on some appliance device in your house, you expect to be able to find it on your network. You don't expect to have to create an account and do anything complicated to access the device. You do expect there to be some minimal level of security. That said, you should not be beholden to enterprise security standards, and should be able to opt into whatever standard of security suits you. For things you wear, you would like them to "link up" with each other to form a unified function. We do this easily with things we already wear, like belts->pants, socks-> shoes, jacket->liner->shirt. Clothing forms relationships between things that work together. At the present, other than the Apple Watch or a Garmin, most IoT wearables are not easily matching themselves together to enhance functionality of any other devices.

In the world of PC hardware, those who have taken apart or built a PC can quickly see the relationship between modular design. There are spaces inside of a PC case for expansion. This is open ended expansion (disk drives, graphics cards, lighting, fans, RAM, I/O expansion). When you consier the ability to enhance the design, it is amazing. We should have such a capability with our wearables. Every device doesn't need to be a monoloithic standalone component, but a federated collecting of things that work together in the form of wearbles.

OpenWR hopes to introduce new design principles to adhere to for each project. It also hopes to introduce new concepts for the kinds of wearables and IoT devices that aren't worn but used in conjenction with the wearable.

The ideal we seek is building block components in the form of wearables that can connect and work with each other, providing enhanced functionality when set up to work together. Ideas:

• A camera that can display to a wearable screen (so you can get your phone out of your hand)
• A sensor that collects data and stores it in some local device, and another device that lets you view this data

Really important in all of this is:

• No App Login required unless you desire a login
• No 3rd party cloud infrastructure required (FANG run or other cloud) needed to get started
• No company can cut off service to your devices, no company can revoke capabilities of your devices
• Anyone can build their own wearables, nobody "owns" the designs. They are Open Source.
• "EOL" (end of life) or "Unsupported" designs can be supported by the user if desired or ad-hoc communities.

TODO

• Modular Design: OpenWR devices are modular and can form virtual relationships with each other, to enhance functionality as a primary goal for connecting devices to each other
• Every device has a physical connectivity instruction interface to make it possible to know what devices can work together, and make it possible to link devices that are made to work together able to work together.
• No "Internet" required to function out of the box
• No "App" required ... devices can self organize or at the very least, have an option for configuration via physical interfaces or other devices that take the place of an app
• An Open Source App will always be available for phone or desktop to ensure there is a familiar option for managing devices
• Device security is enabled by design, but the user can choose the quality and level of security
• Interfaces for wearable devices should be understood by anyone between the age of 5 - 95. In other words, design for all levels of users, with simplicity in the interfaces and concepts for use at the forefront
• Design for language agnostic interfaces where possible
• Adopt a common symbology for audible and visual interfaces to make it possible to avoid specific language interfaces

• Categories: a set of tags that identify the ways this device can be used. A device may have 1 or more catagories.
  • Viewer/Display
  • Earbuds/Headphones (implies doesn't make audible sound outside of the user)
  • Speaker
  • Sensor
  • Bracelet
  • Necklace
  • Pocket
  • Tracker
  • Storage
  • PowerSource
  • Charger
  • Controller
  • Camera
  • Projector
• Protocols: these are the low level or high level technical protocols supported
  • Zigbee
  • Bluetooth
  • Wifi
  • Wifi6
  • Wifi Hotspot
  • Thread
  • IR
  • Meshtastic
  • GPS
  • NFC
  • 4G/5G Connectivity
• Physical Interfaces: the set of one or more physical interfaces available
  • USB-C
  • USB-A
  • Grove
  • Proprietary (should list what it is) ... example magsafe
• 6Sensor: Anything you wear potentially acting as augmentation of your existing senses, including things you cannot sense as a human, hence 6 senses are referenced
  • Brain: anything that does processing and performs some intelligent decision making or thinking. It does not imply any particular technology stack to implement.
  • Eye: any screen capable of seeing
  • Ear: any device capable of hearing
  • Voice: any device capable of speaking or general sound
  • Nose: any device that performs the sensing capabilities of a nose in whatever capability that may provide
  • Metasense: any sense that a meta-human could have ... gas sensor, ir sensor, humidity sensor, etc. Humans can only vaguely

• HeadsOut Display proto1
• Vision Skin proto1 : customizable e-ink
• Vision Indicator Cam proto1
• RearViewsion Camera for VisionPro
• Vision Screen

TBD

TBD

File a bug in the issue tracker.

• File bugs / suggestions / pull requests
• Donate: $ETH/$POLY: 0x00000001.zil , or $SOL: truedat101.sol ... proceeds make it possible to just do open source!

• One of the truly inspiring projects in recent weeks/months is Meshtastic. Hurray for open source. Many have tried proprietary networks, non-open solutions, etc., and Meshtastic found a great use case for LoRa.
• Ethernet: I had a chance to meet Bob M. and he told me his story of the first ethernet test. It took place in my office at PARC. He had my office years before I arrived there. The ethernet story is worth learning about. It's why Novell didn't win and Ethernet did win. Business people might say PARC didn't succeed with Ethernet, but they did spawn what became CISCO and literally every other connected device out there.
• Apple: Before they were the top dog, they were the underdog. Their stuff had principles but they weren't the best for price or performance. You could love certain things about the imperfection of a Mac. Nowadays, they are more like an elite athlete, high performance, high price. Still, I look backwards at where they came from.
• LEGO®s : the design philosophy of legos is powerful, and will be adopted in the form of non-physical connectors between wearable devices. What makes LEGOs so amazing is nearly every piece can be used without explanation, and has a clear and clean interface for use. We want this simplicity in form and use.
• Nintendo: They figured out decades ago that the value is not in hollywood quality voice actors (in fact they generally don't use real voices in their games ... but an odd version of noise of someone talking in gibberish). This lack of emphasis on language made it easier to get their in-house games out to market easily around the world. They learned quickly how to build for a global audience.
• Teenage Engineering: Simplistic form and function in their Pocket Operators makes it possible to enable anyone to make music. Yes, their "menus" and overloaded buttons are a bit obscure, but their constraints in design make it possible to master quickly, and not be overwhelmed with learning a new set of skills. Keep in mind there are two sides to the TE house, a "scandanavian design" side, and a side that is making accessible instruments. Don't get the two confused. We are focused on things that anyone can afford and pick up.
• Meta: lovem, hatem, leavem. You can give them credit for creating an ecosystem of viable and accessible wearable VR and AR / AI smart devices. This is good for everyone working in this space. They also provide a lot of guideposts for what not to do, and how to alienate a user base.