Think back to all those science-fiction movies and comic strips where the hero is always looking at and poking a button on a device strapped to his wrist when he needs vital information. And sometimes he or she even spoke into and communicated via the device.

The WR-1100 is a rugged wrist-wearable wireless computer and GPS device. Now, it is not small by any means, and if you’ve got what Arnold calls “girlie wrist,” then this device may not be for you. But for our burly warfighters, it could be a very valuable device.

Right up front, there is an interesting anomaly in the documentation, which does not affect the equipment but gives one pause. And yes, I do eventually read the documentation on all the devices I review, but only after I have tried and hopefully successfully used the device without reading a single word of the instructions. If it is not at least that user friendly, then I worry about the human-machine interface, and indeed I was able to make the WR-1100 function in most all modes without reading any documentation.

The learning curve on this device is not steep, but your eyesight had better be sharp. The anomaly or oversight I spoke of is this: on page six of the 56-page users manual, which only comes on a computer disc, there is a list of 32 country designations with the warning words, “This equipment may be operated in: NL (Netherlands), FR (France),” etc., but the U.S. and Canada are not mentioned. I am assuming this is a European-only users manual, but I am not sure that makes sense either… It may be a small matter, but it is something that should be corrected. It makes you wonder what else they neglected to mention. Later in the manual there is mention of FCC certifications and Canadian emissions compliance regulations, so obviously leaving the U.S. and Canada out of the authorized user country table was an oversight.

The Unit

First of all, the WR-1100 uses the Linux (Kernel 2.6) operating system, weighs in at just 23 ounces or 650 grams, and is about 4.5 x 3.5 x 3 inches in size.  It is rugged to MIL-STD (military standards) 810F and 461E for temperature, thermal shock, humidity, transit, and crash shock; normal and vehicular vibration; altitude and enclosure class for immersion in three feet of H20; so you don’t have to worry about damaging the WR-1100 when you hit the deck. And yes I did put the unit through my normal but thorough torture test and it passed with flying colors. It really is as rugged as advertised.

Four models of the device are on the market, the 1100, 1110,1120, and 1130. Only the WR-1100 and 1120 incorporate GPS into the device. The WR-1100, the device I am reviewing, also incorporated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The WR-1110 adds an RFID or radio frequency identification capability and the WR-1120 adds ZigBee in place of Bluetooth. While not a plethora of interfaces, it is certainly adequate for most current requirements. And certainly more capable in most respects than the current military-issued GPS equipment because it is rugged, has communications built in, can add software programs as needed, and it is a computer with all the associated capabilities. Plus the touchscreen is in color, of course, but it is small.

Here are the highlights of the WR-1100 I tested:

As I said, the unit is rugged. The WR1100 is fully designed to withstand the most severe conditions. Its special case, made of fiberglass-reinforced nylon and magnesium alloy, maximizes durability and minimizes weight. This combination enables the WR1100 to serve in the harshest of environments in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as pass my torture tests.

Ergonomically, the WR 11XX is made up of two elements: the core system and the rigid wrist support, which I found fit my wrist perfectly with room for considerable adjustments. Although I think it would be possible to find a wrist that might occasionally be too small for the unit, padding would probably work. I did not test this.

The core system with the viewing screen and battery can be easily detached from the rigid wrist support by pressing two buttons. The rigid wrist support is designed to fit comfortably on the user’s wrist, and through an interlocking buckle system is easily fastened or released, although I don’t think you could disengage it accidentally. It takes a positive and deliberate action to unfasten the device.

The WR1100 has a modular design with some hardware expansion capability. The unit has a modular battery pack and an add-on module expansion system; this allows the user to rapidly change the configuration of the device and the battery. If your particular model does not come with them installed, you can add modules for the hardware requirements for WWAN (wireless wide-area network) and GPS capabilities, more on the GPS module later.

My WR1100 came with an accelerometer, electronic compass, and a biometric fingerprint reader. The unit can be equipped with all these hardware features and they combine to make it a very secure and useable device. Adding software is not difficult, but you must remember this is a Linux operating system, not a Windows or Apple operating system. I especially liked the addition of the biometric fingerprint reader. It was easy to operate and provides an additional level of security.

The WR1100 is easy to make mission ready; by simply using the mode selector, users can change the configuration of the device between normal and alert modes. The selector also exposes a programmable big red alarm button that can be programmed to perform special functions. Among other actions, the mission mode darkens the screen and all telltale lights, actually LEDs or light-emitting diodes (who uses lightbulbs anymore) that might give away your position in darkness. Plus, since LEDs are far more durable, use less battery power and last longer than normal lightbulbs, they add to the unit’s ruggedness, longevity, and battery life.

The wireless radio design and capabilities that are integrated into the core system are WPAN, wireless personal area network (Bluetooth Class 2 or a ZigBee integrated antenna which allows for the use of an up-and-coming standard since 2005 for controlling sensors), and WLAN or wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g) hardware, which greatly aids communication on the battlefield.

Note: In case you have not heard of ZigBee before, it is an open wireless standard for controlling sensors. A ZigBee-equipped device with the correct software can, depending on the amount of data needing to be read or transferred, wake up a ZigBee-equipped sensor device, securely check-in, send and/or retrieve data, and shut down all in less than 30 milliseconds. Depending on the type of ZigBee device being used it can communicate over distances of 400 yards and up to six miles. Now that is impressive, and while I was not able to test this aspect of the device, if it works as advertised, it is certainly an interesting capability and one we may have to add to the Perfect Handheld GPS Transceiver or PHGPST.

The WR1100 has multiple I/O (input and output) ports. The universal serial bus or USB device and USB host ports are available on the case. In addition, the WR1100 has stereo audio and mono microphone interfaces with noise cancellation and an onboard speaker for high noise environments. This might be something you would want to turn off on a covert mission because it works well, can be loud, and would ruin your covert day or night if you forgot to disable it. We may “Own the Night” but not with Three Dog Night blaring in the darkness.

The unit has a small but readable VGA 640x480 65k color high-visibility display with a 3.5-inch touchscreen and an automatic contrast mode that allows the user to very comfortably view data and images, even in direct sunlight or darkened environments, on the shock-resistant display. By the way, the 65k display has the same availability of colors (65,000) as used in the Apple iPOD, although the display is not as clear and I suspect this is because of the anti-glare capability of the screen.

The high-performance CPU and memory system, which consists of 128 MB of flash memory and 256 MB of RAM or random access memory, allows complex applications to be run on the device. Furthermore, with the standard micro SD or secure digital card memory expansion, large amounts of information can be stored and ported if necessary via the card. It is not a screaming machine but it will get the job done.

The WR1100s enhanced power-management system works well. The use of Li-Polymer, an advancement over lithium-ion cells, allows maximum operating time and saves energy when the operator is not using the computer. The modularity of the battery pack and the hot-swap capabilities (remember the flash memory), allows users to exchange the modules without switching off the device and taking the chance of losing valuable information. This was a key feature for me, and I tested it in several modes and never lost data.

Note: Battery experts tell me that Lithium-ion polymer batteries, polymer lithium ion, or more commonly lithium polymer batteries (abbreviated Li-poly, Li-Pol, LiPo, LIP, PLI, or LiP) are rechargeable batteries, which have technologically evolved from lithium-ion batteries. Ultimately, the lithium-salt electrolyte is not held in an organic solvent as in the lithium-ion design, but in a solid polymer composite such as polyethylene oxide or polyacrylonitrile. The advantages of Li-poly over the lithium-ion design include lower cost of manufacturing and being more robust to physical damage, an important factor in this wrist-wearable design. Lithium-ion polymer batteries started appearing in consumer electronics around 1996 and have evolved since that time.

The integrated GPS module consists of a sensitive GPS antenna (I received up to six satellites indoors) with a 12-channel receiver with DGPS (Differential GPS) and Satellite Based Augmentation Systems or SBAS such as WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System — over CONUS) and EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service — over Europe, support. I found the entire module to provide a quick time to first fix or TTFF of about 45 seconds. The augmentations made a considerable difference in the position accuracy, and I would personally operate with them all engaged, unless you were desperately trying to save battery power to make use of another capability.

The tilt and dead-reckoning system has a rather ominous and somber tone since it provides critical information, any time, any where, in tracking of the user to detect if they have been motionless for a specified period of time; hopefully they are just asleep, but it is an important factor and feature plus being a cold reality in war time.

All in all, I find this to be a well-thought-out and highly useable device, a real boon for the mounted or dismounted warfighter. It is a device for the warfighter of the future that is here now, appears to be upgradeable, and has room for expansion. All the armed services are pursuing wearable computers in vests, and headsets with display reticles. Now here is one that fits on your wrist. It is made for a right-handed user, but the software allows you to switch the display for left-handed users with one stroke of the stylus. The hardware fits both left- and right-handed persons without any modifications.

I liked the WR1100 wrist-mounted wearable computer a great deal, and hopefully it has a future.

Updates on GPS IIF, IIRM+, and Delta

I promised several months ago that when the first Boeing IIF satellite finally made it through thermal-vacuum testing, I would let you know. Indeed, that event occurred sometime, very quietly, in late December last year, and rumor has it that a finished satellite might be on the way to the launch site at the Cape sooner rather than later.

A launch date still seems to be up in the air, and there are few glitches still to be worked-out, but I have been talking to Boeing and the Air Force and I think they might actually be willing to commit to a launch date or at least a launch window any day now. I will let you know when they do. Meanwhile, kudos to Boeing for finally getting the first IIF satellite through testing, and now let’s all hope and pray for the best.

But so what, I hear you saying. The satellite may be at the Cape, but the Delta II booster was still broken the last we heard. Well, evidently the booster problems have also been quietly fixed; actually, just the fuse-activated release mechanism for the third stage was broken. Now that has been fixed and the IIF is no longer looking for a ride; it has one ready to go. So, with the booster and the satellite at the Cape, can a launch be far off? Let’s hope not, because remember we still have that L5 frequency (the third civil signal) activation or broadcast date hanging over the program, and that payload needs to be in MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) orbit and broadcasting NLT October 29, 2009. That is less than eight months away, and word on the street is that if we don’t meet our deadlines the Chinese would be happy to have that frequency for their Beidou (in English — Big Dipper) system. Note: The current Beidou-1 system (made up of four satellites) is experimental and has limited coverage and application. However, China has plans to develop a true GNSS consisting of approximately 35 satellites (known as Compass or Beidou-2).

Indeed, the Chinese have launched 1-MEO and 4-GEO (Geostationary or Geosynchronous Earth Orbit) GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellites at an erratic rate. As yet no one knows how long the satellites and payloads will last, but all bets are that they will on average last longer than the Russian GLONASS or GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLObal NAvigation Satellite System) satellites that have historically had incredibly short life spans, although that part of the Russian GNSS equation seems to be improving as well. We are still waiting for a full-up GLONASS constellation.

As far as Galileo is concerned, the test satellites GIOVE-A and -B are still operating. Remember there was a scare with GIOVE-B just a few months ago? But the hydrogen maser atomic clock, the first one ever flown in space, is back on line and the satellite is apparently performing well. Hopefully, it was just a one-time upset not to be repeated. Rumor has it that we could see an IOV Galileo (initial orbit validation) launch before the end of the year. If so, it will be the first element of the Galileo program that has been ahead of a long and protracted schedule. Let’s hope for the best.

Until next time, Happy Navigating.