While listening to a podcast the other day, I heard something that amused me. A conversation about early wearable computing, a guy who’d taken a washable keyboard, cut into into a split keyboard, then attached them to a pair of cargo pants, with a USB tail coming out of the back pocket. This reminded me of the cultist robes and wrists keyboard for the techmages that I’d joked about.

Included for those who weren’t around back then, the idea was that a group of hackers/coders could put together a set of robes with keyboards mounted on the underside of their wrists, hidden by the robes, so they could cross they arms, and then type on the underside of the opposite arm. With a small projector and screen mounted inside the hood, they’d have a HUD to work with. Done right, this could provide them with eyeless vision, as they could use a body camera broadcasting a feed to the hood, as well as having the benefit of being able to pick up the feeds from other members of the organization and from cameras mounted in other places. Wouldn’t be hard to craft various mystical objects with cameras hidden inside, to be placed as appropriate. Or familiars with cameras attached, to serve as extra sources of vision. A modified/disguised Lighter-than-Air Drone would be great as the floating eye, ala the eye of Kilrog.

The more I think about this idea, the more I realize it’s doable, and would perhaps work well for an Escape Room or a short film.