Watch and Wear, the Latest in Computer Fashion

Starner's gear, which costs about $US4500 ($A8250), includes a micro-optical monitor hooked to his glasses, a mobile phone-shaped keyboard he straps to the back of one hand and a small black bag that holds a 675-gram computer. "We're going through another computer revolution," said Starner, who, as a student, founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Wearable Computing Project in 1993 and is now part owner of Charmed Technology Wireless Eyewear, based in Santa Monica, California.

"Just like the change from the mainframe to the minicomputer and the minicomputer to the PC, we're going to have a switch to wearable, which is going to completely change the way people think about computing." Microvision, based in Bothell north-east of Seattle, markets a personal display system called Nomad. It's a headset with a two-dimensional display window that hangs in front of one eye. The company has sold 70 of the devices, which can be connected to other computer systems, since they went on the market early this year.

Surgeons are beginning to use it during image-guided operations such as hip replacements. Normally, they'd have to turn their heads to watch a television monitor showing them where they are supposed to cut. When they wear a Nomad, the images they need to see are right in front of their eyes, superimposed on the patient.

Some small-plane pilots use the Nomad as a way to keep their eyes on the sky and their gauges at the same time. "They're retailing at $US10,000 ($A18,331), which obviously you and I can't buy," Microvision spokesman Matt Nichols said. "But with volume, you've got a product where the components are only $US40 ($A73) or $US50 ($A91)." Also among the line-up at the symposium were MP3-wired jackets, arm-mounted keyboards, jackets that monitor heart rate and various head-mounted display systems.