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Living the Web Loco

Don't you hate it when you have to leave your computer and go out in the real world? No? Well, then pretend to be a teenager. Got it? Thanks.

Research companies are spending millions of dollars to find ways for you take the Web with you. One approach, which I call the "If you're going to be a geek, then you might as well look like one" approach, is known more mundanely as "wearable computing."

We've come a long way from the monstrous helmets and 40-pound backpacks of a few years ago, which let you carry all the computing power of a cheap computer game with you (add another 40 pounds for batteries if you want it to last more than 15 minutes).

One device, called I-glasses, fits over your eyes and makes you feel like you're looking at an 80" television. Of course, you look like Geordi from Star Trek, and you're basically pinned to one spot unless you want to swap your carpal tunnel syndrome for a broken leg when you trip over the couch. You also need a computer: sold separately of course.

Another, called the Poma, is a tiny display that fits over one eye, with a pocket-sized computer and a little handheld mouse. Headphones are optional. For a paltry $1,500, you can walk down the street reading your email and catching up on the news from your favorite Web site. You can't reply to that email until you get home, but let's not get picky.

What brings it all together, though, is a concept highlighted in a New Scientist article: mid-air messages.

GPS (global positioning system) units have dropped dramatically in price and size. You can buy a wristwatch that can tell you your longitude and latitude to within a few yards.

Attach a GPS unit to a wearable computer, hook a cellular phone and a set of headphones to it, and you can interfere with television reception two miles away. You could also potentially leave mid-air messages. Here's how they would work:

You can walk into your local grocery store and pin a note up on the bulletin board saying that you have free kittens available. What if the whole world was a bulletin board?

You could attach a note (or picture or song, or whatever) to a specific set of coordinates. Anyone who walked by wearing one of the GPS-based units could see (or hear) what you left behind. Your note wouldn't actually be stored in the air, of course. It would be stored on a computer at CIA headquarters, where they're tracking you even as you read this.

The practical advantages are obvious. Imagine how you could impress your friends as you walked through a strange town by suddenly saying, "That restaurant serves great mu shu pork," or "you're standing on the spot where a truck overturned on July 15, 1974 and spilled 18 tons of avocado dip."

There would inevitably be graffiti, like "I walked my dog here. Look at your shoes." I could live without knowing that Sue wuz here or that Bob is a weenie. A filtering system could be set up easily, though. Don't like this person's note? Wave your "air mouse" and you'll never see one of his notes again.

There's a great potential for subscription services, too. Truckers would love to know there's a seven percent grade ahead, shoppers might want to hear about the antique shop two blocks down the side street, and nature lovers might be fascinated to hear that this tree is a Pinus contorta that was planted by the forest service after a fire in 1997.

Personally, I'd like the realtime system that tells me, "Don't trip over that root, and by the way, those people up ahead think you look like a Martian idiot wearing those goggles and waving your air mouse."

Gary D. Robson is a writer, technology consultant, and world-renowned wearable computer fashion critic.