Annotating our lives with digital intelligence =

Story Highlights
Next generation computing could involve wearable devices
Devices could augment everyday activities like shopping, = snowboarding
Researcher: "The idea is to wear your remote, not to carry = it"
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BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- From clothes riddled with = sensors=20 to name tags that detect our moods, computing's next wave could unleash = small=20 devices that increasingly augment everyday activities with digital=20 intelligence.

Yochinari Takegawa of Kobe University, in=20 Kobe, Japan, left, wears a heads-up display and a piano keyboard that = allows a=20 user to type Japanese=20 characters.

That was the predominant vision at a conference on "wearable = computing" held=20 recently in Boston, where researchers showed off prototypes and = discussed=20 ideas.

Some attendees took wearable computing to its extreme, donning = cyborg-like=20 miniaturized displays attached to eyepieces. But most of what was on = exhibit=20 seemed much closer to jumping into a mainstream commercial product.

For example, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of = Technology=20 (known as ETH Zurich) showed off stretchable, threadlike sensors that = can be=20 woven into shirts to detect their wearers' posture. People with back = pain or=20 injuries could be prompted on a PC or a mobile device to straighten up,=20 pronto.

Stephane Beauregard of Germany's University of Bremen displayed a = shoe-borne=20 sensor whose tiny accelerometers perform electronic dead reckoning -- = providing=20 real-time location tracking in places satellite navigation systems = either can't=20 reach or can't describe with precision. For now the sensor has to be = held in=20 place by the shoelaces, but Beauregard expects a version that can fit = inside a=20 boot heel could be a year away. His first intended market is = firefighters and=20 other emergency responders.

Graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's = Media Lab=20 had black plastic badges around their necks that analyze multiple = factors --=20 including motion and speech patterns -- to detect the level of = engagement two=20 people are exhibiting in a = conversation.

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Information gathered from the badges, which weigh just a few ounces = and are a=20 bit smaller than a deck of cards, can be sent wirelessly to a computer = or a=20 phone to give their wearers helpful tips. Sales reps could be advised = that a=20 customer's interest seems to be waning. A doctor could be alerted to = indications=20 of depression in a patient being monitored remotely.

The badges might find their first use in gathering reams of data for = social=20 network analysis, the study of how groups form and interact. There's big = money=20 in applying such research in corporations, which want to ensure that = important=20 knowledge doesn't stay trapped in organizational silos. But a lot of = data for=20 social network analysis is gathered from e-mail traffic, which only says = so much=20 about how people connect with each other.

MIT graduate student Daniel Olguin Olguin said the devices were = tested on 25=20 employees at a German bank and produced surprising insights about = alternative=20 ways the office might be laid out. Now Hitachi Ltd. is interested in = making the=20 badges for corporate consultants to use with their clients, he said.

Each badge could probably be made for under $100, "and in the future, = of=20 course, all of this will be smaller and integrated into your name card," = Olguin=20 said.

A prototype shown off by Carsten Mehring of the Colorado School of = Mines was=20 far more about convenience. He has embedded sensors into gloves so that=20 snowboarders or motorists could control portable music devices with the = faintest=20 squeeze of their fingers -- and nary a glance away from a snowy slope or = the=20 road.

"The idea," he said, "is to wear your remote, not to carry = it." E-mail=20 to a friend 3D"E-mail

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