Sensory-augmented computing: wearing the museum's guide

Personal computers have not lived up to their name. Most machines sit on a desk and interact with users for only a small fraction of the day. Notebook computers have become smaller and faster, enabling mobility but the same staid user paradigm persists. Typically you must stop everything you're doing, use both hands, and give the computer your full attention. Wearable computing is poised to shatter our preconceptions of how we should use a computer. A personal computer should be worn like eyeglasses or clothing and continuously interact with the user on the basis of context. With heads-up (head-mounted) displays, unobtrusive input devices, personal wireless local area networks, and a host of other context-sensing and communication tools, wearable computers may act as intelligent assistants. It is argued that a wearable computing device that perceives its surroundings and presents multimedia information through a heads-up display can behave like an intelligent assistant to fulfill the promise of personal computing.